On Thursday night I got the idea to conduct a series of interviews called "100 Individuals with Schizophrenia." Over the next year, I want to showcase people who are doing well in recovery to give a voice to the nameless, faceless champions, and in so doing hopefully beat down the stigma.
My inaugural Q&A features D.J.-a friend I met four years ago when we were trained to present NAMI's In Our Own Voice program. In 1980, he obtained a B.S. in economics and business administration from Wagner College, where he played on the baseball team and was the intramural athletics assistant director. He truly is a winner at the game of life. The Sunday afternoon I talked with him, his good humor was as sunny as the weather.
CB: First of all, how old are you?
DJ: Fifty. I'm half a century!
CB: Tell us a little about yourself, what you were doing before you got sick.
DJ: I worked full-time as an assistant teacher at a day care center for 13 years. And I worked on the weekends at a group home for adolescent boys for five years. The stress and anxiety built up, and I started drinking heavily. I couldn't sleep, and I had the shakes.
CB: When were you diagnosed, and what were your symptoms?
DJ: I was diagnosed in September 1993. My symptoms were hallucinations, lack of sleep, racing thoughts and frustration. I saw people on the street chasing me, banging on the door. I only came out at five o'clock in the morning, just before the sun came up, to buy a few beers to last me the whole day.
CB: How did you first know you needed help?
DJ: I couldn't stand up. I had the "D.T.s"-that's how far along I was in my drinking. I lost 50 lbs. I went from a highly functional person to a dysfunctional person in two years.
CB: At what point did you first come around to feeling better and getting your life back on track?
DJ: April of 1996-I finally had enough of it. Somebody came to my door and asked, "D.J., are you okay?" I was struck that he was thinking about me. It was baseball season, he knew I usually came out, and he didn't see me all winter. Just that knock on the door was like "Wow-somebody really cares!" The next Monday I went to St. Vincent's Hospital to get help.
CB: How soon after did you start getting relief from the symptoms of schizophrenia?
DJ: That came about when I got my first job. After April I went to a program for six months. Without the alcohol in my system all the imaginary things went away. I started to "get my bearings back," as we say. The counselors got me a job as a mental health technician at St. Vincent's for the MICA patients. I did that for five years straight and it helped me a lot, I got my self-esteem back.
CB: So you feel work is beneficial to giving people a sense of self-worth?
DJ: Yes, because before I felt like I couldn't do anything - I was stuck in a "pity pot." Helping others was the best thing at the time for me, because I'm a giving person, so I gave them knowledge. I taught them about things they didn't know about. I also showed them how to play pool, to play cards, bingo, ping-pong. I was like a recreational counselor to get them exercising and to start moving.
