Schizoaffective disorder: Juan's Story

I live in Little Neck New York on Queens I grew up in Bay Shore Long Island Suffolk County I'm I like to play basketball I rap as a hobby I make music on the side you know at home I started having problems maybe around when I was 25 years old um I'm 27 now I had my first episode when I was at work I had a panic attack and I guess I was just stressed out from a lot of things that were going on in my life that things just kept getting worse and I I felt like I couldn't express myself I couldn't talk anymore after that I guess I just tried kept trying to figure out why that happened and like the more I kept trying to think about it the more I had the more confused I felt I was scared I didn't know what was gonna happen I went missing for a day I walked around like for the whole day I just kept walking and walking walking I had a knife in my hand and I was pondering suicide the cops were looking for me the police were looking for me my mother was scared and I was committed to soccer outside they put they enrolled me in the adult partial program and I was there for about five weeks so I've got completed that I decided to go with the early treatment program and that's when I met Gracie Thomas and dr. bear mom [Music] my name is dr. Michael Baron Bama Michelle Ellison psychiatrist and I run the early treatment program here at Circle sight Hospital we are an early psychosis intervention clinic for young people struggling with psychotic symptoms for the first time and the program is designed to stop mental illness in its tracks before it has a chance to really take over somebody's life the program is designed to work specifically with young people and it's designed to help young people do what they love to do in life I was skeptical I didn't know what they had to offer me once I realized that he was actually lowering my medication and trying to help me out and trying to see what what was the right balance for me as far as medication is concerned I realized that he was there to help me and same thing with Gracie Thomas the more sessions I had with her the more comfortable I got with her my name is Gracie Thomas I'm a social worker here in the early treatment program and I provide a lot of individual and family work for our first episode clients I think one sort of epitomizes the fact that recovery is possible for any of our first episode young people because he really shows motivation he shows a level of interest he shows a level of trust that I think the trust that is built up in a therapeutic alliance the patient and a therapist he just epitomizes that one's doing great he's really a wonderful example of what early intervention can do what solid teamwork can do and what a very motivated individual can do and it's really exciting to see how far want has gone and I could only imagine how far he'll go I wouldn't even look at it as there's something wrong with me I look at my illness as a same way someone who has the diabetes looks at their their you know condition if you have diabetes you have to take medication I have to take medication because I have schizoaffective disorder there's no one time he went for a job interview and he was he came we had a a social night before our young young people and pizza and game night and he came with a suit ready to play basketball that's the kind of person he came right after the job and would be wanting to let us know how he was and how the interview went you know and I'm so happy that he really feels that we are really concerned about him and that we really care because we do if I had a message to say to anyone that struggling with mental illness I would say give it a shot because you have looking to lose and you never know you could come out of this program I'm a better person I feel like this is the right route for people to take if they're undecided about what to do I feel like I utterly treatment program is the best way to go because the way the team of people the way they have they don't treat you as a patient they treat you as a friend as someone that they care about they just they just make you feel like you're a normal person

Channel: Northwell Health

Views: 67,820

Keywords: Northwell, Health, mental health, schizoaffective, early treatment program, zucker hillside hospital, northwell health, patient story, story

Id: WWItoZNFGwY

Length: 4min 34sec (274 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 04 2018