Schizophrenia As I Live It (audio)
I discuss navigating the labyrinth of paranoid schizophrenia as a personal and Informative journey.
I'm Diana Dirkby, and I'm living with paranoid schizophrenia. In this podcast, I'll open up about my experiences with this complex brain disorder while also providing a comprehensive overview of schizophrenia itself. Despite sharing common symptoms, each individual's journey with schizophrenia is unique. We all seek tools and strategies to manage our symptoms within the context of our unique lives.
As mental health consumers, we are responsible for sharing our experiences openly and honestly. By doing so, we can help combat the stigma associated with schizophrenia. We can empower listeners to understand what psychosis truly feels like, dispelling the fear and misconceptions that often surround it. While a schizophrenic episode can be an intense and overwhelming experience, it's important to remember that the person experiencing it is usually not a threat to others.
Beyond my experiences with schizophrenia, I'll also share aspects of my life that transcend my mental health condition. This serves as a reminder that mental health consumers are multifaceted individuals, not defined solely by their diagnoses.
My fiction novel, "The Overlife: A Tale of Schizophrenia," is based on a deeply personal exploration of my own experiences and those of my mother. It's available as a Kindle and paperback book (visit https://www.amazon.com/author/diana_dirkby or search for "Diana Dirkby" on Amazon). An audiobook version will be released soon. For more information, please visit my website: https://overliveschizophrenia.com/.
Part 1 of this podcast aired during the prepublication phase of my novel. Now the book has appeared, Part 2 assumes you have access to it. You can still follow along without having read it. However, reading the book will help you understand and appreciate my podcast.
Together, we can break down barriers and promote open conversations about mental health. Thank you for joining me on this journey.
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Schizophrenia As I Live It (audio)
A New Podcast: Fractured Ink
A significant transition is underway as I prepare to close "Schizophrenia as I Live it" and launch my new podcast "Fractured Ink." While schizophrenia has been central to my story, it's just one piece of a complex puzzle that includes complex PTSD, absence epilepsy, and my creative identity as a novelist and poet. These conditions, as I explain, "feed off each other" in ways that create a uniquely challenging yet creatively fertile internal landscape.
My journey from research mathematician and university professor to published fiction writer has given me new ways to explore and express my experiences. Through my novels "The Overlife: A Tale of Schizophrenia" and "Three Kidnapped, Three Siblings, Three Furies," I've chosen fiction over memoir as my medium for addressing difficult topics including mental illness and sibling abuse. As I share in the episode, "Tell Me A Story," this approach allows me "artistic freedom to wrap these topics in a story worth reading for its own sake."
The name "Fractured Ink" perfectly captures this next chapter – representing both the fracture of my mind as I navigate multiple disorders and my dedication to writing as a means of healing and connection. I hope you'll join me as this new podcast expands beyond schizophrenia to encompass all aspects of my life and creative work. The current podcast will remain available on all platforms, with the final episode announcing when "Fractured Ink" launches. Have you found that creative expression helps you process your own life challenges? I'd love to hear your thoughts as we continue this journey together.
#writer #fiction #schizophrenia #ComplexPTSD #epilepsy #families #friends #familyrelationships
Pastime With Good Company by King Henry VIII, played by The Chestnut Brass Company
Pastime With Good Company, composed by King Henry VIII, played by The Chestnut Brass Company
Hello, my name is Diana Dirkby and I live with paranoid schizophrenia. You are listening to my podcast Schizophrenia As I Live It. Today I want to announce that this podcast will have two more episodes today's and a final one. The final one will announce the start of my new podcast, Fractured Ink. The new podcast will have a broader compass. Video and audio versions will be available If you like the audio only option, you'll find the new podcast on all the audio platforms featuring Schizophrenia as I Live It. Also, the podcast Schizophrenia as I Live It will remain on these platforms if you want to refer to it in the future. Fractured Ink will still include accounts of how I live with schizophrenia and general information on this brain disorder.
Diana Dirkby:However, schizophrenia doesn't define me, even as regards my health. I live with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as complex PTSD or C-PTSD. I have absence epilepsy, also known as petit mal epilepsy, which, although mild, is still sensitive to the condition of my overall mental and physical health. Passing out with little or no warning due to a petit mal episode can be physically dangerous and mentally stressful. All these conditions feed off each other.
Diana Dirkby:Now that I have retired from being a research mathematician and a university professor of mathematics, my new job is defined by my fiction writing. I have published two novels the Overlife A Tale of Schizophrenia, and Three Kidnapped, Three Siblings, Three Furies. You can find them on Amazon. Although fiction The Overlife, as I like to abbreviate the title of the first novel is closely based on my experience of having a mother living with paranoid schizophrenia while also living with this brain disorder myself. Three Siblings, as I like to abbreviate the title of the second novel features sibling abuse as its central theme and is again closely based on my experience and on the experience of people I know who have broken the silence surrounding this type of child abuse. Three Siblings features an important character, isabel Morse, who lives with schizophrenia. Her brain disorder doesn't affect the plot of the novel. Therefore, it fits awkwardly into a podcast on schizophrenia, but is perfect for one that also focuses on my writing about, in this case, sibling abuse.
Diana Dirkby:The title of the new podcast reflects the "fracture of my mind as I deal with several disorders that affect the mind and behavior. The ink solidifies my ongoing work as a fiction writer. I should also add poet, as I write poetry. My podcast episode and blog post Tell Me a Story defend my use of fiction rather than memoir to discuss essential issues that describe some aspects of my life and the lives of others I know well. I don't feel the need to go on defending it, except to say that my novels, as well as dealing with critical issues, also tell a good story. I hope to reach a broader audience for complex topics via fiction and give myself the artistic freedom to wrap these topics in a story worth reading for its own sake. I hope you will continue to follow my journey by tuning into Fractured Ink when available. The last episode of this podcast will inform you when this new podcast is published. Thank you for listening.