[StewieGG]

I am so sick and tired of the stigma surrounding schizoaffective/schizophrenia it makes me so, so upset that I'm afraid to tell some of my family and friends because I don't know what their reaction would be, and how I almost have to hide my illness.

I follow a lot of mental health groups and pages on facebook, there are never any posts about schizoaffective disorder. Never. The stigma around depression and anxiety is always mentioned, which is great, but where is the recognition for psychosis? Bipolar is very rarely mentioned. Does anyone else feel very alone and like society isolates you? I'm sick of it.

[Victoria'smom]

I do, I only mention the bipolar part of the illness to a select few too. Even therapists are "scared" of the SZA/schizophrenic parts of our illness.

[StewieGG]

Originally Posted by Miguel'smom

I do, I only mention the bipolar part of the illness to a select few too. Even therapists are "scared" of the SZA/schizophrenic parts of our illness.

Agree with that, it's never talked about really even with therapists. Very isolating.

[neodoering]

Originally Posted by StewieGG

I am so sick and tired of the stigma surrounding schizoaffective/schizophrenia it makes me so, so upset that I'm afraid to tell some of my family and friends because I don't know what their reaction would be, and how I almost have to hide my illness.

I follow a lot of mental health groups and pages on facebook, there are never any posts about schizoaffective disorder. Never. The stigma around depression and anxiety is always mentioned, which is great, but where is the recognition for psychosis? Bipolar is very rarely mentioned. Does anyone else feel very alone and like society isolates you? I'm sick of it.

I first encountered the stigma against psychotic illnesses when I told some friends I was schizoaffective. They sort of hmmmed and hawed, and over the next few months they got in touch less and less frequently, and then one day they stopped taking my phone calls and emails. I never heard from them again. All other things being equal, I have to believe it was my illness that freaked them out.

After that, the place where you see stigma is in job interviews. There was a period of my illness when I thought I would get a part-time job and try that, so I put in for a number of positions. I had a couple of job interviews, and then came the question: why is there a 3 year gap in your employment history?
Because I was screaming barking mad, and homeless.
You mean, like voices?
I paused, because I knew what they were thinking. Voices = guns = office massacre = everybody is dead. Then I said, yes, like voices.
Right! Well, we're interviewing a number of people, and we'll make our decision next Wednesday. If you don't hear from us, you didn't make the cut.
And I never did make the cut.

Family hasn't been overt about their stigma, but I post on Facebook about my illness from time to time, to heighten awareness of psychotic illnesses, and what happens is that nobody says anything about it. The posts just sit there, without response, as everybody ignores my illness.

I've had friends lately pushing me toward getting a part-time job again, but I've been down that road and know where it goes. Society doesn't like the mentally ill, it doesn't want the mentally ill, and it punishes the mentally ill by having the cops kill them. This is the ultimate and final stigma. This year in America, the cops killed 800 people. The media likes to bring lots and lots of attention to the 200 black people included in that number, but I want to highlight the 243 mentally ill people who were part of that total. The nazis had a program they called T4, which was to ship the mentally ill off to concentration camps and kill them. America does this informally by having the cops kill the mentally ill. Act a little squirrely in public, and your friendly local cop will blow you away.

Those are my thoughts on stigma for mental illness.

[StewieGG]

Originally Posted by neodoering

I first encountered the stigma against psychotic illnesses when I told some friends I was schizoaffective. They sort of hmmmed and hawed, and over the next few months they got in touch less and less frequently, and then one day they stopped taking my phone calls and emails. I never heard from them again. All other things being equal, I have to believe it was my illness that freaked them out.

After that, the place where you see stigma is in job interviews. There was a period of my illness when I thought I would get a part-time job and try that, so I put in for a number of positions. I had a couple of job interviews, and then came the question: why is there a 3 year gap in your employment history?
Because I was screaming barking mad, and homeless.
You mean, like voices?
I paused, because I knew what they were thinking. Voices = guns = office massacre = everybody is dead. Then I said, yes, like voices.
Right! Well, we're interviewing a number of people, and we'll make our decision next Wednesday. If you don't hear from us, you didn't make the cut.
And I never did make the cut.

