 Hello, everyone. My name is Michelle Rivas and I'm the host of Ask an Advocate, which is a series on Psych2Go that's dedicated to spreading mental health awareness and promoting mental health access. I'm extremely excited today to introduce our guest, Lauren Kennedy, from Living Well with Schizophrenia. It's a YouTube channel. She has tons of subscribers and is doing amazing work. Lauren is a mental health advocate who's passionate about spreading awareness and compassion around schizophrenia. Lauren earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in social development studies and a Bachelor of Social Work. Lauren was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorders, so she offers a unique perspective stemming from her own lived experiences and her time as a social worker. Today we're going to be discussing the stigma around schizophrenia and the importance of fighting these harmful stereotypes and problematic narratives. We're also going to be touching on mental health awareness, access, and debunking the myths about schizophrenia. So let's start the stream by debunking and discussing the different types of problematic myths that are perpetuated about schizophrenia. In a survey, and I wanted to start out with this because I think that it's really important, in a survey conducted by the National Alliance of Mental Illness, they found that 64% of the American population still believes that people diagnosed with schizophrenia have two or more separate personalities, which simply isn't the case. So I just wanted to know, Lauren, what are the common myths about schizophrenia and how has it affected you personally? Sure. So I think probably the most common myth about schizophrenia is what you just mentioned, where people assume that it's multiple personalities, and that's just not the case. That's actually a whole different mental health disorder called dissociative identity disorder, where someone has dissociative symptoms where they have multiple personalities. But schizophrenia is not that at all. It's very, very different. And so that is one really, really common myth associated with it. I think another really common one is that people who are living with schizophrenia are dangerous or violent in nature. And that really is not the case. It's not a symptom of schizophrenia to be violent. I think the rate of violence in people who are living with schizophrenia is 1%, which is actually the exact same as the general population. So there's no difference between people who are living with schizophrenia and the general population in terms of violence. Actually, you know, it's important to note that probably people with schizophrenia are oftentimes more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators. And so that's kind of a harmful stereotype as well. Some other ones include that schizophrenia only involves hallucinations or delusions. I think that that's kind of people's baseline understanding of what schizophrenia is. But there's a lot more to it than that. There's actually two, actually three different kinds of symptoms. There's positive symptoms, which include things like hallucinations and delusions and paranoia and that sort of thing. And then there's also negative symptoms and cognitive symptoms that kind of go a little bit more unaddressed or not talked about as much. And these negative symptoms include things like blunted affect or reduced motivation or, you know, things that almost sort of look like depression. Sometimes they are a little different, but there's a lot more to schizophrenia than people generally understand. No, I totally agree with you. And how do you feel like these myths have impacted your life? I think that it's made me really fearful of sharing my diagnosis with people because people have these misrepresentations in their mind about what it means to live with schizophrenia. And, you know, like another one is that people believe that people with schizophrenia can't be treated or worse that they can't be, you know, living normal lives out in the community with everyone else. And so I think that's a particularly harmful one for me anyway, that I've experienced where people are kind of surprised that I'm living my life the way I am and, you know, finding meaning and purpose and fulfillment from my life. I think that's surprising, unfortunately, to some people. Yeah. And what do you feel like is the influence of problematic narratives in the media about schizophrenia and how do they perpetuate the stigma and the discrimination against people with schizophrenia? Yeah, I think a lot of what we're fed about schizophrenia in popular culture and media and stuff is kind of the stigmatized depictions of schizophrenia. You know, the first thing that comes to mind is shows like criminal minds where there is a serial killer who has schizophrenia. And that's kind of the story arc that we're given in popular culture. And obviously, that's incredibly harmful because that's really not a very nuanced or accurate even depiction of most people's experience living with and managing a illness like schizophrenia. And I feel like honestly, these problematic narratives like really invalidate individuals and they trigger even more symptoms and honestly exacerbate the issue. And so in what ways do you feel like these narratives trigger other symptoms and individuals with schizophrenia, such as maybe anxiety and depression? Yeah, I don't know if they