I was diagnosed in the year 2012 with schizophrenia. The days were long and life seemed helpless. I felt that i could not tell anyone about how i was feeling. Then one day I spoke out, it was the best thing I have ever done. I started to see a therapist. There my support grew and my family accepted what was really wrong with me. There is nothing wrong with being schizophrenic you just have to have a passion. My passion was back after a year and now i am going to school, making music, and socializing. schizophrenia help me to realize do not give up your dreams because i have a disorder. The disorder does not have power over you but you have the power in you to overcome!

November 2015

Parents and Teachers as Allies presenter (part four living as a youth with mental illness)

Hi. My name is Ayesha. This is my story. I have been living with Schizophrenia for 20 years. My mental illness started at age 13. I was hospitalized two weeks after I turned 14 in February of 1995.

I didn’t feel like I could talk to my mom and my family that’s why I became very withdrawn around the age of twelve or thirteen, but as far back as age ten I was dealing with verbal and emotional abuse from certain kids at school and in the neighborhood we lived in Brooklyn. I got picked on and verbally abused sometimes. If I had a child psychologist I believe that would have really have helped me in my middle and high school years. I believe I would have seriously benefited from that. If my teachers paid more attention to Ayesha (me) outside of class during breaks like lunch time they would have noticed me feeling like an outsider. At school I was not socializing enough and that’s not normal. If my teachers had picked up on this and called out the bullies and the bullying I dealt with sometimes I think I would have felt less anxious and much less like skipping school during all my years in high school in grades 9th through 12th.

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My son Tim was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in January of 2003, after his first semester at Vanderbilt University.  He was 18 years.  His senior year of high school, Tim’s mood severely changed.  He lost interest in studying and it was difficult getting him out of bed for school.  It was clear something was seriously wrong.  He argued with his teachers and his grades plunged.  I worried if he would even graduate. Friends and family told me he was just ‘acting like a boy’ and it would pass. 

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My name is Gthreesongs why because I don’t really like sharing my name because of things that happened in the past. I probably suffer from bipolar disorder or depression and anxiety and maybe Schizophrenia but there is hope for people that suffer from it just have good friends and love life and your family or if something is happening where you don’t like your family chose your friends.

I am the family member of a person who has lived with schizophrenia  for approximately 45 years, and most recently she began exhibiting early signs of dementia, which seems to make her condition worse.

She oftentimes relapses because at certain intervals in life she stops taking her medication, which causes her major setbacks with regard to her mental health.

During the early years of the illness I was never exposed to the roller coaster ride the disease brought on. However, most recently due to her constant relapses, I have seen the illness manifest in unusual and unexpected ways.

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During the fall semester of my freshman year at college, I was diagnosed with schizophrenia. It was a long time coming, and continues to be a long road to recovery. At my age, I find myself disappointed with how far I have come. I know that each day is an opportunity to be better, but I continue to have disorienting thoughts and unorganized thinking. I have found so much support for my recovery that it is unrecognizable to any support I have ever received in my life. These people see me in my darkness, and they see me in my light. They see me. My boyfriend, Evan, is my main support of source and light, and he does not get the recognition he deserves. He is an amazing chef, and I love him. He sees the best of me no matter what. I hope I can hold onto this good thing. My mother is an amazing source of support and good advice, and continues to guide me in the right direction. She always knows what to say and what to do. I love her for this. My dad sees me and my positive traits no matter what. He loves me and gives me guidance. He is a great counselor and I love him. My brother and sister continue to be amazing role models in this world, by doing the best they can and listening to me when they can. I love them. And my dog, of course, continues to be patient and kind and loving, and I love her for that too. I hope that people who have mental health issues can come together to share our stories to show that nobody is alone. Just stay true to your heart and what you need to do for yourself and the ones who truly love you. 

Enough is enough!  The challenge of living with a mental illness has struck me and many members of my family, female and male, and today, I am taking a stand. I will be their voice…for anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and more. I will not walk in shame and defeat for my head is lifted to the sky. I will not let society put us in a category, define us, or mark us as “crazy” or “half cracked”. We have to address mental illness in our global society and aim to defeat it like any other illness of the body. It has no perspective race, gender, or culture and it comes to steal the joy of living on this beautiful earth.

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My name is Katie. I am the only girl in my family and I have 4 older brothers. My parents came to America about 26 years ago when my mom’s youngest son was a couple months old. My parents could barely speak English but my dad was a hard working man honest reliable and did everything he could to make sure my brothers and I could have a successful future. I was born in the state of Pennsylvania 5 years after my parents moved from Russia. We moved to Minnesota a year later.

My dad had friends all around the world he spoke 6 different languages and became an interpreter. I never got to see how normal my mom was before because after I was born my mother wasn’t diagnosed at the time but she had paranoid schizophrenia. Being the only girl in my family I never got to play dress up or have the mother daughter experience. I grew up fast being said I took care of my mother if she was having a moment I would have to try to calm her down. I used to be embarrassed because my mom was the crazy lady standing in the corner of the street talking to herself she would stand there for hours yelling I would get off the bus from school and kids would call my mom names until I told them that’s my mom.

My mom is probably the most caring person always trying to make sure my friends were welcome my mom would cook all kinds of food bring drinks snacks. My mom was great but I felt embarrassed people would ask me what she’s saying I would say I didn’t hear her because my mom barely spoke English nobody understood except my family. My mom’s been to jail for trespassing for bringing a knife to McDonald’s because she got tired from cutting bush down in the woods she stopped to have a breath mind you my mom is 56 years old now she’s obese heavy set women but she has never smoked anything she never drinks alcohol and neither did my father until her divorced my mother because she risked looking us to an orphanage.

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And I knew I wasn’t right 

So I planned on going that Friday night 

And I knew I wasn’t okay

Making it the perfect place for me to stay 

See, for most, a mental hospital isn’t a choice 

It’s one of those things where you are left without a voice 

Brought there suddenly against your will

Then before you know it, you are given a bunch of random pills 

But for me, it was where I was supposed to be

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