Family hasn't been overt about their stigma, but I post on Facebook about my illness from time to time, to heighten awareness of psychotic illnesses, and what happens is that nobody says anything about it. The posts just sit there, without response, as everybody ignores my illness.

I've had friends lately pushing me toward getting a part-time job again, but I've been down that road and know where it goes. Society doesn't like the mentally ill, it doesn't want the mentally ill, and it punishes the mentally ill by having the cops kill them. This is the ultimate and final stigma. This year in America, the cops killed 800 people. The media likes to bring lots and lots of attention to the 200 black people included in that number, but I want to highlight the 243 mentally ill people who were part of that total. The nazis had a program they called T4, which was to ship the mentally ill off to concentration camps and kill them. America does this informally by having the cops kill the mentally ill. Act a little squirrely in public, and your friendly local cop will blow you away.

Those are my thoughts on stigma for mental illness.

I have been unable to get a job due to my mental illness, and I know once I am at a point in my life where I feel up to working, I will never get hired when as you said, they start asking questions about why there's such a long gap where I haven't been working.

Anything I post on Facebook about my illness is also completely ignored. You can almost feel how uncomfortable it makes people.

I had no idea about the statistics of murder against mentally ill people by cops, that's incredibly scary.

Thank you for sharing

[neodoering]

I want to add a little bit to my previous comments. A friend of mine urged me to see things from the employer's point of view. If I come to work for them, first of all I can only work part time and then only in the mornings, which are the best time of day for my illness. I will have frequent breakdowns, and my work in general will be sub-par because I'm fighting off voices, hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, and manic spikes. So my colleagues will have to frequently fill in for me, and I will be prone to drop the ball at critical times of stress, when my illness acts up more. So I will not be reliable.

So, why should this employer hire me, exactly? What is the benefit to the company of having a cripple working for them? The answer: there is a benefit to me, but no benefit to my employer. So no, they're not going to hire me.

When she laid this out, it made a lot of sense. I don't feel resentful of potential employers any more, just sad that this is my situation. I have been schizoaffective for 11 years, and the illness goes through pulses where it is not so bad and then six months where it is a horror. How can I work any kind of job when I have this terrible illness? So I sit on my *** all day, drawing SSDI, listening to the roar in my head. And dream of better lives on the wheel of karma.

[dmhobbit]

have you tried doing surveys or at home typing? I'm giving doing surveys a try. In my first week I make $10.08, to paypal and then to my bank account. Just a thought to keep you busy and I play my MP3 player all day. Keeps the voices away that are mean to me.

aiso I spent thanksgiving at the psych ward at the hospital due to a complete meltdown from everything that was too much to bear from finances to feeling the government is watching me.

[StewieGG]

Originally Posted by dmhobbit

have you tried doing surveys or at home typing? I'm giving doing surveys a try. In my first week I make $10.08, to paypal and then to my bank account. Just a thought to keep you busy and I play my MP3 player all day. Keeps the voices away that are mean to me.

aiso I spent thanksgiving at the psych ward at the hospital due to a complete meltdown from everything that was too much to bear from finances to feeling the government is watching me.

I haven't tried that, sounds like a good thing to keep me busy I'll definitely look into it thank you

Sorry to hear that, I know how you feel I'm about to be evicted from my home and the pressure is getting too much.

[neodoering]

All right, folks, I'm not done with this stigma thing yet. Here is a media article about the mentally ill and what happens to them vis-a-vis the police: https://www.democracynow.org/2016/9/...al_illness_are The upshot is that when the cops slam into the mentally ill, we are 16 times more likely to be killed than any other group. Something to think about. This is how stigma plays out in America. Demonize, marginalize, and exterminate. Here's how it begins: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/6...ain-on-society And this one: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.6a2f2a63c768 It then moves on from verbal attacks and mocking to financial assaults: http://www.latimes.com/business/hilt...nap-story.html and http://www.politicususa.com/2015/01/...ed-people.html Once you've got the disabled demonized and financially isolated, you aim for a more final solution: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...b04e28cf5b8a9b

I apologize for mixing politics with disabled news, but they're one and the same. If you're mentally ill, and it's strong enough to disable you, you need to be aware of these attacks going on. I have been homeless and living on the streets. It's dangerous, and the homeless die young. Get in touch with your congresspeople, urge them not to cut disability. It's YOUR fight, people, as much as you fight your symptoms. You'd BETTER take it seriously.