necessarily trigger depression and anxiety per se. But I think that's something important to talk about in relation to how these narratives impact people is it really perpetuates self stigma and internalized stigma, which is basically when you take the messages you're being fed from society about misconceptions about what it means to live with an illness like schizophrenia and you start to believe them yourself and you start to feel shame or stigma, essentially self stigma, internalized stigma around these messages you were receiving from society. No, I totally agree with that. And in what ways do you feel like our society discriminates against people who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia? Like how do you feel like they stigmatize them? And how does it affect them? Yeah, I don't think anyone sets out to like discriminate against people with schizophrenia. It's a lot more an issue of all the things we've been talking about these misconceptions and myths that society in general holds about people who are living with schizophrenia. And so that stigma and these misinformed ideas about what it means to live with schizophrenia negatively impact people who are living with schizophrenia. You know, I have been pushed out of jobs before because people found out about my diagnosis and didn't really know how to support me or what to do about it. And so it was easier to just kind of push me out. And I think that is what shows up a lot is just this lack of education around what it means to live with schizophrenia and then leading to people just kind of not wanting to even go there, not wanting to deal with it, which essentially ends up being discrimination against people who are living with schizophrenia. Exactly. And you mentioned that, like, sometimes there's a lack of education and the people around you may not know like what to do. So how do you feel that family members and, you know, romantic partners and friends can best support someone who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and approach it in a way that's like non judgmental? Yeah, I think being as open as possible to learning as much as you can about the illness, and that both means, you know, doing research about what exactly the illness entails. But I think more importantly, trying to learn from your loved one about what their experience of the illness is, and trying to really kind of sit with them through their experience of it and to get a better understanding of how to empathize and how to support them through it. And like when you were starting out and you had like been first diagnosed about schizophrenia, I know you go into detail about your journey on your YouTube page. And I'm just wondering, what has helped you navigate through that? And like what resources have you used in that you would recommend to others where maybe dealing with the issue, especially people who have been diagnosed, like newly? So what has helped me kind of learn how to navigate my illness? Yeah. And like over time has helped. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that something that has been super, super pivotal for me in terms of learning how to manage my illness in a way that feels good for me, has been around working on self acceptance. And, you know, that definitely plays into what we're talking about today about navigating managing stigma and that internalized stigma that I was talking about and kind of reading through that to work on. I don't want to say coming to a place because there's no real end destination of self acceptance. It's kind of an ongoing process throughout your entire life and your entire journey with mental illness, but working on engaging in that process of coming to a place of self acceptance for yourself is really, really important. And I think that's probably been the most important component of me figuring out how to manage my illness. And then of course, you know, obviously, more tangible things like learning what medication and treatment and what tangible things help me to live well. But the self acceptance component has really been a groundwork, I guess, that needed to be laid to figure out everything else. And honestly, like touching on stereotypes again, in some ways, the media does perpetuate these problematic narratives, but I also think the media can actually help with the issue if they transform sort of like their narratives, like they can actually make a positive impact. And so in your opinion, what can the media do to actually help empower individuals with schizophrenia and sort of dismantle those problematic narratives? Yeah, I think there's so much room to create more nuanced depictions of people who are living with schizophrenia. There's one show that I actually really liked in terms of this. And it was a show called Maniac. It was with Emma Stone and Jonah Hill, I think. And it just did a really wonderful job of creating a complex character who was dealing with schizophrenia, but who didn't fall into these common tropes that we see in media of being violent, being, you know, kind of just unhinged or whatever. It didn't fall into that. It really, it really did justice to the experience of living with schizophrenia, and also to the rest of his character as well, because I think that's something really important to understand is that people who are living with schizophrenia are people, you know, just like anyone else. And I think that's really important to remember