Christina Bruni

Health Interests

schizophrenia: symptoms research and treatment,  fitness and nutrition,  art therapy,  music,  recreation,  relationships

Drugs I am Taking

Christina Bruni has not shared any drug information.

About Me

Christina has been in remission from schizophrenia, and out of the hospital, for 17 years. She currently works as a public service librarian, a job she’s held for nine years. In June 2000, she graduated from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn with a Masters in library and information science (MLS).

Christina credits her success to having a close family, good friends and a great psychiatrist and empathetic therapist.

In the summer of 1987, she was 22 years old and had graduated from CUNY—the City University of New York—with a B.A. in English. She wanted to write for magazines and publish books, but that wasn’t to happen. Her beloved grandfather was in a coma, hooked up to a respirator in the intensive care unit. Alternating between job hunting and visiting him in the hospital, she spiraled down into the terrifying world of schizophrenia.

One Friday night, she became paranoid and had racing thoughts and delusions, and exhibited odd behavior all night, unable to sleep. The next morning, her mother drove Christina to the ER, and a day later she was admitted to the hospital and given Stelazine, the drug that took away the positive symptoms.

That fall, and continuing into 1988, she attended a day program and then moved into a halfway house. She spent a year in the residence, and graduated to the highest level of supported living in a housing project. Trained as a word processor at ICD—the International Center for the Disabled—she was able to obtain her first job in August 1990, as the administrative assistant to the director at an insurance brokerage. In April 1992, her psychiatrist supervised a drug holiday. In July of that year, she had a fateful relapse and had to be hospitalized for two weeks so she could be stabilized on the meds again.

She cycled in and out of jobs until June 1997 when she followed through with her goal of going back to school. Work as a librarian, which doesn’t involve travel or overtime, allows her to satisfy her true desires as a freelance writer and public speaker.

Christina is a contributing editor to SZ magazine, where she writes the Living Life column and also wrote the Recovering Together Q&A panel. For New York City Voices, the mental health advocacy journal, she writes the Bruni in the City column.

A dynamic motivational speaker, she does public speaking engagements for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), as well as for the Consumer Speakers’ Bureau of the Mental Health Association of New York City. Over the years, she has talked to hundreds of peers, family members, college students, professionals and the general public about living well in recovery.

Her greatest joy is the ability to get up and go to work every day. She has written a memoir, Left of the Dial. Christina enjoys living in the City, attending and performing at poetry readings, and sharing time with her family and friends.

You can visit her author website at www.christinabruni.com