Lolly's Inside Out World of Schizophrenia

Lolly's Inside Out World of Schizophrenia Recieved Dec 2004

I was 27, working a new job at a dotcom music company in Taipei when I fell into schizophrenia. My schizophrenia was not about hearing voices - it was about internalizing everything external - If I saw an ugly old woman walking in front of me with a limp, it made me internally decrepit and weak. If my eyes settled on a baby, it meant I was a baby, innocent and joyful inside, but at the same time unable to control emotions or carry a meaningful conversation. The night I fell into schizophrenia I went out with my coworkers to a grand dinner. My young boss sat across from me, across a large, round table with a shabu shabu hotpot in the middle. As the night progressed, the hotpot steamed, and through the steam, my boss began transforming from the whitebread American that he was into an exotic, desirable prince. Something snapped inside my brain and all of a sudden I went from being a carefree chatterbox to somebody tripping out on drugs. Little did I know that the trip would last for almost a whole year and that I was lapsing into a disease that leaves over half of its victims unable to live independently. Though I felt that something unusual was happening to me, I was having fun and I let myself ride into the accentuated reality that took over. The restaurant had tissue boxes on every table that were decorated with Looney Toon figures - that was incredible to me! My coworker handed out small pieces of paper and asked funny multiple choice questions, such as when do you prefer to have sex - at night after dinner or in the morning like a shot of coffee? This made me even more lusty for my boss - I wanted my answers to match his. Then, as we went around the table reading off answers, I found incredibly that all our answers did match! All except for the sex question, to which he preferred morning coffee sex over night time passion. Everything was leading up to a perfect love - a perfect night where my boss and I would fall in love. Whereas a few hours ago, I had looked upon my boss as a rather enimagtic creature who must have yearned for the richness of Asia to be settling down in Taipei without knowing a word of Chinese, now I saw him as a master. A master planner who had planned this night to expose himself in the best light, shabu shabu steam and all, so that he would attract a female mate. I could not talk. I was transformed into a mademoiselle who could say nothing, who could not lift her shopping bags even. My coworkers ushered me to a bar where the tables had paper table cloths and cups of crayons, and a shiny-haired Taiwanese beauty awaited her performance. Two of my male coworkers busied themselves drawing pictures. One drew a large-eared monster, pointed to it and said "This is Brian." I giggled and smiled. Everything was perfect and I was tickled pink like a baby. Then the show began. People began moving tables around and the shiny-haired beauty stepped up to the mic with her voice that was soulful and sultry yet extremely sweet in the way that only Asian voices can be. As I watched her mesmerized, I was transported into the show, becoming first one character and then the next. The show was about wooing and being wooed. I was mentally transported out of the show when a waitress tapped me on the shoulder. I realized I was all alone. I had no idea why my coworkers had left me in a bar in Taipei all alone. I felt as though I had been drugged. The giggle spell was over. The waitress called me a taxi and on the way home I laid down in the back seat and watched pink neon lights twinkle as though I were fading out from a movie into a dream. According to psychiatrist Fuller Torrey, the author of "Surviving Schizophrenia", only 10 to 15 percent of schizophrenics are able to maintain full-time jobs. The day after my grand entry into schizophrenia, I failed to show up to work because I was busy polishing my apartment floor with perfume. Needless to say, I lost my job. My boss told me that I had shown inappropriate behavior by not showing up to work and by putting my hand on his knee at the Taipei bar. He said he had had the most bizarre conversation with me in the morning - a conversation I vaguely remembered as being unrequiting in terms of love. He told me I had other options in Taiwan - I could teach English, or I could see if I could write for the China Post, an English Taiwanese daily where I had interned in the past before obtaining my Master's in journalism from New York University. Unbeknownst to my boss, the night before I had had a truly Godly experience. As I lay in bed thinking about my two past loves, both of which were really one-way crushes, I felt physical sensations in my body that coincided perfectly with my thoughts. I questioned God about why I was sometimes not turned on physically during sexual encounters, and how to generate physical attraction. God