
Fact: about 1 in 100 people will suffer an episode of schizophrenia in their lifetime. This is my story…
My journey with schizophrenia began at quite an early age during my third year at school. This is when I began to hear voices, this is when my mind became distorted. My distressing thoughts began centring around the television the more I thought, the stranger my thoughts became.
My distressing thoughts got progressively worse, so at the age of 16, I was sectioned under the mental health act. I then began my long journey with mental health struggles and schizophrenia, in and out of hospital did little for me. I was pushed into a corner of a psychiatric ward where I was ignored apart from when I needed medication.
Eventually, things got better and in 1990 I was finally put on a drug that would help. A more modern approach than my 60 style medication. I still was in and out of psychiatric wards. My road to recovery really began in 2012, my last admission to the hospital 25 years after my first.
I made good progress but everyday living with my illness but every day there was a chance I’d do something wrong or unnecessary. Schizophrenia is a lonely and forgotten illness that is still misunderstood by the public.
I feel that throughout my years I have met many people who were supposedly educated but refused to believe that schizophrenia was any more than an act, simply put on for everybody that I was just seeking attention.
Society today is still full of people who believe that people with this condition are perceived to be violent and aggressive in nature when actually people who are suffering are often very passive. Just remember that behind every illness there is a person.