today, i invite you to go over to GNIF brain blogger where i’ve written a guest post on a series of mental health success stories i had the fortune to listen to on monday at the canadian mental health association.
what remained most with me was one person mentioning that at a certain age, he “experienced symptoms associated with paranoid schizophrenia.”
how different that sounded from saying “i am a paranoid schizophrenic.”
the space between who that person was and those symptoms was palpable, airy, freeing. he did not identify with his mental illness. it sounded like one among many things in his life — perhaps one that at times becomes pretty big and in need of a lot of attention but by far not the defining characteristic of who he is.
read more here.
I work with students who have so many letters after there name that it must make their heads spin. there is much thought these days of the language around labeling, which is a good thing.
I was there the person speaking is my client, he is a great guy, I was so impressed with his speech. thank you for you kind remarks. I am pleased that what he said you took notice of the difference in language. Recovery is alive and progress of people with mental illness.