Schizophrenia: Living well and working towards a cure

Today marks the start of Schizophrenia Awareness Week, and what better way to begin than with the story of an inspiring woman who is living with schizophrenia and advocating for better treatments.

Dr. Elyn Saks was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a college student. At first she struggled with her diagnosis, and it took a while before she found treatments that worked for her. Ultimately she excelled in her studies and became the Chair Professor of Law at USC’s Gould School of Law. She even won a MacArthur Genius Grant for her work in mental health research and advocacy. Recently, she sat down with Brian Staglin of Brain Waves, a video program sponsored by the International Mental Health Research Organization (IMHRO). Dr. Saks talked about her experience with schizophrenia and her work for the empathic treatment of people with mental illness.

Dr. Saks’ story is just one of many. Schizophrenia affects 2.5 million adults in the United States alone, and thousands more have not been officially diagnosed.1 Schizophrenia can be difficult to recognize, as some of the symptoms, like mood swings, impulsive behavior and hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that aren’t there), are common in other mental health conditions. Schizophrenia may also be mistaken for depression, since some people with schizophrenia have a flat mood and slowed speech, or they withdraw from friends and family.2

Stay tuned for a special “In My Own Words” entry from a PatientsLikeMe member.  And if you’ve been diagnosed with schizophrenia, join more than 700 others in the online community.

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3 thoughts on “Schizophrenia: Living well and working towards a cure”

  1. Quote Sigmund Freud: ” The key to curing schizophrenia lies in curing repression.” Please visit my April 2016 blog schizophreniarepressioncured.blogspot.com There brief, it’s autobiographical. Thankyou

  2. This was how i got a cure for my son who was diagnosed with schizophrenia 9 years ago when he was 19. He told us that he got messages and he heard people telling him that he should hurt himself. He had a terrible temper with cursing and violence towards me and his dad. The doctor gave him different anti-psychotic drugs like Zyprexa, prolixin, risperidone, Ablify but all this even elevated the condition because he became worse over the years not until last two years that help came our way. I got Dr Joseph’s contact from an old colleague of mine who relocated to Kansas city and he told me about this herbal medicine that can put an end to my son’s condition. I contacted the doctor and i explained it all to him and he told me all will be well. I got the medicine and gave him as instructed and before i knew it he was normal again, no side effects at all. I am writing this today because i needed to be sure the cure was a permanent one which it is. I know what schizo is and how heart aching it can be but i tell you today that there is a cure for it. Contact the doctor on (josephakormah @ gmail.com) for psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, he can help you too

  3. My Schizophrenia Testimony

    I can’t forget in a hurry my horrible years of fight with Mental ailment (schizophrenia). Has anyone checked this blog out: http://www.cureforschizophrenia.blogspot.com. I’m pretty sure you will find it helpful (know more about Mental illnesses and the best way to deal with it). To anyone who’s taken the time to read this that may be struggling with this awful ailment (Schizophrenia), reach out, share, I guarantee if you reach out enough, people will reach back, and know, that as lonely as you may feel, as hopeless as you believe things are, please know, that there are so many of us out there going through same and you are never alone!

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