Adults diagnosed with schizophrenia sometimes find themselves at loose ends once they are discharged from the hospital with their medications.

"I was told just to take my pills and follow up with the doctor in three months," said Chris of Sacramento, Calif. "No one explained the implications of taking the medications for my life or how to measure my recovery." Chris did not give his last name in keeping with the Schizophrenics Anonymous (SA) philosophy of anonymity.

He began reading all he could about the illness and learned that 25 percent of people with late-onset schizophrenia eventually recover. He also learned that SA has self-help support groups.

Because Chris was living in a town northeast of Sacramento that didn’t have an SA group, he started one in 1997 with materials from the central SA office in Lansing, Mich., which is staffed by volunteers and contracted workers.

SA uses a six-step approach to recovery that is derived from the Alcoholics Anonymous model. These are the groups’ goals:

• To restore dignity and a sense of purpose for persons working on recovery from schizophrenia or related disorders.

• To offer fellowship, positive support, and companionship to achieve good mental health.

• To improve the attitudes of members about their lives and illnesses.

• To provide members with the latest information about schizophrenia.

• To encourage members to take positive steps leading to recovery from the illness.

SA was founded by Joanne Verbanic in the Detroit area in 1985 after she was diagnosed with schizophrenia while employed by Ford Motor Company. She received administrative support from the Mental Health Association of Michigan (MHAM), which has since helped start an estimated 150 SA groups in 24 states and in Mexico, Canada, Brazil, and Venezuela, according to SA Director Eric Hufnagel.

"Our experience so far with dozens of groups shows that members who attend meetings regularly and work the program tend to do better and feel better," said Verbanic on the SA Web site. "Our members are able to make important strides toward recovery. Some get jobs, do volunteer work, or go back to school. Others simply begin to participate in the meeting, [which] is sometimes their only interaction during the week with people outside of their family."

The MHAM has also helped train at least 26 affiliates of the Mental Health America in how to start SA groups in their areas. The association plans to conduct more training seminars in the future.

Hufnagel emphasized that SA serves as an "adjunct to rather than a replacement for talk therapy, case management, and medication. Consumers believe medication is integral to their recovery and rely on the medical expertise of professionals."

SA clearly plays an important role for people who feel alone because they are afraid to tell coworkers or even family members about their disease and be stigmatized. "I felt I was the only person with the disease until I met other people in SA who shared similar weird thoughts or feelings," said Chris.

Jamie Armstrong started an SA group in 1996 in Cassopolis, Mich., because the one nearest him was at least a two-hour drive away in Lansing. He credits Verbanic and Hufnagel with encouraging him to get leadership training and become more involved with the organization.

Armstrong and Chris now work part time for central SA doing public speaking, training, and various other activities. "I would not have gotten this far from just therapy," said Armstrong.

The first national leadership conference they attended changed their image of people with schizophrenia.

Chris said, "I met people who function extremely well. One woman put herself through a doctoral program and others were working, raising families, and volunteering in the community. Until then, the people I had met with schizophrenia at mental health clinics were not doing any of these things."

Chris added that mental health care providers need to tell patients that they can lead productive lives and encourage them to find ways to do that.

Armstrong sees his involvement with SA as life changing. "It has given me a purpose in life and made me realize that I have a lot to offer people. I don’t worry anymore about feeling paranoid or get upset over everyday stressors, because there is so much to do, and I have people around me who understand what I experience," said Armstrong.