Schizophrenia Book
Chapter 4
By: Leslie Fischman
07-02-24
The current definition of “schizophrenia” is: “a serious mental condition of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation.” [1]
No matter how you are defined, don’t allow yourself to be defined by the diagnosis, or any definition that you read online. Sometimes in coming to accept who you are as a person, you will be required to face the harsh reality that things are not what they seem to be, and that what you think matters less to others, or is perceived to be something of non-acceptance to the best tastes of others. Remember this is your life, and only you can come out of a condition that you get stuck in. Whether it’s a belief, a thought, a pattern of behavior, an experience, a trauma, there will always be reasons for getting sick, or sounding sick to others, and it’s your job to live your life, and just be normal.
It’s not easy to live a normal life, when how you live life is described as anything but normal. You wonder after all of these years of life, why now, why all of a sudden now should I fall ill. It’s not your fault. According to Google.com, “Schizophrenia is a long-lasting mental health condition that’s typically diagnosed between the ages of 16 and 30, after the first episode of psychosis. It usually emerges earlier in males (late adolescence–early twenties) than females (early twenties–early thirties). However, it can affect people of any age, and can also appear in your 40s, which is known as late-onset schizophrenia. It’s uncommon for schizophrenia to be diagnosed in a person younger than 12 or older than 40.” [2]
Things can and will get better, when you set your mind to it, it means to focus on the present, not the past, it means to focus on your self-worth and what makes you of value, it means to appreciate the respects of others, it means to make the most of your time here on earth, and it means to get well, no matter how painful the process is, nothing lasts forever including your wellness. The worst thing you can do to your health, is to go backwards in life, to get in trouble for complaining, and to allow any grievance or resentment, to keep you from getting well and staying well.
That’s how hard feelings occur, either people being for you for your best interests and and for your recovery, to making people resent you, be offended by you, not feel appreciated by you. No matter what your socio-economic status is there is no amount of wealth or poverty that designated to whom should bear this disease or be called these terms, just don’t lose your sense of pride and sense of reason in life. Your life according to you, may not be normal to a doctor who either is or is not willing to prescribe you, but it’s your job to be trusted, to prove who you are, and to come to accept whatever meds you are prescribed, and whatever treatments you received. See the world as trying to help you, rather than trying to hurt you, and follow doctors orders and directions. It’s when you rebel, and go against what people say, that you wind up sick, there is no battle in life that you can win, by going against support, or questioning who cares who has helped you.
Sometimes the best way you can come to accept who you are and what is said about you is to be open about things, but not to extent that your feeling should be hurt. It’s a tough lesson in life, to give your power away, and for your power and your words or diagnosis to be used against you, don’t give up, try to see the positive. When you can’t continue on in one direction, accept the direction that you are given in life. We can’t fix ourselves, and that’s the common sense of powerless most people feel when they get a disorder or a mental health issue, how can I control how I feel and what I think and what I sound like, without sounding sick to others, or be accused of not being well. How to just be normal. Accept that some things about you are too much, that’s common to the territory of people hearing of your diagnosis, it means you are hard to approach, hard to talk to, hard to help, and hard to mention, the worse you are the harder it is to exist and to be normal and connect, the better you get, the easier it is to live life, connect, make friends, work, and be normal again. Life works in a million ways, for you, and against you in life, and it’s up to you to work hard for yourself, with hopes that you will not be judged for the symptoms or experiences that you have. Life is difficult for most people, so your life is not any easier, and even though you have to try twice as hard to be accepted and get back to normal, know that when you are well that is what’s helping others.
Reference:
[1] https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/
lesliefischman.com 
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