Living with Schizophrenia

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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 condition 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.

20/11/2025

Schizophrenia and Debt

Debt is an unfortunate fact of life for many people living with schizophrenia. An episode of schizophrenia can make it very difficult if not impossible to manage your finances well. In fact in a recent survey by the Money Saving Expert website it was found that around 36% of people with mental health issues have severe or crisis debts compared to around 6% of the general population. This finding is important to people with schizophrenia because it shows us how vulnerable we are to debt problems if we let them get out of hand and also that it is possible to live a prudent lifestyle in which debt need not be the dominant feature that sadly it is for many.

When you are well it is vital to run your affairs well to avoid a legacy of debt and a poor credit record that may take years to overcome. In addition, debt is a major source of stress which needs to be avoided if you are to stay well in the future. It is however one that, with canny financial management, you can avoid.

If you have problem debts it is often helpful to get in touch with one of the non-profit debt advice agencies who can help you. Debt advice is a complex subject. We therefore recommend that you get advice from one of the specialist debt advice services such as Step Change or Citizens Advice and make enquiries with your local library about help available in your area:

No matter how bad your debt problems there is usually a way through them and you will come out the other side and want to make a fresh start. Our information sheet on staying out of debt (https://livingwithschizophreniauk.org/information-sheets/staying-out-of-debt/) has a lot of information about managing your finances prudently and in a way that won’t risk getting into debt again in the future.

There is more information about managing debt in our information sheet at https://livingwithschizophreniauk.org/information-sheets/dealing-with-existing-debts/.

Contact us on email at: info@livingwithschizophreniauk.org

04/11/2025

Mental Ill Health and Managing Your Money

Many people living with schizophrenia find it hard to run their finances successfully and sometimes end up in debt. Here are a few tips on how to manage your money better.

Learn how to budget and set aside a regular time each week to check your bank balance, pay outstanding bills and budget your spending for the following week.

Try to preserve your credit rating as, without a good credit score, you will not have access to the lowest cost banking facilities and credit will be more difficult to obtain and will inevitably cost more. Check your credit record at least once a year by requesting it from one of the credit reference agencies such as Equifax (https://www.equifax.co.uk/). This usually only costs a few pounds.

When budgeting try to keep a minimum balance of at least £100 in your bank account as a margin of safety. This may take a little practice but is achievable over time. Get used to treating that money as dead money. It will help prevent you from going overdrawn and attracting charges from the bank for unauthorised overdrafts so will pay for itself in the end.

Don’t have large credit limits on your credit cards. Keep your credit limits to just a bit more than you normally spend each month. There is no point in having excessive credit limits: they can lead to debt problems and will affect your credit rating.

Prioritise your spending giving top priority to any debts that threaten your liberty such as court fines and then next to bills associated with your home such as rent or mortgage, service charges and Council Tax. Next, come your work expenses such as travelling to work, meals etc. Then basic living costs such as electricity, gas, ‘phone, water and food. Make sure that you cover all of these expenses before spending on anything else.

It is a very good idea to keep some money for a rainy day. Save into a separate account on a regular basis so that you have a reserve of money to help meet any unexpected large bills.

Managing your finances is a vital skill that people living with schizophrenia need and sometimes lack. But like so many aspects of daily living, good financial management can be learnt with a bit of research and time.

Contact us on email at: info@livingwithschizophreniauk.org

15/10/2025

In the United Kingdom today treatment for schizophrenia focuses on medication in conjunction with talking therapies as being the principal route out of psychosis. However, for people living with schizophrenia, whilst psychosis remains a huge threat to their wellbeing, physical illnesses like cancers, heart disease, and diabetes are also now known to be a major cause of ill health and early death. Getting more exercise can help with this in a number of ways.

Clearly more physical exercise can help to combat the problem of weight gain which often results from a sedentary lifestyle and the side effects of some medicines but what is less well understood is that exercise in itself can help to reduce physical health problems like heart disease and diabetes even if you don’t manage to get your weight down at the same time.

But in addition to the benefits of exercise for physical health there is now some evidence, albeit limited, that exercise may have benefits for mental health symptoms as well. There have been a number of research studies both in the US and here in the United Kingdom that have suggested that exercise can help to improve the negative symptoms of schizophrenia such as apathy, lethargy and social withdrawal and the cognitive symptoms such as poor memory and thinking skills although at the moment the evidence for this is somewhat limited and more research is required.

It is vital that people with schizophrenia and their relatives are aware of the need to treat the whole person and getting more exercise can be an important part of a holistic wellness strategy that improves both body and mind.

Contact us on email at: info@livingwithschizophreniauk.org

01/10/2025

October sees the anniversary of the award of the Nobel prize to the US mathematician John Nash.

John Nash was one of the greatest thinkers in mathematics of the 20th Century. And, thanks to his biography: A Beautiful Mind, and the award-winning film of the same name he was also one of the best-known people with schizophrenia of that period.

Nash studied at Princeton University, USA where he was to do most of his pioneering work in mathematics. It was here at Princeton that Nash was to win his doctorate with his work on non-cooperative games, work which was later to win him the Nobel Memorial Prize. Later, around 1958, while teaching at Massachusetts Institute of Technology the first signs of Nash’s illness were to become apparent.

