Tracing the inception of my illness is quite difficult. I use to be a shy and reserved teenager and often scribbled words on paper. At 25, I relocated from Washington to New York. I easily found a job as a writer in a publication house. I met new people, made friends, and fell in love with a girl.

I shared my apartment with a roommate. My relationship with the girl grew stronger with time and we decided to live in together at my apartment. I sometimes smoked marijuana and we tried cocaine together. Gradually, I started sleeping a lot, became very depressed and more reserved than ever before. I lost faith in people and suspected my girlfriend of having an affair with my roommate. One day, I caught them red-handed which resulted in parting ways with each other. This incident had a toll over me, making me more depressed and paranoid. I could not concentrate on my work either. After one year, I sought medical help, which did not bring about enough changes in my sleep pattern or depression.

My parents came to my rescue. I took leave from work and attended a programme for outpatients in a local hospital there. In six months, I started feeling better. Doctor introduced me to Stelazine, which aided me in forgetting my bitter experiences. I regained my faith in people and slowly started getting rid of depression.

After my recovery to an extent, I left the hospital and moved to my house with significant reduction in medication. However, I was not aware about the diagnosis. For some period, I underwent counselling at a local hospital and I learned that I had schizophrenia. I got upset about this fact and I ended the medication with a thought that I will be a patient only if I take medication. However, after six months I underwent treatment for depression at hospital. By then my thoughts became scrambled and I started trusting none.

Doctor prescribed Navane to me. I found Navane to be effective, as it cleared my thoughts within an hour of its intake, while I was at office. I had an urge for more intake of navane, but my doctor advised against it. During the next 4 years, my life was on a slow mode. I remained at hospital for almost eight to nine months on an average every year.

Since my financial condition worsened, I moved to parents house .I started visiting local psychiatrist and she diagnosed me with schizophrenia and she prescribed navane with dosage of 20 mg a day. I totally quit street drugs as well as alcohol during those four years since I doctors warned me how it can affect my schizophrenic condition.

I joined Hunter College and restarted my studies. I met Daisy there and married her after falling in love. After marriage, we settled at Toronto. I continued my studies at a night college there, while working as designer at a company during daytime. Psychiatrist in Toronto prescribed me risperidal and it made me feel so good.

In my 12^th year after getting schizophrenia, it is hard to believe that I lived six year without any reliable diagnosis. Now I am perfectly all right. I could not have achieved this recovery without the support from beloved life partner, various doctors as well as psychiatrists and most importantly medications. I earned my honours degree in computer science and I got better job with another company.

From the stories of schizophrenia, you can notice that the key factors for schizophrenic recovery are proper medication, avoidance of street drugs, proper diagnosis, counselling, as well as therapy.