About Schizophrenia
SCHIZOPHRENIA - A Tormenting Illness

According to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, the World Health Organization has identified
schizophrenia as
one of the ten most debilitating diseases affecting human beings.

  • Imagine hearing voices no one else hears.  

  • Imagine questioning what is real and not real as if you were in a nightmare that you couldn't awaken from.  

  • Imagine withdrawing from friends and family as your inner world shatters and your new reality destroys
    your sense of security and sense of self.  

  • Imagine the fear of facing an incurable disease that robs you of the hopes and dreams for your future.

QUICK FACTS:

    Schizophrenia is a devastating brain disorder that affects approximately 2.2 million American adults, or 1.1
    percent of the population age 18 and older.

    Schizophrenia interferes with a person's ability to think clearly, to distinguish reality from fantasy, to manage
    emotions, make decisions, and relate to others.

    The first signs of schizophrenia typically emerge in the teenage years or early twenties. Most people with
    schizophrenia suffer chronically or episodically throughout their lives, and are often stigmatized by lack of
    public understanding about the disease."   (From www.nami.org website.)
“As for me, you must know that I shouldn’t precisely have chosen
madness if there had been any choice.”

Vincent Van Gogh, 1889, in a letter to his brother, written while he was involuntarily
confined in the psychiatric hospital at St. Remy.