How Peer Support Improves Schizophrenia Outcomes

Whether you've been diagnosed with schizophrenia or you're supporting someone living with the condition, connecting with others who understand schizophrenia can be a great help. Talking to those who are dealing with the same things you’re experiencing can not only help you feel less alone, but also help you learn tips and coping mechanisms from each other, share resources, encourage treatment, and allow you to tell your stories in a safe and accepting environment.

But how do you find other people with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia to connect with? What should you say? Where do you even go?

Host Rachel Star Withers, a diagnosed schizophrenic, and co-host Gabe Howard break down how to find other people with schizophrenia and give you a simple opening you can use to build new connections. 

Finally, guest Amber (who lives with mental illness) joins. Amber's mental health advocacy journey began when she found out she had schizoaffective disorder and decided to share it on social media. She decided she wanted to help as many with her diagnosis as she could, so she began speaking about her diagnosis regularly on social media.

Listener Takeaways

• Understand why peer connection is unique and how it provides a level of validation that clinical providers often cannot replicate

• Discover how staying connected to a community can actually improve outcomes 

• Learn Amber’s “Three Pillars of Stability”: consistent support, therapy, and medication

Our guest, Amber W, is a wife, mom, and Army veteran. Amber’s mental health advocacy journey began when she found out she was schizoaffective bipolar type, and wanted to help fight against stigma. From there, she was invited to a psychiatric hospital to speak about her recovery. This ignited a fire in her; she decided she wanted to help as many with her diagnosis as she could so she began speaking about her diagnosis regularly on social media.

Our host, Rachel Star Withers, (Link: www.rachelstarlive.com) is an entertainer, international speaker, video producer, and schizophrenic. She has appeared on MTV’s Ridiculousness, TruTV, NBC’s America’s Got Talent, Marvel's Black Panther, TUBI’s #shockfight, Goliath: Playing with Reality, and is the host of the HealthLine podcast “Inside Schizophrenia”. She grew up seeing monsters, hearing people in the walls, and having intense urges to hurt herself.

Rachel creates videos documenting her schizophrenia, ways to manage, and letting others like her know they are not alone and can still live an amazing life. She has created a kid’s mental health comic line, The Adventures of ____. (Learn more at this link: https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Fearless-Unstoppable-Light-Ambitious/dp/B0FHWK4ZHS )

Fun Fact: She has wrestled alligators.

Our cohost, Gabe Howard, is an award-winning writer and speaker who lives with bipolar disorder. He is the author of the popular book, "Mental Illness is an Asshole and other Observations," available from Amazon; signed copies are also available directly from the author.

He also hosts the twice Webby honored podcast, Inside Bipolar, with Dr. Nicole Washington.

To learn more about Gabe, please visit his website, gabehoward.com.

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