Schizophrenia is a difficult mental illness to live with if one is unaware of the symptoms. Often, schizophrenics are hospitalized and drugged on medication. It is difficult to get a psychiatrist and therapist immediately after hospitalization. What's worse, their could be no family or friend support system, to help patients with schizophrenia. It may take more than three months to collect disability, and without family and friends, and no place to live, often schizophrenics can become homeless, making the recovery process long, or their is no recovery, and hospitalization reoccurs. And after hospitalization it could take up to a year before adjustment to meds are final. With education about knowledge and mental illness, many schizophrenics can recover and feel needed in society. Schizophrenia is a disease in the brain, not a curse, meaning its not the schizophrenic's fault. Family and friends can listen to their loved ones who have chronic mental illness, and educate them about the illness. A common misconception is that a schizophrenic is aware of what he or she is doing without being diagnosed by a psychiatrist, and that he or she should know how to get help. Schizophrenia ii a chronic illness, and it's not made up, it's real!