Elyn Saks shares her journey with chronic schizophrenia, detailing her struggles with psychosis, hospitalizations, and the stigma associated with mental illness. Despite a prognosis that predicted a life of menial jobs and institutionalization, she became a law professor and an advocate for better mental health care and against the use of force in treatment. Her recovery is attributed to excellent treatment, supportive relationships, and engaging work. She emphasizes the importance of seeing people with mental illness as individuals and advocates for more research, better treatment, and an end to criminalizing mental illness.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. The speaker is a woman with chronic schizophrenia.
2. She has spent hundreds of days in psychiatric hospitals.
3. She was diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia and given a prognosis of "grave".
4. She was expected to live in a board and care and work at menial jobs.
5. She graduated from Yale Law School and got her first law job.
6. She is a chaired Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry at the USC Gould School of Law.
7. She has many close friends and a beloved husband, Will.
8. Schizophrenia is a brain disease characterized by psychosis, delusions, and hallucinations.
9. The speaker has experienced delusions and hallucinations, including the belief that she has killed hundreds of thousands of people with her thoughts.
10. She has been hospitalized multiple times for psychotic episodes.
11. She was restrained with mechanical restraints during one hospitalization, which she describes as a traumatic experience.
12. She has been taking medication for her schizophrenia, but has resisted taking it at times.
13. She has been in psychoanalytic psychotherapy for decades.
14. She works at a supportive workplace that accommodates her needs.
15. She did not make her illness public until relatively late in life due to stigma.
16. She believes that people with schizophrenia should not be stigmatized or criminalized.
17. She advocates for more research and treatment of mental illness.
18. She believes that the entertainment industry and press can help reduce stigma by portraying characters with mental illness sympathetically.
19. She would take a pill to cure her schizophrenia if it were available.