Beyond the Diagnosis: Rewriting the Story of Serious Mental Illness

When we listen without fear or assumption, we discover what’s possible.

Too often, stories about schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses (SMIs) are told only through the lens of suffering and despair. We are too often shown lives defined by tragedy — people who are “lost,” “broken,” or “beyond help.” But that narrative is stigmatized and reductive. And it’s time to change it.

What if people living with SMIs were seen for their resilience, creativity, and capacity to contribute? What if we recognized that they are, first and foremost, people — lovable, valuable, and worthy of good lives?

A Different Perspective: Seeing Dignity and Hope

In Schizophrenia: The Positive Perspective, In Search of Dignity (originally reviewed in American Journal of Psychiatry) and revised in 2009, Peter Chadwick combining anecdotes, biographical accounts, and summaries of research, challenges the long-standing myth that schizophrenia inevitably leads to decline or social isolation. The book highlights real-world stories showing that many people living with SMIs experience recovery, develop meaningful relationships, work, volunteer, and engage deeply in their communities.

While perhaps overly simplified in his approach, Chadwick's is challenging stigma and his perspective is clear: people with serious mental illness are more than their diagnosis. Recovery and treatment is not only about managing symptoms, it’s about reclaiming identity, dignity, inclusion, and purpose.

Why the Stories We Tell Matters

The way society talks about serious mental illness has consequences. When the dominant story is one of hopelessness, it feeds stigma and exclusion. It shapes how families, employers, policymakers, and even people with lived experience see what’s possible.

When we repeat the message that people with SMIs “can’t” — can’t work, can’t love, can’t thrive — we rob them of possibility. We also deny our shared responsibility to create the systems and supports that make thriving possible.

Changing the narrative means changing everything that flows from it — policy, services, compassion, and opportunity.

Real Lives, Real Possibilities

At The Miles Hall Foundation, we know people who defy stereotypes about mental illness.

We see young adults rebuilding confidence through peer support and group therapy. We see parents managing their conditions while raising children and advocating for others. We see artists, musicians, and volunteers giving back to the same communities that once excluded them.

Meet Sally Littlefield

Sally Littlefield is an Oakland, California-based writer. speaker, and mental health advocate living with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type "I know how easily people like me are dismissed, pathologized, or feared. My mission is to create spaces where we are treated instead with curiosity." At The Miles Hall Foundation, we believe in listening to, and centering the voices of lived-experience in the work we do. It's important that we're reminded that when we listen to those living with SMIs, we need to check our assumptions and fears and really listen in ways that connect and allow for more than we might think is possible. You can follow Sally's writing and subscribe to her blog here or follow her on LinkedIn where we first discovered her writing.

How We Can All Help Rewrite the Story

In our language:

• Say living with schizophrenia, not suffering from it.

• Center the person, not the diagnosis.

• Share stories of strength and recovery — not only crisis and trauma.

In our actions:

• Support recovery-oriented programs that include peer support, housing with dignity, and supported employment.

• Include people with lived experience in decision-making and program design.

• Speak up when you hear stigma — in conversation, in media, in policy.

In our systems:

• Fund and expand community-based crisis response and mental health services.

• Prioritize dignity, inclusion, and long-term support over punishment or isolation.

Reclaiming Humanity

At The Miles Hall Foundation, our work is rooted in the belief that no one is disposable. Every person deserves safety, belonging, and opportunity — especially those living with mental illness. We know that recovery is possible. We see it every day.

When we tell fuller stories of families and people living with mental illness— stories that include healing, love, creativity, and purpose — we do more than reduce stigma. We affirm something deeper: that people living with SMIs are not defined their illness, but by who they are and what they continue to give to the world.

Every person is worthy of dignity, love, and hope. And when we change the narrative, we change what’s possible — for all of us.