answered me in my thoughts, and as he answered me, he created tingles and lovely sensations - mild to intense passion, warm love and even cute, small itches in my body. The sensations were part of the stream-of-consciousness conversation I was having with God. This was ultimately proof that God existed, proof that did not make me any more religious, but gave me comfort that if there was no one else to communicate with, God could converse with me through my thoughts. As I lay alone in my small studio apartment in the heart of the teeming Taiwan University district the night after I was fired, the delusional magic faded. I contemplated what had happened to me and I became frightened. How had I been left in the bar alone? Hadn't my coworker told me not to worry about showing up for work late? What was I going to do now that I was unemployed in a foreign country? My room was in the back of the building, so that it was quiet even though the street outside bustled with hot-cake and dumpling vendors. I heard the cracklings of the room and the humming of the air conditioner as it turned on and off. As my thoughts roamed, all of a sudden I became petrified. The company I had been working for was called MusicZone.com, and I thought what if it was MusicZone was actually a front for an insidious technology that allowed for people to inject thoughts into your head and through low-decible sounds? Luckily for me, my father was living not too far away. He was in Taiwan as a visiting professor, giving physics lectures at various universities from Taipei to Gaoxiong. That night, he happened to be in Taipei, staying at university housing for Taiwan Normal University. Terrified by the sounds in my room, I grabbed a backpack with some clothes and hailed a cab to my father's apartment. For eight months, I was part of the 50 percent of schizophrenics who go untreated for the illness. I was deluded. I believed that the world had changed because it was the year 2000, and that this new world was something that I had to learn to live with, though it tormented me day after day. My father appeared calm as he listened to my story about the insidious MusicZone. I could tell that he did not believe me. He bought me a plane ticket to Hong Kong and sent me to live with my uncle and his family. In Hong Kong, I agreed to see a psychiatrist at the Prince of Wales Hospital. Before going to the appointment, I wrote up an account of what had happened the night I fell into schizophrenia in Taiwan. I verbally explained the night to my psychiatrist, trying to convince him that my co-workers had behaved strangely by leaving me alone. To my dismay, he responded by telling me that I had a psychiatric illness that was likely to last a long time, perhaps a lifetime. He prescribed me 10 mg. pills of Risperdal. The Risperdal made me sleep for twelve hours straight, and the next day, after I took another pill, I slept as I traveled with my aunt and six-year-old cousin on a bus to visit the world's biggest Buddha. I couldn't handle the sedation so I stopped taking the medication, and like 55 percent of schizophrenics who go untreated, I believed that I was not ill. Though it is not talked about as much as hearing voices, one of the classic symptoms of schizophrenia is the inability to separate oneself from one's surroundings, including other people, the television, billboards and newspapers. For me, objects and words took on meanings that impacted on my directly. If I was driving and the car in front of me changed from a New York license plate to a Florida license plate, as so often it did, it meant that I was a tourist in my own city. If trucks came in front of me as I was driving, it meant I was being protected from the city, shielded like a baby. If a truck bearing large words came in front of me, I felt as though I was being screamed at - "FRESH DIRECT". If a truck with small words came in front of me, I felt as though the truck and I were a team, sharing words that were comfortably large enough for only me to see. Unlike many other schizophrenics, I never heard physical voices, but in my head there was a running stream of conversation. I yearned to talk out loud, to communicate with people in a manner other than thoughts, but in this "new world", I could not let out my thoughts and be talkative as I had been in the past. The adults kept me muzzled. After about a month in Hong Kong, I returned to New York City to live with my sister. I was living above my landlord, a Hassidic Jew and ex-strip club owner who I had had a fling with before my illness. I longed to communicate with Barry, my landlord, but I found it impossible to talk to him. Every time I went down to his apartment, I would sit muzzled in front of his TV. I heard Barry's thoughts, and I had conversations with Barry through my thoughts, but I could mutter no words out loud. Finally the tension would become so great that I had to get up and retreat