Hi all,
My brother has schizophrenia and I am starting to research this horrible condition so that I can understand him and care for him. While I was looking at articles about upcoming cures and treatments, I found information gathered by the World Health Organisation, stating that schizophrenics who do not take antipsychotic medication (for example in third world countries where they don't have access to any) tend to recover naturally.
In a large study, they found that after 15 years, nearly half of schizophrenics living in 3rd world countries recovered without the use of special medication. The same study found that of those who were taking antipsychotic medication, 5% were symptom-free after 15 years. Their studies have proven that recovery rates in 3rd world countries are much, much higher than in developed countries.
I think our society conditions people to believe that medication is the only answer, and that we cannot recover from "diseases of the brain" like schizophrenia, depression and so forth. If the very suggestion that recovery from schizophrenia is possible fills you with disbelief or (worse) contempt, you have probably received this conditioning.
Recovering from anxiety and depression has been so difficult: I've fought, cried, raged and nearly given up. Yet I believed from the start that I could get better, and this has kept my course true through the worst days.
Maybe this is the real answer. Maybe people need to believe they can get better. After all, if a person believes relentlessly that they can get better, that they are getting better, what terror would anything hold for that person? Maybe if a schizophrenic was given enough help and encouragement to build themselves up, to trust themselves during the worst days of their illness and to never give up on themselves, schizophrenia and related illnesses would not inspire fear, rather they'd inspire the trust and companionship that is so difficult for schizophrenics to get?
Just a thought.