Instead, you can do things like be curious how they came to that conclusion, or about how they make sense of evidence that suggests a different conclusion. You can let them know you were thinking of it a different way, or ask them how they make sense of the fact that others seem to see it differently, if they are aware of that being the case.

This is really what we do with our peers who seem to have different conclusions about reality than we do. We think the game is Saturday, they think it is Friday: so we ask them how they came to that conclusion, we compare notes about our perspectives. Sometimes we have to agree to disagree for awhile when there is no quick resolution of different points of view.

One interesting thing is that people are more likely to take in contrary information when they are feeling good about themselves. So if we maintain a positive relationship with someone where they know we see positive things about them, they are more likely to be able to look at evidence they may be wrong about something. This goes for all people, not just those with “schizophrenia” or “psychosis!” For more on that, look at

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/05/09/152287372/partisan-psychology-why-are-people-partial-to-political-loyalties-over-facts?ps=cprs

one issue has perplexed me
somtimes a person with this condition may tell stories about another person or about the person they a re talking to, that are simply not true – even though they themselves belive them to be true

When confronted by these issues is it better to agree with the person
or tell them that this is not true even though this may make the situation worse

One possibility is that you posted here a long time ago, but that your comment was lost when the site crashed awhile ago. Thanks anyway for your kind remarks, and for sharing your recovery story – those stories are really important!

I thought I commented on here ages ago, but can’t find any trace of it, so maybe I didn’t after all. Just wanted to say that I think this is a brilliant blog – I have been pointing people to it for a long time. Thank you for providing this resource. Also, I wanted to add my voice to those of others reporting their recovery from ‘schizophrenia’ – it is good to read about so many of them on here. I have written a book about my recovery, ‘Surviving Schizophrenia: A Memoir’. I am not writing this post to sell books though – in fact, the book will be free this Saturday, so please help yourselves anyone who wants a copy.
All the best, Louise

Thanks for sharing that great story! I hope you consider sharing it, even without sharing anything that would identify yourself, at other places – for example you might consider sharing it at MindFreedom’s version of “it gets better” at http://www.mindfreedom.org/campaign/boycott-normal/life-after-labels

When I was a young guy, I heard voices only very briefly, but I had lots of weird perspectives and beliefs and “disordered thinking” that was also an attempt to transcend the limits of thinking, and like you, I knew that sharing my experiences with mental health professionals would not be a wise move! There should be a term for people in our category – we are not consumers or ex-consumers or survivors, since we never partook of the system, at least at the time of our real crisis. The best word that I’ve come up with so far is “escapees” which refers to the fact that we escaped from both the mental health system and our own crisis.

Paris Williams, the author of Rethinking Madness, who will be presenting a couple of webinars in mid May, is also an “escapee” in that he had his own fall into extreme experiences, from which he recovered without help from the system, and then he went on to become a psychologist fascinated with the possibility of recovery and with seeing the whole experience of madness differently.