A recent Guardian newspaper report stated only 8 percent of people diagnosed with schizophrenia are employed in the UK. Knowing this it’s foolish that the Mad People advocate that everyone discontinue their medication. No employer wants to hire a person going through numerous psychotic episodes let alone one.

Even a guy I met who is now a companion thinks most people diagnosed with schizophrenia need medication–and this person doesn’t take medication.

I’m Calabrese–so I’m a testa dura that is hard head–in stubbornly advocating that getting the right treatment right away results in a better outcome. That treatment might require or might not require medication either way.

My point is that I got help within 24 hours and have always taken a low dose. I’ve taken the pills for going on 29 years without health issues linked to the dose or type of pill.

I’m also a Realist–I know that historically most people have had an 8.5 year delay between first experiencing schizophrenia symptoms and getting treatment–according to a June 2008 NAMI study.

This can make succeeding at a job when you have symptoms quite a challenge. Yet I’ve known people diagnosed with schizophrenia who hear voices and held jobs. One guy retired from work when he neared 60.

I do make the case for requesting reasonable accommodations if you must be given them to excel at your job.

First of all I recommend figuring out your ideal careers using assessments like the MBTI, Kolbe A Index, Archtypes quiz, and Career Matchmaker quiz, along with StrengthsFinder 2.0–to be a sleuth and track down jobs or careers that are a good fit with your temperament.

You can Google any of these tests to try to take them on the Internet.

Creating your own accommodations that don’t require getting permission to have them is also an option a lot of people with a diagnosis do.

Upwards of 75 percent of the people diagnosed with schizophrenia want to work and think they can work. That was the focus of my first My Voice column for the Winter 2016 issue of SZ magazine–the Internet recovery resource for schizophrenia.

See if any of what I’ve written and will continue to write makes sense to you.

In the next blog entry I’m going to talk about what can happen when a person really can’t hold a job.