Successful with Schizophrenia

The purpose of this podcast is to create a sense of community for people who live with schizophrenia. You are not alone. If you are listening now, and don’t have schizophrenia, I encourage you to stay anyway. This podcast would be great for family members, friends, doctors, therapists, or anyone else who might be interested in learning more. Please do not take anything that I say as medical advice as I am not a licensed professional. Thank you! Hi everyone and welcome to Successful with Schizophrenia! My name is Chayilee which is inspired by the word brave in Hebrew. And I have most certainly lived up to my name. To tell you a little about me, I just earned my bachelor's in education. I am a dog mom and live independently. In fact, I have been living on my own for years now. Right after I graduated high school, I was a foreign exchange student. I moved out at 18 and I served in the military shortly after. Now I am in my mid-20s and enjoy adventures. To give you an idea, I have been skydiving and like to hike and travel regularly. So you’re probably wondering why am I doing this podcast. To answer your question, I had a very bad episode where I lost touch with reality for about 6 months. It is unfortunate that I felt too overwhelmed and scared to do everyday tasks. I found myself ordering groceries to my door because I couldn’t stand the thought of being in the grocery store. I wouldn’t look at myself in any mirrors because I was afraid of what I would see. I could hardly eat, and I became sickly thin. It got so bad that I was afraid to open and close doors because I thought demons were going to get me. Luckily I was still able to take care of my responsibilities. I work from home and clocked in every day on time. In that period, there was only one day that I missed because the hallucinations were so vivid. Also, I still took my dog out for walks even though I was scared to leave the convenience of my home. In fact, what took me out of this mess were my responsibilities. I started my senior year of college, full-time, and my schedule became very hectic. I worked Monday through Friday 8 hours a day, followed by studying 4 hours a day. On the weekends I worked on schoolwork too, but I made some time for fun and cleaning. I had so much to accomplish that I could not be bothered with the make-believe world I was so convicted in living in. Once I realized I was living in another reality that did not exist, I asked my doctor to be upped on my medication. Then, I created a stable life for myself. I had a consistent night and morning routine. I had designated eating times. I stopped working off hours. I started to meditate. I genuinely started to recover. Recovery is a journey, not a destination. Good thing I like adventures! I tried to find resources for people with schizophrenia. Sadly, I found more resources and support for family members and friends than for the people who are actually diagnosed with schizophrenia. Almost everything I could find was articles saying to talk to a doctor and videos of educational professionals essentially saying there is no hope. I am here to tell you there is hope. So, let’s be on this journey together. I named this podcast SwS because I believe I am successful despite having a diagnosis of schizophrenia. I have accomplished what I have wanted, and I feel satisfied with where I am in life. That’s what I consider to be successful for me now, my definition of success may change. I remember when I felt successful at doing the laundry or any other task that I was putting off. Success can be different for everyone and be ever-changing. Thank you for joining me on this adventure! Music Credits: Happy by Luke Bergs | https://soundcloud.com/bergscloud/ Creative Commons - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/