Psychosis, Stories of recovery and hope (2011) Edited by Hannah Cordle et al, Chapter 16

Peter Chadwick, A Positive Perspective on Psychosis

Peter’s mother attempted to make him into a ‘hard case’ to survive in the world, during his Northern upbringing. The hard men on the football team thought he was a pansy as he had a Cliff Richard hairdo. At Bristol University he did psychology as a BSc, his transvestism blossomed, and he was ‘outed’ by his neighbours. Gradually this developed into paranoia. He thought of his cross dressing as a satanic rite. He thought New King’s Road was the road of the New King where Jesus would reappear, and threw himself under a bus there. He thought the neighbours through the walls could hear him and were talking about him, and then he began to hear voices and played the radio very loudly to drown them out. He suffered a hand injury in the suicide attempt. He met his wife in the psychiatric ward, they were both taking medication and he was happy when he was changed from Orap to Haloperidol. He went into a hostel after the hospital. He got his life back by working as a lecturer – with a relationship, a job, accommodation, and some money. He accepted the diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, but his undergraduate psychology training was very much anti-psychiatry. The hospital philosophy was that psychiatric disorders were illnesses, he was medicated and the doctors waited to see the affect of the meds. He now says that MH professionals need to see psychosis as beyond biochemical or cognitive malfunction. Psychosis had taken him under the wheels of a bus, and ***medication had brought him back to sanity. He thinks meds have moved him to a new Second Mind which is well, and rebuffs the idea that he has not recovered because he still takes a small amount of medication, but for him now the problem is solved. His second psychology degree got

him to consider cognitive aspects of mental health. For him, you need to recall good things from the past and not merely retrieve negative memories. Peter moved from seeing God as a punisher to one who has mercy, as when he was allowed to survive from the suicide attempt – there must be purpose for him. Before he had no hope. ***For Peter the most positive aspect of his psychosis is his creativity. Psychosis can not only result in stigmatisation, but also in self-stigmatisation. Positive things from psychosis include creativity, sensitivity, spirituality and empathy. Psychosis is a ‘multi faceted diamond,’ not just a biochemical or cognitive problem. In the 70’s and 80’s, if you could remove symptoms, then that was a success. Now we want to give people fulfilment and a quality of life.