Recovering from Schizoaffective Disorder and Forging a Career

Schizoaffective Disorder is a  double whammy – a combination of schizophrenia and a mood disorder. Our guest
speaker, Leigh Ann Maio, suffered some depression in her late teens. But
the full impact of schizoaffective disorder hit during her freshman
year of college, when she made suicide attempts and was hospitalized off
and on. Before long, however, her mother who took NAMI’s Family to Family course
convinced her to be compliant with therapy and medication. Now she's
been “clear” for the last six years, and for the last 3.5 years has
worked as a Peer Support Specialist at Appalachian Behavioral Health,
the very same institution in which she had previously been a patient. Sponsored by the National Alliance for Mental Illness and the Friends of the Athens Public Library.