Due to the uniqueness of schizophrenia, I had an urge to understand more about the illness and to share time with the fellow schizophrenia sufferers. I also always wanted to have good support from a psychiatrist. Above all, I wanted to remain closer to my loving family comprising of twin sisters and a younger brother. I was so closer to my dad, who unfortunately had Parkinson’s disease.

I have a good relation with Dr. George Melvin and I consider him as one my best friends. I was more than happy to accept the invitation from him for attending a three-day conference organised by a mental health rehabilitation organisation in South Africa. I asked my younger brother Adam Schindler, if he could come along with me to South Africa to attend the conference, as I was closer to him.

We both had a nice journey and we attended the conference .The conference indeed turned out to be a platform for many individuals who recovered from schizophrenia and those who are working for the welfare of schizophrenia patients. My brother found their speeches as very inspiring. He consulted his friends, and our twin sisters about creating a schizophrenia family support group. After returning home, with the help of our sisters and friends he created the group. We came across many people who suffered from schizophrenia and most of them joined our initiative. There were around 7members initially.

Dr. George Melvin always took initiative for organising our group meetings and used to talk about schizophrenia with us. Adam voluntarily became our group leader and tried to find various community links as well as tried to talk to family members of schizophrenia patients. Both Dr. George Melvin and Adam talked with other members of their families. Those conversations had great impact on those people.

However, I started facing problems once Adam left for England for higher studies. Even though our group continued to function, but no one came forward to take the role left by Adam. Our group became stagnant due to apathy of other members. Soon I found myself facing depression. Dr. George Melvin worked with me to overcome my depression.

For coping up with the state of my depression, doctor gave a suggestion that I should pray and keep faith in god. I started consulting a Christian organisation through internet and they started answering my prayers. While surfing through internet, I collected useful information regarding schizophrenia and it helped me in having better awareness about my illness. I started communicating Adam and the members of the mental health organisation in Africa. They sent me inspiring responses and the knowledge that my brother loves me so dearly made me so glad.

That organisation sent me some of their pamphlets and I chose to show it to the psychiatrists that I knew. I gave them some of those copies. As they found it exciting, they agreed to provide us with referrals. Impressed by my initiative, a psychiatrist who was a member of another schizophrenia related organisation gave me an invitation to attend their conference. I became much more confident and I approached Suzy a friend of Adam for anti-psychotic drugs, as she was a licensed paediatrician. Since she was a friend of my brother and knew about our group, she voluntarily came and took the responsibility of leading the group. During this phase, I started mingling with my family with closeness. They were happy that I was recovering well and they stopped feeling ashamed about my illness. Their support was the main reason why I recovered from schizophrenia. My story is one among hundreds of inspiring stories schizophrenia.