to my solitary room upstairs. I became catatonic. Catatonia is one of the less talked about symptoms of schizophrenia characterized by rigidity and inactivity. The deluded reason that I became catatonic was because I felt that the direction that I was facing - whether my knees were pointing one way or the other, whether I was looking at one person or another or no one at all - betrayed what I was thinking and feeling inside. Every time I moved, I felt that people around me would react in a way that coincided with my thoughts. On the subway, if I allowed my eyes and head to roam freely, I would hear the opening of a candy wrapper. The opening of the candy meant that the candy opener was calling to other people in the subway to try to open me up, to make me say something or do something. Then I would see someone tapping their fingers on their arm. The tapping meant that he or she was waiting for me to start a conversation. The worst feeling was when a pair or group of people carried on a loud conversation. Various words in the conversation would have meaning to me, meaning that the group of people were trying to call me into their conversation. I would become so distracted that I would miss my subway stop. In the U.S., about one-third of the total homeless population are schizophrenic or manic-depressive, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. At any given time, there are more people with untreated severe psychiatric illnesses living on the streets of America than there are receiving care in hospitals. With the family support that I had, I was not close to being homeless. But I felt an extreme guilt that my sister paid the $1,650 in monthly rent for our three-bedroom apartment all by herself. I put pressure on myself to find work, not only because I wanted the money but also because I had never been without a job since I graduated from college in 1994 with a bachelor's in biology. At the time, my dream job was to work for the Associated Press. Amazingly, I was able to carry on a conversation well enough to land myself an informational interview with the features editor and foreign affairs editors at the Associated Press. The editors told me to come back to fill out an application and take the AP test. I did so and felt that I had done reasonably well. I wanted to start working right away and I could not handle waiting for somebody at the company to call me back. I called the features editor back, and he told me that he had never hired anyone who had not had several years of experience in the general news department. I mistook that to mean that I should begin working on general assignment news, even though no one had hired me to write news. "Work" took on a whole new meaning for me. It meant devoting time to a certain company, rather than being paid and employed by a certain company. Work could also mean helping other people to get to know each other. I began "working" for the AP by assigning myself articles from the AP daybook, which I obtained from the NYU computer lab. Because I believed that I had the best chance of being hired in New Jersey, I would drive to Newark, sit through an event, write it up and send it off to the AP editor in Newark. I also visited the AP building personally and after being left alone in the human resources office for some minutes as the staff tried to figure out what I wanted, I wandered down to the AP lunch room, where the lunch lady asked me if I worked for the AP. This was a torturous question for me, as it had a double meaning. In my mind, I was working for the AP in that I spent time for the company, but I knew that I was not one of their official employees. Finally, I said "No", and was immediately rebuffed with the ring of a cash register that charged me 20 percent more for my tuna sandwich because I was a non-employee. In terms of speech, schizophrenia is characterized by disorganized speech that is sometimes referred to as "word salads", and by the inability to speak. Speech was my greatest desire as a schizophrenic, and my greatest obstacle. I believed that the proper way to speak was to make up stories that had double meanings that were significant. For example, if I were speaking about my sister, I would try to make up a story about Laura, or some insignificant third person. The story was supposed to be funny and to contain significant "calling" words - words such as "drummer", "Brooklyn" or "sweet watermelon" that were appropriate for the person I was talking about. The whole scheme of talking was so complicated it that I never mastered it. I could only tell the truth, and that was rebuffed by my friends and acquaintances, who quickly muzzled me. After days and months of near muteness, I became so desperate for a different life that I sometimes contemplated suicide. Luckily, I had no idea how to go about committing suicide so I did not become part of the 40 percent of schizophrenics who attempt suicide, or the 