During his life Nash was the recipient of many other awards for his work in mathematics including the prestigious John Von Neumann Theory Prize in mathematics but perhaps he will be best remembered for the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences which he was awarded in 1994.

If Nash’s life was one full of surprises the manner of his death came as a great shock to all. On 23rd May 2015, following a visit to Norway where he was awarded the Abel Prize, Nash and his wife Alicia were killed when the taxi they were travelling in hit a crash barrier. Their deaths came as an enormous shock equally to all those working in the field of mental health as to those in academia. John Forbes Nash Junior was 86 at the time of his death.

Stories such as those of John Nash show us that, although life with schizophrenia can never be easy, it may be possible to win, in the end, a kind of victory. To achieve a life story; a narrative, that speaks of hope and achievement rather than of despair.

Contact us on email at: info@livingwithschizophreniauk.org

20/08/2025

About 70-80% of people with schizophrenia who take antipsychotic medication will experience an improvement in their positive symptoms; the delusions and hallucinations. This is about the same degree of effectiveness that antibiotics like penicillin have in treating infections such as pneumonia. However, there is a wide range of antipsychotics available to the doctors and some medicines will work better for some people than for others. In some cases antipsychotic medication can result in hallucinations and delusions disappearing altogether.

Furthermore, the beneficial humanitarian effect of the antipsychotic medicines should not be underestimated. Before the introduction of these medicines in the UK about 70% of people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia were continuously confined in mental hospitals often for years at a time: today it is only about five percent and the average length of stay in hospital is now measured in months.

It is often said that people with schizophrenia are not very good at taking their medicines: is that true? It is simply not the case 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 health conditions such as asthma or high blood pressure.

Antipsychotic medicines remain the mainstay of treatment for schizophrenia in the UK’s National Health Service and with very good reason. With diligent management by the mental health teams, antipsychotics work for most people suffering from what continues to be a very challenging and enigmatic condition.

Contact us on email at: info@livingwithschizophreniauk.org

06/08/2025

Recent reports coming out of Canada and the US in both the mainstream press and the academic literature have strongly indicated that people with schizophrenia are at an increased risk of death from heat-related illness during heat waves and other periods of excessive hot weather. And, with summer now upon us, people living with schizophrenia should be aware of this risk.

A study published on the Geo Health platform in 2023 found that, during the heat wave in British Columbia, Canada in 2021, people with schizophrenia were at much higher risk of death than at other times of more normal temperatures. According to the journal, Science, “overall more than 8% of those who died during the heat wave had a history of schizophrenia: up from 2.7% in the same week during a typical year”.

Why this should be so is complex: there are a number of factors. Schizophrenia can affect the part of the brain that regulates body temperature and some antipsychotic medicines can affect the way that the body regulates its temperature as well. In addition, schizophrenia often causes a condition called anosognosia which reduces the person’s awareness of their ill health. Conditions like diabetes and alcohol use, which often occur alongside schizophrenia, can also contribute to the risk from heat-related illness and social isolation and homelessness can make it more difficult for people with heat - related illness to get timely help.

Greater awareness of this risk is needed, particularly by community mental health teams and especially community psychiatric nurses who can check on patients with schizophrenia during periods of excessive hot weather and ensure that they have taken precautions. Carers and relatives can also play a part and should know how to cope with hot weather and what to do in case of heat-related illness. Sufferers of schizophrenia themselves should also be more aware of this risk and look at how they can take some simple precautions when the weather is too hot.

There is good advice on the Gov.UK website at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/heatwave-plan-for-england/beat-the-heat-staying-safe-in-hot-weather
on how to cope with periods of extreme hot weather and the National Health Service (NHS) and Red Cross websites cover what to do in case of a heat-related illness. (https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/heat-exhaustion-heatstroke/ )
(https://www.redcross.org.uk/first-aid/learn-first-aid/heat-exhaustion)

Contact us on email at: info@livingwithschizophreniauk.org

23/07/2025

A research team from the University of Manchester (Division of Pharmacy and Optometry) is inviting individuals with lived experience of mental illness, and their carers, to take part in a national study. They are particularly interested in hearing from people who have received care for their medicines from pharmacist prescribers in community settings (e.g. those who prescribed medication, changed dosages, or diagnosed a condition without a doctor’s approval).

This study aims to explore how patients and carers experience and perceive the care provided by pharmacist prescribers. Your insight will help the team understand how this role supports people with mental illness and how care might be improved in the future.

Participation involves a one-off interview (via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or phone), lasting about 45–60 minutes.

The team are looking for:
▪️Adults (18+) with mental illness or unpaid carers supporting someone with mental illness;

UK residents;
▪️Those fluent in English;
▪️People who have received care from a pharmacist prescriber in a community-based service (GPs, community pharmacy, specialised mental health services);
▪️People with access to a device with internet/microphone if joining online.

To learn more or ask questions, please contact: [bashayr.alsaeed@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk ]

Address

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

Website

https://livingwithschizophreniauk.org/

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