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Challenges of Switching Medication
There were many times I felt like I had the right medication regimen, or at least a regimen that was working, but I later found there were better options. Making medication changes has been one of the...
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My Mental Health Elevator Pitch
Disclosing or hiding my mental health condition has always been difficult to navigate especially in the workplace. A skill I’ve learned for my personal life but also for my working life has been...
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Navigating Invisibility With Schizophrenia
Being someone who has had schizophrenia for fifteen years, there are countless times where people have been talking about mental illness in negative ways without knowing I’ve dealt with it for years...
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Superiority and Expert Mentality: Forms of Stigma
During conversations with family members and those who know about my diagnosis of schizophrenia, there were many times where I sensed hierarchy within our discussions due to me having a mental health...
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Living a Secret Life – Do People Know About my Condition?
For a number of years I just didn’t have the social skills to broach difficult subjects with friends. I used to let things go for fear of putting stress on the dynamic. I strongly valued my friendships...
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Diagnostics and Dating – Considerations of Stigma
Having a diagnosis of schizophrenia while dating can be a difficult experience. Although I’m as healthy as anyone at this point and the condition doesn’t affect me very much anymore, the label is still...
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Changing the Name of Schizophrenia – A Cultural Issue
Having a schizophrenia type diagnosis for sixteen years has had a major effect on my life. It’s affected the way I think, feel, socialize, the way I exist within the world. However, I have either been...
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Invisible Conditions, Navigating Friendships, and Understanding Others
Lately, I’ve been noticing how stressful it is to talk about mental health topics with friends who know about my diagnosis of schizophrenia but don’t know how to talk about mental health. This has been...
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Casting Aside Diagnostics for Better Clarity
Over time, the meaning of my diagnoses has changed for me. I have gone through a natural progression of originally being really attached to the diagnosis and to diagnostic language whereas I’m now at a...
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Stigma and the Strength to Love
Handling stigma has been an ongoing journey that I’ve fought many battles with for the past sixteen years while living with schizophrenia. There have been many phases I’ve been through, particular...
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Returning to Work & Disclosure With Mental Health
Navigating having a mental health condition while returning to work can be a challenging endeavor. Being a Vocational Specialist and having worked with a number of people on returning to work, and also...
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Long Term Disability Insurance With Schizophrenia – A True Story
“Hey, Steve, what are you up to today?” my coworker Danielle asked. “Just applying for long-term disability insurance,” I replied. “Found out it’s really cheap. Not really sure why I didn’t apply for...
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Reactions and Insights Into Sharing Mental Health Diagnoses
Sharing my mental health diagnosis can be a really challenging dilemma. There are pros and cons to sharing in terms of the ways conversations go and the way people treat me. It’s been an ongoing...
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Psychiatry and Society – Peer Specialist Podcast
Ever curious to know more about peer specialist work? Are you wondering what encompasses the work of the Peer Specialist Profession? On this podcast, Reuben Hendler, who is a good friend of mind and a...
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Accepting Ownership of a Mental Health Condition
Being someone who has had schizophrenia for sixteen years is a different life path. There were years where I struggled, and by interacting with me, it was apparent that I was struggling with a mental...
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Handling Conversational Stigma: Practical Ways to Combat Mental Health Stigma
Handling Conversational Stigma Being someone who has had schizophrenia for sixteen years, dealing with stigma has been an ongoing battle, and it’s had major affects on how people view me, how they...
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Managing Diagnosis Disclosure With Family and Friends
Managing who has known about my mental health condition has been an ongoing challenge. There have been many times where people have known things I wasn’t aware of or other times where I thought they...
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Navigating Mental Health Disclosure in the Workplace
Navigating having a mental health condition while returning to work can be a challenging endeavor. Being a Vocational Specialist and having worked with a number of people on returning to work, and also...
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Honoring Negative Emotions
From my earliest ages I was taught that negative emotions were something to be fought, combatted, and done away with. Whenever I expressed negative emotions, the response was always what can we do to...
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Deconstructing Stigma – A World of Change
When I first entered the world of peer counseling I was taken aback at the civil rights side of the movement. I’ve had schizoaffective disorder for seventeen years however, my experiences with...
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