Living with Schizophrenia

Home
United Kingdom
London
Living with Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a complex and serious mental health condition which affects men and women from all walks of life and social backgrounds.

It is caused by physical and chemical changes within the brain. In the UK at the moment almost a quarter of a million people are being treated for this condition by the NHS. It is usually life changing and can often be life threatening. Although the condition is widely misunderstood, particularly by the popular media, modern treatments are highly effective and most people who suffer from the condi

tion will make a substantial recovery although it may take some time. Founded in 2013, Living with Schizophrenia is a mental health project based in the South West of England which provides a platform for people living with schizophrenia in the broader sense including sufferers as well as carers and relatives. Our aim is to provide hard evidence-based information about this often cruel and enigmatic condition about which there is often so much mythology.

30/05/2026

Many people living with schizophrenia would like to get into work of some sort but find the process of job searching very challenging. After working out what sort of job you would like to do the next step is to ask if any of your existing abilities could be improved to make you better suited to getting the sort job that you would like. For instance, if you have poor literacy or numeracy skills then that would be a serious drawback and something that you will need to work hard on.

Similarly, if you want to move into a particular area of work, you may be able to find vocational training courses in your area available at a reduced rate or free for people on benefits. To find these courses you will need to ask at the Jobcentre or local library or search on the web.

In addition to vocational training there are two courses in particular in the UK that employers really value. These are, a First Aid at Work qualification and a Fire Warden course. Having these courses will greatly strengthen your CV.

If you can’t find a free course then you may be able to get help with your course fees from a charity. Most large industries such as construction, engineering, electronics, retail etc have benevolent charities which give grants to people who have worked in the industry and who now need help. Many will also provide support to close relatives of someone who has worked in the industry.

For men and women who have served in the armed forces, including the reserve forces, there are a number of ex-forces charities that can give help. The first point of contact is normally your local office of the Royal British Legion.

Try your local library or searching on the internet to find out if a charity exists that could help you. Most charities are very ready to help people who are disabled and trying get back into the workplace.

Looking for a job can be challenging enough and it is very beneficial to reinforce your qualifications and expertise so as to try to improve your chances of getting a job that you will enjoy doing. This is a very useful first step to getting on the job search ladder. You can read more about living and working this condition on the Living with Schizophrenia website at https://livingwithschizophreniauk.org/.

Contact us on email at: [email protected]

19/05/2026

After you have experienced a period of schizophrenia, particularly a prolonged one, it is often difficult to get into work. One of the biggest hurdles facing people in this position is knowing where to start. Often people who have suffered from schizophrenia have little or no experience of work and do not know what sort of work they can do. Answering the question, “what sort of work could I do?” is the starting point on your journey back into the mainstream.

You may not be able to develop a clear idea of what sort of job best suits you until you have spent a lot of time job-searching or even tried some work experience but it is a good idea to have some ideas before you begin your job-search and this involves taking a long hard look at your personal qualities.

There are a number of key questions that you will need to ask yourself when you start job searching in order to get a clearer idea of what sort of work you can do. These are:
1. What sort of things do you enjoy doing?
2. What sort of things are you good at?
3. How will your illness limit your ambitions?
4. What previous experience in work do you have?
5. What qualifications do you have?
6. External factors such as travel to work and family commitments?

By drawing these factors together you should now be able to draw some definite conclusions about the sorts of work that will suit you.

Try to be as realistic as possible. We would all like to have glamorous careers as celebrities and earn bucketfuls of cash but the reality for most people is a modest job doing something they are good at and enjoy and bringing home enough money to provide a comfortable existence for them and their family.

For many people with schizophrenia getting into work is a major challenge but if done well it will lead them into a new and highly promising period in their life. Job searching should be approached with great care and will require a lot of hard work and diligence if it is to be successful. But knowing where and how to start will bring great benefits.

You can read more about living and working this condition on the Living with Schizophrenia website at https://livingwithschizophreniauk.org/.

(Image: Basher Eyre on Wikimedia Commons).

