Plain-language, educational articles on schizophrenia, psychosis, antipsychotic medications, and lived experience — by ColdAI.
DBT was built for borderline personality disorder, but its concrete skills — mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation — are increasingly adapted for psychosis.
MedicationQuetiapine is one of the most widely used antipsychotics — heavily sedating, broadly licensed, and often prescribed off-label for sleep. The latter raises important issues.
PsychosisA first episode of psychosis is one of the most consequential moments in mental health care. What happens in the first weeks shapes outcomes for years.
NeuroscienceAdding serotonin 5-HT2A blockade to dopamine blockade gave us the 'atypical' antipsychotics. Here is what serotonin actually does in this story.
DiagnosisThe DSM-5-TR criteria for schizophrenia are precise but readable. Here is what each one actually means, in plain language, with the clinical reasoning behind it.
StoryFor two years I was certain the FBI had been watching me since college. The night I realized they had not was not dramatic. It was a Tuesday in March.
Thought disorderClang associations are sentences linked by rhyme, alliteration, or pun rather than meaning. They are most associated with mania but appear in schizophrenia too.
Culture and faithNative American and Alaska Native communities face some of the highest rates of mental health distress in the country, layered with limited access to specialty care and a long history of harm from non-Native institutions.
VocationalA social firm is a real business — a café, a print shop, a landscaping service — designed from the start so a substantial share of its workforce are people with disabilities or serious mental illness, paid prevailing wages.
Negative symptomsAlogia is the clinical term for reduced quantity or content of speech in schizophrenia. It is often mistaken for shyness, depression, or rudeness — and it is none of these.
How-toFMLA can protect your job during a psychiatric hospitalisation — for yourself or a family member. Here's how it works and how to actually use it.
CaregiverBeing married to someone with schizophrenia is its own job — distinct from being a parent, sibling, or friend. Here's what experienced partners say they wish someone had told them in year one.
NutritionFolate, vitamin B12, and B6 sit at the crossroads of brain chemistry and methylation. There is a real evidence base for testing — and a more cautious one for supplementing.
SleepPeople with schizophrenia frequently report unusually vivid, bizarre, or distressing dreams. Understanding why can help separate dream from waking experience and reduce nighttime fear.
RecoveryA written relapse prevention plan turns a chaotic crisis into a manageable one. The components are simple — early warning signs, a sequence of responses, and the contacts to call.
MedicationTrifluoperazine has been around for more than 60 years. Its side effect profile is dominated by movement effects but spares the metabolism — a trade-off that still appeals to some patients.
PreventionGenuine prevention of psychosis is harder than it sounds — but several modest interventions appear to delay onset or reduce severity. Here is the honest picture.
FAQSchizophrenia is generally considered a lifelong condition, but the course is variable: some people have a single episode, others have recurrent episodes, and a smaller group has a chronic course.
HallucinationsHearing music that isn't playing is a less common but well-described hallucination. It can occur in schizophrenia, in hearing loss, and in several neurological conditions.
City guidesChicago's mental-health system mixes city, county, state, and private academic providers. This guide maps CDPH, Cook County Health, the major academic centres, and the crisis numbers families actually call.
Women's healthSchizophrenia is not the same illness in women and men. The differences shape diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes — and most clinical training underplays them.
MediaRichard Kelly's cult film has been argued about for twenty years: is Donnie experiencing time travel, prodromal schizophrenia, or a teenage breakdown? The ambiguity is the point — and the cost.
Peer supportISPS brings together clinicians, researchers, and people with lived experience who believe psychological and social treatments belong at the centre of care for psychosis — not on the margins.
RecoveryIn 2012 SAMHSA released a working definition of recovery that has become the official US framework: a process of change across four dimensions — health, home, purpose, and community.
TransitionsAging out of pediatric mental health services is a hard, paperwork-heavy moment for families. The transition is one of the riskiest in schizophrenia care — and most of it can be planned in advance.
Lab monitoringPlasma level monitoring is one of the most useful tools in clozapine prescribing. Knowing the target range, when to draw, and what affects the number turns a confusing lab into a practical guide to dosing.
Rare presentationsDelusional disorder is a distinct condition: persistent non-bizarre delusions in someone whose life otherwise looks remarkably ordinary. Here's how it differs from schizophrenia.
StoryI told four close friends I had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Two stayed. Two didn't. This is what I learned.
SeasonsJanuary's all-or-nothing energy can hurt people in recovery. A calmer, smaller, more sustainable approach to New Year resolutions when you live with schizophrenia.
Differential diagnosisEating disorders in schizophrenia are often missed — sometimes because food-related delusions are mistaken for anorexia, sometimes because antipsychotic-driven binge eating is dismissed as 'just side effects.'