Find a therapist to treat psychosis

Sometimes our disclosure fears stem more from self-stigma than what others actually think.

Sharing your experiences is valuable and vital to other peers in recovery.

Learning of similar experiences helps yours seem less subjective and unique.

We must tell our stories so we can be seen for who we really are, replacing stereotypes and misinformation.

Finding community among peers is just as important for me as it is for others, regardless of where I am in my cognitive and emotional recovery. Even for someone like me, who leads support groups, does presentations on life after psychosis topics based on my blogs with Psychology Today and Teva Pharmaceuticals, and speaks in front of crowds, it is hard even for me to meet people with a diagnosis like mine or similar. I love meeting peers because it breaks the chains of stigma and allows us to feel normal and less ashamed of our experiences. I realized even during advanced recovery, when starting to facilitate a support group, that I still had healing to do that was obtainable only through sharing my experiences with peers and hearing stories similar to mine.

I now have connections through support groups, presentations, and people who reach out to me via email. Sometimes it’s the individual connections I appreciate the most. Often, peers I meet have never met anyone else before with a psychotic disorder and perhaps have never verbalized much about their illness before. I think for most people, being able to speak about a condition that is so marginalized and silenced feels freeing and liberating.

The First Step to Joining Community is Reducing Self-Stigma

Sometimes self-stigma and assuming what others might think is a barrier to........

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