Marco Baldini's Story of Recovery from Schizophrenia




MARCO BALDINI'S STORY

Sitting there was almost blissful, the delusion at that point was even enjoyable; however, within a few minutes a police car arrived and two officers arrived on the scene and asked me what I was doing there. I thought that they were part of the conspiracy to have me made the next prime minister so I was quite friendly towards them as if I had been expecting them to arrive. After a few minutes they made some inquiries over the radio telephone and called for an ambulance. The attendants arrived and took me to the emergency room at the nearest hospital.

 

When I got to the hospital, I got even more paranoid. I thought the nurses and doctors were plotting to kill me. I had a wild delusion similar to a horror movie plot that hospitals were not places where people go to get better but rather where people go to get killed and then were chopped up into processed food and fed to everyone. I was placed in the psychiatric observation unit for 24 hours. My symptoms got worse. I began to hallucinate more intensely and the constant delusions continued.

 

Eventually, the medical staff got in touch with a friend of mine who was a second year medical student at the time. He came to see me the next day and brought a psychiatrist with him who I agreed to see. Even with all my delusions and paranoia I guess I still had enough trust in my friend and agreed to do as he suggested. From there I was transferred to another psychiatric ward and started on a large dosage of haloperidol to control my symptoms. At first I had some severe side-effects from the medication. My muscles became rigid, my vision blurred and I slept about 20 hours a day; however, within two weeks my symptoms had remitted and I was able to be discharged from hospital.

 

When I say my symptoms had remitted, I should point out that I am referring to the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, that is the delusions, the hallucinations and the thought disorder. The so-called negative symptoms such as lack of motivation and depression actually got worse and were made more severe by the medication.

 

Upon discharge I returned to my studies at law school; however, trying to cope with university after such an episode of schizophrenia was extremely difficult. I was unable to concentrate and therefore my reading ability was almost zero. I had trouble remembering things and was still sleeping about 18 hours each day. With all this it was no wonder that I was failing my courses. Luckily, I got my exams postponed that year and was able to write them a few months later.




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