Photo: Filepic/The Star
I AM a 21-year-old woman with schizophrenia. At the age of 15, a few months before my first psychotic episode, I experienced a sudden decline in my overall daily functioning. I lost weight drastically, showed no interest in school and daily activities, isolated myself from everyone and was tired all the time. My condition shocked my friends and family because before this I was the “life of the party”, a “social butterfly” and a “people person”.
As time passed, I felt the need to isolate myself from everyone and everything around me. I heard mean voices in my head and had visions of people staring at me from afar. Dealing with these symptoms is hard enough for me now as an adult, but as a child it was absolutely frightening and I felt totally alone.
