Schizophrenia: Living well and working towards a cure

Today marks the start of Schizophrenia Awareness Week, and what better way to begin than with the story of an inspiring woman who is living with schizophrenia and advocating for better treatments. Dr. Elyn Saks was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a college student. At first she struggled with her diagnosis, and it took a while before she found treatments that worked for her. Ultimately she excelled in her studies and became the Chair Professor of Law at USC's Gould School of Law. She even won a MacArthur Genius Grant for her work in mental health research and advocacy. Recently, she sat down with Brian Staglin of Brain Waves, a video program sponsored by the International Mental Health Research Organization (IMHRO). Dr. Saks talked about her experience with schizophrenia and her work for the empathic treatment of people with mental illness. Dr. Saks’ story is just one of many. Schizophrenia affects 2.5 million adults in the United States alone, and thousands more have not been officially diagnosed.¹ Schizophrenia can be difficult to recognize, as some of the symptoms, like mood swings, impulsive behavior and hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that aren’t there), are common in other mental health conditions. Schizophrenia may also be mistaken for depression, since some people with schizophrenia have a flat mood and slowed speech, or they withdraw from friends and family.² Stay tuned for a special “In My Own Words” entry from a PatientsLikeMe member.  And if you’ve been diagnosed with schizophrenia, join more than 700 others in the online community. Share this post on Twitter and help spread the word for schizophrenia.