Probably, one of the biggest factors in my current recovery, aside from meds, is family support. My family has been there for me ever since I first became ill in 1980. They were the ones behind the scenes finding good hospitals and group homes for me to live in when I couldn’t take care of myself. They got me in my first psyche ward, they drove a hundred miles to drive me up there and I know it broke their heart to see me in such a place but they did what was best for me at the time.
Then they found Soteria House for me. Soteria House was a world famous, experimental group home for schizophrenics. The premise was that they could put schizophrenics into a house in a community with 24/7 staff and that they could get better results without medication or hospitalization. The staff had no psychiatric experience, they were young men and women who were hired for being open minded, tolerant, likable, empathetic etc. They stayed at the house all day and there were always two of them who spent the night. During the day they hung out with us and talked and listened to us. They didn’t label anyone as crazy, they didn’t feed into delusions but tried to understand them and empathize with the person having them.
The founders called this “normalizing the schizophrenia experience”. None of the clients took meds or saw a therapist or psychiatrist. The people who ran Soteria and other houses like it around the world claimed a recovery success rate of better than schizophrenics who had been on meds and been in hospitals. To be honest, I saw the program work for others but it didn’t help me at all, my stay there was constant suffering. It was interesting though and I met a lot of cool people there.
After Soteria, I went into a long term hospital for 8 months. The thing I remember most about it aside from the very disturbed people there was that it was boring, there was very little to do during the day and I spent my time sleeping and pacing. While I was there my parents visited me every night. And on weekends I could get passes to visit and stay overnight at their apartment which I took full advantage of. My sisters often visited me too and took me out to dinner.
After 8 months my family found a nice group home for me and I lived there a year. On weekends I visited my family and they took me out to coffee or out to eat or to parties they had or to play tennis. They included me in most things they were doing. And that helped me have many somewhat normal experiences despite having schizophrenia. I did a lot of stuff with them and when I moved out of the group home and had more freedom they included me in even more things.
We talked a lot, I could tell my dad all my delusions and he would listen and try to sort them out with me. A lot of it was just him being curious but he always listened and we would talk for two hours at a time. During my four years in supported housing I visited my family a lot. I got addicted to drugs in 1986 and smoked crack for four years and my family still stood by me. I eventually got clean in 1990.
But yeah, family support was extremely important in my recovery. Getting jobs also helped because the jobs gave me a little money and helped me to occupy my time. My recovery has consisted, of hospitals, group homes, support groups, support housing, vocational programs, family group therapy, work support groups and always having a therapist and psychiatrist.
Today, I am a hundred times better than when I first got sick at age 19. I am now living by myself in a studio. As I started getting older in my late 40’s my symptoms started getting better in the sense of, being less intense and intrusive. For years I lived with the fear that I might be hospitalized at any time but that fear went away about ten years ago. My symptoms are less intrusive now, I’m able to work and go around in public.