(Dear parents, teachers, school counselors etc. Please take our early symptoms seriously)
From 2006 to 2017 I went through a crisis
It all started in 9th grade. I had always been an avid reader, and I would read pretty much anything anywhere, and I was also relatively fast as reading a book. But in 9th grade something happened. I started getting slower at reading and I often had to read the same sentence over and over and over again, and other times I Had To Pronounce Each Word Perfectly In Order To Be Able To Continue Reading. In my Danish class we had to read a new book each month, and make a short essay about it, but what my teacher didn’t know was that I never got through one book during that whole year. I used to think I was just tired of reading, but I know better now
After primary school, I went to the Danish Watchmaker School, since I thought there would be more practical studying and less reading, but even with no books I struggled. I couldn’t keep up with the rest of the class and the things I made that are used for watchmaking were not of good quality, and I started not paying attention to the class. My teacher had me have a meeting with a school counselor who said “You are immature” and sent me off to another school I was hurt at being called immature, because that’s not what I am, but I was even more hurt at the fact, that a school counselor couldn’t see things were not right with me Around the same time I started having problems with personal hygiene. From when I was little to when I started watchmaker school I had always showered almost every day, but I started showering less and less, in fact so little that there could go weeks between the showers. One day at the school I had been sent off to, the teachers commented on how greasy my hair looked and what type of shampoo I used. NEVER once did they consider the fact that maybe I was just getting a little ill
I moved out in 2008 and although I’ve never been the one with the most clean room, it got really bad after living on my own, I couldn’t take out the trash, because what if my neighbors spied on me? When I moved back home a year or so later, my parents were furious that my apartment looked a mess, but never did they realize it was I who was a mess
So dear parents, teachers, school counselors and anyone else who works with young adults, please take changes in the youngsters seriously, and don’t just brush it off as being a teenage thing. I was lucky that I just got my diagnosis in time for proper treatment, but I do wish I had gotten help before I became psychotic.
Happy World Schizophrenia Day <3