It’s been a difficult (slight understatement) ten years for me. I developed paranoid schizophrenia in 1994 and have been sectioned some 10 times in 10 years. But I seem to have got on top of it. To find out more please have a look at the Postface to my book by clicking on the menu "Extracts from The Book". I had always stopped taking my medication hoping I would stay well as the side effects were so unpleasant. It was easy to see why people kept committing suicide around me. At times I did not know what the braver thing to do was: commit suicide or carry on. 2004 was the first year I did not get arrested in since ’98, and I was ‘barking’ mad all that year. My CPN is nominating me for an award from Lilly, the manufacturer of Olanzapine, which I am taking. The award is for beating schizophrenia and re-establishing myself* I really don’t know why I got ill. Nobody in my large and wide family has ever had schizophrenia. But I think drinking 3 times the safe amount for several years might have been part of it. Also my Dad is a coeliac and therefore, apparently, I may have inherited schizophrenia from him. I hope you can make my book launch party!

*I won! I won the Lilly Moving Life Forward Award 2005. See Lilly Award Section

Studying for PhD c.1988
Alcohol is a risk factor in
Schizophrenia

(please click on pic to view larger image)

Clive Travis