1) The Holistic approach
The holistic approach considers the human body as a whole. If you have a stomach ache, it may be that the reason for this ache is not necessarily in your stomach. It can be just a symptom to a major heart problem or stress. The same is with you schizophrenia disorder, it can be an expression of a major other problem in your life that should be cured. Therefore, you should treat your body as a whole and no just like separate, individual parts.

2) The natural approach
The natural approach makes a use of natural resources in order to heal different kinds of illnesses. It uses flowers to concentrate different kinds of natural ingredients into a natural medicine. You can also take this solution and thin it out again and again, until there is no trace of the original natural ingredients, but their memory remains in the solution. This is called a remedy.

3) The conventional approach
In this approach, doctors load you with medications, sometimes even with out a real connection to what you suffer from. Many times, people who suffer from mental illnesses find themselves with a handful of different medications that causes them with severe problems and side affects.

4) The combined approach
This approach is not extremes to any of the above different approaches. It uses some of each approach in order to treat illnesses. The optimized approach is to get to a point when you take a minimum dosage of medication, just to keep you balanced where on the same time, not suffer from major side affects. In the same time you treat your body as a whole and take care of yourself in a natural way.

1) Find a job
If you are not working and based on government welfare money, or your family, this is the exact time to find a job of your own that would give you dignity, self respect, many benefits and your own money to spend.

2) Chopping in luxury
This is the exact time in life to buy less luxury ingredients, and to spend your money only on items that you must have. If you don’t really need it, then don’t buy it for now. In spite of that, don’t prevent yourself from not having fun, you can still visit your family or friends, but don’t spend your money on expensive refreshments or gifts.

3) Save your money
My mother use to say “Save in bright day and prepare for a rainy day”. What it means is that this is the exact time to save what you can. If you have some spare money, don’t get read of it by buying things you don’t must. Saving your money now, would be a life line sometime in the future.

4) Do your bookkeeping
The recession is the exact time to make list and calculate your incomes and expenses. By the end of each day, sit with yourself, calculate how much you spend and plan your tomorrows spending. The same thing is with your income. Again, try to save as much as possible.

5) Spend on moderate occupations
If you want to go out with friends, try to go to they’re house and not to a restaurant nowadays. Try to do activities that are not needed to be expensive. Don’t commit yourself to expensive hobbies or other costly activities. You always can read a good book or watch the TV instead of going to a movie or hang out in a restaurant.

1) Therapy
Go to a Psychologist and talk about your routine. The therapist’s room is a protected environment where you can cope with sore things that are taken from your daily routine or from your past. This is the exact place to speak and deal about past negative experiences.

2) Do exercise
Get out of the house and walk for 45 minutes each day for a start. Doing exercise is a great way to get in shape, reduce your bad cholesterol level in your blood and reduce your blood pressure. It also makes you feel better with yourself and sleep well at night.

3) Develop your social life
Make new friends and hang out with them, go to visit your parents or loved ones from time to time. An active social life is a great way to bother yourself with different things beside your mental illness. It lifts up the spirit and brings new opportunities to your life.

4) Find your mate
Get a boy or a girl friend. If you are alone, the best way to fight loneliness is by getting to know and hang out with someone you really care for. Don’t be shy; try to find your own piece of relationships in the world. Couples can cope with any aspect in life in a better way than doing that on your own.

5) Entertainment
Go and does any activity that makes you feel good. Read a book or a magazine, watch the TV, go to the cinema, and develop your hobbies. Just do or find what makes you feel good and busy in your spare time. Entertaining yourself is a great way to stop thinking about your mental illness and also develop other skills in life.

6) Find a steady job
Having something that forces you to get up in the morning and start your day’s routine is the greatest way I am familiar with in order to get better. A job also provides you with a steady amount of money that can pay your bills and buy you stuff you like. It is also a crucial ingredient in your way of getting your independency.

7) Diet
Take control of what you eat and put into your mouth. Psychiatric medicines are known for being the number one reason for gaining weight. Therefore, you have to take control of what you put into your mouth and don’t deny the possibility to go to a professional dietetic professional in order to help you doing so.

