Sophie is known to many people in the Mercer County community in which she lives because she works at a prominent store.

But she keeps a secret from all but a few close friends: She is a schizophrenic.

"The people at the store do not know anything about my illness because of the attitudes some of the most educated people in the world have about schizophrenia," said Sophie.

She has "a mild case of schizophrenia, if there is such a thing," she said at a training session last month for schizophrenics, medical professionals and social workers put on by Community Counseling Center of Mercer County, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, the UPMC Foundation and the Shenango Valley Foundation.

Sophie is so "stable" that doctors have wanted to take her off her medication, she said. But she knows the stability would disappear if she stopped taking it.

"I become a very different person," she said. "I become antagonistic, I become hostile and I try to kill myself."