During my final year at high school, I did a life-saving course and became a fully-fledged life-saver. The reason I was keen to do the course was because when I was younger, I saw a young child who did not know how to swim, struggling in a crowded swimming pool. I remember
jumping into the pool, gathering him up in my arms and asking someone else to call the life-saver immediately. All the while I wondered how strange it was that nobody else had noticed this child’s distress. The picture of this little boy struggling remained with me for many years to come.
I was reminded of this scene over and over again while my son was struggling with paranoid schizophrenia because not only was he drowning in this illness; we all were. Amongst other things, I realized that friends and acquaintances perceived him as a negative and unwanted person and chose to stay away from him. He was ill. He felt as if he were drowning. He was depressed and most insecure as all he wanted was to be well and to be accepted by his friends and family.