"I hadn't had anything to do with street drugs for about 4 years now and was warned that involvement with them or alcohol would cause a worsening of the symptoms."

Garry

"I had gradual onset schizophrenia but a bad LSD trip is what triggered my psychosis. I had smoked pot daily for my last two years of high school, drank every weekend and occasionally took acid."

Nick

"I have to scrutinize my every thought, every attitude, every emotion, everything, and ask, ‘Is this real?’"

Yeon Kim

"It‘s so weird waking up and not really knowing where I am, seeing things that aren’t really there, and hearing things that are in my head but aren’t in front of me or connected to electronic."

Karin

"I fear sleep because my dreams have become too lucid and it becomes hard to know what reality is. Only slowly I remembered the strange things. And I realized that all was fantasy."

Joey

"I was working on my computer and then I heard someone talking to me. She whispered, "Hey... how's it going tonight?" And she hasn't left since."

Anonymous

"My doctor encourages me to get a part time job. I enjoy cooking so I am thinking about getting a job as a cook."

Jason

"I was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in my early twenties. I have a university degree, I am self employed as a writer, and artist and engaged to a girl I met at uni. I live independently."

David

"There can be life after schizophrenia: in my own case, nearly thirty years of a very satisfying and rewarding, though not always easy, existence."

Christine

"I was so tired and didn't feel I had much fight left in me, but I knew I had to keep going."

Sophie

"Truth be, many days the only face to face I have with anyone is the checkout clerk, but even that is of value to me."

Jay

"I dont wanna be popular would just love to be able to interact socially and have a good friend or two."

Anonymous

"I continued with my exercise and voluntary work and the weight just came off so quick... it was unbelievable; I looked and felt great. I was no longer sedated and full of hope! I was ALIVE again and I thought that was it."

David

"All is NOT lost. Hope and survival live within your strength to follow the one path that might work for you!"

Tony

"I had just received my college degree in English when I was diagnosed with schizophrenia eighteen years ago. For a long time, I couldn’t concentrate enough to read. But with my new medication, I can read again. I play the viola and love the Bach cello sui"

Elizabeth

"Others believe that schizophrenics never recover from their illness—that they remain deluded for the rest of their life. How untrue. The recovery rates are getting better all the time."

Zack

"What disappoints us a little is that insecurity toward our son, that we almost have to invite them to get in contact, that we have to say: Why don’t you give him a call some time? …And then we hear ‘What should we talk about with him, which questions shal"

Anna

"I had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when I learned that I was pregnant. When my mother told our neighbors that I was pregnant, they asked: ‘When is the abortion going to take place?’ That is stigma, a big stigma. My daughter is now six years old."

Mary

"My illness has been abated, I am productive again, and I plan on having a normal existence for the rest of my life."

Kurt

"I kept hearing the neighbours banging on the walls trying to play on my nerves (or so I thought). My response was to run not just out of the house, but to get as far away as possible"

Mark

"Nobody takes you aside at school and says, "Look you might get a mental illness!""

Mark

"My mom told me she had thought something was wrong with me when I was in high school but she didn't know what it was"

Nick

"I DID NOT have any religious delusions, I did not have delusions about aliens, the FBI, the CIA, or about cameras following me or people plotting against me, or microchips planted in me"

Nick

"I was afraid I would go stark, screaming mad and lose control and not be aware of anything around me"

Nick

"You might feel so embarrassed and worried what people might think or say, but the most important thing is to talk"

Bethany

"My mind has been both my best friend and my worst enemy."

Elyn

"Creative people, like those with psychotic illnesses, tend to see the world differently to most. It's like looking at a shattered mirror."

Mark

"My greatest fear is this brain of mine….The worst thing imaginable is to be terrified of one’s own mind, the very matter that controls all that we are and all that we do and feel."

M. Torrey

"The most of people would want a friend to tell them if they were diagnosed with schizophrenia, but only a few persons say they would tell friends if they themselves were diagnosed."

Marlena

"You may learn something about yourself as you learn about a family member's mental disorder."

Anonymous

"Don't forget your sense of humor!"

Ian

"I think that mental illnesses as Schizophrenia, are a part of the varied fabric of life."

Bill

"Recognizing that a person has different capabilities than you, should not mean that you expect nothing of them."

Marilyn

"It is as hard for the individual to accept the disorder as it is for other family members."

Dan