When I was younger, I used to play a game where someone would say a word or phrase and you were to say the first thing that popped into your head. If I was to play this game with people in the street and say ‘paranoid schizophrenia’, I wonder what the responses would be. I’m guessing a lot of people would say either ‘evil’ or ‘murderer’ and if you had asked me five years ago, I probably would have said one of those words too.
As someone who suffers with paranoid schizophrenia, I’m used to hearing my diagnosis on the news. It’s always in a bad light. Always. Either a murder or other violent crime has been committed and the media’s insistence on only broadcasting negative stories about schizophrenia ensures that the stigma around this diagnosis stays painfully bad. When I was unwell, I was hearing voices and suffered with delusional beliefs amongst other things. I definitely didn’t spend my time planning inventive ways of killing people. No, I was just scared by the voices I was hearing and confused by the delusional beliefs I had. Read Katy's full story here
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