Don’t exaggerate
Balance your activities in life. On the one hand don’t overdue things that make you feel bad or you dislike, and on the other hand avoid from doing only things you like and avoiding from doing what you must. Moderation is an important habit.

9) Develop skills
Developing skills such as your social skill or learning a profession is a great way to contradict your illness symptoms. Skills can be easily acquired and be thought in order to deal with your life in a better way and as another step towards your independent.

10) Avoid
It is a great opportunity to make a stop or to avoid having or doing bad things that could demolish everything you are working for. Quit smoking, don’t use bad drugs, don’t heavily drink, don’t isolate yourself, avoid pornography, and above all balance between all of your activities.

1) A reverse discrimination
People that have schizophrenia should be treated as people with like any other disease such as diabetes, high blood pressure, or any other chronic disease. The fact that we go through hallucinations and seeing things, don’t have to consequent in our driving license deprivation with a sweeping way.

2) The right to be independent
People that goes through schizophrenia disorder, should be insist of keeping they’re independency. Driving license is the most significant sign for being independent; therefore no one holds the privilege to deprive that independency.

3) We are more careful
People with schizophrenia are better drivers. Years of speaking with other sufferers and my self have shown me that people who went through any kind of crisis in life and especially a mentally crisis, were to be better drivers. The reason for that is that we are in a kind of supervision by other care givers or institutes.

4) A personal example
People that went through a psychotic disorder feels necessity to give a personal example for what they do, therefore be better drivers. The reason for that is the scorn by the community. The widespread opinion is that sufferers are not too good for anything, what makes us prove exactly the opposite in all our deeds.

5) We are calm
As contrary to what is being a common opinion, people with schizophrenia tend to be calmer than others, therefore conduct our cars in a calm way. The reason for that is that most of the time we are in a remission and under some kind of treatment, that causes us to accept our angers in a more healthy and responsible way.

1) Leave behind past quarrels
When you seat around the holiday feast table, try to leave behind past quarrels with your loved ones. Don’t bring to the table past experiences and try to be positive in order to avoid igniting them again.

2) Don’t argue around the table
If one of your loved ones asks a question and crosses a red line, don’t get in to quarrel with him. You can always avoid answering him with a wiser answer such as “We would talk about it tomorrow”, and naturally he would forget his nosy question by the next day.

3) Spend with your folks the minimum time needed
I know that the holidays are a good time to get together, but in order to avoid unneeded quarrels with your loved ones, try to spend with them the minimum time that is needed, the lesser the better. If you won’t do that, the nosy questions accompanied by an inevitable quarrel, would follow.

4)  Be assertive
The way you answer your relatives interrogation, is the way you would leave your expression on them. Try to answer they’re questions with assertive way, not argue and leave a good impression on them. Let them understand that the fact you are a schizophrenia sufferer, don’t give them a reason to offend your feelings. You are a grown and mature guy or a woman, and you should be treated respectively.

5) Keep your manners
Try to leave a good impression on your relatives; after all you are not going to see most of them until the next feast that would be carried out in the next holidays. Avoid tension and tenseness situations as much as you can.

Remember, the holidays would pass and life would go on, as well as the healing routine.

If You have some more tips, please share them with us…

When I say – Exposing, I mean that people that caries mental illness or disturbance, no matter from what kind, should stand up right and speak in a free way about they’re illness.

People should not be afraid of what others might say about them, they should show themselves with no fear.

Exposing yourself begins from your closest circles of relations such as your closest family, brothers, sisters, parents etc. you should not be afraid to speak freely about your disease with others. You should start doing it from your closest circles and more and getting far away in your relations’ circles. Your less close family such as uncles, nephews etc. and then to your neighborhood, community, place of work and so on.

If more and more people will not be afraid to speak freely about they’re disturbance, more and more “Normal” people would understand that there is nothing to be afraid of from such people that can be they’re neighbor from next door, they’re colleague from work or they’re mail man from they’re town’s community. People would understand that mental illness is a common phenomena and can happened to any one with no difference of race, color, gender, religious etc.
Share with us your own ways to fight Stigma…