10 percent who succeed in killing themselves. About eight months after I first lapsed into schizophrenia, one of my friends told me that she was taking me to the hospital. The words "hospital" and "sick" made me feel physically sick, but I agreed to play along because I had nothing better to do. I thought I would spend a day "working" for the hospital as a patient. That day I was involuntarily hospitalized into the sixth floor of Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan. I tried several times to escape, and once made it into the elevator of the building. Six security guards grabbed my arms and legs, threw me onto a mattress in a solitary room and a nurse injected me in the buttocks with an anti-anxiety drug called Adivan. Days and weeks passed by and I was not let out of the hospital. I spent Christmas, my mother's birthday and New Year's in the hospital. I was put on 10 mg of Zyprexa per day and I began to feel comfortable in the hospital. For the first time in nearly a year, I had some friends who I could talk to - Edith, the loon who periodically called out "OW! MY EAR!"; Ed, the talented piano player who thought everybody looked like a famous actor or actress; Roxanne, the sexy dancer who tried to burn herself with hot water. Within the confines of the sixth floor wards, where my daily activities consisted of eating, sleeping, sharing emotions, drawing, watching movies and playing ping pong, my world slowly returned to normal. I could move. I could talk. I didn't have to make up lies with double meanings. Eventually I wrote myself a letter saying that I wanted to be released from the ward, and they let me out after setting me up with Medicaid and an outpatient plan. In the three years since my release from the hospital, I have followed my doctor's prescriptions religiously, even though 10 mg of Zyprexa made me constantly drowsy and unable to eat much without gaining wait. Over a year and a half period, my doctor gradually reduced my dosage of Zyprexa from 10 mg to 5 mg to 2.5 mg, and eventually to nothing. She told me that I might be one of the five percent of schizophrenics who maintains a full-time job and who never has a relapse. Unfortunately this was not true. In April of this year, following two life-transforming events - the death of my mother and my marriage - I had a relapse of schizophrenia. Though in some ways I had learned a lesson from my first episode, I again began to think that I was supposed to talk in lies. I thought that my husband was trying to make me into a stripper by placing a camera on a tripod in our bedroom. At Rockefeller University, where I was working as a science writer, I thought my computer was being monitored by people in the Information Technology department, and that tapping sounds on the wall were a signal that I was supposed to send off an email immediately. I realized too late that I was becoming sick again. I called my doctor and was placed back on medication, but nevertheless lost my job. This time it did not take me long to recover. After two months, during which I traveled with my family on a big vacation to Las Vegas and Los Angeles, I was back on my feet again with a job as a science writer at a biotechnology news service. Studies show that 10 years after their initial diagnosis, about 25 percent of schizophrenics completely recover. Twenty-eight percent of schizophrenics live independently; 25 percent live with a family member; 20 percent live in group homes; 10 percent living in nursing homes; six percent live in hospitals; six percent live in homeless shelters and six percent live in prisons. My doctor says I have a good chance of being part of the 25 percent who completely recover because I have good insight to my illness and I have always followed my prescribed regimen of medication. I am currently taking 10 mg of Abilify every day. I don't like the medication because it doesn't allow me to eat very much without gaining weight. Also, the medication dulls my energy, making it harder to shine among a crowd of people. But I can't complain too much about the side effects when I know that over half of schizophrenics are unable to support themselves and to live independently. My days now are steady and leave me with a feeling of contentness. Unlike during my initial days of schizophrenia, I am now anchored to a married life, a stable living situation and a healthier diet. I rarely talk about my disease though it debilitated me for a year and changed my life profoundly. It is an elaborate secret that I refer to when necessary only as "sick". "I was living here when I was sick," I tell my husband as we drive through Brooklyn, where just being in the vicinity of my old landlord Barry's house brings back bad memories. My husband reassures me that he will make sure I keep taking my pills so I don't become sick again. "Now you're perfect," he says. The writer can be reached by email at tienshun@hotmail.com.

