Elyn Saks: My name is Elyn Saks. I'm a professor at the University of Southern
California, Gould School of Law and I'm also someone who suffers from chronic schizophrenia
and has had to manage life in the face of quite a few symptoms. Schizophrenia is a brain disorder and it's
hallmark is psychosis or being out of touch with reality. If I can make an analogy, a schizophrenic
episode is like a waking nightmare, so with all the bizarre images, impossible things
happening, and utter utter terror. Only, with the nightmare, you can sit up in
bed, open your eyes, and make it go away. No such luck with schizophrenia. So I've had the delusion that I've killed
hundreds of thousands of people with my thoughts and I've had a hallucination of a man standing
with a raised knife. It also involves disorganized and incoherent
thinking. One of the things about managing a psychiatric
illness is to learn your triggers and either avoid them or cope with them, and for me,
change is difficult. I need my routine. Excessive stimulation, people with psychotic
illnesses become easily overstimulated. I sort of had mild episodes a couple of times
in college where I kind of, I remember one day in the middle of winter I put a blanket
over my arms and started running around campus saying I was flying. But I officially broke down when I went to
Oxford as a martial scholar for my first semester there. And it started out looking a little bit like
depression with mild paranoid features, but over time, turned into more of a psychotic
disorder, schizophrenia. It was actually a terrible prognosis. One doctor said very poor, another doctor
said grave. And what that means is, is that I was expected
to live in abordent care, be unable to live independently, and work at medial jobs when
my symptoms were quiet. I think three things really helped me. First, excellent treatment. So I've had four to five day a week psychoanalytic
psychotherapy for decades and continued it. I've been trained. The theory is, it's supposed to end but I'm
a lifer. Also, excellent psycho pharmacology, once
I admitted the need for medication. Wonderful family and friends including my
beloved husband Will, who gave my life a richness and a meaning and helped me negotiate symptoms. Having friends and family in my life is like
a second set of eyes, and when I'm having a hard time I will turn to them and they're
extremely supportive. And then an accommodating workplace. USC not only accommodates but embraces my
needs and it's also extremely stimulating intellectually, and using my mind to tackle
difficult problems, puzzles, has been one of my best defenses against my mental illness. As I Iike to say, my mind is not only my worst
enemy, but my best friend. So those three things came together to let
me defy my grave prognosis and really lead and good and productive and happy and fulfilling
life. I mean, I think an important message is, if
you see in yourself or your loved ones, early signs of mental illness, get treatment right
away. Treatment helps. You shouldn't have to suffer. Consistent treatment has helped me enormously. There is evidence that the sooner you intervene,
the better the outcome, the more people put a human the face, the less stigma there will
be. And the less stigma, the more people will
seek care and get the treatment that they need. Having a mental illness is not a sentence
to a bleak and painful life. You can have a good life. There is hope. Just get into good treatment, encourage your
friends to understand your illness and help you find some kind of work or volunteer job
or art or whatever that you like to do, that gives you satisfaction and gratification. And if you do all of those things and you
get good therapy and good medication, you can have a really rich and fulfilling and
good life.
