Dealing with Stress and a Mental Illness Like Schizophrenia

Stress and mental illness is difficult to deal with for everyone, but possibly more so for those of us with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. For those of us who do live with these disorders, stress can escalate other schizoaffective disorder symptoms that increase anxiety. This is what it’s like to live with stress when you have schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

Schizophrenia and the Stress of Mental Illness

I’m stressed out by a lot of things right now. Maybe they’re not worth getting stressed out over – that’s what everyone tells me. But I have generalized anxiety disorder along with my schizoaffective disorder, and I basically get stressed out if I hear a pin drop. It’s summer, and heat waves always spike my anxiety. There’s a presidential election in November, and I am totally stressed out about that. Also, my family is heading to an annual vacation spot in a week. Even though I’m looking forward to the vacation, things like packing stress me out.

One of the scariest parts is that I hear voices when I get really stressed. That’s the schizophrenic part of my schizoaffective disorder reacting to stress. I know the voices aren’t real, and they don’t tell me to do anything, but as I’m sure you can understand, I would still rather not hear them. When I do hear voices from getting stressed out, I feel like it’s “my fault” for letting myself get so stressed out. That’s called internalized stigma or self-stigma. That means I turn the stigma surrounding mental illness inward, toward myself.

How I Cope with Stress on Top of Mental Illness

I’ve itemized things I can do to lessen my stress levels, but, unfortunately, I can’t seem to think of them when I’m really stressed out because of my schizoaffective disorder. I pull out my list. One thing that helps is doing a guided meditation. This is especially good when I wake up first thing in the morning. I recommend this to anyone living with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

Another very simple thing that helps is drinking water. There’s something very soothing about water – I like to take cool baths in the summer and hot baths in the winter. A little imagination makes the baths fun --I like to pretend I’m a mermaid when I take a bath. I know that sounds silly, but sometimes you have to allow yourself a little fun when you’re trying to de-stress. Also, sometimes, when I’m feeling particularly stressed out I’ll book an extra therapy session.

Those are just a few of the things I do to calm myself down when I’m feeling stressed out. Other people have said they like to read, do deep breathing, or do yoga to alleviate stress.

I hope this article helps others who have a mental illness that gets compounded under stress. At the very least, I hope it helps you to remember that you’re not alone. We’re in this together.

Photo by Elizabeth Caudy.

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