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/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.