Those of us who struggle with Mental Illness know how difficult it is to even get out of bed sometimes. We treasure the little victories, as well as the big ones.
Even simple things like showering sometimes become a huge task. Feeding ourselves. Getting groceries. Finishing school. Landing a job. Keeping a job. That’s just a small sample of things that most people take for granted but that requires a major effort from our part. Effort that let us both physically and emotionally exhausted.
It is easy for us to become discouraged. To lose hope. To not see the light at the end of the tunnel.
But every now and then -and more and more as time goes by, we read about stories like this.
Neil Marshall was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia when he was 21. He had to drop out of a computer science degree at the University of Waterloo. Now at 33, he just defended his Master’s thesis in Mathematical education at Brock University.
I am sure it was not an easy journey. I am sure he had difficult moments, dark moments. But he stuck to it and made sure he has the right tools for the job: “He had coping strategies in place — learning to anticipate when symptoms were getting worse, doing work well in advance of the deadline, taking breaks when he needed to and building a large support system among faculty and friends.”
Living with Mental Illness for many of us becomes a matter of just barely surviving. Being jobless and even homeless is not that rare. And even if we do have a job, we still have to deal with stigma at the workplace. Like we didn’t have enough to worry about already.
That’s why it’s good to hear success stories. I find them reassuring. I know that each and every story is not necessarily the path for everyone – as even Marshall remarks, but it does give me hope.
While it’s true those with severe, chronic mental illness face a 70 to 90 per cent unemployment rate, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association, and achieving a university degree is a major barrier, Marshall said telling his story is not about encouraging others to follow exactly in his path.
For Marshall, it’s about recalculating what you believe you are capable of.
“There’s a lot of very beautiful moments that came out of my life after I put my mind to changing my story,” he said. “I always lament that I’m a square peg in a round hole. But sometimes you’ve just got to hammer that peg in as hard as you can.”
Read more about the story: Success for student with schizophrenia
Summer Solstice Musings 
What a superb success story – we hope he finds the niche that works for him.
Yeah, crossing fingers
Thank you so much for sharing this story. Made me cry a little, in a very good way. :)
You’re very welcome :)
What a great story!! I’m so happy he lived out his dream.
Me too. It is heart-warming to hear that at least in some parts of the world, people can still overcome major obstacles. And that some people make an effort to understand mental illness instead of sticking to old paradigms. Good for him and good for his supervisor
Yes! Absolutely. The more people talk about it and share these kinds of stories, the more the mentally ill can progress and live out their dreams.
Glad to see someone was able to do it.
yep!
Sometimes I feel proud of myself for going to work and somehow getting a job in the first place. Chiefly when my social anxiety is at its worst. Such as today. I wound up doing a decent job at work, but I was so nervous all day and periodically it become really overt awkwardness and I just wanted to hide or something.
Anyway, this is inspiring and gives me hope that maybe I can continue to function decently.
I’m glad it does. I have some days like the one you describe too. Once I even lost everything I had, everything I had fought for. Sometimes I spend weeks in bed, unable to do anything.
So, definitely be proud of all your victories. Even the littlest ones. All of them count!
Recalculating what you believe you are capable of… That one trips me up. I find I’m doubting myself a lot, so uncertain about what I can really handle, and terrified that my chosen career path will just tip me over into the loony bin. I don’t know what I’m really capable of, to be honest, and it’s a source of a lot of worry these days.
I know right? I had to sit and think about that one for a while.
What I have learned in my journey is that it is good to have goals. It doesn’t matter if at the end, we have to change our course. Even if we have to take some time off to breathe and reinvent ourselves and our careers. That’s not defeat. That is learning.
I wish you all the best in your journey. I know this is difficult but don’t worry to much about what you are really capable of. You’ll find that you will learn it as you go. We human beings are stronger than we give ourselves credit for.
What we BELIEVE we are capable of is so important in determining what we ARE capable of. This is a very inspiring story & I’m glad you shared it!
Most definitely!
Thanks for stopping by