Plain-language, educational articles on schizophrenia, psychosis, antipsychotic medications, and lived experience — by ColdAI.
Yoga has been studied as an add-on to medication in schizophrenia for over two decades. The evidence is modest but real — particularly for negative symptoms and quality of life.
DisparitiesLatino Americans with schizophrenia are less likely to be diagnosed early, less likely to receive specialist care, and more likely to face language and immigration barriers — even when insurance is available.
Substance useNicotine replacement therapy is the most accessible cessation tool for people with schizophrenia — and the most commonly underdosed. Here is how to use it well.
Legal & FinancialSSDI is the disability insurance you paid into through payroll taxes. If you worked enough years before schizophrenia disabled you, the benefit is usually larger than SSI — and the rules are different.
BehaviorsHoarding in schizophrenia is rarely about love of objects. More often it reflects paranoia, executive-function difficulty, or symbolic meaning attached to specific items.
InternationalCanada's universal health system covers schizophrenia treatment, but services vary widely by province. Here's how Early Psychosis Intervention programs and other supports actually work.
InteractionsAntipsychotics block dopamine. Stimulants release it. Combining them is not always wrong — but it requires a clear clinical reason and careful monitoring.
HallucinationsVisual hallucinations occur in roughly a quarter of people with schizophrenia, but they are also a hallmark of several neurological conditions. The cause matters.
DelusionsGrandiose delusions can feel exhilarating from the inside and devastating in their consequences. Here's a careful look at why they form and what helps.
CopingReality testing is a core CBTp technique for working with strong beliefs that don't match what other people see. Done well, it is curious — never combative.
StoryI left a town of 4,000 people in Wyoming to find a psychiatrist who would actually answer the phone. It worked, but it cost more than I knew how to count.
StoryI am 36, I have two kids under ten, and I take an antipsychotic every night. This is what an ordinary week looks like — without sugar-coating and without despair.
StoryThree antipsychotics didn't work. Clozapine did. Here is what the first year of weekly blood draws, drooling pillows, and quieter mornings actually looked like.
StoryAfter eight years and four medications, my psychiatrist suggested clozapine. This is a composite story of what it actually looks like to start it — the blood draws, the drooling, and the quiet return of an ordinary life.
CaregiverWhen the parent who has lived with schizophrenia all your life starts aging, the caregiving role often shifts from sibling or partner to adult child. Here's what changes — medically, legally, practically.
CaregiverSchizophrenia is a marathon, not an emergency. Here is how to support a loved one steadily over years — without burning out or losing yourself in the process.
StigmaFrom horror films to evening news, the media's image of schizophrenia is dramatically narrower and more violent than the reality. Those portrayals shape policy, hiring, and self-perception.
RecoveryThe Clubhouse model, founded at Fountain House in New York in 1948, has built a global network of communities where people with serious mental illness work, belong, and recover.
Special populationsA first episode of psychosis often arrives during college. Staying enrolled — or returning successfully — is harder than it should be, but there is a roadmap.
Co-occurringAnxiety affects roughly half of people with schizophrenia at some point — and is often the symptom that causes the most day-to-day distress. It's also treatable.
LifestyleThe gut-brain axis is real and increasingly studied in schizophrenia — but probiotics are not a treatment. Here's an honest look at what the evidence shows and what it doesn't.
CrisisWarm lines exist for the call you don't quite want to make to 988 — the lonely Tuesday night, the long afternoon, the days when something is brewing but isn't a crisis yet.
HospitalInpatient psychiatric units must respect a long list of patient rights — but few patients ever read the document handed to them at admission. Here is what is actually in it.
TherapyNegative symptoms — apathy, low motivation, blunted emotion — drive much of the long-term disability in schizophrenia. CBT cannot eliminate them, but it can reliably move the needle.
TreatmentPsilocybin is being studied for depression, addiction, end-of-life distress, and more. Every major trial excludes people with personal or family history of psychosis — here's why that matters.
MedicationBrexpiprazole was designed as a less activating, less akathisia-prone cousin of aripiprazole. The pharmacology supports the idea — and the clinical evidence partly does too.
MedicationMetformin is now considered first-line pharmacological treatment for antipsychotic-induced weight gain — modest in effect size, but better-evidenced than any other option.
MedicationChlorpromazine was the first antipsychotic ever discovered and arguably the medication that emptied the asylums. It is still in use today — but its role has narrowed.
ProfilePatricia Deegan was a teenager when she was told she had chronic schizophrenia and would never recover. She has spent the rest of her life proving — and helping others prove — otherwise.
ProfileEsmé Weijun Wang's essay collection 'The Collected Schizophrenias' has done as much as any single book in the past decade to change how literary culture writes about — and listens to — people living with psychosis.