Schizophrenia Support Group
Schizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by impairments in the perception of reality and by significant social dysfunction. Untreated schizophrenia is typically characterized by demonstrating disorganized thinking and experiencing delusions or auditory hallucinations.
Hi there.
I'm Schizoaffective and even until we broke up after 2 1/2 years my boyfriend refused to accept that schizophrenia was part of my diagnosis, even after knowing what Schizoaffective Disorder is: half bipolar half schizophrenia:
I think his failure to accept that was mostly due to the stigma surrounding Schizophrenia.
My ex would say to me, "Schizophrenics don't write books." I've published two books. Written 4 more unpublished manuscripts in varying states of completion. Are you kidding, Schizophrenics love to write books. Clearly he had never heard of Antonin Artaud. Writing books is one of the few things that I can still do and what I spend most of my time doing.
My ex-boyfriend was a dick, I know that know, but how have you faced the stigma of Schizophrenia/Schizoaffective and how have you dealt with it?
I'm Schizoaffective and even until we broke up after 2 1/2 years my boyfriend refused to accept that schizophrenia was part of my diagnosis, even after knowing what Schizoaffective Disorder is: half bipolar half schizophrenia:
I think his failure to accept that was mostly due to the stigma surrounding Schizophrenia.
My ex would say to me, "Schizophrenics don't write books." I've published two books. Written 4 more unpublished manuscripts in varying states of completion. Are you kidding, Schizophrenics love to write books. Clearly he had never heard of Antonin Artaud. Writing books is one of the few things that I can still do and what I spend most of my time doing.
My ex-boyfriend was a dick, I know that know, but how have you faced the stigma of Schizophrenia/Schizoaffective and how have you dealt with it?
I wrote this essay for Queer Mental Health when I was first coming out to my community about my illness. Since then i have found openness and viability to be powerful anti-stigma fighting tools, to own it and not be ashamed, know it is genetic and not be afraid on Twitter or in my writing to speak up about my struggle.
There are only some situations where this is appropriate, though. throughout a 2 1/2 year relationship I hid my mental health issues from my boyfriend's family on his request, and felt again his stigma affect me.
It is really hard. I am glad safe spaces on the Internet like this exist.
Family members think that if I have a disagreement with them, I must be delusional. A classic example of this is when I was reporting a gas leak and a ruptured water heater and my brother didn't believe me and thought I was delusional. But I wasn't and the utility company verified my claims and turned off the gas and the water heater had to be replaced. I was trying to prevent the water heater from exploding, which can kill people!
Also, my doctors think if I complain about how they treat me in the hospital that I'm delusional. But they overmedicated me with 5 times the normal dosage. It took me 7 months to only partially recover.
And then there's stuff like when I'm complaining about how bad the side effects are, my mom asks me if I've had enough to eat, as if I don't know how to feed my 43 year old self, and as if schizophrenia is an eating disorder.
And people still make assumptions about why I went off my medication. I have to remind them that the most recent time I went off was because the medication was causing me severe heart problems that could've caused complications that I could've died from. This was also verified by a 24 hour heart monitoring I had and also a sonogram of my heart.
Last but not least of people stigmatizing me are other people with mental illness who assume that just because we have the same diagnosis that everything that works for them should work for me. This is extremely insulting and naive. And it's one reason why I tend to shy away from "peer support" at my local clinic. It's usually the blind leading the blind or some self-proclaimed know it all bothering people with their projections.
I've also been stigmatized by mental health site moderators and admins (not here). They don't like that stick up for patient rights and warm people about some of the severe side effects of medications. Also, because I've had some bad experiences with psychiatrists, I support people who have had just as bad experiences with psychiatrists. They aren't saints. And some of them are too incompetant and shouldn't be in the field. ....Not all of them but enough of them that it's a problem.
And then there's the stigma of TV shows that portray schizophrenics as crazy mean murderers as if we are psychopaths or sociopaths. And most of us aren't that.