[NeighborsTrigger]

I volunteered most of my life. At my last volunteer job, I had the opportunity to work part-time for pay. I feared I would lose my Medicaid and Social Security. My Medicaid and Medicare cover the costs of my professional psychiatric and psychological services, as well as prescriptions. I don't know how this system makes any sense. If you have little or no income, you get benefits; when you have private insurance, it is difficult to afford the co-pays, let alone finding a therapist or psychiatrist who takes that insurance. What happened to the parity law making it necessary for these insurance companies to provide equal benefits for both physical AND mental health problems? I find myself lucky(?) to be in the situation I am right now. Anyhow, one way to find employment could be to volunteer at anyplace that might need them. Hospitals, libraries, some local mental health non-profits are good place to start.

Has anyone tried to get a case manager? These people's jobs are to find housing, find affordable psychiatric and psychological help, and for prescriptions to be filled. They also are responsible to take you to appointments, if the need arises. They are usually found at your state or federal level offices under some sort of Mental Health title. There may be other agencies that also provide case managers. One way to request a case manager would be to have your psychiatrist or psychologist make a referral to this agency.

As far as stigma is concerned, I find myself in a sticky predicament. I am living in a HUD high rise apartment in a suburb of a small city. Because of my PTSD and ensuing PTSD flashbacks, the managers are stigmatizing me by claiming since my original PTSD episode was several years ago, it has nothing to do with my PTSD flashbacks now. That last PTSD flashback incident caused a lease violation. A couple more of those and I will be evicted with little recourse. If that isn't stigma, I don't know what is. But, in reality, there are subsidized housing options including HUD and Section 8 Vouchers.

As far as the current political scene, I don't think any of us living with mental illnesses will fare well. I have read article upon article from reliable national newspapers and journalists, saying that there will be drastic cuts made to any mental health programs and/or Medicare and Medicaid. It will make it all that much harder to get the services that we rely on and need so desperately.

Besides the gloom and doom political forecast, I hope I gave somebody a place to start to get on your feet again, as they say. Best wishes for you all. Keep your chin up despite all the stigma out there. But most of all, for those of you who will celebrate the season:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS1

[NeighborsTrigger]

By the way, I do live with schizoaffective disorder, PTSD, and OCD. I take seven different prescriptions on a daily basis.

I understand what you mean when, as I put it, schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia are not in vogue as far as the public testimonials and even advertisements are concerned. There are ads for depression and bipolar medications on a frequent basis aired on TV.

As far as police are concerned, in my immediate neighborhood there was a poor guy shot to death in the parking lot in front of a K-Mart store. They said he had a "machete" and stole some jewelry in the store. The police KNEW he was suffering from a severe mental illness since they had many other interactions with him before that incident. Instead of disabling his arms or legs to stop him from approaching the police, they shot him something like 15 to 20 times. I can't recall how far the court cases this man's estate and family went, but I am sure it went at least to the State Supreme Court. Of course, with all of these lawsuits, there was a settlement, as far as I remember. It seems to me the local police force and the local government had bought their way out of a potentially embarrassing, and costly, court case.

As many of you know, this is only one isolated incident. If you are interested, I follow Pete Earley's website, as well as his Facebook posts. Mr. Earley was, or is, a journalist for the Washington Post, as well as an author of several books. When his son became stricken with a mental illness, he became a strong, vocal advocate for mental health consumers and mental health causes. You can access his website by googling Pete Earley (Business).

Again, I hope this information was helpful to all of you.

[StewieGG]

Originally Posted by NeighborsTrigger

By the way, I do live with schizoaffective disorder, PTSD, and OCD. I take seven different prescriptions on a daily basis.

I understand what you mean when, as I put it, schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia are not in vogue as far as the public testimonials and even advertisements are concerned. There are ads for depression and bipolar medications on a frequent basis aired on TV.

