Disability pride month PSA that schizophrenia and related disorders often starts to present in your mid 20s, so if things have been getting harder, life is less manageable, you feel less and less connected to reality, don't be afraid to get an assessment. It is not life ending, and living as someone with schizophrenia is worthwhile!!! It is a neurodivergence like any other, one that is disabling but doesn't make you less human. Getting early screenings and treatment is shown to give better outcomes for patients!!
A toolkit for primary care providers working with patients who show early signs of a psychotic disorder. This website includes information o
The Psychosis Test is for young people (age 12-35) who feel like their brain is playing tricks on them (seeing, hearing or believing things
person with schizophrenia here adding that I’ve seen so much fear surrounding this diagnosis, people saying it turns your life into a nightmare or a hellscape or removes your personality and turns you into a husk, and I want to say that’s not true and definitely isn’t true if you have good access to medical support. medicated schizophrenics are some of the coolest and most creative people I know who are able to live fulfilling lives outside of the expectations and constrictions of “mainstream society”. the way people with autism and adhd are just kind of known for doing their own thing and finding their own happiness applies to people with schizophrenia too (I also know some people who are completely indistinguishable from a neurotypical person to an outside observer, because it’s a spectrum).
chipping in as a schizophrenic in its 30s:
my most alarming symptoms started almost right after i graduated high school (age 18). i instantly started to become more withdrawn and reclusive. i had maybe 2 friends and i struggled to socialize with them and anyone else. i started struggling more with insomnia. i started becoming more and more convinced that other people could read my mind. i would be catatonic for sometimes hours.
for many years in my 20s, i became convinced i was a fallen angel punished by god. i have never been a christian in my life. i'm still not one. i also started believing i was God, that I could control the outcome of things. i had an 8 hour long psychotic episode where i was convinced that a character from a video game was in my house trying to kill me. i was and still am unbearably paranoid.
if i hadn't been diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2017, i would have never known why these things were happening to me, and worse, i may have believed some of my more dangerous delusions. i ended up starting antipsychotic medication and its been a huge game changer for me. not every schizophrenic person needs to be on medication, but it changed my life for the better. i'm definitely glad i'm in care for my schizophrenia now
i can actually sleep. i'm not scared shitless every single day. i'm not convinced there things in my house trying to hurt me. if you're dealing with things like this, it's okay to seek help. you're not alone. psychosis is stigmatized but its a real problem many people deal with. you shouldn't have to suffer in silence. you deserve to know if this is what's going on with you, and where to go from there.
my schizophrenia isn't and wasn't a death sentence. my quality of life has improved significantly what i found out was going on, and how to cope with it and ease my symptoms. it's okay to be schizophrenic. that's just how our brains are mapped. we deserve to live happy lives, we are not "doomed" or "lost causes" or "too crazy". we're people
I'm diagnosed as scizoaffective. I have benign hallucinations almost everyday. It started when I went away to college at 17 and I had scary episodes of psychosis. I was treated for depression and anxiety but no one addressed my hallucinations/psychosis until my mid-20s. I'm not currently on anti-psychotics but I have been in the past when my symptoms increase, change, or become scary. Medication is a helpful tool to use when needed but I quite like my benign hallucinations and I'd miss them if they were gone.
