Anita: The Insidious Foe

The first time Anita heard of her son’s schizophrenia was during his court-martial, after he’d been thrown in the brig for fighting. It was also the first time her son went on medication. But it was only the start of a 20-year cycle of recovery, relapse, arrest, and then involuntarily medicating him in a place where everything is involuntary: prison. Today, Anita hopes and advocates hard for her son’s recovery. But she is facing something that is virtually invisible, and is everywhere.

The Episode Producer was Dr. Ruth Shim, who is also an advisor to Brain Stories.

Learn more about Anita and her work at fishermhconsulting.com. The full video of Pharoh, entitled “Standing Soldier” can be seen here. Information on the Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM) can be found at their website.

The books and research cited in the episode can be found below:

• Antonia Hylton’s, Madness

• Jonathan Metzl’s, The Protest Psychosis

• Deidre Anglin is the lead author of this research finding that black people experienced schizophrenia spectrum disorders at nearly 4 times the rate of white people. More about her work and research is on her faculty page.

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