My Schizophrenia Heroes: Elyn Saks and John Nash

When I was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2007, I was adamantly opposed to the diagnosis and convinced it was absolutely wrong. I thought I was too strong and too smart to ever have schizophrenia.

However, several weeks following my diagnosis, slowly, I began to see my need for medication, realizing that the prescribed medicine actually cleared my mind and changed my behavior. At that time, I resolved to learn as much about schizophrenia as I could, and I am always still learning.

The fundamental and important things I learned were that schizophrenia is a brain disorder (not an emotional problem or a sign of weakness) and that schizophrenia is actually treatable. Thanks to some very encouraging conversations with one of my first doctors, I decided that I wanted treatment as much as I wanted the renewed life I was told it would bring.

Ever since then, I have been medication adherent. Treatment adherence brought me to a level of wellness that enabled me to graduate from college magna cum laude. Ten years ago, I published my memoir, and I established a charitable foundation in 2016 with my former psychiatrist.

Looking back, it would have been hard to move forward in my life without role models who had once been profoundly psychotic but had still found the treatment they needed to thrive academically and personally. I remember finding helpful blogs written by a young man living in California who graduated with his physics degree despite schizophrenia, as well as essays by other obscure authors who were doing very well thanks to faithful adherence to treatment.

I am grateful that these young people choose to share their triumphs online. Their stories gave me hope for recovery. In my work today, I often connect with persons who are thriving despite schizophrenia, and share their recovery stories on my foundation’s website (1).

Of these exceptional people I have discovered over the years, there were two who inspired me the most. They helped me confirm my decision to stay on medication and served as the role models I needed while I recovered and prepared to return to college in 2009. I greatly admire University of Southern California Law Professor Elyn Saks and the late mathematician John Nash.

Elyn Saks

Elyn Saks has worked as a law professor at USC since 1989, against all odds. She graduated from Yale Law School, following multiple very severe psychotic breaks. Before law school, she attended Vanderbilt University, graduating summa cum laude and as valedictorian. However, in her memoir, she describes that early signs of schizophrenia significantly affected her as an undergraduate, and she often neglected her personal hygiene.

During a hospitalization that took place soon after the start of law school, her treatment team contacted Yale to confirm that she would not be returning to school (which would have been illegal, by some standards, today). Elyn Saks struggled to find a medication that would enable her to focus on her studies, as the first antipsychotic medication that helped her mind left her unable to read, or even walk normally.

In her memoir, Elyn Saks describes periodic psychotic episodes throughout the course of her life, even many years after becoming a professor at the University of Southern California. Today, she also holds an honorary Ph.D. for her successful research and advocacy over many years. I wish I could personally thank Professor Saks and let her know that her story allowed me to see that it was possible to thrive at a high level despite schizophrenia.

John Nash

John Nash was diagnosed with schizophrenia not long after the release of the very first antipsychotic medication in the world. Chlorpromazine (first released in France in 1952) was groundbreaking, but, unfortunately, came with many unwelcome side effects. Many people on the medication improved significantly but experienced involuntary movement disorders, sedation, a feeling of a mental “fog,” and other serious problems.

Like me, when John Nash was diagnosed with schizophrenia, he had no insight, believing that government officials were following him constantly and that he was a part of a complex conspiracy. But in his recovery, John Nash returned to his studies of mathematics. In 1994, he traveled to Norway to accept a Nobel Prize for groundbreaking mathematics work he had done in economics as a young man. Despite struggling with symptoms of schizophrenia for the rest of his life, he continued to remain a part of the elite mathematics community and make a contribution, until he passed away in 2015.

Psychosis Essential Reads

Who Relapses From Schizophrenia?

Cat Ownership and Schizophrenia: A New Perspective

In my opinion, John Nash serves as a beacon of hope to everyone living with schizophrenia. Despite schizophrenia, even the greatest ambitions are still possible.

Grateful for My Treatment

I am grateful to have been diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2007 when newer medications for psychosis were available. I struggled and suffered on my first antipsychotics, but I am certain that if I had taken the medications Elyn Saks and John Nash were mandated to take, my suffering would have been considerably worse.

And I am still deeply grateful to have found an antipsychotic that gives me a great life with very few side effects. I found this medication one year after I began searching for the best schizophrenia treatment tailored to me.

There is hope for schizophrenia. Even those of us who suffer the most can achieve the most unexpected and remarkable things. I have found that you never know what life may bring, but the foundational acceptance of treatment is the key to a recovered life and boundless purpose.