that there's so much more to someone than just managing an illness like schizophrenia. And I like that you mentioned that people with schizophrenia are just like people like everyone else. And it shouldn't be something that's just more widely accepted. And so I'm wondering, honestly, if you were to like really think about it when it comes to individuals dealing with schizophrenia, why do you feel like advocacy is important? Yeah, I think advocacy is important for, you know, any mental illness, but I think especially for illnesses like schizophrenia that are really still a lot more stigmatized in general society. I think we've come a really long way in terms of talking more about things like depression and anxiety, which is wonderful. But there is still so much kind of misunderstanding and lack of education and awareness around illnesses like schizophrenia or like dissociative identity disorder, or, you know, those more stigmatized illnesses like that. And so I think that advocacy and kind of showing what it means to actually live with the illness and sharing that more and providing that education is really, really important. And I just wanted to know, why do you feel like individuals might like discriminate or not necessarily discriminate, but have misconceptions about individuals with schizophrenia? Like where do you think that comes from? Yeah, I don't really know why we have this narrative within society that's kind of misguided in terms of what schizophrenia is. I think that, you know, what we've been talking about, about depictions in the media has definitely played a role in terms of our understanding or collective understanding of schizophrenia. And so, yeah, unfortunately, it is what it is. There is a misunderstanding of schizophrenia within society. And so I think that a lot more work needs to be done to better educate ourselves about what it actually means. And I know that a lot of individuals struggling with schizophrenia, and I've heard this time and time again, have sometimes trouble accessing mental health resources, accessing therapists and, you know, medications and everything that they need. Why do you think that it can be very difficult for individuals to be diagnosed with schizophrenia and get the help that they need? Yeah, I mean, I think that's a really huge, broader discussion about the state of mental health care and where we're at in terms of that. And it is an unfortunate reality that a lot of people who are struggling with psychotics and gyms or other mental illnesses as well are not being able to access adequate care. And some of that also has to do with an individual's capacity at any given time to advocate for themselves. Unfortunately, the way our system is set up, it does require, you know, a fairly high degree of being able to advocate for yourself or having someone who can advocate for you in order to access proper care. And so sometimes that really is a barrier for people who are struggling with schizophrenia symptoms to properly access care. And so if someone is maybe they're thinking that they might have schizophrenia or family members might assume that they have schizophrenia, what are some good steps in the right direction that they should take if they feel like they might have it? What can they do to sort of like handle the situation? Yeah, so the absolute number one thing you should do if you have any, you know, feelings that you might be dealing with an illness schizophrenia is to talk with your doctor about it. They will be the best person to kind of talk to you about your concerns and to figure out kind of where to go from there and they can connect you with further resources if you need, whether that's a therapist, just a psychiatrist, and they can just kind of be a good springboard to figure out where to go in terms of figuring out what's going on with you, what the things that what's happening with the things that you're concerned about. I think that this next topic is a really important one to touch on. How do you feel like schools like high schools, your diversity colleges can support students who might be dealing with schizophrenia? Like what resources can they provide? Yeah, that's a great question because I think that that is something that I have struggled with is kind of falling through the cracks in the university setting. And I think that's something that a lot of people who are navigating illnesses like schizophrenia deal with as well. I'm not super sure what the answer is in terms of what they can provide. But I mean, accommodations, if you are dealing with an illness like schizophrenia, don't be afraid to go to accessibility services or whatever it's called at your school and talk about ways that you can access accommodations to help you help you succeed in school because the reality is that you have different needs than a regular neurotypical student. And so it's I think this is something that I grappled with for a long time is feeling that I was kind of cheating by getting accommodations or, you know, that I was getting preferential treatment. But that's not the case. Accommodations are available to kind of even the playing field and to kind of get you to a place where you are able to succeed while still doing all the same work as your peers and still putting in the same effort. But yeah, don't be afraid to go and figure out accommodations with your school. So now I'm going to start the audience questions. So the