Living with Schizophrenia

Hello! my name is Abbi and I'm here to talk about something that I've been dealing with ever since I was a little girl.

DISCLAMIER: THIS STORY IS BASED ON MY OWN EXPERIENCES. SCHIZOPHRENIA IS DIFFERENT FOR EVERYBODY.

First off, what is it that comes to mind when I say I'm schizophernic? Does it make you uncomfortable? Does it make you think that we're all deadly like shown in the movies? Schizophrenia gets a bad rap because people seem to think that we are dangerously crazy. When in reality with the right meds we can live out normal lives.

Well close to normal. See, I take medication for it and I still hear voices. they're just not as loud and mean. When I'm off of my meds I get delusions that people have superpowers and that the goverment is trying to kill me. When I'm off my meds the voices get really hurtful and try to get me to do things I wouldn't otherwise do.

I've been hearing voices since I was 11 years old. At first I thought it was normal. You know imaginary friends, but then people started asking who i was talking to. I came to realize that this was not normal. I came to realize that I was too old to be having full convesations with my "Imaginary friends"

So I taken to a psychiatrist and at 12 I got diagnosed with schizophrenia.

However I was not on the right medication so I continued talking to the voices in my head out loud. I had not yet learned that I could talk with them in my head. At thirteen I got nicknamed "Crazy Abbi." in middle school.

What do you talk about? Some of my voices have been in my life a long time. So mainly we talk about my day or something I've been watching or just random things. They're nice. They tell me when to eat if I haven't eaten that day or they give me advice on certain things. Or they talk among themselves.

It's tough being a schizophrenic but I'm here to tell you that there's hope. There's always hope in the time of darkness. There's other people just like you. We are not dangerous. No matter the sterotype. We are just indiviuals who have a mental disorder. We hear voices and sometimes see things. Like I said before, with the right meds we can live semi-normal life as there is no cure for this disorder. I have hope that one day schizophrenia will be destigmatized. That we won't be seen as scary or so crazy that we kill people.

It must be done. One day It will be...