Plain-language, educational articles on schizophrenia, psychosis, antipsychotic medications, and lived experience — by ColdAI.
After my fourth hospitalisation in two years, my case was assigned to an Assertive Community Treatment team. The first year was a strange, intensive, surprisingly steadying experience.
CaregiverWhen someone you love refuses treatment for schizophrenia, the law, the medicine, and the relationship all collide. This is the honest map.
StigmaThe evidence is striking: internalized stigma predicts hope, employment, treatment engagement, and quality of life — sometimes more strongly than symptoms themselves.
LifestyleAlcohol use in schizophrenia is common, complicated, and rarely discussed honestly. Here is a clear-eyed look at the interactions, the risks, and what current guidelines actually say.
MedicationLong-acting injectables remove the daily question of whether to take the pill. They consistently lower relapse rates — but they also constrain dose adjustment and demand a different kind of trust.
MedicationLamotrigine has a niche but defensible role as augmentation in clozapine-resistant schizophrenia and as a mood stabiliser in schizoaffective disorder, depressive type. The rash risk demands respect.
PsychosisA psychotic episode is a period when a person's brain produces experiences that aren't shared by the people around them. Understanding it from the inside changes how you respond.
TechnologyA relapse rarely arrives without warning. Sleep, energy, and routine usually shift days or weeks earlier. Tracking those shifts well is one of the highest-leverage things you can do.
StoryWe had been roommates for two years. The first sign of his relapse was that he stopped showering. The last sign, three weeks later, was the apartment manager knocking on our door at 4 a.m.
Expressive therapiesExpressive writing is one of the simplest and most studied self-help interventions in psychology. In schizophrenia, it can be useful — with some care about timing, content, and pacing.
Women's healthWhy do women develop schizophrenia later than men, get worse around menstruation, and have a second onset peak at menopause? The estrogen protective hypothesis is the leading framework.
StoryAfter my first hospitalisation, I could not pray without my chest tightening. The faith of my childhood and the delusions of my illness had gotten too tangled to separate.
MediaEsmé Weijun Wang's essay collection won the Graywolf Nonfiction Prize and helped reset how schizoaffective disorder is talked about in literary culture. We look at what the book does — and what it deliberately leaves open.
Peer supportMad Pride started as a single Toronto street fair in 1993 and grew into an international movement that reclaims psychiatric language and asserts the dignity of people who have been called mad.
RecoveryDiagnosed with schizophrenia at 17, Patricia Deegan went on to become a clinical psychologist whose concept of 'personal medicine' is now taught in peer programs around the world.
Lab monitoringMost antipsychotics cause occasional, mild liver enzyme changes that resolve on their own. Knowing when to check, when to worry, and when to act keeps the picture clear.
Substance useCannabis is one of the most common substances people with schizophrenia use, and cutting back is one of the highest-impact changes possible. Here is how to approach it.
Legal & FinancialSchizophrenia is a covered disability under the ADA. That gives you specific rights at work and in public life — but the law has limits, and knowing them matters.
Physical healthThe years around menopause are often a period of unexpected change in schizophrenia. Estrogen decline, shifting metabolism, and new bone-health risks all matter.
InternationalSoteria House was a small residential alternative to acute psychiatric care, pioneered in California in the 1970s. Its quiet, low-medication, peer-based model still informs modern psychosis services.
InteractionsAntibiotic prescribing usually happens in an urgent context, which is exactly when interactions get overlooked. Here are the antipsychotic-relevant ones worth knowing.
DelusionsErotomanic delusions — the firm belief that another person, often someone unattainable, is secretly in love with you — are uncommon but cause real distress on both sides.
CopingBreath work is everywhere in mental-health advice. For schizophrenia, some techniques are genuinely useful, others are oversold, and a few should usually be skipped.
StoryI was 24 when I was arrested for trespassing during a psychotic episode. I spent three weeks in county jail with no medication and no idea what was happening. This is what got me out and what almost did not.
StoryI met James in a rock-climbing gym in Denver. He told me about his schizophrenia on the third date. Five years and one wedding later, here is what I have learned.
StoryI am 29 and the third generation in my family with schizophrenia. The diagnosis was not a surprise. The grief, the comfort, and the questions still were.
StoryI grew up watching my mother live with schizophrenia. When I was diagnosed myself in my twenties, I had to learn the difference between her illness, mine, and what we shared.
Special populationsFirst and second-generation immigrants face elevated rates of psychotic disorders, and they often face the steepest barriers to good care. Both facts deserve attention.
Co-occurringTrauma is both a risk factor for psychosis and a frequent consequence of it. PTSD in schizophrenia is common, often missed, and increasingly treatable.
CrisisWhen the system is overwhelming, an extra trusted person — family, friend, or trained advocate — physically next to you in the ER or on the ride to the hospital can change the entire experience.