WE’RE FIGHTING WITH VOICES IN OUR HEADS
Brave schizophrenia sufferers tell of their hell living with mental disorder
Nicola Wall on RTE documentary mouth shut than be put back in hospital again because I hate hospitals so much.
“You are stuck in a bed and all they do is feed you medication and if you do not take it you are there longer.”
Professor of psychiatry Gary Donoghue revealed that some people suffer just one or two psychotic episodes, while others “really struggle chronically to live outside a highly-supported environment”.
Nicola Wall, 28, from Waterford, said she realised she was different from everyone else at 12 when “not everyone could hear what I hear”.
She was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder at the age of 22 and now gets an average of just two hours’ sleep a night.
Nicola married husband Kieran during the making of the documentary and managed to get off medication, but suffered a relapse weeks later.
She said: “I thought my life was over because you can’t cure schizophrenia. When I was first diagnosed I was told to keep it a secret – I don’t think it should be that way. “Your personality is more important than any illness and if you let the illness take over, your personality disappears.
“You can spend years going, ‘I can’t ask for help because people will judge me’, but that is self-stigma.
“It will work out but you do need to seek help. It is never going away. I know that for sure.”
Schizophrenia: The Voices In My Head is on RTE Two on Tuesday at 10pm.
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Hearing voices to kill yourself. Imagine being told to do that BRIAN SCALLON WEXFORD