first one I have here is Lauren, how do you deal with discrimination at work? Yeah, that's a really tricky one. And you know, I have a lot of videos on our YouTube channel talking more about this issue because it is kind of a complicated one. And I think it does vary from situation to situation, whether you feel safe disclosing at your work or not, or if you think that that's going to cross bigger issues. And so dealing with discrimination at work, I think again, the self advocacy component comes into place as much as possible work on sharing, you know, what your needs are with your employer and what you are thinking is feeling unfair. If you do feel like you've been wrongfully terminated or pushed out of a job, you do kind of have legal rights oftentimes. And I don't know the logistics about that, but don't be afraid to seek out legal help if you do feel that you've been wrongfully discriminated in the workplace. Thank you. And then the next question is by Carmen, how do you open up with family members about your schizophrenia, especially if you've just been diagnosed? Yeah, so that can feel like a really scary thing for, you know, a lot of the reasons that we've been talking about today around stigma and internalized stigma and all that stuff. I think that a really good kind of way to connect with your family is trying to be leaning into vulnerability with them. If it feels safe, if you feel that you're going to be met with support from your family, trying to be as open with them as possible so that they can learn from you and better understand what your experience is like. Now, that said, there are going to be some situations where you will be met with lack of support. And that's unfortunate, but try to find people in your life who you do feel comfortable opening up to because having that level of support and understanding can be extremely beneficial. And then Max asked, Lauren, how do you deal with the people around you if they can accept the fact that you have a schizophrenia diagnosis and they're treating you differently due to it? OK, so I mean, you need to have a bigger conversation with the person about what exactly they're not accepting or why they're treating you differently. But kind of the same thing I just mentioned about trying to be as open and vulnerable as possible in terms of educating them on your experience and sharing with them your experience. At the end of the day, if they just don't accept that and they're not going to support you, I think you need to kind of ask yourself if that's someone someone you want to keep in your life. But, you know, again, figuring out people in your life who are going to be able to be supportive, presences and accept you for who you are, I think is probably the most important thing. Thank you. And I'm trying to check if there's more audience questions. So one question is, how do you deal with if you have a schizophrenia diagnosis, how do you deal with internalized feelings of self-hatred and how do you navigate that so that you can get to a place where you feel self-acceptance? Yeah, so this is a tricky thing to like talk about how to actually work on self-acceptance. It's a big topic and it's a difficult thing to work on, you know, navigating all the internalized shame and stigma and whatnot. I think that a good place to start is learning about your illness. I think that that's something that really helped me in terms of creating our YouTube channel was I dove really deep into what schizophrenia is, what it means for me, what my experience is. And I really, you know, got acquainted with that and I really kind of educated myself on what schizophrenia is, what my experience has been. And I've kind of worked on coming to a place of accepting what that means for my life, what kind of changes I've had to almost mourn from before diagnosis and working on accepting that and accepting me as a complicated nuanced person who also lives with an illness like schizophrenia and maybe working less on conflating my identity with having schizophrenia. And then we just got a question, Lauren, how do you deal with with or when you have hallucinations? Yeah, so I have them less often because I my medications do a really good job of managing them. I do have breakthrough symptoms every now and then, but they're not super distressing. And so I'm kind of able to just either ignore or talk with my partner about them. I think I find that really helpful to vocalize when I'm experiencing something or or just ignore it or tune it out with music or distraction of some kind. Distraction really helps me and moving my body is also something that really helps me. I love to run. And when I'm dealing with a lot of symptoms, running can be a really helpful thing for me. And so just figuring out what what feels good for you and what helps soothe you and kind of reground you within reality is really helpful. Thank you. And I agree running is great medicine and it helps you. And it actually increases like the certain hormones in your brain that they increase the motivation and stuff like that. So I definitely agree with that. And Tim asked, my brother has this condition and he's no longer on medication. He seemed to be the same one. I saw him. Is there like anxiety linked with it? Does everyone need to stay medicated? I think that's a really, really personal question to figure out with your doctor or with your brother's doctor. I know some people who have