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Psychologist Says Recovery From Schizophrenia Is Possible
By: WOUB Staff Writer
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An internationally-renowned psychologist says recovering from schizophrenia is possible and he knows about it first-hand.
Fred Frese spoke at the Athens Public Library last night.
He was also a guest on WOUB Television's Newswatch.
"I was hospitalized for about six months. Then, I began a ten year period of being hospitalized and re-hospitalized. At one time I was actually put away as an insane person at the old Columbus Day Hospital. But, I was able to get a job working in the Chillicothe Correctional Institute and then came here to Ohio University in Athens, where I got my Masters and Doctoral degrees in the early seventies," says Frese.
Dr. Frese says recovering from schizophrenia is definitely possible, but that the possibility of this is a relatively new concept.
"For a long time it was thought that not only did you not recover from this, but you only got worse and that's when we had over a half-a-million of us in state hospitals. But now, 95 percent of those of us who were or would have been put away in those hospitals fifty years ago are now out and in the community in various capacities," says Frese.
Frese also says that he still carries some symptoms of the disease but he hasn't been hospitalized in 35 years.