Paranoid Schizophrenia: Modes of Recovery

Let me explain why this portrait is a portrait of hope. The artist said he/she (hereafter she) only had 20 minutes to do it as he/she had to get down the pub. He/she says I can use this painting of hers but does not wish to be identified despite my offer of a link to his/her site. This is because of the stigma of schizophrenia. She tells me she spent the years from 1969 to 1979 in and out of "lunatic asylums". I am trying to get her story so you can read it but she describes her 10 years of paranoid schizophrenia as like living in a Stalinist state and anyone who has been forced Chlorpromazine/Largactil, Stelazine or Haloperidol I am sure will know what she means. The reason this portrait is a portrait of hope is that the artist falls into the significant proportion of sufferers of schizophrenia who recover to the point where they no longer require medication or find a happy life on it (see Prognosis section). I can vouch for that and  the artist, through the decades I have