Living Alone With Schizophrenia
Hi, this is Schizophrenia Awareness Week. Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder are the so called ‘kings’ of mental illness. All this week we will be bringing you blogs to highlight aspects of schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is one of the most common serious mental health conditions. About 1 in 100 people will experience schizophrenia in their lifetime, with many continuing to lead normal lives. (NHS Choice). Schizophrenia is most often diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 35. Men and women are affected equally.
There is no single test for schizophrenia. It is most often diagnosed after an assessment by a mental health care professional, such as a psychiatrist.
Living alone with schizophrenia can be particularly challenging. Today’s blog is about personal experience of just this.
We are always given the background of those who have brought disaster to others when they are have been found to have been challenged by mental illness. Shootings in the US have often had people who have suffered from depression or schizophrenia reported as responsible. Images of psychopatic killers are often conjured when people hear of schizophrenia sufferers. Statistics however show that this perception is not borne out by facts.
I didn’t know I was diagnosed with schizophrenia until 18 years after the initial diagnosis but I lived alone with it for 14 years.
At the time I did not know what my ailment was but after sometime I realized I was not well as I lay in bed and time passed by. I was awake but my mind was not in the here and now.
My flat was untidy. Sometimes I burnt my food. There were a lot of forgetfulness on my part with many tasks unfinished as my attention was drawn to the next most urgent demand for my attention. I am fortunate that that is not the case now as I have a clean bill of health having been discharged by a Consultant Psychiatrist.
Looking back now, I realize there were many things I was not aware of I could not do. I now can hang doors and fix many things around our home. However this was not the case in the years I spent alone in my flat with even simple self assembly of furniture.
When I shaved my hair here were often patches left around my scalp. I could never clean any item thoroughly or dust effectively. Anything that required a lot of mental effort was never completed effectively.
I was given outdoor physical work after returning from my first admission to mental hospital. I hadn’t realized there was a very good reason for taking me away from the design office work I so enjoyed.
In spite of all the challenges presented here I was able to maintain a job, even a career. I carried on with life living alone with this diagnosis. I want you to know that anything is possible!
Whenever tasks of intense mental concentration were required I seemed to “freeze”. I was fortunate that most times there were others willing to help me out. When there wasn’t, they wouldn’t get done.
Heavy mental activity was often a trigger for psychosis with the mental ward admission that followed. When I found myself at a primarily desk job after moving on from my employer I could not sit for more than 15 minutes without feeling drowsy. If I was not the one taking the minutes of work meetings I attended, I would literally have to fight to keep awake. There is a possibility that some of all these were due to the side effects of the medication I was taking at the time.
Now, all what I have said above are all the challenges. But one positive thing to draw from all this was that I lived alone with this diagnosis the majority of the time. It was possible for me to maintain a job and carry on with life. And this is the hope message I want to leave you with. Obviously, if you are following our blogs, you can see my journey of determination, faith and courage. I want you to know that anything is possible!
Blessed by this blog? Go to Amazon and get the book “Defying the Odds- One Man’s struggle and victory over mental illness and his wife whose faith in God never failed” by Zoe A. Onah published by Destiny Image Europe
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