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Meet Olenka Popov a 34-year-old, a St. Joe’s patient and co-chair of our hospital’s Mental Health and Addiction Population Panel. She wanted to tell you her journey in her own words.
Hello my name is Olenka and I have a mental illness. My illness is schizophrenia. I have been diagnosed with schizophrenia since the age of 21 years old. Can you tell that I have a mental illness by looking at me? Probably not.
Having a mental illness has made my life difficult, but having it has also been a big point in my life. I can remember times when I first got sick and went through many types of medication and treatments and being labeled as a “freak” or people would look at me like I have three heads.
These days are very good. I’ve gotten to the point over the last few years that I feel like I’m in remission. My medication is stable and I am doing extremely well thanks to my family and St. Joe’s Dr. Devanshu Desai. Also these days I have a really good support system with my family and friends and I’m especially grateful to my mother who has been by my side since the beginning.
I have suffered for many years and because of my illness I was terrified that I wouldn’t be stable enough to take care of myself. What I really want to accomplish with this illness is to educate others and give back some of the things I have gained through all this. I also want to give back to the community what they have given to me.
I want people to open up to me and feel comfortable talking about their illness. I want to tell them that everything will be alright and tell them to learn to accept what life has dealt. I also want to tell people that anyone who has a mental illness is just like everyone else. I want people to see me as I am and not as a “freak”.
I am an everyday person and I have feelings just like everyone else. I want to help society change their attitudes about mental illness. I also want to make people aware that mental illness is and will be a curable disease. I hope that people will step up and learn that mental illness is just like any other disease – it can be treatable.
My advice to anyone who has a mental illness is to be happy and make them feel wanted. Keep your head high. Be true to yourself. Never let anyone tell you that you are “different”. Don’t let people put you down because of your mental illness. Always love yourself. Educate people who want to be educated.