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I remember when I was first diagnosed with sz, I asked my brother and 2 sisters to educate themselves by doing an online search. This was in the mid 90's so there was not a lot of really good online info. One sister complied and looked online -- she read that schizophrenia is a "split personality" and needless to say she did not get any understanding about what the illness really is. I tried to re-educate her by explaining my own experience with it. My brother and other sister, I believe, denied that this was the correct diagnosis and just went about their business in ignorance. I even offered to explain to them what was going on with me but they were not interested. I printed some online info out for my mom to read and she said she did not understand, and I tried but was not able to make her understand. So all in all, my family was left out in left field.
Now, there is much better information online. And there are sites like yours where personal information can be passed on to consumers and the public. But there is still a lot of misinformation and lack of knowledge out there.
Keep up the good work in spreading good info. It helps us all.
Carolyn
Carolyn:
When it comes to families, I think yours and mine are a lot the same. My larger family thought I was "lazy or acting out" (read: needed discipline). My parents made a real effort, but were never quite sure what to do with me or how to treat me. I was lucky though. By in lage, they did follow my psychiatrist's suggestions.
Nevertheless, I was rejected by our church (many parishioners thougt I was posessed) and written off by my larger family.
I left home for school at eighteen and only returned for three summers. I now return to visit all my cousins about every five years or so. They have accepted me now (I was the black sheep), but they still do not understand me. My psychiatrist warned me that, in all probability, when I entered into recovery I would be come a different person.
I am a changed person becuase of my illness. I think I'm more understanding than I might otherwise have been. In an odd sort of way, I think my illness has made me stronger, more resilient, and more interested in helping.
Keep your blogs coming. I am convinced that you have a gift, the gift of helping others by sharing your experience. Family members are the hardest audience of all, so don't let any of them stop you.
Robin
Thanks, Robin. You opened my eyes to an important truth. It's all good to educate the public and reduce the stigma, but what about the consumer? And looking around me now at a group of consumers I can see that, for example, it's OK to be depressed but not OK to have sz. It seems like an "attitude", if you will; not to have schizophrenia. I think a lot of this stems from interpersonal relations. I mean , would you go out with her??? I guess that's what you meant when the impediment to acceptance gets beyond passive. Unfortunately, it's these people that relapse and have to start from square one. Like most of us, it's a lesson that takes a while to learn.
Take care
Don
Don:
Thank you for your insight.
Sometimes it seems that it is fashionable to be "depressed." But the people that brag about their sessions on the couch at the psychiatrist's are what I call the "worried well." Their depression is not clinical, but situational. I've never met a person with clinical depression that wouldn't like to get rid of it once and for all. It is sobering to read what Abraham Lincoln wrote in his darkest hours.
Schizophrenia is something else again. There is nothing fashionable about it even though all the people I know wiith schizophrenia have also suffered at one time or another from clinical depression. [Schizophrenia seems to include every kind of mental illness. It's an all in a single package deal.] The uninformed are frightened by it.
But the closely guared secret that we know, and they do not, is that, despite its torments, schizophrenia can make us stronger and more compassionate, patient and considerate. It also makes us more resilient. I often tell audiences that "every morning I wake up, look around the room, and discover that I'm not on the back ward of a state mental hospital is a good day for me. Everything after that is gravy."
This illness has a way of forcing all of us that have it to reconsider our values, to think seriously about what is really important in life. [I've worked on Wall Street and have seen how far people can stray.] I've found schizophrenia to be both a blessing and a curse.
Keep blogging. Thee are many people that read your blogs and find sustenance.
Robin
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Robin I agree that education is key. I speak through the Mental Health Association. I also believe that there needs to be more consumers that are successful in dealing with their illnesses to stand up and speak out. I find that most MI's have no role models. People like you and Christina. Thank you for all that you do.
Pax,
Dave
Dave:
Thank you for your comment. I figure we're all in the same foxhole and watching each other's back. It very reassuring to know that you are here. You've got what it takes.
If we continue to speak up, the general public will eventually figure out that their foxholes are right next to ours, that we are all in the same battle and that we all need each other.
Robin