Two Wexford men feature in schizophrenia documentary
TWO young Wexford men living with mental health disorders are featured in a documentary ‘Schizophrenia: The Voices in my Head’ which will be broadcast on RTE 2 television on Tuesday, September 19 at 10 pm.
Brian Scallan from Our Lady’s Island and Alexander Abrams of Blackwater speak openly about their conditions in the one-hour programme which was made by Frontline Films Ireland with producer Aoife Kavanagh who is from Enniscorthy.
The documentary aims to tackle the stigma of schizophrenia by giving a voice to those directly affected by the disorder.
Brian Scallan has spoken publicly before about coping with schizophrenia in the hope of helping others affected by the illness. The 24-year old was filmed on Curracloe beach and is seen playing hurling with Our Lady’s Island GAA club while some of his team mates were interviewed about their reaction to his diagnosis.
Alexander Ambrams (21) who suffers from a disorder called grandiose religious delusion was filmed in Blackwater and his mother Martina was also interviewed. ‘ I did it for people to see that your mental health is not something you should be afraid of. Instead of judging someone and saying he’s sick, to realise that most people are strong in one aspect of their lives and not so strong in another,’ said Alexander.
Brian and Alexander are among six young people around Ireland who are featured in the programme which shows the strength and resilience of schizophrenia sufferers and challenges taboos associated with the mental illness.
Brian agreed to appear in the documentary to give people an insight into how the illness affects a person’s daily life and to raise awareness about schizophrenia.
‘I wanted to show the viewing public that just because you have schizophrenia doesn’t mean that you are violent,’ he said.
‘At first I was really nervous about sitting in front of a camera as I had never done anything like that before but once I got going I wasn’t so nervous and I reminded myself that the documentary is for a good cause. I do hope it will help others. That is one of the main reasons I did it - to show people that just because you have a mental illness, it doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road and in fact it makes you a stronger person when you come out of it alive.’