"Who gets to be the "good schizophrenic"?"

I decided to read this article because the title was very engaging. Schizophrenia is unfortunately a disease that runs in my family, I try to read as much as I can on the disease. The most interesting part of this article is when Esme discusses her experience in a psychiatric hospital and the hierarchy that is in place. The hierarchy was determined by functionality. The people on the top were people who suffered from depression, the middle was eating disorders and bipolar, the bottom was the serious mental disorders like schizophrenia. These patients are isolated from the rest of the patients, "excluded from group therapy, seen as lunatic and raving, and incapable of fitting into the requirements of normalcy". This is when she differentiates between the "good" schizophrenic, Pauline and the "bad" schizophrenic, Laura. 

“There is nothing better than hearing that there is a drug that will fix a terrible problem,” she writes, “unless you also hear that the drug is for treating schizophrenia". This quote is extremely powerful and stood out to me. Its the most amazing thing when you are told that you can fix an issue but not knowing that the issue is schizophrenia is horrifying and devastating. 

Schizophrenia is something that many people are able to deal with but if it goes undiagnosed it can be lethal. Not everyone who suffers from a mental illness can be categorized the same way, “I’m uncomfortable because I don’t want to be lumped in with the screaming man on the bus, or the woman who speaks in loose associations at the mental health clinic”. This is important, too many people don’t realize this and categorize everyone suffering from schizophrenia as crazy.