Lessons Learnt In Schizophrenia Recovery
I was watching a child with learning disability fixated with his game on his mobile device. I tried to take the game away from the child and get into conversation with him but he violently resisted as he was locked in his own world.
The kid was simply oblivious to his environment. His oblivion gave me parallels to the hidden addictions and narrowed perspective that I went through when diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia had limited my perspective on how I related with my environment. I bought books on many areas of interest intending to read them, as reading was a great hobby of mine as a child. But years passed without me opening a page of these books. How did the time go?
There were uncompleted sentences in my writing too especially when I was taking notes. I would jump to another task without completing or tidying up the tasks at hand. This left a trail of disorder as there was increased demand on my attention.
In the earlier days I froze as I could not cope with all of this. I therefore became inactive and unable to think. Possibly I was like the child earlier, in my own oblivious world. Just not doing anything to write home about.
I am thankfully more self-aware now. I feel that I am on the outside looking in. I can see now what I did not see then.
Schizophrenia recovery is like a child learning new things. Two things that greatly helped were singing and writing.
I was always one to be lost in worship on Sundays in my local assembly singing strongly and loudly as I loved to hear my own voice. I expressed myself so wonderfully that I was asked to join the choir. Those were the days I was recovering.
In some ways I was lost in my own world, this time a better world, focusing on the words of the worship songs I sang. Zoe got me to start writing down notes in church. I soon got into the habit of taking good notes which improved my writing and how I communicated. I was emerging from the locked in world I had been in!
Writing and singing regularly helped me organise my thoughts effectively. When I was disturbed I found myself singing, focusing on the activities I was on to complete it with good focus.
When I wrote down things, I found that I planned better. I was less easily distracted as a result.
One of the habits that made prone to illness was my impulsive behavior. This lended to disorganised thoughts. I am still learning to keep track of all my tasks, perhaps I should say in a more organised manner.
You see habits form over many years, or over repetition really. Begin to develop good habits to overcome the negative ones. It will go a long way.
Having structures in place for your activities coupled with strong follow up mechanisms for your recovery from schizophrenia. You will be surprised about how these little hinges swing open big doors!
Were you enlightened by this blog? Please share with your contacts with comments! You cannot tell whose life you may change as a result
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