I’m tired of alleged “international experts” talking smack about people living with schizophrenia.

As early as 2007 when I first started to be employed at HealthCentral (nine years ago): I wanted to cheer people on and offer positive solutions for the challenges of living with this illness.

What good comes of a person talking smack about himself or others with schizophrenia?

I want to be given hope that I can live a happy life even with ongoing challenges. I want to read about people and hear from people who show us a better way: that we can transmute our pain by doing some good in the world to help ourselves and others.

I always sought to turn my pain into a thing of beauty for other people. To show that there’s a light on the road ahead. To extend a lantern of hope along the sometimes-dark road.

My point is: every human being needs light and love and laughter. Not to constantly be reminded of how hard life is. I make the case for attending a comedy club. Or watching a marathon of the old Looney Tunes Warner Brothers cartoons.

Life can be hard living with schizophrenia. Yet it can also bring us joy when we actively look for the silver lining. A silver lining does exist: we get to choose how we want to live our lives.

I wrote in my memoir that being diagnosed with schizophrenia gave me the opportunity to find out what was important to me and to discard the rest. That’s something beautiful: limiting the extraneous: what’s not necessary for us to do we should discard.

We don’t have to chase after another person’s dreams for what we should do. We can follow our own path. That was the whole ethic of left of the dial: that I chose a different path, later in life, after the narrowly-defined path I was on failed me.

Remember: a lot of times you didn’t fail; the job or lifestyle or activity failed you because it was at odds with what you needed to do to be truly happy.

Hope Heals. The road of recovery is a journey not a destination. The older I get, the less impressed I am with coveting achievements. We should each of us like ourselves for who we are not what we’ve accomplished.

I think I’ve written this somewhere before.

Light love and laughter can be as potent as any medication we take. Laughter truly is the best medicine in addition to our SZ meds.

Hope does heal.