Cecilia McGough contemplated committing suicide her freshman year of college after years of living with symptoms of schizophrenia. McGough chose not to be another statistic and vowed to prevent others from being defeated by their mental illness.
McGough originally studied astrophysics at Penn State. However, she discovered her passion for mental health advocacy and has founded the social business Students with Schizophrenia. She recently changed her major to Health Policy Administration to pursue her ambition. Students with Schizophrenia is the first organization on a college campus and in the world to focus on students struggling with schizophrenia. The organization has a goal of eliminating the stigma that follows schizophrenia and those that have it.
“The majority of people with schizophrenia are good guys,” McGough said.
According to the updated Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia includes the characteristic symptoms that are present for a significant portion of time during a one month period including two or more of the following: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, catatonic behavior or negative symptoms (i.e. lack of motivation).
McGough hopes to build a community and support system like she has at Penn State. She said strong personal relationships are “empowering” for students with schizophrenia.
“Support networks are key,” McGough said. “If I didn’t have the support network at Penn State then I really don’t feel like I would’ve been confident to maybe even found Students with Schizophrenia. I probably would’ve just dropped out and that would’ve been the end of my story.”
Students with Schizophrenia is growing at a rapid pace globally without even being officially launched. McGough was recently featured on “Special Book by Special Kids” in November. The video has since gone viral with over five million views. McGough’s facebook page, “I Am Not A Monster: Schizophrenia” has over 11,000 followers while her Ted Talk of the same name has over a million views on YouTube as of December 2017. She is also traveling to other countries to speak about her experiences in advocacy. Over winter, she will be going to India for the first time. Although, she’s more nervous about meeting her boyfriend’s parents while there.
McGough said the reactions to Students with Schizophrenia have been positive from both those with and without schizophrenia. She said allies for mental health and schizophrenia are incredibly important to her cause.
“They’re [allies] helping give us a voice,” McGough said.
McGough wants to launch Students with Schizophrenia when all proper resources are available to students. However, she does take it personally when someone succumbs to their schizophrenia symptoms and takes their own life.
“I have this problem of getting overly attached to individuals,” McGough said. “Especially since I’m founding something to help people who have schizophrenia, I often feel guilt around their death. And I also can relate.”
Cecilia McGough’s most frequent hallucination is a clown resembling Tim Curry in Stephen King’s “It.” (Illustration by Colin Miller)According to McGough, every experience with schizophrenia is unique. She personally has vivid visual and auditory hallucinations. She also hallucinates tastes. Her symptoms started to worsen around her junior year of high school. Her most common hallucinations is a clown that strongly resembles Tim Curry in Stephen King’s “It” and a ghoulish woman with matted, long black hair that wears a nightgown and carries a knife and McGough’s childhood teddy bear. She also sees spiders.
“My experience with schizophrenia is like living in a nightmare,” McGough said. “I’m just someone who cannot turn off their nightmares even though I’m awake.”
McGough’s biological family tried to prevent her from receiving treatment and tried to deny her symptoms. She felt more isolated as her symptoms intensified throughout her freshman year of college.
“I just felt alone,” McGough said. “I felt trapped. I felt like no one would understand me or accept me, and even worse, I felt people were going to be scared of me.”
McGough says she believes both her college and high school experience would have been different if she had an organization like Students with Schizophrenia.After being properly treated by medical professionals and seeing results, McGough now strongly advocates for proper and immediate medical attention for those experiencing schizophrenia symptoms.
In retrospect, though, she says she feels like she was meant to be the one to start it.
“I honestly feel like it’s my calling to found Students with Schizophrenia,” McGough said. “I really realized there was this huge void in the support for the people who have schizophrenia.”
McGough has one message for the world and is spreading it through her transparency and dedication to her cause.
“My name is Cecilia McGough,” McGough said. “I have schizophrenia, and I am not a monster.”
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McGough met one of her inspirations, Chris Ulmer of “Special Books by Special Kids,” while promoting Students with Schizophrenia during Mental Health and Wellness Week at the HUB-Robeson Center at Penn State. Ulmer asks McGough to be interviewed which she doesn’t hesitate to agree to. The video has since gotten over five million views.
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John Dziak, a friend of McGough’s, describes what is like to not being able to help McGough when she experiences her symptoms of schizophrenia.