My personal experience: I was hospitalized for four months where I received the diagnosis of schizophrenia. I was put under a conservatorship through the support of my psychiatrist because she didn't believe I would be med-compliant. I was taken to court, but I didn't fit the legal criteria for a conservatorship (that didn't seem to matter though if a psychiatrist wants to put you in a conservatorship.) Later I appealed and won, but the appeal took 8 months. After that I moved across country to where I use to live (away from family) to start working again. Got a job in my career within a month. Told them that I stopped working for a year due to a medical concern. Now I've been at that job for 9 months, I'm dating, and I go out with friends. I have a great relationship with my roommate. Medication-wise I started to work with the psychiatrists I saw to lower my medication after I got out of the hospital. Now I am at 13mg per month injection of Haldol. When I was in the hospital it was 15mg of Haldol per day. I'm now taking less per month than I was taking on a daily basis. This improved my akathisia and emotions mostly. I feel a lot better than the dose I was on originally. From my experience, psychiatrists tend to over medicated and tend to not focus on the side effects or quality of life. You really have to become your own advocate and have your own goals.

Right now I am looking into legal action on whether I can hold the court responsible or accountable for not following the state law on the criteria for conservatorships. But through taking to a law firm, I found out there's judicial immunity. No judge can be held accountable for not following the law in making a decision, which is absurd. Legally the only "remedy" is an appeal, which I did. I'm still searching for other possible legal actions. I really want to prevent that from happening to someone else, but it might be impossible to have any impact.