Testimonies

Peoples' experiences and views on ‘schizophrenia’ or similar labels such as ‘psychosis’.

 

 

The label stripped me of power to self-advocate

Anonymous
I had a nervous break when I just turned fifteen. I had been having issues for a year prior, and then it all came crashing down after my birthday at boarding school, during winter. My parents kept me at home for a couple weeks to see if my symptoms would abate, then sought a psychiatrist. I was then hospitalized because my parents thought I was sick enough. I recall being completely depressed, detached, and removed from reality. The confusion is whether or not I have Bipolar or Schizophrenia.

No one cared about my traumatic experiences

Anonymous

I had been in a relationship where I was assaulted several times. This experience was life shattering. I had trouble trusting men, I was traumatised and grieving but putting up a brave face. I was also suffering from a debilitating skin condition that had covered much of my body. After a period of time I started seeing someone else. To me he was my life raft. When I decided that that my new boyfriend was a little strange and that he wasn't a stable person for me to build a life with, he got a sense that I wasn't interested in him and contacted my family "worried" about me.

Reaching mindfulness through psychotherapy and writing

Lia Govers

I am a Dutch-born woman, who lives in Italy since the age of 20, now there with her Italian husband and grown-up son. At the age of 18, after I left home, I already heard voices for a week, but at that time was still able to stop listening to them. I was very insecure like a child, was not 'grounded' like Alexander Lowen describes in his book 'The language of the body'. I have never been sure of the love of my mother..., felt always like a burden to her. At the age of 20 I left Holland, worked for 1 year like an au-pair and 19 years in a part-time job.

Forced diagnosis is incalculably damaging

Anonymous

I experienced a time of withdrawal and emotional turbulence in my mid twenties. I had a difficult relationship with my family at the time who were not able to accept or understand what was happening to me and consequently referred me to psychiatric services against my wishes. As the interference of my family was unwelcome so was the interference of services at their request. So began an episode of oppression and coercion that dominated my life for the next ten years.

A brutal medical bloodsport

Bogman Palmjaguar

I am the subject of Luke Fowler's 2007 film on 'Bogman Palmjaguar', widely shown around Britain and abroad. I have a developing unfinished website to go with the film. My case shows how i spent decades of my adult life labelled as a so called "paranoid schizophrenic" when persecution found to be real. I have been off all so called "schizophrenia" medication for 38 years in 2013. I faced decades of failed attempts by the "system" to get me under the cover of the label in what became a brutal medical bloodsport.

Diagnosis helped make sense of behaviour

Elizabeth Mort

I would not advocate a change to the label, though I applaud the investigation.

'Schizophrenia', derived from the Greek 'split mind', seems to sum up my experiences rather well. While not split, in the sense of personality, my world has gone through a blender and been spat back out into pieces. Voices from the outside penetrate my brain. My thoughts are no longer just my own. Each number and each flashing light is a code for someone somewhere. The world is in pieces and every piece has meaning spilling out of it.

Damaging diagnosis that affects the whole family

MC

I would like to explain why I want to support this campaign against labelling by telling you about my experience as the child of a mother given the label 'schizophrenic'.

When I was about four years old, my mother had a 'breakdown' and was admitted to a psychiatric unit; she was in this unit for about 5 months.

Schizophrenia diagnosis helps

Nir Prakash Giri

I had onset of mental illness in early 1990s. It took me years to get a correct diagnosis. I visited many psychiatrists and had long stays in hospitals.

Finally, in 1996, I got correct diagnosis: schizophrenia. My medication was clozapine. It has worked very well in my case.

I am involved in an NGO, Nepal Mental Health Foundation, run by persons with mental/psychosocial disabilities. Our area of work is advocacy, mainly focused on UN CRPD.

Spiritual awakening

Alex Naylor

I have been ill three times now and on two of them I believed I was having a spiritual awakening but was told I had psychosis.

Work became very difficult and I lost my job. Being sectioned was awful. It was a real bad thing having liberty taken away and I refused medication.

I managed to get schizophrenia diagnosis changed

Odi Oquosa

My diagnosis of ‘schizophrenia’ was changed by my psychiatrist because of my persistence, of not acknowledging the diagnosis.

I think the issue was that I was angry towards the psychiatrist for not acknowledging my cultural knowledge or way of life. When I look back, I will say that I have been lucky; maybe I was able to show them some proof, for example, by running art, music and shamanic workshops in hospitals and community. I think by doing that it helped me understand the medical culture and myself. I was able to make my presence felt in a positive way.

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