I read an article titled “A Woman with Schizophrenia Told Us What It’s Really Like to Live with Incurable Hallucinations” by Thomas Rueters at ( http://finance.yahoo.com/news/woman-schizophrenia-told-us-really-171500829.html) if your so inclined to follow the link which offered the perspective of someone diagnosed with schizophrenia who has visual hallucinations.

My mother had audio and visual hallucinations that her medication seemed to curtail but never really completely obliterated. If I had thought about it when she was alive, I would have asked, “What do the hallucinations look like?” & “What exactly are the voices saying to you?” She was paranoid because of the voices. We all, i.e. family were plotting against her was a common refrain. So far, what I have read and/or witnessed about hallucinations of various kinds is that they tend to be negative. I have always wondered why they never offer anything positive. But then, wouldn’t that be assuming that the voices are an external force?

What Star Withers, (one of the subjects) in the article concluded was that it is possible to have a life despite being diagnosed with a mental illness and that others like her need to know that. Withers still hears/sees her hallucinations but they don’t rule her life because sometimes, medication does not alleviate all of the symptoms. I always assumed that they did or maybe I relied solely on what the psychiatrists told me about Ruby’s medication. Every day, something new is presented about schizophrenia and I wish that my mother could have benefited from it. That’s one of the reasons why we really need to listen to our loved ones in regards to how their treatment is going. If the medications cannot or do not alleviate all of the symptoms, then we need to hear about those who have learned to live their lives despite being diagnosed with a serious mental illness.