Successful and Schizophrenic

By ELYN R. SAKS

Published: January 25, 2013

THIRTY years ago, I was given a diagnosis of schizophrenia. My prognosis was “grave”: I would never live independently, hold a job, find a loving partner, get married. My home would be a board-and-care facility, my days spent watching TV in a day room with other people debilitated by mental illness. I would work at menial jobs when my symptoms were quiet. Following my last psychiatric hospitalization at the age of 28, I was encouraged by a doctor to work as a cashier making change. If I could handle that, I was told, we would reassess my ability to hold a more demanding position, perhaps even something full-time.

Then I made a decision. I would write the narrative of my life. Today I am a chaired professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. I have an adjunct appointment in the department of psychiatry at the medical school of the University of California, San Diego, and am on the faculty of the New Center for Psychoanalysis. The MacArthur Foundation gave me a genius grant.

Although I fought my diagnosis for many years, I came to accept that I have schizophrenia and will be in treatment the rest of my life. Indeed, excellent psychoanalytic treatment and medication have been critical to my success. What I refused to accept was my prognosis.

Conventional psychiatric thinking and its diagnostic categories say that people like me don’t exist. Either I don’t have schizophrenia (please tell that to the delusions crowding my mind), or I couldn’t have accomplished what I have (please tell that to U.S.C.’s committee on faculty affairs). But I do, and I have. And I have undertaken research with colleagues at U.S.C. and U.C.L.A. to show that I am not alone. There are others with schizophrenia and such active symptoms as delusions and hallucinations who have significant academic and professional achievements.

Over the last few years, my colleagues, including Stephen Marder, Alison Hamilton and Amy Cohen, and I have gathered 20 research subjects with high-functioning schizophrenia in Los Angeles. They suffered from symptoms like mild delusions or hallucinatory behavior. Their average age was 40. Half were male, half female, and more than half were minorities. All had high school diplomas, and a majority either had or were working toward college or graduate degrees. They were graduate students, managers, technicians and professionals, including a doctor, lawyer, psychologist and chief executive of a nonprofit group.

At the same time, most were unmarried and childless, which is consistent with their diagnoses. (My colleagues and I intend to do another study on people with schizophrenia who are high-functioning in terms of their relationships. Marrying in my mid-40s — the best thing that ever happened to me — was against all odds, following almost 18 years of not dating.) More than three-quarters had been hospitalized between two and five times because of their illness, while three had never been admitted.

How had these people with schizophrenia managed to succeed in their studies and at such high-level jobs? We learned that, in addition to medication and therapy, all the participants had developed techniques to keep their schizophrenia at bay. For some, these techniques were cognitive. An educator with a master’s degree said he had learned to face his hallucinations and ask, “What’s the evidence for that? Or is it just a perception problem?” Another participant said, “I hear derogatory voices all the time. ... You just gotta blow them off.”

Part of vigilance about symptoms was “identifying triggers” to “prevent a fuller blown experience of symptoms,” said a participant who works as a coordinator at a nonprofit group. For instance, if being with people in close quarters for too long can set off symptoms, build in some alone time when you travel with friends.

Other techniques that our participants cited included controlling sensory inputs. For some, this meant keeping their living space simple (bare walls, no TV, only quiet music), while for others, it meant distracting music. “I’ll listen to loud music if I don’t want to hear things,” said a participant who is a certified nurse’s assistant. Still others mentioned exercise, a healthy diet, avoiding alcohol and getting enough sleep. A belief in God and prayer also played a role for some.

Famous People and Celebrities with Schizophrenia

One of the biggest myths about schizophrenia is that a person suffering from this debilitating illness will never overcome it and function normally in society.  That just is not true.  As a matter of fact, there is an entire list of people who have not only functioned normally, but exceedingly well to become famous celebrities who have contributed more to society than most people without any mental illness at all.

Some of these people you will likely recognize and think, “Wow!  I had no clue!” and some you won’t have previously known.  Some people are simply famous due to their relation to a celebrity, but I will mention them as well just for completion’s sake.  I’m going to separate the groups of folks between famous people, which I am calling scientists and artists, versus celebrities, who were or are involved in the entertainment industries.  So without further ado, let’s get to know some of these amazing people!  I am going to omit certain “suspected” cases that float about on the internet, and also avoid some of the lesser known people.

