![]() A Tough Hill to ClimbAmmu Joseph FALLEN, STANDING: MY LIFE AS A SCHIZOPHRENIST By Reshma Valliappan Women Unlimited, Delhi, 2014, pp. 274, Rs. 325.00 VOLUME XXXIX NUMBER 12 December 2015 More than two million people in the United States have a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and the treatment for most
of them mainly involves strong doses of antipsychotic drugs that blunt hallucinations and delusions but can come
with unbearable side effects, like severe weight gain or debilitating tremors.
Now, results of a landmark government-funded study call that approach into question. The findings, from by
far the most rigorous trial to date conducted in the United States, concluded that schizophrenia patients who
received smaller doses of antipsychotic medication and a bigger emphasis on one-on-one talk therapy and family
support made greater strides in recovery over the first two years of treatment than patients who got the usual drugfocused
care. ---— ‘Talk Therapy Found to Ease Schizophrenia’, Benedict Carey,
The New York Times, 20 October 2015
My thoughts were with Reshma
Valliappan, author of fallen,
standing—my life as a
schizophrenist, as I read the New York Times
piece. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia
at 22, Valliappan was on psychiatric drugs
for several years until she opted to stop taking
those medicines and decided, instead,
to focus on understanding her condition and
dealing with her symptoms.
As she notes in the book, ‘I chose this
even while I experienced many “psychotic”
episodes, knowing I had the option to suppress
it all by going back on meds. But I made
a promise to myself a long time back… I told
myself, “No matter what, I will not take another
one of those pills even if it costs me my
life—I simply have to find a way out.”’
That courageous, if controversial, decision—challenging
in multiple ways—appears
characteristic of the person who emerges
through the book as Valliappan tells the compelling
and complicated story of her life thus
far. The journey of the evidently bright, talented,
popular, nonconformist, free spirit of
a school girl growing up through trying, even
traumatic, times in the home country (Malaysia)
as well as the forcibly adopted one
(India)—including the lost post-diagnosis
years—towards becoming the confident, articulate
‘Artist/Writer/NutCracker/Painter’,
‘Mental Health Self-Advocate & Researcher’
and ‘Artist Activist’ she is today has clearly
been far from easy.
So it is not surprising that fallen, standing
is not an easy read. The book’s content is
often painful, though Valliappan writes with
a lightness, liveliness and sense of humour
that make the ordeals she describes somewhat
more bearable for the reader. ... Table of Contents >> |