Following is a good introductory video on schizophrenia and recovery developed by Dr. Xavier Amador, a professor of psychology at Columbia University in New York City.  Dr. Amador is also the founder of the Leap Institute, a group that focuses on improving relationships. Their tools are for use in any relationship, but also they provide the valuable assistance you may need to persuade someone in “denial” about mental illness to accept treatment and services. Dr. Amador has a brother who developed schizophrenia, and he is also author of the book “I’m not sick, I don’t need help” – a book about getting treatment help for people who don’t think they need it.  A link to that book is included at the bottom of this page, below the video.

This video is valuable because it explains many of the key aspects and challenges of the illness, and shows people overcoming them.  Some of the explanations are overly simplistic however.  At one point a person says that “schizophrenia is a chemical imbalance” which is a vast oversimplification at best. Most psychiatric researchers we talk to now describe schizophrenia as a neurodevelopmental disorder (something that begins in early brain development in the womb during pregnancy – probably due to nutritional deficiencies, stresses, and genetic predispositions.  This predisposition is then triggered later in life due to other factors like stress. You can learn at these links more about the schizophrenia causes (and schizophrenia prevention approaches).