Schizophrenia is, overwhelmingly, a disease that becomes apparent in late adolescence or early adulthood. Dawn Elgin became ill near the time Tara Holley was born. Holley has never known a time when her mother was well. Schizophrenia eats identity. Holley can hear stories about what Elgin was like as a child or a teenager.
Some authorities describe schizophrenia as a process.
Often after twenty or thirty years, the process has run its course and departs. The person then is not really well, because the person has no memory of being well as an adult. In contrast, Alzheimer's usually becomes apparent in late middle or old age, when the task of becoming an adult, for better or worse, is largely complete. Tom Dodge's mother was as well as anyone can claim to be when he was a child, although they were not especially close. Typical of people with mild illnesses or in mild stages of more serious diseases, Juanita developed strategies for disguising her illness.