schizophrenia who are able to manage it completely off medication. And that's really wonderful if they're able to live in a way that they want to live while off medication. For me, that hasn't been possible yet. I have needed to stay on medication, but I think that's navigating how to come off medication or how to how to balance that is really important to navigate with your psychiatrist. Another question is, how do you deal with feelings like you are burdening others such as family and friends by needing a bit more support? This is actually a question that's come up a lot. So, yeah. Yeah, I really empathize with that because I know I know how that feels feeling like you're a burden on other people feeling like, you know, it's all about supporting you. And I know that that can be a really difficult thing to navigate. I think what's really important to remember is that it's OK. It's OK to need a little bit of extra support. It's OK to need to lean on your loved ones. And I can almost guarantee that they want to be able to provide that support for you. And, you know, in any relationship, there is a degree of reciprocity and reciprocal nature. And I'm sure that there are ways in which you provide support for them. It may not look the same as the support they give to you, but there are ways that you can kind of return that support and reciprocate as well. And that kind of just helps me anyway to feel a little bit less of a burden and feel like I'm giving something as well. But it's really important to remember that it's OK to need extra support. Thank you. And Mike asked, why how would you deal with a friend who is turning to drinks and drugs to deal with their schizophrenia and what is the effect? Yeah, self-medicating can be a really big problem, I think, particularly with people who are living with schizophrenia. It's a really hard illness to manage. And so, you know, self-medicating can be a really enticing thing to turn to. And I would encourage you to encourage them, I guess, to speak with their doctor about it or a therapist or someone who can maybe help them figure out how they want to cope if maybe it doesn't involve self-medicating and maybe figuring out more healthy or sustainable coping mechanisms and coping strategies. I mean, I had a question and this is one I had listed. How do you increase empathy and compassion in our society around individuals who have schizophrenia and just mental illness in general? Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the thesis of my YouTube channel is trying to increase empathy and compassion in the general population of four people who are living with illnesses like schizophrenia. And I think that the way to make that happen or to go about that is, again, leaning into vulnerability and sharing openly about what it actually means to live with the illness and sharing, you know, so that people can see that people who are living with illnesses like schizophrenia, again, are first and foremost people. They're nuanced, complicated people. And I think once you view it through that lens, it is a lot easier to empathize with someone in terms of schizophrenia being a challenge that they face rather than being what they literally are. It's a part of them that doesn't define them, right? Yeah, yeah. And then someone asked, is there any at home remedies that will help with dealing with hallucinations or paranoia? Not that I know of, you know, I have my own coping strategies. I don't know of necessarily home remedies. I think that, you know, if you're looking for that kind of thing again, that's really important to discuss with your doctor. They would be able to better guide you in that sense. Lauren, could you share some of your own coping strategies that have helped you deal with the illness? Yeah, so I think actually a really big one that probably doesn't go talked about enough is creating social connections. I think that that has really helped me to figure out how to positively manage my illness. But then also things like exercise, nutrition, sleep. Sleep is a really, really big one for me, making sure that I get enough sleep and kind of regularly scheduled sleep has been really important in managing my illness. But yeah, like I mentioned, running exercise is really important for me, too. Yeah, those are kind of the pillars, I guess, of how I manage my illness. Another person asks, how do you balance wanting to do better in life with balancing, giving yourself grace? I guess what they're probably trying to say is how are you kind to yourself in midst of like being newly diagnosed? Sure, something that helped me early on was to think of whatever I was facing as being something that someone else in my life was facing. And how would I? How would I treat that person? And rarely, if actually never, was it harshly or from a place of judgment or, you know, criticism? It was always with grace and compassion. And so, you know, when you realize that that's what you would give to someone else, I hope that it makes it easier to be like, well, I should give that to myself, too. You know, I'm worthy and I deserve a little bit of extra grace and compassion and empathy from myself, too. And another question is, should schools increase education about mental illness? Should that be incorporated in our school system? Because I feel like that's a part of advocacy is educating people on it. Like if we don't have, in my opinion, if we had like a system of