Plain-language, educational articles on schizophrenia, psychosis, antipsychotic medications, and lived experience — by ColdAI.
Brain rhythms coordinate the orchestra of cognition. In schizophrenia, gamma and theta oscillations are altered in ways that link parvalbumin interneuron dysfunction to symptoms.
StoryThree years after my second hospitalization, I started writing letters to the people I had frightened, lashed out at, or pushed away during the episode. Some answered. Some did not. The writing changed me either way.
HousingSection 8 housing vouchers are the cornerstone of affordable housing for adults with schizophrenia in the US. Here is how to apply, what to expect, and how to actually use one.
DelusionsCapgras syndrome is the rare but striking belief that a loved one has been replaced by an identical-looking impostor. It bridges psychiatry and neurology and offers a fascinating window into how the brain constructs familiarity.
Crisis modelsA peer respite is a small home where people in mental-health crisis can stay for a few days, supported entirely by peers — people who have been through psychosis themselves. The model is small, rare, and surprisingly powerful.
Medical comorbidityTooth decay and gum disease are several times more common in people with schizophrenia than in the general population — and the reasons go beyond just remembering to brush.
StoryMy grandparents grew up in a generation where schizophrenia was something whispered about and hidden. It took five years for them to come around. The thing that worked surprised me.
Peer supportFounded in 2002 by two writers who had been hospitalised, the Icarus Project — now Fireweed Collective — has spent two decades reframing extreme mental states as 'dangerous gifts' to be navigated, not just suppressed.
Negative symptomsFlat affect is the reduction in outward expression of emotion — facial expression, vocal tone, gesture. The inner emotional life often remains intact, which makes the symptom particularly easy to misread.
Lab monitoringLithium changes thyroid function in a meaningful subset of patients. Some antipsychotics also have small effects. Routine TSH catches the changes long before they cause symptoms.
Rare presentationsCycloid psychosis describes brief, intense psychotic episodes that recover fully between attacks. The label is European and historical, but the clinical picture is recognisable worldwide.
StoryI had told myself for ten years that I needed Bartholomew to stay stable. When he died, I learned something different about myself.
Early onsetAdolescents with schizophrenia often need real changes to how school works — quieter spaces, flexible deadlines, reduced course loads. Most of these are protected under federal law.
TherapyMost people with psychosis have a trauma history, and many also meet criteria for PTSD. For decades, clinicians worried trauma therapy might destabilise. The newer evidence is reassuring.
StoryDisrupted sleep, full houses, alcohol, and questions from relatives — the holidays used to land me in the hospital almost every other year. Here is what changed.
CaregiverYou cannot caregive without breaks. Respite care is a recognised, often-funded service that gives families room to breathe — and improves outcomes on both sides.
CaregiverBoundaries are not the opposite of love. In serious mental illness they are often the precondition for it. Here's how to think about, set, and hold them.
WorkplaceNight and rotating shifts disrupt the sleep and circadian rhythms that protect against relapse. Here is what the evidence says — and what you can do about it.
StigmaDisclosure is a strategic decision, not a moral one. Here's how to think clearly about whom to tell, when to tell them, and what to say — drawing on Patrick Corrigan's Honest, Open, Proud framework.
RecoveryStable housing is foundational to recovery, and the options range from group homes with on-site staff to Housing First models that prioritise an apartment of one's own. Each has its place.
TherapyStarted in the Netherlands in the 1980s, the Hearing Voices Network treats voices as meaningful experiences worth engaging with — not only as symptoms to suppress.
TherapyThe CBT for psychosis literature is large, contested, and sometimes oversold. Here is a fair-minded summary of what the trials actually show, and what they do not.
MedicationLurasidone and ziprasidone are the two atypicals most often chosen when weight and metabolic burden need to stay low — but each has its own quirks worth understanding.
MedicationMost antipsychotics cause weight gain. Molindone is an exception — and that simple fact has kept the drug part of the conversation despite limited current availability.
MedicationBenzodiazepines have a legitimate short-term role in psychotic emergencies, catatonia, and severe insomnia. They become dangerous when they are not stopped.
ProfileDostoevsky's epilepsy, gambling, and dark imagination have been the subject of medical speculation for over a century. Here's a careful look at what the record actually shows.
ProfileKurt Snyder's memoir 'Me, Myself, and Them' is one of the most readable first-person accounts of young-adult-onset schizophrenia, written specifically for teenagers and families.
ProfileTom Harrell has lived with paranoid schizophrenia since his early twenties and has spent five decades as one of the most respected trumpeters in jazz. His career is the rare contemporary case of a major artist working consistently while openly diagnosed.
NeuroscienceThe gut-brain axis is one of the most intriguing frontiers in schizophrenia research — and one of the most overhyped. Here is what is solid and what is still speculative.
DiagnosisThe BPRS is shorter and older than the PANSS but still widely used. Here is what each of its 18 items captures and how to read BPRS results in your clinic notes.