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Suffering schizophrenia for thirty years, I sojourned from the depths of madness to the sobriety of recovery. Plagued with auditory hallucinations, visual hallucinations, hyperbolic mania, bizarre phobia and inexplicable ideas of magical influence, I passed through the revolving doors of psychiatric hospitals. I spent nine months in a forensic institution. Despite these trials, I have never received a conviction for contravention of the law.
Graduating from the University of Waikato with a Bachelor of Management Studies Degree, I have since participated in the consumer advocacy movement of former clients of mental health services. In particular, I was a supporter in the 1990s of The New Zealand Schizophrenia Fellowship (today designated Supporting Families), Psychiatric Survivors Auckland Inc., and The Aotearoa Network of Psychiatric Survivors. New Zealand with the USA, Great Britain and The Netherlands is a leader in mental health consumer advocacy. I have dealt with many thousands of participants in the mental health arena - doctors, nurses, social workers, sufferers, their families, friends and colleagues.
"Surviving Schizophrenia" acknowledges the importance of biochemical intervention in the treatment of the frequently misunderstood malady. But the novel asserts that there is a lot more to the subject of mental health than biochemicals. And there are varied world views - Christianity, ethnic cultures, the credo of The New Age - which demand a broad approach to the subject of mental health. Professionals should also be impelled to consider the degenerate social effects of mental illness - alcohol abuse, substance abuse, itinerancy, prostitution.
I live in Herne Bay, Auckland. I enjoy attendance at l'Alliance Francaise d'Auckland and am enrolled in Conversational Maori at Auckland University of Technology. When working on the PC with my friend and biggest colleague, Paul Hickman, we take recess to watch You Tube in between coffees, biscuits, ice cream and the obligatory beer.
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