Eleanor Longden's Schizophrenia Case Study

Schizophrenia is a psychotic mental disorder marked by serious impairments in basic psychological functions- attention, perception, thought, emotion and behavior (Burke, Trost, de-Roon-Cassini & Bernstain , 2016, p. 130). Roughly 51 million people worldwide suffer from this mental illness (Burke, 2016, p. 144). Individuals with schizophrenia tend to hallucinate and misinterpret what is actually going on around them. In the case of Eleanor Longden, she explained what it was like to be diagnosed with schizophrenia and the social stigma that followed. She claims her schizophrenia was brought on by past discrimination, verbal abuse, physical and sexual abuse as a child, these would be considered psychosocial causes. Her story isn’t a story of defeat …show more content…
Just like we saw in Eleanor’s case when she stated a doctor said it would be better off if she had cancer because at least there is treatment for that. She feels like she was medicated and then just forgotten left to fend for herself. Eleanor shows us that recovery is possible though, she was able to learn to manage her voices and get a Ph.D in psychiatry. Research shows that after a 15 and 25 year checkup of 644 people living with schizophrenia over half of them were now living with favorable outcomes following the initial onset of their illness, these outcomes include minimal symptoms, higher levels of functioning and deployment (Burke, 2016, p.144). While schizophrenia isn’t as common as most would think, it is believed that at any point between 0.3 -1.0 percent of the population are suffering from schizophrenic symptoms (Burke, 2016, …show more content…
She was able to overcome the barriers and social stigmas that are associated with schizophrenia and is now advocating for mental health treatment. I think her story speaks volumes about our culture and how we associate individuals with mental illness as dangerous or deviant, when in reality they need help just like anyone else with a physical medical issue. The fact that she was able to get her voices under control and take her life back and get a Ph.D. in the very field that told her it would be better off if she had cancer, because at least there is treatment for that is amazing. Her story is truly inspirational and is a great tool for encouraging others with mental illness that there is hope for recovery or at least a somewhat “normal” life. She mentioned the outlook in the psychological field should be “not what’s wrong with you, but what’s happened to you”. I think that is a really profound and an important way to look at mental illnesses. It isn’t the patients fault they are having some type of difficulty with mental