Contact us on email at: [email protected]

28/04/2026

Many people with schizophrenia also suffer from anxiety. Anxiety at some levels may be tolerable but in some people it can become severe and disabling, often preventing the sufferer from engaging with many everyday activities. When schizophrenia and anxiety occur together the combined effect can be very distressing indeed. Sometimes anxiety can be caused by schizophrenia symptoms, for instance by hearing voices or paranoid delusions, but at other times anxiety may occur alongside the schizophrenia and when severe enough it may be diagnosed as an anxiety disorder like generalised anxiety disorder.

Anxiety can often be a very intractable problem: as well as being very distressing for the sufferer it can often be very difficult to treat. Now, a recent study from the Republic of Ireland, the Irish Longitudinal Study of Aging, has found that exercise can be used to help cope better with the effects of anxiety.

Reported on the Medscape platform in 2024 and led by researchers at the University of Limerick, this study looked at over seven thousand participants aged over 50 and used data self-reported by them about their anxiety and activity levels. This study showed that moderate to intense physical activity for as little as 10 minutes duration each day does seem to reduce the risk of generalised anxiety disorder in older adults.

This is very useful research. As many people with schizophrenia will testify the problem of anxiety in their lives can be highly disabling and very difficult to overcome. Often it is the case that self-help skills like this can fill the gaps left by the anti-anxiety medicines.
You can read more about this condition on the Living with Schizophrenia website at https://livingwithschizophreniauk.org/.

(Image: CLIPAREA l Custom media on Shutterstock)

Contact us on email at: [email protected]

17/04/2026

Research from Denmark has confirmed the findings of previous studies that there is a connection between cannabis use and schizophrenia and has underlined the need for extreme caution when considering legalisation of cannabis use.

Led by Danish researchers, this was a large study of over 60,000 participants diagnosed with cannabis use disorder using data from a population of almost seven million. Cannabis use disorder occurs when a person’ s use of cannabis cannot be controlled and withdrawal effects are experienced if they stop using it. This study found that as many as 15% of cases of schizophrenia in young men may be preventable by avoiding cannabis, with young men being more at risk than young women.

The researchers commented that legalisation of cannabis use sends the wrong message that cannabis is harmless. Dr Carsten Hjorthøj, the study’s lead, said, “This study adds to our growing understanding that cannabis use is not harmless”.

In recent years there has been a growing movement in jurisdictions around the world to legalise the use of cannabis but the evidence of a connection between cannabis and schizophrenia has been growing. These changes in laws have led to cannabis becoming one of the most frequently used psychoactive drugs. Schizophrenia is a cruel, life-changing (and often life-threatening) condition. Legislators must be made aware that legalisation of cannabis will have real and tangible human costs. And sufferers of schizophrenia and their carers should know that cannabis use will make their symptoms worse.

There is more about schizophrenia and drug use in the Living with Schizophrenia website at. https://livingwithschizophreniauk.org/information-sheets/schizophrenia-and-street-drugs/

Contact us on email at: [email protected]

(Image: Pe3K on Shutterstock)

31/03/2026

March sees the anniversary of the birth of Vaslav Nijinsky, the great ballet dancer who some experts believe to be the greatest male dancer of all time. Despite a meteoric early career he was, during his early life, struck down by the serious mental illness that we now know of as schizophrenia and which prevented him from fulfilling his true potential.

Vaslav Nijinsky was born 12th March 1889 in St Petersburg, the son of two Polish dancers and studied dance at the Imperial Ballet School where his exceptional skills were soon evident. By the age of 18 he was already dancing with the likes of Anna Pavlova at the Mariinsky Theatre. Later he joined the Ballet Ruse, a new company formed by Russian impresario Sergei Diagelev in Paris.

By 1917 the first signs of the mental storms that were to end his career were beginning to show through and in 1919 Nijinsky was diagnosed with the newly-described condition called schizophrenia and committed to an asylum. In the absence of any effective treatments, over the next 30 years or so he was to suffer repeated episodes of his illness and was confined on a number of occasions. Despite treatment by the foremost psychiatrists of the time he rarely danced professionally again after the first episode of illness.

