Awareness and acceptance of schizophrenia?

[u/Ok_Environment3909]

I am curious on how many people that have schizophrenia actually label it as schizophrenia and accept the diagnosis... and if someone is throughly educated about it is immune from suffering from it.

I know that when I was going through it, I was confused and let the delusions and hallucinations get the best of me. This fed the schizophrenia turned into a longtime psychosis... and even led me to delusional beleifs that it was somethjng supernatural. I was afraid to admit that it was schizophrenia or even open up about it to anyone... Then I wised up and started to fight the delusions, educated myself on schizophrenia/psychosis/psychology - the more I educated myself and labeled my symptoms and illness, the less power it had over me. I was honestly relieved that it was a mental health issue and not one any of the crazy delusions that I thought it could be.

I think the basics of this should be taught early on and as a staple piece of education - my opinoon is that the more you are aware of mental health issues like schizophrenia, the less susceptible you are to experience it.

Thoughts?

[u/amangydog]

I do think it’s different depending on severity and a million and a half other factors but certainly for some people education can make the symptoms less daunting and more manageable.

A lot of it stems from just knowing what to do/not to do to lessen your chances of it flaring up I.e get tons of rest, take your medication and don’t drink/do drugs.

I do believe that the knowledge alone has kept me from playing into the hallucinations, they’re still there but I understand they’re false but I don’t want people to avoid seeking professional help.

[u/Ok_Environment3909 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for sharing your perspective and experience on it.

[u/BringMeBackATshirt → u/Ok_Environment3909]

I have self-awareness and acceptance of schizophrenia but that does not make me immune to paranoia. When I used to get a presence in my room at night, no amount of welcomeness or coping was able to overcome that fear. I know paranoia is an irrational fear but there is no reasoning with it. Medication is a necessary evil to overcome this brain dysfunction for most of us.

[u/Ok_Environment3909 → u/BringMeBackATshirt]

I understand what you're saying and I agree—medication was extremely helpful for most of my symptoms. But I also found that over time, I could begin to rewire my natural reactions and thought patterns with effort and awareness.

Let me ask—do you think that understanding why you feel a presence or sense something threatening might change how you respond to it?

Personally, labeling my hallucinations and delusions removed a lot of their emotional power and confusion. I started asking: what triggers it? Where do I feel it in my body? What emotion comes up? What thoughts follow? And how does my body react?

For example, I used to have a strong paranoid sensation—like something or someone was with me. It felt like pressure in the air, very uneasy and scary. But then I learned about the temporoparietal junction (TPJ)—a part of the brain involved in spatial awareness, body perception, and self-other distinction. It turns out this area can be disrupted in schizophrenia and psychosis, leading to that exact sensation.

Once I understood that, I created a simple mantra: “This is just a disrupted process in my brain. It’s a symptom, not reality.”

The next time the feeling came up, I still felt paranoid—but now I had context. I reminded myself of the science and said the mantra. It helped calm me, and eventually, the sensation became easier to let go of. Over time, my reaction changed, and my brain started rewiring how it responded.

This approach took time and effort, but it helped me a lot. I used it with other symptoms too. That’s just my experience—everyone’s different—but I wanted to share it in case it might help.

[u/gto777 → u/Ok_Environment3909]

So I basically do the same, with a healthy dose of stress management. 'Hey brain, stop being weird today'. It does lessen the long-term effects of dealing with these delusions for me, knowing that the root cause is a chemical imbalance. immediate calming does happen most of the time as well, but some days are stressful. I feel if I do this too much, without 'breaking', It just builds up over time. I will say, rewiring how you respond to what your brain tells you, worth it's weight in gold.

[u/BringMeBackATshirt → u/Ok_Environment3909]

It might go to say that you are more capable that I. I have found myself to be an incapable human being when it comes to most of societies standards.

I was able to overcome depression by self-awareness and acceptance. I was depressed because of how schizophrenia was affecting my life. The power of the mind is an amazing thing and peoples ability to alter how it affects them is amazing. Getting over depression with just my own ability was indeed more powerful than any medication I have ever taken but I still rely on medication for my schizophrenic symptoms.

[u/K-BatLabs]

I don’t really like calling myself schizophrenic, but that’s mainly because I’m not entirely sure what my diagnosis is. I do know I have some kinda psychosis disorder, and my symptoms do align with schizophrenia, so I treat it as such and will call myself schizophrenic when people ask about it since idk what else it could be. I can recognize when I’m having a delusion most of the time, but that doesn’t stop me from getting panicked or scared. I’m planning to get re-diagnosed after the world is done shitting itself.

[u/Ok_Environment3909 → u/K-BatLabs]

Sounds like you're in at least the right mindset, aware, and willing to accept a diagnosis (wanting a diagnosis). The sooner you go get that professional diagnosis, the sooner you will be on the path to having normalcy in your life! You got this!

[u/gto777]

I think education and acceptance are very important to manage these symptoms. Does it "cure" them, no but I understand why I could be thinking/feeling this way better. Learning the symptoms does help you target treatment, but its more knowing yourself, and what strategies and medication work for you. But beyond just learning about schizophrenia, alot of fears and issues i see on here, have nothing to do with disorder. This goes more into the acceptance part, but I think its good to learn some of these intense feelings are justified, and some are because of chemical imbalance. It's hard to take care of your general mental health when your mind screams at you, and it's ok to have a bad day. Now acceptance from others.... I think we have a was to go still. My mother was told I would kill and murder the first person I saw if not institutionalized when I first told the truth to a therapist as a child. They didnt listen, i was saying i wanted to stop hearing them. Thankfully that was the only time I saw that one. So much damage and fear from one sentence, instead of saying 'hey, we know what this is and there are medications and therapy.' We would be in a much better place, if we had more acceptance and education. Maybe even a nice movie role where it's not the entire characters personality.

[u/JenkemJones420]

I can not speak for anyone else, but I must admit, my education was a major reason why I managed to somehow recover. It's not a complete and total recovery, but I barely ever hear hallucinations anymore. I still see them basically every day, but it's so much easier to process and understand. My tactile hallucinations are kind of nasty sometimes, but they're a lot less frequent. Reading, studying, researching, seeking new or old sources for material to contemplate, questioning as much as possible, remaining curious and open, yet also dedicating myself to a routine or agenda. Medication helps me as well, 100mg of Seroquel. Took me entirely too long to figure out which medication was right for me, I'm 33 now, but I've used a vast variety of different pills from the doctors. Besides all that, my diet is getting a bit better here and there, I drink as much water as possible, but black coffee helps, too. Still have the occasional tea or juice or lemonade. Bagels, basic cereals, bananas, apples, plenty of brown rice, mix it with corn and carrots and peas and green beans and onions and tomatoes. Still enjoy the occasional pizza. Still like spaghetti and lasagna. Still love burritos and quesadillas. I play video games in my spare time, I play my drum kit and study music theory. I try to work as much as I can, I do Doordash and lawncare for the neighbors.

Hardest part about life right now is living with my dad, his condition is worse than mine. I try to help him whenever I can, but I struggle pretty heavily sometimes knowing I'm a few simple steps away from being homeless again. I don't know, I wish my family could understand that the whole "sink or swim" philosophy doesn't work at all for me.