My Life With Schizophrenia

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[MUSIC PLAYING]
RICHARD FYOCK
I'm Richard Fyock. I'm diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. I'm from Colbert, Georgia.

I've had strange thoughts most of my life, but it really didn't cause a super problem until I started going in and out of reality. I went into a dream and I couldn't wake up from it.

My family got involved in-- they didn't want to believe I was sick. I was a son. Who am I going to listen to, my parents, or am I going to listen to these doctors I've never met? I mean, they believed they were doing the best thing for me.

I was convinced that maybe my parents were right, so I decided not to take my medicine. You know, I was pretty depressed. But I would end up being so sick that I would have to be in a psychiatric ward. And I realized I'm running up a bill, and I don't have any insurance. So I left against doctor's orders because I was trying to save some money.

So they told me in the emergency room that I had to leave. And I wasn't going to drive. And I was even afraid to walk outside because I was just so ill. So they said that if I didn't leave the hospital, they were going to send a policeman to arrest me. I almost ended up in jail. A lot of people with schizophrenia do end up in jail. And that was my rock bottom. And that's where I finally decided to take my medicine. And that was the big decision that changed my life.

It gets easier once you have experience with it. But the people who first get it, they have to learn how to how to live with it.

Every day I volunteer. I just want to help people like I was helped when I was severely ill. Makes me feel like I'm contributing to society. They can see that people are enjoying their lives, because you can see that your life, it will be different than what you were thinking it was going to be. But it still can be a good life.