Schizophrenia

Approaching Neverland: A Memoir of Epic Tragedy & Happily Ever After
In the 1960s, when author Peggy Kennedy grew up, mental illness was a family secret. It was whispered about, handed off to hospitals, restrained, subjected to electroshock therapy and slews of sedatives and sent back home, when appropriate. Peggy Kennedy knows this all too well because her mother suffered from schizophrenia (her diagnosis was later [...]
Pregnancy and Psychotropic Medications
Pregnancy can be a challenging time for women with long-term mental disorders. While mental illness is common among women of childbearing age, it can bring increased difficulties and risks during and after pregnancy, such as birth complications and a worsening of symptoms. Dr. Jacqueline Frayne from the King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women in Perth, Western [...]
Illuminating 13 Myths of Schizophrenia
It’s safe to say that no mental disorder is more shrouded in mystery, misunderstanding and fear than schizophrenia. “The modern-day equivalent of leprosy” is how renowned research psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., refers to schizophrenia in his excellent book, Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, Patients, and Providers. While 85 percent of Americans recognize that [...]
Living with Schizophrenia
“Your daughter has schizophrenia,” I told the woman. “Oh, my God, anything but that,” she replied. “Why couldn’t she have leukemia or some other disease instead?” “But if she had leukemia she might die,” I pointed out. “Schizophrenia is a much more treatable disease.” The woman looked sadly at me, then down at the floor. She spoke [...]
Schizophrenia Fact Sheet
Speak the word “schizophrenia” and you’ll likely receive reactions peppered with misunderstanding and fear. The disorder is largely shrouded in myths, stereotypes and stigma. For instance, many equate schizophrenia with violence and criminals. But schizophrenia sufferers aren’t likelier to be violent than others, unless they have a criminal history before becoming sick or unless they [...]
Living with Schizoaffective Disorder, Part 3
If You Think You’re Mentally Ill If you feel you may be suffering from a mental illness, or could be in danger of doing so, I urge you in the strongest terms to seek the advice of an experienced mental health professional – a psychologist or psychiatrist. (Psychiatrists are medical doctors who specialize in mental illness. They [...]
Living with Schizoaffective Disorder, Part 2
The Heebee-Jeebies Be careful when you wrestle with monsters, lest you thereby become one. For, if you stare long enough into the abyss, the abyss also stares into you. — Friedrich Nietszche Now I want to tell you about the symptoms that schizoaffective disorder shares with schizophrenia – the disorders in thought. I find this [...]
Living with Schizoaffective Disorder
Being schizoaffective is like having manic depression and schizophrenia at the same time. It has a quality all its own though which is harder to pin down. Manic depression is characterized by a cycle of one’s mood between the opposite extremes of depression and a euphoric state called mania. Schizophrenia is characterized by such disturbances in [...]
What’s the Difference Between a Delusion and a Hallucination?
Delusions are a symptom of some mental disorder, such as
The Center Cannot Hold
The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness A moving, telling memoir of Elyn Sak’s profound battle with schizophrenia. It is an inspiring journey for family members or for anyone suffering from a schizophrenia-related disorder. Saks is a professor of law and psychiatry at the University of Southern California, and with that background, she has crafted [...]
Atypical Antipsychotics for Schizophrenia
The most recent medications typically prescribed for schizophrenia include a class of drugs called “atypical antipsychotics.” Atypical means they work in a manner that is significantly different than the previous class of antipsychotic medications. “Antipsychotic” refers to the fact that these medications were initially thought only to help people with psychosis (a common symptom of [...]
Top 10 Signs of Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is characterized by a broad range of unusual behaviors that cause profound disruption in the lives of the patients suffering from the condition and in the lives of the people around them. Schizophrenia strikes without regard to gender, race, social class or culture. Not everyone who has schizophrenia experiences every symptom. Some people experience a [...]
What is Depression if not a Mental Illness?
Sometimes you might hear a person talking about mental disorders like depression or bipolar disorder without really understanding what they mean. What is depression? What is bipolar disorder? Why do we refer to these things as mental health issues or mental disorders rather than a medical disease? And does it matter what we call a [...]
What Causes Schizophrenia?
The causes of schizophrenia, like all mental disorders, are under active investigation by researchers around the world. There is no known single cause of schizophrenia. Many diseases, such as heart disease, result from an interplay of genetic, behavioral and other factors, and this may be the case for schizophrenia as well. Scientists do not [...]
Types of Schizophrenia
The kinds of symptoms that are utilized to make a diagnosis of schizophrenia differ between affected people and may change from one year to the next within the same person as the disease progresses. Different subtypes of schizophrenia are defined according to the most significant and predominant characteristics present in each person at each point [...]