Disablity and Schizophrenia

Today is a day to "Blog Against Disablism" or "Blog About Disabilities." So, I signed up to blog about my disability. I have yet to refer to the diagnosis of schizophrenia as a disability on my blog. But, it is. I am currently on disability, which is my sole income or my "allowance." I did not want to go on disability. My mother forced me to sign the papers she wrote up. I still wanted to work. I continued to work, part time, as many hours as allowed by the disability payments. It is very hard to get off of disability. Your employer must also be informed that you were on disability in order to get off of it. At this point, I do not have plans to go off of the disability payments. I paid in when I worked. Now, I get the insurance payment for what I paid in to Social Security. Still, it is a shame that disability is so scorned and also provides such a small payment. The payment puts one well beneath poverty level, allowing very little room for extra income. I would like eventually to go off of the Social Security, to once again work a full-time job. That takes a lot of time, getting off of Social Security.

I have yet to mention the disability, the diagnosis of schizophrenia that got me to forced disability payments. I was off of work for three and a half months when the diagnosis of schizophrenia was forced on me. I had stopped working at the end of November. I was diagnosed in the middle of March. Whether a person is working or not is one of the considerations in the making of a diagnosis, according to the DSM, quoted below, though a social worker once told me that whether one works or not is not a consideration. Confusing!

The medicines I was put on made me hallucinate, actually gave me the symptoms of schizophrenia which I was diagnosed with having after 1-2 brief interviews with a nurse and a psychiatrist, in a hospital. This is not the first time that that has happened. Widely reported is the cause of symptoms of schizophrenia from the neuroleptics intended to help the supposed problem.

I am officially disabled now. The diagnosis disables a person. However, I believe that when my mother put me on disability payments, she disabled me extremely. They are so difficult to escape once a person is on them.

I got a new bicycle. We began bicycling this week for exercise and pleasure. Bicycling is fun!

This past week:

• medication: 5 mg Aripiprazole a.m., 10 mg Aripiprazole before sleep
  
• sleep: average 9 hrs
• exercise: walked every day but two, situps and pushups, stair running, 2 days bicycling
• diet: made certain to eat breakfast every day, began to count calories at www.caloriecount.com
• weight: 161 lbs.
• mood: ok all mornings upon rising