My mother developed schizophrenia after a nervous breakdown. In my family circle, it is colloquially said she 'got it' from stress, because her parents constantly argued and built a stressful environment for her.

As her child, I was always scared of developing it, because there were times when I definitely had scary symptoms. I learnt about various hypothesised causes or things that could 'bring it about', so I never did drugs and practised ways to keep myself calm (I used to be extremely nervous, had sweaty hands and feet, etc.).

Now that I'm 31, I think I've done pretty well. Even with medication, my mom cannot really identify who I am, though.

I guess I just want to thank you for sharing your knowledge about schizophrenia.