This chapter explores the avoidance of conversation and communication about schizophrenia within a family. It discusses how stigma, discomfort, and a repressed culture contributed to the silence surrounding the topic. The impact of this silence on the family members and the struggles faced by the speaker's mother are also examined.
Journalist Elfy Scott grew up in a loving and tight knit family, but there was one topic they never spoke about, for a long time: her mother's schizophrenia.
Now, Elfy is sharing her family's story, and interrogating why stigma so often silences conversations about complex mental health disorders.