mandatory education on mental illness, then I think it would decrease that stigmatization. And what's your opinion on that? Yeah, I agree. I think that there is absolutely no harm in having more education, especially at an earlier level where, you know, early intervention is really important, especially with psychotic illnesses. Early intervention is talked about a lot as being a really important thing. And so if we can provide increased education to a population who's perhaps at increased risk of experiencing the first episode of psychosis or other mental illnesses, there's absolutely tremendous benefit in that. And then another question is, Lauren, what would be the best way to interact and or approach someone with schizophrenia aside from normal or everyday life? Like what's the challenge of interacting with someone with with it and how to understand them? I think I'm just going to bring it back to, again, understanding that that person is a person. First and foremost, and so to really kind of try to treat them as you would anyone else. I'm thinking maybe you're talking about more if they're actively experiencing delusions or whatnot, in which case the way you would talk to them differently, I guess, is to just try to validate how they're feeling. I think that that's a really important place to focus on is how they're feeling, because oftentimes if you're experiencing a delusion, it can be confusing. It can be scary. And it's hard to ground yourself in reality. And so focusing on how they're feeling is a good place to start and not feeding into their delusions. So if they're like, the sky is purple right now, like the sky is purple, you can be like, OK, well, is that making you feel scared and focusing on how that makes them feel and then being like, well, that's not how I'm experiencing it. But I hear that's how you're experiencing it. So validating that without buying into it and without negating it as well, just saying that that's not how I'm experiencing it. But if someone is not, you know, struggling with a delusion or something like that or hallucination in the moment, talk to them the way you would anyone else. They are people. And yeah. Someone asked that I'm not sure. I'm not familiar with this organization, but someone asked, do you have any opinion on the Hearing Voices Organization? Are you familiar with it? I don't know much about them. I have heard a bit about them. So, you know, no, I don't know much about them. OK, let me I'm trying to find a few more questions. They're with me. Oh, a great question. How can work or schools create a community to help others dealing with mental illness in general? Like, how can we foster a supportive community on this issue? Yeah, I think kind of a lot of what we've been talking about already in terms of being open to educating yourself about things that other people are facing, whether it's your work colleagues, whether it's whoever it is, being open to learning from them and creating, you know, a supportive dynamic, I think is really the best way to go about it, kind of on an individual level in terms of like workplaces or schools creating communities creating community. I think there's lots of really great work being done around, you know, advocacy groups or support groups. And so I don't know, just keep going in that trajectory. I think also a really important component of increasing support for mental health in the workplace and in schools is working on bettering services available to people, accommodations and services available to students and employees. I agree. Michael asked, I have suffered from HPPD in the past. It's schizophrenia also inducing, shifting and breathing, or is it comparable to HPPD in general? I'm not sure what HPPD is. Yeah, sorry about that. I mean, I wasn't sure either. Yeah, I'll move on to the next question. Okay, so Jorge asked, what do you think about microdosing? Yeah, so I have a specific video on our YouTube channel about my experience with, I'm assuming microdosing mushrooms, is that? I'm not sure. Microdosing maybe, yeah. Well, we have a couple of videos one where I talk about my experience with mushrooms and it wasn't a positive experience. I wasn't microdosing. So I don't know personally about that. We do have a video though with Dr. Tracy Marks who also has a YouTube channel. She's a psychiatrist and she shares more about alternative treatments for schizophrenia. And so that might be something you wanna check out but there's not a lot known yet on microdosing. So I won't give any answer to that but it has been on my radar. So one of the commenters actually clarified their question about HPPD. They said that HPPD is basically drug induced psychosis. So that's what they were referring to. Okay, and so what was the question? Let me see. The question was, trying to find it. Okay, so I think this was actually, so they asked a question prior but I think this is what they're getting at. Can someone develop schizophrenia from psychedelics? So that I think that's what he was getting at with HPPD. Okay, I actually don't know the answer to that. I don't know. I know that someone can develop schizophrenia from marijuana usage. That can be a trigger for psychosis. So that is definitely something to look out for. It doesn't mean that if you smoke marijuana you're going to develop psychosis but if you have a predisposition for it it can be a trigger to the onset of psychosis. I'm not sure about