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I am a lucky person when it comes to having schizophrenia. Antipsychotics work so well for me that over the course of more than two decades, I have never had a psychotic break while on an antipsychotic. In fact, I haven’t experienced any symptoms of schizophrenia either while on medication...

I took Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) briefly in my early twenties, after my first brush with psychosis. DBT is a type of psychotherapy that helps people learn to manage their emotions and improve their relationships. During this time, my mental illness was developing, and I was in intense emotional pain....

Collateral damage often results from psychotic breaks. You can lose a job or a career from having a psychotic break observed at work or an email you sent out. You can sustain enough cognitive impairment from having a psychotic break that the job or career you had prior to the...

Embarrassment and shame can be huge factors after one psychotic break or multiple ones. You can do bizarre things, say embarrassing things, or communicate ridiculous-sounding delusions in front of people whose opinions matter to you, even though you do not have control or power over the situation. Based on the...

When I came home from the psychiatric ward on multiple occasions of psychosis, I just wanted to crawl in a hole and die. The only way I kept going, eventually getting out of bed sometime each day, was through mustering a sense of self-pity. I was driven by this idea...

William Brown, a single father in his 40s, overcame his opioid addiction and went back to college after a series of run-ins with the law. He credits his recovery to UNC REACH, a medical clinic that offers a variety of services. Going back to college in your 40s is hard....

My life was in a holding pattern because of serious mental illness for about 14 years, from the time I was a sophomore in college until I was 34. My experience of life in my twenties and early thirties was a perpetual cycle of heartbreak and feeling misunderstood. I watched...

Psychotic breaks, even though they are deemed mental versus physical, are not under our control and discretion. As a control freak for quite some time in my life, I have always been an overly responsible, serious person who is hard on myself. By believing I am in control of everything...

In my experience, there is a prevailing misunderstanding among people in the public, as well as some in the medical profession, that you cannot be symptom-free if you have schizophrenia. In fact, if you are diagnosed with schizophrenia and have no symptoms once on medication, it means to even some...

A special message from the UNC Center for Excellence In Community Mental Health Leadership Team in honor of the CECMH’s 15 year milestone. The Center has its roots as far back as 1993 when Dr. Gilmore and his team received a UNC Hospitals Innovations Grant to develop a psychotic disorders...

A “lack of insight” in psychology means the inability to understand you have a mental illness or that you have symptoms of mental illness. The gift of insight is a powerful one, but also an ability I had taken for granted before losing it. My psychotic breaks took hold instantly,...

Homelink and Duke University have partnered up to identify and improve efforts to transition adults with serious mental illness to independent living. Living independently in the community requires stable housing. Obtaining and maintaining stable housing requires mastery of many activities of daily living necessary for successful home management. Individuals with...