Recovered but not cured

For Richard McLean, being told he had schizophrenia was the best thing he'd heard in a long time.

"When I got the diagnosis I did have a sigh of relief, to think at least we’ve got something to tackle." McLean says.

"I think we were all floundering at the time. I had quite isolated myself from my family in a way that I knew I was going through something, but I didn’t want to be close to them so much because I still knew that I would be hurting them or upsetting them."

Richard is in his 30's. He has a sparkling personality, is well dressed and speaks with a rare enthusiasm and passion. You would be forgiven for never realising you were speaking to a schizophrenic.

His life began to change in his final year of tertiary study. With the stress of study and a culture of recreational drug use, he began to show signs of being delusional. But it would be another four years until his condition was diagnosed.

There is this paradigm of psychiatry which suggests that we are just bio-chemical walking imbalances that need to be adjusted

Schizophrenia is in no way a rare disease. It affects one in every hundred people and 10 per cent of those commit suicide. But for Richard, he says a long road has led him to be recovered, but not cured. He knows this is a change in his life that will be with him forever.

"Recovery means different things to different people. Sometimes it means just being well and happy… getting back into paid work and employment, for some it means relationship things."

"I’m always going to live with it. I still take medication to this day and that’s part of, I think, the wholistic aspect to my recovery."

"A lot of people think that once someone’s mentally ill, their life’s over and all that. I’d like to correct them on that. I’ve been around the world a few times, I’ve played in bands, I used to be an illustrator for The Age and the Herald Sun and I’ve worked in psychiatric wards. I've got a lot of accolades."

Part of that recovery process for Richard was transferring his experiences into a book. It's a confrontingly honest account of someone who no longer feels in control of their life or circumstances.

A psychiatrist can’t do what a fluffy dog licking your face can. You’ve got to have that smiling, empathic nature

"It was feeling quite naked about having exposed my life. A lot of people can be shy, and I’ve been a shy person in my life and having it all out there in black and white was like a psychosis for real."

"It was part of the release of the book into the public domain that was a very stressful thing. But I think the more open I’ve been about mental health issues and my life, I think really the much more liberated and free I’ve become."

But Richard believes the path to recovery is a mixture of professional help and an overhaul of your perspective on life.

"Without a doubt, without psychiatry I would either be dead or on the streets I think. But by the same token there is this paradigm of psychiatry, which suggests that we are just bio-chemical walking imbalances that need to be adjusted. I think there’s more to a persons wholistic being than that."

"A psychiatrist can’t do what a fluffy dog licking your face can. You’ve got to have that smiling, empathic nature and people around you and a nice place to stay…good support as well."

Richard McLean's book, 'Recovered but not cured: A journey through schizophrenia' is released through Allen and Unwin