by Joye Anestis
I'm catching up on some reading today and came across the second article in the "Lives Restored" series in the New York Times. The first article in this series was the remarkable story of Marsha Linehan's own struggle with mental illness (read Mike's take on it here). The second article tells the equally remarkable story of a man, Joe Holt, who is living with schizophrenia. In the article and accompanying video, Mr. Holt discusses the self-taught method of cognitive restructing and reality testing that has allowed him to manage his mental illness, work two jobs, raise a family, and not be dependent on antipsychotic medications. I found his story to be amazing and empowering. A diagnosis of schizophrenia is scary for anyone to receive, but stories like Mr. Holt's remind us that there is a wide spectrum of severity with this illness and there are alot of valid methods with which to manage it.
For more information on schizophrenia, see what we've previously written about it here, check out what the data says about treatments here, and look at some treatment manuals for schizophrenia here.
Joye Anestis is a pre-doctoral intern at the Minneapolis VAMC and a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at Florida State University.
Subscribe in a reader