Famous People with Schizophrenia

When it comes to schizophrenia, famous people are no different than anyone else.  The general public has a 1.1% risk of developing this psychological difficulty and that includes everybody.  So who are some of these famous folks who have joined the ranks of courageous people who have conquered schizophrenia?

John Nash – Perhaps the person who has made the most impactful contributions to society of the list is the mathematician John Nash.  His case is so amazing that there was even a movie developed about his life called A Beautiful Mind.  It was so well made that it was showered with awards and nominations.  His contributions include work in geometry and differential equations, although his most significant work is in the development of game theory.  Within game theory, he was an important mathematics award for his recognition of the non-cooperative equilibria, which is now more commonly known as the Nash equilibria!  He experienced symptoms throughout most of his adult life and had periods of medication and periods where he refused, which resulted in his repeated institutionalization.

Eduard Einstein – Just by noticing this gentleman’s last name, you would suspect that he is the son of one of the greatest physicists of all time, Albert Einstein, and you would be correct!  His case is of particular interest due to this relationship, but his struggle was not in vain, because it did much to raise the general awareness of this illness in the public’s eye.  Although he intended to become a skillful psychoanalyst, his college career was interrupted by repeated hospitalizations.  He ultimately died in a psychiatric institution at the age of 55 years old.

Lionel Aldridge – This man reached heights many dream of by playing as the defensive end for the Green Bay Packers in the 1960’s!  He did retire from football but continued his career as a sports analyst until he developed the specific type of schizophrenia known as paranoid schizophrenia.  After almost ten years of struggling, he sought treatment and began to experience an improvement in his symptoms.

Mary Todd Lincoln – One the United States most famous presidents was the 16th, Mr. Abraham Lincoln.  Mary Todd was his wife and first lady!  Her schizophrenia included having beliefs that some would consider bizarre.  After the death of their son, she spent their fortune paying psychics and mediums to attempt to contact her dead son in the afterlife.

Andy Goram – A professional soccer and cricket player who was positioned as goal keeper, he gained notoriety when he became under fire of political accusations regarding sectarianism and other related issues in the United Kingdom.  Fans embraced his diagnosis of schizophrenia with a silly chant regarding multiple personalities, although that is not a symptom of schizophrenia.

Vaslav Nijinsky – Possibly the most skilled male ballet dancer ever, he was also an accomplished choreographer.  He was most known for his amazing leaps in the air and his rare ability do dance en pointe.  His career ended due to the development of schizophrenia and he spent the remainder of his years in and out of asylums.

Rose Williams – An interesting case due to her relationship as sister to the playwright, poet, and author Tennessee Williams.  He was diagnosed as a youth and spent most of her life institutionalized.  Her situation was so grim that her parents opted for a prefrontal lobotomy, which, of course, ended horribly.  This resulted in her being incapacitated for the remainder of her days.

Jack Kerouac – An accomplished novelist who led the Beat culture through its rise.  It turns out that before his success as an author, he did a stint in the Navy.  His records have been declassified and reveal his struggle with mental illness.  His diagnosis of dementia praecox, which is an older term for schizophrenia, led to his de-enlistment.  Some say he faked these symptoms in order to be discharged.

Vincent Van Gogh – The world famous post-impressionist painter Van Gogh has been posthumously diagnosed by a number of professionals with a variety of illnesses, among those being schizophrenia.  His artwork was not well known at the time, but now he is regarded as one of the greatest of all time!

Louis Wain – Louis Wain is renowned worldwide for his many paintings and drawings of cats.  His slow decline into his schizophrenia symptoms is said to be displayed in the increasingly bizarre progression of his paintings of “schizophrenic cats.”  He was a very successful artist published in many types of literature.

