Welcome to my Terribly-Terrific life. I knew I was different by age 10. I self-diagnosed myself with Schizophrenia by age 24, and received professional diagnosis at age 40. I essentially denied and hid my diagnosis for 30 years! Why? Because of the shame of being “crazy”. How? I haven’t a clue. Hopefully, by sharing my experiences, I will touch 1 person and they in turn seek professional help. My mother, bless her soul, was in her 80’s when she received her diagnosis of Bipolar. I think she also had schizophrenia. So I get the difficulties of living with a person with a mental illness as well. Mental illness is intense, and dark, and scary to both the person living with it and those who love them, You are not alone in this.