I want to be the queen of good news, and warm fuzzy feelings, I do. I really, really do, but sometimes we all have to throw out our crowns and step out of our gowns. Today, I’m not sending positive vibes into the universe.  I’m pissed off.  I’m disgusted, and I’m tired.

Yesterday on another blog I read three short stories written by another blogger. Two of the stories had characters with schizophrenia. One character wanted to kill her children and the other one wanted to kill her husband.

I wrote to the blogger that she had used stereotypes about schizophrenia to create her characters.  I also said she was worsening the stigma for people who suffer from the disease.

She wrote back basically saying that just because it wasn’t my personal experience to be homicidal, her story reflected the truth of other people with schizophrenia.

Yes, that is accurate if you follow the mainstream media. In the past few years there have been a few high profile shootings where the shooter turned out to have schizophrenia.  True story.  I will admit that. Recently, there was a depressed man who brought down an airplane. Are we going to start portraying all people with depression as murders?

There are over two million people in the United States living with schizophrenia and let me tell you if all of us were homicidal or even suicidal you would hear about it every single night on the news. Instead, you hear about all kinds of people committing acts of violence, and guess what? Most of them don’t have a mental illness.

Two million people are a lot of people. There were only five thousand people in the town where I grew up. So, take my small town and multiply it by 400 and you will get all the people living in the United States with schizophrenia. If that many people were doing anything all at the same time, you would probably hear about it.  I guess it is possible that the majority of us are watching television at let’s say eight o’clock every evening. Even that is unlikely.

We aren’t all homeless.

We aren’t all criminals.

I am fed up with the news media.

I am fed up with Hollywood.

I’m fed up with people who don’t do their research.

I guess someone living an average life, managing their symptoms fairly well, doesn’t make a great story.  However, it is a true story, a more common story, a real story for most of the people living with schizophrenia.

Stop being such junkies for sensationalism and the bizarre.  Stick to facts and statistics.

I’ll put my crown and gown back on now. Peace, love, health and prosperity. Over and out.