Four Patients with Schizophrenia

How To Cope With Schizophrenia

• Admit you have a mental illness.
• Seek help when needed.
• Take medication as directed.
• Go to mental health support groups.

Now I will say that even if you have Schizophrenia you can still accomplish a lot of things in life. I was once told that even if you have Schizophrenia you can still have a job or be a parent or husband/wife. So that you can have those things and maintain those things you must seek help when needed so that your mental health counselor can help you with the problem you are having. If you are planning on having a family make sure you discuss it with your Psychiatrist.

I used to feel like having Schizophrenia meant my life was over. But the things I have been through actually gives me a chance to encourage other who have that same problem. I know sometimes that when you have a mental illness like Schizophrenia means that sometimes people think you are delusional or even making up things, but that is not true in every case. I can tell you that I have been through that stage where no one believed me, but now my life is no longer like that. I have improved a lot from the way I was. I am still trying to be the best I can be no matter what. Actually I have always been the one with the high ambitions.

Now there are medications out there that can really help you. I wouldn't say that they can cure Schizophrenia but they can help get you to the point where you can function in this society. Medications that I know of that can be prescribed for Schizophrenia is Zyprexa, Latuda, Geodon, Abilify and there might be a few more that I am not exactly familiar with.

Now mental health support groups really come in handy for those who are frustrated about having a mental illness. Your peers in your support group can really make you feel good about yourself and you might discover ways you can motivate each other.

Living With Schizophrenia

My Life

I was born on August 10th, 1990 to Joe Littlejohn and Tonya Copeland. I was just like any other baby or toddler. Once I started school for the first time in 1994 things were not always great there. Being in school I encountered a lot of bullying and being unfairly punished. And being treated that way led to me having to be put out of regular high school and sent to a Special Ed. Alternative School which I would say was the worst school I had ever been to. But eventually I found a private school that would accept me and that school was Christian Kingdom Academy in Gaston, South Carolina. And the people at the Special Ed. Alternative School said no other school would want me.

I want others to learn that even if they were told that getting your high school diploma or going to college or even having a successful long lasting relationship with the opposite sex is unrealistic goals to have, I will tell you those things are not unrealistic. I managed to get my high school diploma at 16 and not 17 after a teacher in middle school said I could never skip a grade or after so many others thought there would be trouble everywhere I go to school at or that I was to dumb to pass high school courses. I went to college eventually and graduated this year and I still did something else that they said I could not do.

There were times where I did let what they thought of me and what I would become bother me to where I overdosed on pills multiple times. I felt no one would listen to me so I overdosed.

I haven't found that special man yet. But I will say when God thinks I'm ready for that special man, then he will send that special man. I've dated different guys but I understand why those relationships did not last long and that is because those guys were not right for me.

So no matter what mistakes you have made in your life that seem like to others that you would not be successful or could not have what so many others have, just remember that you CAN have those things no matter what.