Sophie Katharina says:
“When the doctor in the clinic talked about schizophrenia, her words barely got through to me. Because of the sedatives, I wasn’t really feeling myself. Only later did I vacillate between ‘For God’s sake, this will never go away’ and relief to finally have an explanation.
After the hospital stay I felt better, but I was afraid to contact friends again. During a psychosis I ended a long-standing friendship by letter; in other situations I thought I was God. I was ashamed of all of this.
My mother’s best friend also had psychosis, although not because of schizophrenia. Talking to her on the phone helps me. She is open about her illness.
So I spontaneously plucked up the courage to write my friend a birthday card despite the end of her friendship. I was pleased that she thanked me via WhatsApp shortly afterwards. I wrote to her about my diagnosis and apologized for the letter. She wasn’t mad at me, she replied.
Since then contact has been broken off again. I have to accept that some things can no longer be repaired. Still, I’m glad I got over myself because my friend’s reaction made me feel relieved. In other cases, I was even able to laugh with friends about my absurd behavior.
The more I talk about my illness, the more I realize: In contrast to depression, schizophrenia is still a really taboo topic. I would like to show that with the right medication you can live well with it.”
Sophie Catherine would like to remove taboos from the diagnosis of schizophrenia.
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