A Different Kind of “Recovery Stories”
The collection of personal stories at https://curesz.org/survivors/ raises many questions.
For one, CureSZ promises the readers “success stories” of people “thriving despite schizophrenia,” but never defines “success.”
One of their stories is about Rebecca Chamaa, who “lives with symptoms of schizophrenia and an anxiety disorder daily.” She had a full-time job “from 2006 to 2011,” but then had to quit. Writing in 2016, she explained:
“I am currently working with a writing mentor to transition from unemployment to a freelance writing career. I want to return to work, but I no longer think it is possible to work from 9 to 5 in an office setting – the stress of that type of employment increases my symptoms to a point that life is uncomfortable all the time.”
She has since had self-published two books and has had some publications as a freelance writer, but this can hardly be considered a professional career. In a 2026 interview, she describes “the two most common hallucinations I have on a daily basis, when I am not psychotic” and adds,
“Then, I have symptoms of paranoia. Those are the most common things that impact me day-to-day, and psychosis is life-changing when that happens.”
Evidently, her condition has deteriorated over time. Does not this look more like a tragic story of failed treatment rather than that of success and thriving?
Another person who used to be featured on the CureSZ website has had a much happier outcome.
Lauren Kennedy’s page stated that she had “severe mental illness” which “can be overcome or managed” with medication (retrieved in July 2025). She has since completely recovered, is “living well after schizophrenia,” does not have any symptoms and is not using medications.
Now, does not this look like a true success story?
Oddly, after Lauren Kennedy achieved her recovery, the CureSZ page about her has been removed.
Another CureSZ's stories is about Meghan Caughey. CureSZ reports that she was hospitalized, medicated, and “tied down with four-point leather restraints” for hours, which she, uniquely among the people subjected to such restraints, describes as “a profound experience.”
This incredible statement CureSZ attributes to Caughey – “Being tied down for hours is a profound experience” – contradicts everything that she shares publicly elsewhere.
CureSZ never mentions what Caughey thinks about being treated against her will. Because the website supports involuntary treatment, somebody reading Meghan Caughey’s success story on this website would think that she benefited from involuntary hospitalization and medication.
In fact, she calls it “violence inflicted on me” and describes being “forcibly drugged against my will” as a terrible experience that cannot do any good to a person.
She is indignant that psychiatrists “use force or coercion to imprison and medicate—against their will—those with psychiatric diagnoses.”
Or compare the two stories of Neesa Sunar. CureSZ and Neesa herself use directly opposite words to describe Neesa’s experience:
CureSZ: “Fortunately, Neesa had good insight into her illness and never refused medication or treatment.”
Neesa: “Unfortunately, I think my opportunity for an alternative to medications has long passed.”
And as for her “illness”? As a little girl, she was traumatized by domestic violence, and looking back, she thinks, “It would have been best for me to start child psychotherapy … and have an adult intervening in my parents’ dysfunctional relationship.” With no timely help, “suicidality took over,” she was hospitalized for depression and started medications at 14. After that, her mental health “snowballed downwards” and she became dependent on Clozapine. She suffers from its many side effects, but cannot stop taking it.
In her own words: “I strongly do not recommend the starting of psychiatric medications if possible.” Instead, people need access to “resources to prevent further decline and dependence on medications.”
Strangest of all is the story of the CureSZ President Bethany Yeiser, whose account of her “full recovery through faithful medication adherence” to Clozapine is full of holes and internal contradictions.
We do not know the reason for all these inconsistencies. It may be noted, however, that the list of CureSZ’s corporate sponsors starts with Teva, a leading maker of Clozapine, and includes other pharmaceutical companies. The CureSZ co-founder, vice president and scientific director Dr. Nasrallah has been paid by Teva and other drug manufacturers for years; in 2023 alone, they paid him $668,797.01 (including $11,211.65 “for food and beverage”). These were only direct payments to him personally, apart from money for research. In addition to these direct payments, he receives research funding from multiple pharmaceutical companies.
When a Clozapine maker sponsors a nonprofit co-funded by somebody who is paid by pharmaceutical companies, and the nonprofit president talks about Clozapine as a miracle drug, it is worth asking the question of whether the funding sources play a role in this narrative.