Recovery

December 29, 2014 ~ My son's therapist reminded me the other day that recovery from schizophrenia is a slow process.

Yes, I said recovery.

68% of people with schizophrenia can recover from the illness with appropriate medication management and good psych rehab. They'll always have it because there is no cure, but they can function and be happy and live full lives with the right combination of treatment.

All we ever hear about schizophrenia is the negative and there's a reason for that. It's a horrendous illness. But I choose to have hope that, as hard as it is, we can keep pushing toward recovery. That one day there'll be a test that finds the illness before the behavior manifests itself. That one day (oh, what the heck.....) there'll be a cure.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not naive to the dark side of this illness; to the many, many things that don't work and can't work and don't exist yet to see if they will work.

I've been in the place where medication refusal happens.

I've been in the Emergency Department listening to the psychotic rant.

I've lain awake all night listening to the pacing.

I lost six pounds during my son's last hospitalization.

But here it is. I can choose the darkness. Or I can choose hope and light. Given the choice, I say let's go for hope and light. Maybe then the darkness won't be quite as scary.