Matthew is an engineer who was diagnosed with Schizophrenia. In this video, he talks about what symptoms he experienced early on before he was diagnosed. He got through it with one small improvement once a week for 24 years - there were times he was close to death to times where he is now thriving. Matthew says most people would be surprised at what they are capable of.
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My
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Matthew Dickson, Engineer
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name is Matthew. I've got schizophrenia, and it's a nightmare. It's an absolute living nightmare. I had symptoms coming on in university. When I didn't know what I had, when I didn't know I had schizophrenia, one of the first things was just lack of energy. That could be depression. And about a year later, I had things like emotional numbness, just feeling numb.
A little bit after that, I would describe it as seeing things in two dimensions. You didn't feel like you were seeing things in 3D. It felt like I was looking like watching a television, but it's being disconnected from the world.
I got through it. It took me 24 years. I noticed one small improvement once a week for 24 years from close to death to thriving. If I could say one thing for people going through it, is that if people had any idea-- and not just people going through mental illness, but anybody. Anybody in the world, if they had any idea the vast amount of courage, determination, patience that they have inside them dormant, waiting to be used at a moment's notice when crisis strikes-- if they had any idea how much that is, it's a vast amount-- the potential they have.
That's one of my biggest lessons I've learned from this and what I wish other people would know, that if they want to do something, whether it's totally unrelated to mental illness, whether it's start a business or do anything that they're scared of, that they don't want to do-- they'd like to do it, but they're just-- I don't know. It's too much of-- too big for me. I'm like, you can do it. Maybe you can't, but I'm like, you'd be surprised at what you're capable of. It's amazing.
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