Surviving Schizophrenia Quotes

“Schizophrenia is a cruel disease. The lives of those affected are often chronicles of constricted experiences, muted emotions, missed opportunities, unfulfilled expectations. It leads to a twilight existence, a twentieth century underground man. The fate of these patients has been worsened by our propensity to misunderstand, our failure to provide adequate treatment and rehabilitation, our meager research efforts. A disease which should be found, in the phrase of T.S. Eliot, in the "frigid purgatorial fires" has become through our ignorance and neglect a living hell.”
― E. Fuller Torrey, Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, Patients, And Providers

“Your daughter has schizophrenia," I told the woman.
"Oh, my God, anything but that," she replied. "Why couldn't she have leukemia or some other disease instead?"
"But if she had leukemia she might die," I pointed out. "Schizophrenia is a much more treatable disease."
The woman looked sadly at me, then down at the floor. She spoke softly. "I would still prefer that my daughter had leukemia.”
― E. Fuller Torrey, Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, Patients, And Providers

“Before addressing these specific problems, it should be noted that one concept underlies all rehabilitation efforts—hope. If the individual with schizophrenia has hope, then rehabilitation efforts are likely to succeed. If the person has no hope, these efforts are likely to fail. This was shown in a recent Swiss study of forty-six individuals with schizophrenia in which poor rehabilitation outcomes were predicted by “pessimistic outcome expectancies . . . and depressive-resigned coping strategies,” in short, “whether the patient has already given up or not.” Treatment and rehabilitation programs will succeed, therefore, only insofar as they also engender hope.”
― E Fuller Torrey, Surviving Schizophrenia, 7th Edition: A Family Manual