“Even with all that - excellent treatment, wonderful family and friends, supportive work environment - I did not make my illness public until relatively late in life, and that's because the stigma against mental illness is so powerful that I didn't feel safe with people knowing. If you hear nothing else today, please hear this: There are not 'schizophrenics'. There are people with schizophrenia, and these people may be your spouse, they may be your child, they may be your neighbor, they may be your friend, they may be your coworker.” PeopleIfsFeelsMayChildrenTodayPowerfulKnowingEnvironmentWonderfulPleaseSafeLateOur ChildrenIllnessNeighborMental IllnessExcellentYour ChildrenTreatmentFamily And FriendsSpouseSupportiveStigmaSchizophreniaCoworkerWork EnvironmentWonderful Family Author:Elyn Saks
“The schizophrenic mind is not so much split as shattered. I like to say schizophrenia is like a waking nightmare.” MindNightmareWakingSplitsShatteredSchizophreniaSchizophrenic Author:Elyn Saks
“I am a woman with chronic schizophrenia. I have spent hundreds of days in psychiatric hospitals. I could have ended up living most of my life on a back ward, but things turned out quite differently.” HospitalsSchizophreniaPsychiatricPsychiatric Hospitals Author:Elyn Saks
“Some people still hold [the] view that restraints help psychiatric patients feel safe. I've never met a psychiatric patient who agreed.” PeopleFeelsStillsHelpingInspirationMotivationViewsMetsSafePatientRestraintPsychiatric Author:Elyn Saks
“Portray [people with mental illness] sympathetically, and portray them in all the richness and depth of their experience as people, and not as diagnoses.” PeopleInspirationMotivationDepthIllnessMental IllnessHealthcareRichnessDiagnosis Author:Elyn Saks
“Please hear this: There are not ‘schizophrenics,’ there are people with schizophrenia.” PeoplePleaseSchizophreniaSchizophrenic Author:Elyn Saks
“We must stop criminalizing mental illness. It's a national tragedy and scandal that the L.A. County Jail is the biggest psychiatric facility in the United States.” StatesInspirationMotivationUnitedUnited StatesTragedyIllnessMental IllnessJailHealthcareScandalFacilityCountyPsychiatric Author:Elyn Saks
“Occupying my mind with complex problems has been my best and most powerful and most reliable defense against my mental illness.” MindHas BeensProblemPowerfulComplexesIllnessDefenseMental IllnessMost PowerfulHealthcareComplex Problems Author:Elyn Saks
“One of the reasons the doctors gave for hospitalizing me against my will was that I was ‘gravely disabled.’ To support this view, they wrote in my chart that I was unable to do my Yale Law School homework. I wondered what that meant about much of the rest of New Haven.” ReasonSchoolLawViewsSupportHavensDoctorsDisabledHomeworkLaw SchoolYale Author:Elyn Saks
“My mind has been both my best friend and my worst enemy.” MindHas BeensEnemyWorstMy Best FriendWorst Enemy Author:Elyn Saks
“There are not schizophrenics. There are people with schizophrenia and these people may be your spouse, they may be your child, they may be your neighbor, they may be your friend, they may be your coworker.” PeopleMayChildrenOur ChildrenNeighborYour ChildrenSpouseSchizophreniaCoworker Author:Elyn Saks
“No one would ever say that someone with a broken arm or a broken leg is less than a whole person, but people say that or imply that all the time about people with mental illness” PeoplePersonsWholeBrokenArmsIllnessLegsMental IllnessWhole PersonBroken Leg Author:Elyn Saks
“My good fortune is not that I've recovered from mental illness. I have not, nor will I ever. My good fortune lies in having found my life.” LyingFoundFortuneIllnessMental IllnessGood Fortune Book:The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness Source: The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness
“Stigma against mental illness is a scourge with many faces, and the medical community wears a number of those faces.” FacesCommunityNumbersIllnessMedicalMental IllnessStigmaScourgeMany Faces Author:Elyn Saks