themighty.com
22.02.2022 / 07:13
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How to Support Someone With Schizophrenia in a Stigma-Free Way
Even though I’d had symptoms of mental illness most of my life, I was not diagnosed with schizophrenia (which later changed to schizoaffective disorder, then bipolar, then major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder) until I was 37. Schizophrenia is a lot to serve up on anyone’s plate, especially when they are wearing a blindfold and you don’t tell them the ingredients. I had no idea what the diagnosis meant, but it did leave a bad taste in my mouth, so to speak. I had to self-educate via internet. What followed was an encyclopedia of mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, anxiolytics, and much more. Due to both the diagnosis and the medications, my attitude toward myself changed. Before, I had seen myself as whole, with some difficulties others didn’t seem to have. But I had an excellent job at a major medical center, a husband of 13 years, a new house I had designed, creative outlets, and my family of origin and friends. With a diagnosis in hand, I felt defective and “not good enough.”