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.
Elyn SaksRead
Some people say I'm unique, that there aren't other people with schizophrenia like me. Well, there are people like me out there, but the stigma is so great that they don't come forward.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the uniqueness of individual experiences with schizophrenia and the stigma that prevents many from speaking out about it.
Elyn Saks emphasizes that while she may be perceived as a unique individual with schizophrenia, there are many others who share similar experiences but remain silent due to the societal stigma associated with mental health conditions. This quote reveals the importance of open discussion about mental health issues and the need for greater understanding and acceptance in society.
In practice
During a mental health awareness event, this quote can be used to encourage dialogue about schizophrenia.
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.
Please hear this: There are not ‘schizophrenics,’ there are people with schizophrenia.
Portray [people with mental illness] sympathetically, and portray them in all the richness and depth of their experience as people, and not as diagnoses.
Fighter pilot is an attitude. It is cockiness. It is aggressiveness. It is self-confidence. It is a streak of rebelliousness, and it is competitiveness. But there's something else - there's a spark. There's a desire to be good. To do well; in the eyes of your peers, and in your own mind.
Personally speaking, growing up as a gay man before it was as socially acceptable as it is now, I knew what it was to feel different, to feel alienated and to feel not like everyone else. But the very same thing that made me monstrous to some people also empowered me and made me who I was.
Hope and faith. You have to have hope and faith... Long ways to go. Grateful to survive. I's frustrating. Mentally hard. Hard work. I'm trying. Trying so hard to get better. Regain what I've lost... I will get stronger. I will return.
And only weaklings...who lack courage and the power to feel they're right when the whole world says they're wrong, ever lose.
I remember one time being told I could not play in a basketball game at the College of William and Mary because I was black, even though I was playing with a United States Army team.
There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.
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