• Advocacy,  Schizoaffective Disorder,  Schizophrenia

    A Young Adult gets a Schizophrenia Diagnosis- My Experience and How to Change It

    Imagine, for a moment, a young adult, sitting on the couch in a psychiatrist’s office, shifting anxiously as they wait to hear the answer to their question. The doctor sits in her chair, red nails pressed tip to tip as she puts her hands together. Hesitantly, she gives the young adult the answer they dreaded – “It’s looking to be schizophrenia.”  In your mind, who is this young adult? Yourself? Your child or sibling? Or perhaps a stranger? How did you picture them reacting to this news? My guess is, not well. And that would not be surprising.  When I received my initial schizophrenia diagnosis, I thought my life was…

  • Advocacy,  Anxiety,  Depression,  Obsessive Compulsive Disorder,  PTSD,  Recovery,  Schizoaffective Disorder,  Schizophrenia

    Help, Hypocrisy, and What it Took for Me To Ask

    I shocked my psychiatrist recently. I have never seen her more surprised than when I asked, “do you think a third session every week would be helpful?” It took her a moment to process. “yes,” she said, “I think it would.” Today she explained her surprise. In the nearly 8 years she’s been working with me, I’ve done just about everything to avoid asking for help. And suddenly, I am determined to get it. Let me give you some background My childhood and teen years were spent trying to convince myself that my obsessive-compulsive disorder was quirkiness and that I was being overdramatic by thinking I was suffering from depression.…