It is a tragedy that this great dancer, who some described during his short career as the eighth wonder of the world, died before the development of the new antipsychotic medicines that today enable so many people with schizophrenia to live fulfilling lives. You can read more about Nijinsky’s struggle with schizophrenia on the Living with Schizophrenia website at https://livingwithschizophreniauk.org/nijinsky/.

(Image: Jean-Pierre Dalbera on Wikimedia Commons, creative commons attribution)

Contact us on email at: [email protected]

20/03/2026

First World War poet and composer Ivor Gurney who suffered with hearing voices probably lived with schizophrenia.

Hearing voices, or auditory hallucinations as psychiatrists call them, is a common experience for people living with schizophrenia. In fact, it is so common that it is considered to be one of the principal indicators when doctors are considering a diagnosis. Voices are often one of the most difficult experiences to cope with and sometimes they can lead to dangerous behaviour. They remain one of the biggest issues for people with schizophrenia and should be taken very seriously by doctors, patients and carers alike.

What is it like to hear voices?
To the voice hearer, the voices coming from inside them are very real and are often indistinguishable from real people’s voices. Sometimes the person may hear voices of people that they recognise, e.g. relatives or friends. For other people the voices may have no distinct personality, being just a non-descript voice with no discernible accent.

The experience of voice hearing should not be confused with the normal inner voice that we all have in our minds when we are in good health. Voices caused by psychosis are profoundly different. They are as real as hearing a person in the same room speaking.

Why is voice hearing so significant?
One of the most important questions about voices is why are they so powerful? Why can voices make people think and do things that are irrational, bizarre or even dangerous, and why are they so successful in causing suffering? Well, part of the answer to that is that the voices know you intimately. Because they come from inside you, they have a perfect understanding of your whole psyche. They understand all of your strengths and weaknesses, all of your secret fears and hates. All of the things you most love and care about, and because they know you so well they can attack you where they know that you are most sensitive and where they can do the most damage.

Some people may experience voices that are benign or friendly but in schizophrenia the common experience is for voices that are malevolent and hostile.

Voice hearing is a very common experience for many people living with schizophrenia and is a very serious issue. It is vital to try to understand voices in order to cope better with them. You can read more about voices in schizophrenia on the Living with Schizophrenia website at https://livingwithschizophreniauk.org/information-sheets/understanding-voice-hearing/.

Contact us on email at: [email protected]

Image: Richard Hall, Ivor Gurney Estate/Gloucestershire Archives

18/02/2026

Preparing for Relapses

Like in any health problem, in schizophrenia relapses often tend to strike when you are least expecting them. When a health crisis occurs it often makes day-to-day living really difficult especially if you find that you are not able to get out of the house or if your emergency relapse plan requires you to stay at home for a while.

Of course, thinking about a relapse can be quite scary and naturally when we are well we don’t like to think about things going wrong but that is precisely the best time to make a few sensible precautions for when we are not able to function so well. Remember the old saying: we hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

It is vital to work out in advance how to spot the danger signs of an impending relapse and what steps you will take if the signs of a relapse begin to appear. Remember you may not be able to function well when it does happen and at that time may not be able to work out what to do. By knowing in advance what to do you will help reduce the risk of dangerousness and minimise the damage that the relapse will do to your life. When you start to put your relapse plan together you should discuss it with your doctor, community psychiatric nurse or social worker if you have one along with your carers and relatives.

There are four parts to a successful relapse plan:
Spotting the signs early.
Getting professional help quickly.
Seeking sanctuary.
Self help.

On the Living with Schizophrenia website we have a web page that gives a lot of hints and tips about how to prepare better for a relapse. It can be found at https://livingwithschizophreniauk.org/information-sheets/preparing-for-relapses/ . This page deals with some really useful precautions such as making an Advanced Statement or Power of Attorney, the Medicalert scheme, and developing support networks etc.

Relapse planning is a vital skill for all those living with schizophrenia, both sufferers and their families. Good relapse planning can help reduce the impact of future episodes of schizophrenia and help to speed up recovery later on.

Contact us on email at: [email protected]

05/02/2026

One of the most enduring myths that has grown up since the old asylums were closed and the policy of care in the community was introduced is that people with schizophrenia cannot be trusted to organise taking their medication.

