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‘Surviving Schizophrenia’ chronicles a path where biochemical intervention is not the sole factor relevant to mental illness. Varied ‘world views’ - Christianity, Maori Pacifika lore, or the credo of a New Age - which have influenced myself - demand a broad approach to mental health. Reckless prescription of drugs should not substitute exclusively for alternative therapies. As schizophrenia appears in early adulthood, recognition of the vice of youth - alcohol, sex, drugs - should impel professionals to tackle the degenerate social effects of mental illness - alcohol abuse, drug abuse, itinerancy, prostitution. Suffering schizophrenia for thirty years, I sojourned from the depths of madness to the sobriety of recovery. Plagued with hallucinatory voices, hyperbolic mania, irrational phobia, and inexplicable ideas of magical influence, I entered psychiatric institutions on numerous occasions. I traversed the New Zealand public health system - hospitals, outpatient clinics, hospice services. I spent nine months in a forensic hospital. Despite these trials, I have never received a conviction for contravention of the law. Graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Management Studies from the University of Waikato, 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 The Schizophrenia Fellowship NZ (now known as Supporting Families); The Aotearoa Network of Psychiatric Survivors; and Psychiatric Survivors Auckland Inc. New Zealand, with Great Britain, the USA and The Netherlands is a leader of mental health consumer advocacy.
