1 year ago
When I was in my darkest hour, amid psychotic episodes, there was light pulling me forward. I just knew I had a future ahead of me where I would get married and become a mother. This desire and calling, at times, led me forward and gave me direction into my future. I have now been …
1 year ago
Recovery from psychosis typically requires medicinal and therapeutic intervention: medication to target cognitive recovery and therapy to help with emotional recovery. I believe that true emotional recovery is a gradual process and a personal journey that takes time and work beyond a written treatment plan. Your whole world—and your understanding of it—can be turned upside …
1 year ago
I have been living in recovery from schizophrenia for 11 years. While I haven’t experienced any symptoms for over a decade, I do not feel like I am the same person I was before my mental illness. This has often bothered me; sometimes, it feels like the only way I can become who I am …
1 year ago
Taking an antipsychotic can be difficult due to the cultural stigma about serious mental illness, psychosis, and the actual drugs themselves. It was so complicated for me to accept using an antipsychotic, where the fear of taking a stigmatized medicine impacted my course of treatment and overall health outcome. I fell into powerful traps and …
1 year ago
Telling your partner about your mental health diagnosis can be a process met with anxiety, uncertainty, and fear. I know firsthand what it is like to disclose a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and tell the person I saw myself spending the rest of my life with that I will always take an antipsychotic. Here is what …
2 years ago
To most people, socks are just something to wash on laundry day, but to someone in need, they can be everything. The dedicated team at the UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health (CECMH) understands this better than most. Among the 20+ services offered to the Triangle community, they work to provide basic necessities, …
2 years ago
I have decided to take an antipsychotic for life. I am making this choice even though I have been in complete remission from any symptoms of schizophrenia for the last 11 years. My psychiatrist fully encourages and supports my continued use, seeing it necessary to guarantee a long-term positive health outcome. Making this personal decision …
2 years ago
I will never forget how I wept when I was diagnosed with schizophrenia. I thought it changed who I was and how others would see me. It felt like a visible mark on me as an individual—something glaring that I had to hide from everyone around me. It was confirmed; I am not “normal,” and …
2 years ago
I am often asked, as someone who has made a full recovery from schizophrenia, what the turning point was for me. In other words, at what point did I know I was turning a corner and getting better, where I was gaining momentum, confidence, and hope? There were actually many turning points of equal significance …
2 years ago
PBS featured UNC PAWS’ partner AlignCare and its mission to assist owners struggling with rising veterinary costs.
2 years ago
Anosognosia, the psychological term for a “lack of insight,” manifests in an inability to understand that you have symptoms of mental illness. Throughout my mental health journey, I have come to understand that the gift of insight is a powerful one — and it is an ability that many of us take for granted before …
2 years ago
With $100,000 in funding from UnitedHealthcare and support from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars, and many other community partners and stake holders the Farm at Penny Lane will be unveiling a new mobile food unit. The mobile food unit will increase nutritious foods to North Carolinians impacted by housing insecurity, homelessness and chronic health …
