David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
Robin's Schizophrenia Blog
This is a new blog containing excerpts from a memoir and views and insights from someone who suffers from schizophrenia.
This is a new blog containing excerpts from a memoir and views and insights from someone who suffers from schizophrenia.
The perspectives on schizophrenia I can provide are not those of a psychiatrist, psychologist or licensed clinical social worker, but rather a consumer and family member. I have walked the walk on both sides of the street. As such, I can speak with experiential authority. It is my objective to share with you, as best I can, what my experience with schizophrenia has been like on a day to day basis, i.e., to compare notes with you. I will also make observations about being a family member and advocate based on my own experience. Any observations or comments you choose to make in return will be of great value.
In my first five blogs I have endeavored to illustrate the extent and severity of my illness; the benefits of early intervention; the fact that the treatment I received from the very beginning of my illness anticipated by many years what is today widely regarded as best practice treatment (medications combined with appropriate therapy); and the importance of compliance coupled with the development of effective coping skills. It is my intent to delve more deeply into all these issues in future blogs.
However, before we return to the issues cited above, I want to share, in a series of blogs, the reactions on the part of others to my mental illness and the illnesses of my family members and how these have evolved over the sixty years that I have been a consumer and a family member. These will include the responses of my immediate family, other relatives, psychiatrists, other doctors, educators, employers, peers, and other consumers, as well as the people I have met and worked with on a daily basis.
In my first five blogs I have endeavored to illustrate the extent and severity of my illness; the benefits of early intervention; the fact that the treatment I received from the very beginning of my illness anticipated by many years what is today widely regarded as best practice treatment (medications combined with appropriate therapy); and the importance of compliance coupled with the development of effective coping skills. It is my intent to delve more deeply into all these issues in future blogs.
However, before we return to the issues cited above, I want to share, in a series of blogs, the reactions on the part of others to my mental illness and the illnesses of my family members and how these have evolved over the sixty years that I have been a consumer and a family member. These will include the responses of my immediate family, other relatives, psychiatrists, other doctors, educators, employers, peers, and other consumers, as well as the people I have met and worked with on a daily basis.
