Perceptions of Schizophrenia
The word schizophrenia translates roughly as “splitting of the mind” and comes from the Greek roots schizein (σχίζειν, “to split”) and phrēn, phren- (φρήν, φρεν-, “mind”).
I found myself in a mental hospital after collapsing at a major airport. I was to discover 18 years later that the diagnosis was schizophrenia. I experienced visual hallucinations, collapsing at my home after going for a tetanus jab at my GP. I had been under a lot of stress which I was not handling well. I had auditory hallucinations on the night before my attempted travel through the airport.
My manager recognised that I had challenges dealing with stress after I had returned finally to work. He made many attempts to help me deal with stress. I still have the book “Stresswise” that he gave me at the time. In addition I was one of those that went on a weekend trip, kind of like a weekend camp break, in my Employer’s property in Snowdonia. The break did me a world of good with an enjoyable social break with colleagues. What I had not addressed was to lead to further spouts of mental illness crises.
I was yet to develop a structured set of steps for setting priorities or addressing competing demands for my attention. Sure, the weight of loneliness that would settle in when I was away from work had somewhat lifted for a time. However, after periods of heavy mental activity I always ended up with an untidy environment. As result of this, I was taken away from design office work. A part-time Masters course also did not do wonders for my health. On the day of the graduation ceremony I ended up with another crisis.
The term schizophrenia is commonly misunderstood to mean that affected persons have a “split personality”. Some people diagnosed with schizophrenia may hear voices and may experience the voices as distinct personalities. However, schizophrenia does not involve a person changing among distinct multiple personalities. The auditory hallucinations I experienced were as a result of what I heard around me triggering memories. I went into my memories and started talking excessively on what was going through my mind.
Years later, I was to come across a lecture given on TED talks by a lady who had suffered from schizophrenia and went on to qualify as a psychiatrist. This got me to learn more on what was information was available on schizophrenia. A recent publication by Varese and Barr in the journal “Schizophrenia Bulletin” suggests there is a link between adversity and psychosis. The adversity that I faced was not in my childhood but in settling into a new life with multiple stressful life events within a short space of time.
I started a career away from everyone I knew. Within two years my first long-term relationship was broken, and I had gotten on the housing ladder. Three of the most stressful things in life had occurred in quick succession.
In my case, medication was not what took me out of the condition. Life events with their fortunate outcomes, which I attribute to God, gave me a clean bill of health . I came out with a much stronger constitution than before I was challenged with mental illness.
Childhood mental illness is receiving greater awareness with the Duchess of Cambridge becoming a journalist for the day in February 2016. A secure mental health foundation for children is sure to build a stable and prosperous future for all.
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