Transcript

My name is Dawn. I first started hearing voices when I was on a vacation. It was overwhelming. The voices were so noisy that I couldn't sleep or think, and it was really hard to process what other people were saying to me. When I first got my diagnosis, I was in shock, you know, and I really struggled to... to accept it and it was hard to tell other people about it. You know, I was afraid of how they might react and whether it would change their opinion of me as a person.

But my husband's been amazing and so has my mom. Their support really helped me get past my diagnosis. It's not always easy to tell other people and my husband's family is very traditional and conservative. I haven't told them. I want to, I really do, but, their reaction to even just talking about anxiety wasn't great. you know. Maybe things will be different in the future and I'll consider telling them, you know, we'll see.

I told a few of my really close friends and I recently told some of my co-workers. And everyone's been really positive, really supportive. A couple of them told me that I helped change their perception of schizophrenia. You know, made it less negative. And that really means a lot to me. And it shows me how important self -disclosure is. You know, not just for myself, but for others. My mom likes to say that it's just a misunderstood health issue that I have to deal with, and I think that she's right. That's why, you know, educating the people around me is important to me. It is hard, but it's important.

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