Mythbusting 4

Myth: Schizophrenia is a hopeless condition.

In my opinion, Schizophrenia isn’t really a disease so much as it is a diagnostic category. And even then, not a well-defined one, or one for which there is a clear diagnostic test. In the preface to Lodge Magic (2000), I defined it as “out of money, acts goofy, we don’t know why.”

The out-of-money part has to do with the fact that the medical establishment considers schizophrenia to be a horrible, hopeless diagnosis, one you would never offer to a well-heeled patient likely to seek a second opinion. (As a matter of fact, they wouldn’t tell my wife she had Lymphoma either; we didn’t catch on until we walked into the area where the “specialist’s” office was located and the sign said “Oncology.”)

And schizophrenia is definitely an unpleasant condition, not something one would choose to have, or wish on a loved-one. The assumption, even among many mental health professionals, is that people with schizophrenia can’t hold a job – and are therefore eternally-dependent on some sort of welfare, won’t have any friends, will be a constant embarrassment to their families, and – here’s the best part, will die 25 years early.

But these assumptions describe undiagnosed, or poorly treated schizophrenia. If a person with schizophrenia gets good quality treatment and support services, he/she can live a life not that much different from the average American.

At Tasks Unlimited, for example, 100% of our clients with schizophrenia are employed, 35% work full time (and by doing so don't need or recieve any income subsidy), have lots of friends, and are no more of an embarrassment to their families than I am. We don’t have good data on the dying that substantiates them dying a little ahead of schedule, but nothing like 25 years early. In fact, the lives of Tasks clients with schizophrenia are very similar to the lives of the average American, including watching too much TV and eating too much junk food.

Every once in a while, I manage to get some media outlet interested in a story about a Tasks client. Often they send a reporter who has done previous stories about how badly the mental health system works, and this reporter gets excited to see how well our clients are doing. But they always run in to trouble when their editor sees the story. The disappointed editor says, “This is a story about guys getting up in the morning, doing a few chores, going to work, coming home, having a pizza, watching the game, and going to bed. BORING!”

It is true that most people with schizophrenia lead miserable lives, but it doesn’t have to be that way. With the proper services, they can be as boring as the rest of us.