About Schizophrenia
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“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. |
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.
QUICK FACTS:
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.)