Look Again: Mental Illness Re-Examined

Brought to you by the BC Schizophrenia Society and supporting BC Partner organizations, "Look Again: Mental Illness Re-Examined” returns for a second season this fall beginning October 27. This time the podcast goes deeper with the subjects we tackle, the guests we talk to and the research we dive into — we're pushing you to really look at what it's like to live with mental illness...

Mental illness touches everyone's lives, whether we want to admit it or not. And yet, mental illnesses like schizophrenia are rarely discussed publicly. That lack of conversation is what our guest is hoping to change. Meet Michelle Hammer, a mental health advocate, entrepreneur and graphic designer. She challenges the idea that schizophrenia should be hidden and hush-hush with bold eye-catching designs...

Today, we’ll be taking a closer look at some of the symptoms of schizophrenia. In particular, the cognitive losses that can be associated with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Anosognosia is a medical term meaning 'to not know a disease.' This occurs for people with brain injuries as well as mental illness, and means someone is literally unaware of their own mental health condition or they can't see it accurately...

Researchers have estimated that about 80 percent of the risk for developing Schizophrenia is hereditary and yet that doesn't mean people with that genetic component in their family history will actually develop the disorder. Sometimes Schizophrenia risk increases through a random mutation that is not passed from parent to child. In this episode, we'll be looking at the role genetics plays in the development and onset of Schizophrenia...

People learn from personal experiences. 1 out of 100 live with schizophrenia and until host Faydra Aldridge's sister was diagnosed with it, she thought it was something that only happened to others. But it isn’t, it's something that happened to and affected her family and affects almost every one of us in some way either directly or indirectly...

Throughout this season, we have taken a deeper look into serious mental illnesses, like schizophrenia, and dived in headfirst to talk to professionals and family members about the subject. But what if I told you that symptoms of schizophrenia are also experienced by people with autism? Even more revealing, people with autism are at a higher risk of developing schizophrenia...

Schizophrenia. It's neither new nor rare and in fact it's existed for centuries — and it's the one mental illness that seems to be synonymous with madness. And despite being around for a long time, virtually everything we know about schizophrenia has been learned in the past 200 years — and mostly in the later parts of the 20th and 21st centuries.

With the help of Dr...

In many cultures around the world, mental illness is still highly stigmatized and rarely talked about. Today, we’ll be taking a closer look at how mental illness is viewed and talked about in the South Asian Community, one of the largest ethno-cultural groups in Canada. Talking about mental illness, getting help, or even getting diagnosed is hindered by generational gaps, language barriers, and perceived taboos, just to name a few...

Since we kicked off our second season talking to someone who embraced her diagnosis of schizophrenia — we thought it would only be fitting to end this season with another guest who also doing her own heavy lifting when it comes to educating, creating awareness, and breaking myths about schizophrenia. In this episode, Faydra will be introducing you to Lauren Kennedy. She's a mental health advocate, social worker, wife, a step-mother to two children, and mom to a new baby...