ABSTRACT
I was deported from Japan in February 1983, after living there for over two years, because of a psychotic breakdown. I was not diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia until January 1986, after another episode, and my diagnosis was commuted to schizo-affective disorder in 1991, meaning I experience depression as well. On being diagnosed in 1986, I joined the National Schizophrenia Fellowship, now Rethink, and later that year we formed the user group ‘Voices’, of which I was the first national Chair. I have also been involved with Lambeth Mind and the international Clubhouse movement, through Mosaic Clubhouse in London.
