Simon's Story
Simon’s story, from his father’s perspective...
Simon was coming up to his 21st birthday when he had a first episode of psychosis. He was studying a Science subject at University and was coming to the end of an industrial placement year with a local company when his life turned upside down.
It seemed to start with anxiety about the level of responsibility he was being given by the company he was working for. This went on for a week or two before the onset of what seemed like a severe episode of confusion and emotional outbursts, including tears. As a father who knew nothing about psychosis, and who was keen with all of his children to instill in them the values of self-reliance, I reacted with my normal ‘pull yourself together’ type of response. If only I had known this was the onset of an acute psychotic episode. My reaction made matters worse. Simon left his home and took himself off to a local town in his car – he still seemed to have the mental faculties to drive.
After a day or two in this town, during which he was wandering around aimlessly and acting in a very bizarre way, including stripping down to his underpants, he was finally apprehended by the local Police while sleeping in someone’s front garden. Luckily Simon was able to text us with the name of the town he was in before posting his phone through someone’s letter box, we were therefore able to register Simon as missing person with the local Police. As a result, the local Police were able to contact us to let us know he had been apprehended, assessed by their psychiatrist and transferred to a psychiatric unit. My wife and I are very grateful to the Police for understanding the condition Simon was in, and responding to it in exactly the way we would have wanted.
After a few days Simon was transferred back to Cheltenham to the secure unit that was at Charlton Lane. Here he slowly recovered over a period of a few weeks. As with all psychosis sufferers, Simon was provided with a range of therapy that brought him back to health. This included medication (‘Olanzapine’ seems to work very well for Simon), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), sports sessions (which he particularly enjoyed, and benefited from) and informal meetings with his GRIP professional to whom we are most grateful for her patience and dedication. It seems that a range of therapies is required to restore mental health and social wellbeing.
Simon went on to complete his degree course and achieved the academic standard predicted for him prior to his psychotic episode. After the stress of his degree, and given the excellent progress he had made, it was decided to cut the medication out completely. This worked well for around six months, with Simon retaining his mental health. However, once Simon started his first real graduate-level job he had a relapse which lasted for a few weeks. However, over the following year, after therapy and a return to a daily dose of 10mg Olanzapine, Simon has recovered and rebuilt his life. The prospects for Simon are really good, apart from putting on a fair bit of body weight and occasional smoking, he is back to the old Simon we knew before the psychosis.
As a post script, my wife and I are really grateful to the GRIP team for the support they have provided, not only to Simon but to us. They have been very open with us about the diagnosis, therapy and prognosis. They have also provided us with a 10 week ‘GRIP Carer’s Group’ consisting of weekly education and shared experiences sessions with invited experts and other carer’s. We have made many new friends from this and still keep in touch to provide mutual support. Thank you GRIP!
What Helps?
In Simon’s case a range of therapy helped, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), sports sessions and informal meetings with his GRIP professional. Sports especially promotes wellbeing as it helps the sufferer rebuild relationships with people after an acute psychotic episode. With the onset these abilities break down and you become fully absorbed by personal thoughts. Without doubt his medication ‘Olanzapine’ has played a significant part in keeping Simon well; this combined with the sports sessions were most helpful in getting Simon back on track.
The support we as carer’s were able to provide, and our own wellbeing throughout this very difficult period, was significantly improved by the knowledge and mutual support we derived from the 10 week ‘GRIP Carer’s Group’ – It’s not just you!