psychedelics though. Would you, when it comes to like drug use and schizophrenia what are your thoughts on it and maybe your advice on that matter? Yeah, so honestly I have experimented somewhat with marijuana and like I said with mushrooms or psychedelics and it has been like I wouldn't advise it if you are dealing with an illness like schizophrenia because it does become very difficult to stay grounded in reality. And there are very real potential issues or pitfalls I guess with experimenting with substances that further alter your mind. And so it's not something that I would recommend if you are living with an illness like schizophrenia just because there already is that kind of difficulty with staying connected with reality at times. And so adding a substance that is kind of literally meant for that makes it hard and it has been difficult for me to kind of come out of episodes as a result of that. And again, like I said, marijuana usage can also trigger the onset of schizophrenia. So it's definitely something to be cautious with. I agree, Lauren. And also if you're going to try a substance you should probably at least let your doctor know because then they could give you advice on it. That is a great place to start. If you are curious about trying a substance talk with your doctor about it first. They're going to be able to provide you a lot better information on what the experience may be like or what to look out for or maybe why you shouldn't do it. Exactly. And I'm going to take two more questions. So this one is from Sue. What accommodations might be most helpful to use in public settings like a workplace, school or a doctor's office? Yeah. So a really helpful accommodation for me was shortening my work week. And so I was working nine to five Monday through Wednesday and taking a day in the middle like Wednesday off was really helpful or Friday or whatever works out with your workforce but figuring out how to reduce the prolonged stress I guess because ultimately the stress is what triggers symptoms. And so figuring out how to kind of mitigate that a little bit is really beneficial but that can look different for other people. That may not be helpful for some people but figuring out what accommodations will help you be able to manage your expectations at work or wherever it is at school and kind of going from there. And then this is the last question and I think this is a really good one because it just sort of touches on mental health and lifestyle. I was wondering if, so the question is I was wondering if you have any tips on managing money when your mental health gets bad? I find when my symptoms get bad I struggle with managing money as spending becomes a coping mechanism. Yeah, I've definitely struggled with that as well. Something that's helpful for me is learning this pattern of behavior like it sounds like you're doing and being aware of that which is a great first step. And that kind of placing in protective measures I guess to guard yourself from falling into that trap when you're in a period of unwellness. So for me that has looked like asking my partner before making any sort of purchases and just kind of having that sounding board before potentially overspending or whatever it may be it may look like setting limits on your credit card or your debit card or whatnot when you're struggling. So that you literally can't do that. Or it could just be asking someone for help navigating that when you're not well. But that is something that I think a lot of people do struggle with who have illnesses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder or sometimes even depression. Any mental illness this can be a symptom of. And so yeah, it's a great thing to be aware of and to ask for help with. So just touching on that my question would be so should you maybe like if you have certain unhealthy coping mechanisms should you let your support system know so that they can get involved? Is that something that can help you? Like if you know that you have like maybe an issue with spending, should you let your partner know or a friend know so that they can do something about it? Perhaps. I think that's really helpful. It depends on your comfort level of course with that person and with wanting to change your coping strategy. I've had maladaptive or negative coping strategies before where I haven't been in a place where I've wanted to change it yet. But if you do find yourself which poses its own sets of problems. So I guess working first on accepting that it's not the healthiest way to cope and working on figuring out better, more sustainable positive coping mechanisms. And you're right. What has been helpful for me in the past is particularly letting my partner know what I'm struggling with, what kind of coping mechanisms I'm leaning on and that I want help changing. And having that support can be really helpful. Okay, well that was the last question and thank you so much for joining me Lauren. The work you're doing is amazing, it's inspiring. And when I came across your channel, I knew that you were making a difference in the world. You are making a difference in the world. So thank you so much. If any of you are interested in schizophrenia resources and videos, please check out Lauren's YouTube channel. It's linked in the description and her website. Thank you all for joining me on Ask an Advocate and I hope you all have an amazing day. Thanks for having me. Of course.