As far as police are concerned, in my immediate neighborhood there was a poor guy shot to death in the parking lot in front of a K-Mart store. They said he had a "machete" and stole some jewelry in the store. The police KNEW he was suffering from a severe mental illness since they had many other interactions with him before that incident. Instead of disabling his arms or legs to stop him from approaching the police, they shot him something like 15 to 20 times. I can't recall how far the court cases this man's estate and family went, but I am sure it went at least to the State Supreme Court. Of course, with all of these lawsuits, there was a settlement, as far as I remember. It seems to me the local police force and the local government had bought their way out of a potentially embarrassing, and costly, court case.

As many of you know, this is only one isolated incident. If you are interested, I follow Pete Earley's website, as well as his Facebook posts. Mr. Earley was, or is, a journalist for the Washington Post, as well as an author of several books. When his son became stricken with a mental illness, he became a strong, vocal advocate for mental health consumers and mental health causes. You can access his website by googling Pete Earley (Business).

Again, I hope this information was helpful to all of you.

Very helpful, thank you for your posts.

[still_crazy]

I'm officially diagnosed "Bipolar I." I live in a small town. I've been declared "Schizophrenic" by consensus.

My problem isn't that I'm labeled Schizophrenic. Psychosis is a part of my life now and then, so whatever; no big deal. The problem is the 'Schizophrenia' is a social role, one in which you're expected to live in poverty and isolation and do what the mental health people say to do, because, well you're "Schizophrenic." Its using diagnosis as a weapon.

In truth, I think my problems are probably best described by Schizoaffective, but since I'm high(ish) functioning, the experts go for bipolar. Thing is, I'm high(er) functioning because of my faith and because of my loving, kind, generous people, who have poured into me to get me up and running.

There are no magic pills for poverty and oppression. But the government wants to pretend that society is honky dory and we're just crippled by brain diseases, so we get not enough to live on, a little too much to die, plus over priced pharmaceuticals.

Ugh. I'm done venting now. This is an interesting thread, btw.

[StewieGG]

Originally Posted by still_crazy

I'm officially diagnosed "Bipolar I." I live in a small town. I've been declared "Schizophrenic" by consensus.

My problem isn't that I'm labeled Schizophrenic. Psychosis is a part of my life now and then, so whatever; no big deal. The problem is the 'Schizophrenia' is a social role, one in which you're expected to live in poverty and isolation and do what the mental health people say to do, because, well you're "Schizophrenic." Its using diagnosis as a weapon.

In truth, I think my problems are probably best described by Schizoaffective, but since I'm high(ish) functioning, the experts go for bipolar. Thing is, I'm high(er) functioning because of my faith and because of my loving, kind, generous people, who have poured into me to get me up and running.

There are no magic pills for poverty and oppression. But the government wants to pretend that society is honky dory and we're just crippled by brain diseases, so we get not enough to live on, a little too much to die, plus over priced pharmaceuticals.

Ugh. I'm done venting now. This is an interesting thread, btw.

It makes me feel ill the way we are treated. You've all worded it much better than I have. I think this thread is very interesting.

[dmhobbit]

Originally Posted by StewieGG

It makes me feel ill the way we are treated. You've all worded it much better than I have. I think this thread is very interesting.

The media as well likes to focus in on the mentally ill, particularly the ones with guns that go on a rampage and I'm sure the news wants to know FIRST is was the guy mentally insane and then they probably ask, if so, was he OFF his meds and I assure you this will become the norm for psych doctors to make sure we are med compliant and will continue to take them even if we are feeling better.

Which is not the case for me I almost died from an overdose of my meds so i was in the hospital for two weeks on suicide watch. They only let me go after i had breakfast and went to group all day and showed no signs. Right now just being out of the hospital I need that crutch cause without it I could fall and go boom.

Happy Holidays and celebrate our gratitude for what we have. Amen!

I forgot to say there are some real evil f**ks out there that are mentally ill but they make up such a small population of us the media spins it, and spits it out like we (and i say all) are going to run down the streets waving guns around and suicide calls for the millions all at once, some of us without clothes on. I just hope our new president elect won't try anymore and divide us against ourselves. I'm done.