THE WAY IT IS – Age Twenty Three

I figured Mom had enough to do looking after Dad so when I was in my twenties I got an
apartment and struck out on my own. That was great until about a year later when I began to
get symptoms again. Mom noticed them coming on before I did and began to worry. Soon
they were obvious even to my neighbours who also worried about me.
I didn’t leave my apartment for days on end. When I didn’t show up for work I got fired. I
soon ran out of money and couldn’t pay my bills. Mom tried to persuade me to go to the
doctor but I kept putting it off until one night when I was really loud and wild one of the
neighbours called the police. They came to the apartment and took me to the local acutecare
(Schedule 1) hospital where I was admitted and stayed there for a week or so. Then they
transferred me to the same psychiatric hospital in the city where Dad was still being treated
from time to time. With treatment there, my symptoms got better, but very slowly.
Eventually I was released and came back to my home town where I got another job, a new
apartment and re-learned how to cope on my own.