It is simply not true that people with mental health conditions are not very good at taking their medication. Studies have shown that compliance with medication is no worse in mental health conditions like schizophrenia than it is in long term physical ailments such as asthma or high blood pressure. In fact, demographic factors such as whether you are single or in a relationship are more likely to play a role in the way that you adhere to your medicine regime.

Remembering to take antipsychotic medicines is a vital part of staying well in schizophrenia and of a successful recovery strategy. However, organizing medication does not come naturally to many people and is another one of those skills that people living with schizophrenia need to learn as part of an effective recovery strategy.

For many people living with schizophrenia the job of organising the taking of their medicines is left to the patient. Our web page called Managing Your Medication at https://livingwithschizophreniauk.org/information-sheets/managing-your-medication/ contains a lot of information and tips which will help you to do this. It covers aspects like remembering to take medication, what to do when collecting medicines, keeping an emergency reserve of medicines and checking your prescriptions are correct amongst other things.

In all long-term health conditions managing medication is a key activity and schizophrenia is no different. Good management of medicines can greatly improve prospects for recovery and quality of life for all those people living with schizophrenia.

Contact us on email at: [email protected]

27/01/2026

It has long been known that people with schizophrenia in particular and serious mental illness (SMI) in general will die at a much younger age than their colleagues in the general population and deaths from cancer form a large part of this disparity. Although people with serious mental illness are no more likely to suffer from cancer they are more likely to die prematurely from it according to recently published research carried out by the British government agency, Public Health England.

Further research published recently on the Medscape platform has found that people with schizophrenia are less likely to participate in one of the government’s cancer screening programmes. This study looked at participation by people with serious mental illness in three UK government cancer screening programmes: bowel, breast and cervical cancers. And in all three of those programmes participation was lowest in those people with schizophrenia.

The study concludes that much more research is needed to understand why people with serious mental ill health are less likely to participate in cancer screening programmes and specific action is needed to support people with schizophrenia. This study, which was a large study using data from over one million people, was published in the British Journal of Cancer and was commissioned by the National Health Service of England.

It has long been known that people with schizophrenia are more likely to die prematurely from physical health conditions like cancer. This research demonstrates that much greater awareness of the cancer risk is necessary amongst sufferers, carers and professionals alike who could all play their part in reducing this tragedy. Some cancer screening programmes are provided in the UK by the NHS free of charge and in most cases the procedures are quick and painless. We must all ensure that we make the fullest possible use of them.

For references to this piece go to https://livingwithschizophreniauk.org/schizophrenia-and-cancer/

Contact us on email at: [email protected]

15/01/2026

A recent study from Japan has confirmed that people suffering with schizophrenia are at a much-increased risk of suffering with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) such as heart problems or stroke. The new research, which featured in an article by Pauline Anderson on the Medscape platform, studied over four million patient’s records in Japan. The report recommends that health care providers build routine screening for CVD into their health care practice for patients with schizophrenia.

In the UK the main provider of health care services is the government-run National Health Service. But standards of health care practice are set by an organisation called the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Current NICE guidance is that people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or psychotic illness should be offered a comprehensive physical health screen at least annually to monitor for conditions like CVD, diabetes and obesity and in practice this is usually provided by either the patient’s own GP (family doctor) practice or directly by the Community Mental Health Team.

Where annual physical health screening cannot be obtained from the local NHS organisation then it can be accessed through one of the large national private health care providers such as the Nuffield Hospital or BUPA. Costs of these services will need to be picked up by the patient and range from £259 up to £900 depending on the type of screening chosen. If the cost is prohibitive then patients can try applying for Personal Independence Payment which is a state benefit available to people with long-term health conditions who need help with their health care arrangements.

Contact us on email at: [email protected]

Address

LWS (UK) C. I. C. Office 9, Dalton House, 60 Windsor Avenue
London
SW192RR

Website

https://livingwithschizophreniauk.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Living with Schizophrenia posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Want your business to be the top-listed Health & Beauty Business in London?