Allow me to re-introduce myself for those that don’t know me: ➡️
My name is Lindsay and I’m 31 years old. I have lived with different forms of Schizophrenia my whole life.
I was diagnosed with Schizoaffective disorder around 17 years of age when I was in high school and starting developing symptoms of it. I had my first major break at 20 or 21 and was diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia after a slew of stressful situations in my life. The situations triggered the illness to come out. I developed and was diagnosed subsequently with agoraphobia, while already having depression and anxiety, as well as trichotillomania which is an anxiety and ocd based disorder. At the peak of the worst of my illness, I was catatonic, in the hospital, and had to be hand fed because I would just pace in circles all day and move very slowly or not at all and just sit for hours at a time locked inside my head with paranoia, delusions, and hallucinations.
I’ve been hospitalized too many times to count. While I do know how many times I have been (it’s been in the dozens), I made this social media account to let you know that, yes, whatever you dream of doing in life, whatever it is, it is possible to achieve it while living with this diagnosis. Not everyone can do everything they’d like, and it’s completely understandable, but don’t lose hope. I gather hope on the daily, and support from family and friends is huge for me, if it’s allowed for me aka people having time for me.
I’m currently a mom to a 3 month old, I live independently with my fiancé who actually doesn’t have any mental health issues. I have 2 dogs and I care for my responsibilities on my own. Even by now I have seen I’ve come really far and i would be doing a disservice to myself to not recognize that.
I share my daily story on here and my happenings every day. I would love for you to join me in that. My life is not perfect by any means and downfalls happen, often, but if I didn’t pick up where I fell, I wouldn’t be where I am today, especially without the help I have acquired!
If you are interested or would like to come on this journey with me, please do!