Ted Kaczynski – Unfortunately, Ted’s notoriety is derived from his fame as the Unabomber.  After his crimes, he entered an insanity defense and the court-appointed psychiatrist diagnosed him as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.  This claim is under suspicion, but it is worthwhile to note that many conspiracies have risen surrounding the events of his life.

William Chester Minor – This man contributed to the world in many ways, starting as an American surgeon for the army, and later as possibly the person with the most contributions to the Oxford English Dictionary.  He worked on his contributions while institutionalized in a lunatic asylum in the early 1900’s.  He found many of the quotes that displayed the proper use of words!

Celebrities with Schizophrenia

More people will recognize these celebrities more than the famous people.  We all know the creative potential that can be unlocked by schizophrenia and this is evidenced by the long list of artists below who made great careers out of their art.  Let’s see who these ladies and gentlemen are and what kind of art they were involved in!

Syd Barrett – Young folks and old both recognize the name Syd Barrett in association with his early membership with the highly successful band Pink Floyd.  His contributions included being the principal songwriter for the early albums.  There is suspicion that his case was exacerbated by his use of psychedelic substances.  He eventually quit the band and began withdrawing socially and from the media.

Jim Gordon – Originally named James Beck Gordon, this musician has gained notoriety as a songwriter, recording artist, and the winner of a Grammy.  He very well may have been the most popular drummer for decades but eventually was imprisoned for the death of his mother.  He attacked her in response to the request of a voice he was hearing, which led to his sentence and diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Peter Green – Peter plays guitar for the amazing band Fleetwood Mac!  Due to his earlier diagnosis in the 1970’s of various psychological problems, he was treated with electro-convulsive therapy to help with his trance like stupor.  He has had the opportunity to fill in for many guitar greats with many bands.

Joe Meek – Anyone, and I mean anyone, who has even toyed around in the music industries knows the name “Meek” because Joe Meek was an amazing producer and songwriter.  But most notably, his line of signal processors, including preamps and compressors, continue to be hugely popular today.  His bouts of schizophrenia were related to his obsession with contacting people in the afterlife and other occult practices using his digital technology.

Parveen Babi – A highly regarded actress in India, she starred along side of the best actors and actresses of the 1970’s and 80’s in Bollywood.  She is considered the most beautiful actress of India ever!  Her fight with schizophrenia led to the deterioration of her career and social life.  There are many speculations as to the cause of her disorder, but nothing factual or substantial.

Meera Popkin – Best known as a star of the Broadway theatrical plays Cats and Miss Saigon, her career was brought to a halt due to her development of schizophrenia.  Apparently she has fully recovered and considers this recovery the highlight of her life!  This is an indication for the struggle that all schizophrenics must face.  So brave and courageous!

Bob Mosley – As a great bassist, singer, and songwriter, James Robert Mosley was a member of many garage and punk rock groups, most notably the Misfits and the Frantics.  He eventually enlisted in the United States Marines only to be discharged upon his diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia.  This resulted in his homelessness and eventual rise as he rejoined his band in the late 90’s.

Darrell Hammond – Darrell is best known as the longest running comedian on Saturday Night Live ever and for his hilarious impressions of former president Bill Clinton.  The trauma he experienced under an abusive mother is said to have instigated the rise of bipolar and schizophrenia.  He was hospitalized many times throughout his lifetime, but still managed to rise to success!

Brian Wilson – Mr. Wilson is known as the principal songwriter and leader of the successful pop music group The Beach Boys.  After becoming one of the most successful musicians ever, his career was ended short due to his erratic behavior that were symptoms of his developing schizophrenia.  Interestingly, his diagnosis was later retracted.

Conclusion

Of course, this is simply a small sampling of all of the famous people and celebrities who have dealt with schizophrenia.  They are in no way more special than any other person, but do show that it is possible to maintain a diagnosis of schizophrenia and still contribute to society and become wildly successful in your career and personal life!