I have a birth defect called bilateral ptosis which I was tormented by others while in school, but I learned to have faith in God to get me through the pain and it prepared me for the future battle with schizophrenia.
The battle with schizophrenia started for me as a young adult in college and my career on the railroad. It started like it always does to people. I was having delusions of grandeur then the hallucinations started—audio and visual. I was tormented by voices, I thought people were playing games with me and hardly ever got a decent night’s sleep.
I must have lived like this for five years trying to work, go to school and do volunteer work in the community, but it all came crashing down around me. I started going to counseling for depression, the more I talked, the more it was obvious I had a far larger problem. So the therapist talked me into talking to a doctor of psychiatry, Dr. Kim. He gave me a script for tranquilizers and anti-anxiety medication.
My recovery has been better than expected, I believe, because I now am working a steady job at Ohio State University as a janitor. My education has had to take a back seat to work and family commitments and I am a member of Mental Health America. It’s been the best volunteer experience to me than the railroad work I did.
To sum up, my faith in God and a positive attitude on the future have pulled me through.
--Sam Irvin
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