Anne Deveson > Quotes

“People with schizophrenia will often use metaphor and symbols to describe their inner states, but because they have lost their sense of boundary, they are unable to distinguish their inner from their outer worlds, and metahpor becomes reality.”
― Anne Deveson , Tell Me I'm Here: One Family's Experience of Schizophrenia

“Yet we know enough about schizophrenia now to understand that it is a physical malfunctioning of the brain, in which genetics, chemistry and environment interact in fathomless permutations. We know that schizophrenia is an illness; it is nobody's fault; it could happen to any one of us, or to those we love.”
― Anne Deveson, Tell Me I'm Here: One Family's Experience of Schizophrenia

“With schizophrenia, we know that we are dealing with a range of disorders of varying severity which arise from a mosaic of one or more factors – genetic, biochemical, neurological – interacting in complex ways with the person's environment and personality.”
― Anne Deveson, Tell Me I'm Here: One Family's Experience of Schizophrenia

“Mosher said, 'Treat people as normal, like them, be warm and friendly, and they will have much more chance of getting better than if you treat them as sick and keep as far away from them as possible'.”
― Anne Deveson, Tell Me I'm Here: One Family's Experience of Schizophrenia

“The party was good, and Jonathan made immense efforts to belong. I don't think I had realised till them how difficult such occasions were for him. You could see him straining to find the right phrase and, when he found it, he would blurt it out as if he were an actor who was not yet familiar with his lines. People with schizophrenia have to make herculean efforts to stay our side of the line.”
― Anne Deveson, Tell Me I'm Here: One Family's Experience of Schizophrenia

“As long as schizophrenia is treated like some evil and frightening nemesis, not as just an illness, we shall continue to spurn those who are afflicted, and to abandon their families.”
― Anne Deveson, Tell Me I'm Here: One Family's Experience of Schizophrenia

“Yet he would always know what was happening, no matter how crazy he appeared. He would register fear and humiliation – his or others' – and love and anger. He remembered it all.”
― Anne Deveson, Tell Me I'm Here: One Family's Experience of Schizophrenia

“We do not set limits when someone is sick, and we 'do' things for sick people instead of encouraging them also to take responsibility for themselves.”
― Anne Deveson, Tell Me I'm Here: One Family's Experience of Schizophrenia

“If we keep telling people they need help, they will stay helpless. It must also have been profoundly demoralising for him to have conversation always focused on fixing up his illness.”
― Anne Deveson, Tell Me I'm Here: One Family's Experience of Schizophrenia