Schizophrenia -- A Family's Experience

Perhaps education is the answer. We should think of those suffering with a mental disorder as we do with diabetes or any other medical problem.

I loved my sister, the person underneath the illness, the woman the caregivers often couldn't see. That love kept my mother and me searching for answers.

Eventually, the doctors were able to treat my sister with medication. Combined with the supportive care of an outstanding psychiatric rehabilitation program, the medication enabled my sister to live a more stable and contented life. She lives her life quietly now, and with dignity.

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After my mother's death, I became the principal caregiver for Rebecca and as such often became frustrated and discouraged, prone to feelings of despair, resentment and exhaustion. After discovering siblings cope differently with family illnesses and crises, it relieved these negative feelings.

Now, I realize that people like me overfunction in an effort to control the situation and as a result enable others to underperform to their full ability. It is critical that caregivers set boundaries and seek help in order to live happier, more balanced lives.

Understanding this has given me an overwhelming sense of forgiveness and acceptance.

The medical community has made great progress in the treatment of mental disorders through pharmacological breakthroughs and community rehabilitative programs. Many people incorrectly continue to assume that mental disorders are the result of parenting and early childhood stressors. In the past decade, tremendous strides have been made in the area of biological research that supports a physical and chemical, or physiological, cause for the most serious of mental disorders.

Improvements in medications in the past 20 years have enabled a mass exodus from the state psychiatric hospitals, greatly reducing the number of patients who require long-term institutional care. While some state hospitals have campuses the size of universities, the buildings now stand empty.