More than 2 million Americans - 1 percent of the population - suffer from schizophrenia. The disease victimizes not only the individual but also family members, whose pain and suffering are indescribable. Adding together those who have schizophrenia and their loved ones, it is easy to see that this tragic disease affects an incredible number of people.
While most schizophrenic individuals are not violent and most do not die violent deaths, most experience tragic lives and many have tragic deaths. Ordinarily, any disease that affected so many would receive a great deal of attention, but mental illness, because of the stigma, is too often hidden in the closet by both family members and medical professionals alike.
My sister, diagnosed with depression in her 20s and schizophrenia at age 40, was once a talented woman who won painting competitions and could play piano by ear. She graduated near the top of her class at Germantown High School and from Temple University, and became a Philadelphia public school teacher, continuing her education with graduate courses at Penn.
Like Robert Brown, my sister had been mentally ill for half of her life when she died at age 54. Unlike Brown, she died of a physical illness, which, if diagnosed and treated at an early stage, is curable.
At the time my sister was diagnosed, the newer drugs now available to treat schizophrenia, which cause fewer side effects than the older drugs, were not available. But these newer drugs would not have made a difference, because she refused to take any medication. This is not uncommon among people who are paranoid. Neither psychiatrists nor my mother had the legal authority to require that she take medication. In my last convesation with my sister, I suggested a new drug that had been shown to be effective in controlling her symptoms when other drugs had failed. She accused me of trying to kill her.
