Jimbo Paris Show #72- There is HOPE with Schizophrenia (Matthew Dickson)

Hi, I'm Jimbo Paris, and you're listening to the Jimbo Paris show.

Alright, how's it going, guys? This is Jimbo here from the Jimbo Paris show. And they we've got a great guest on. His name is Matt. He's basically focused on Mental Illness helping countries. And he has a hub that kind of steers people towards organizations working towards like a specific cause. And he also successfully recovered from schizophrenia and bicycled all the way across Canada. So let's see what he has to say.

Hi, nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you. Yeah, so please begin telling me who you are, what you're about. And what's your messages?

Yeah. So I'm in Canada, I'm, I've got schizophrenia, I got that at the age of 22. I bicycle across Canada before I got too sick when I was taking engineering university, but yeah, the disease hit and that took my life into a whole, whole different path. So I did get I can talk more about that. But I did get better. I'm doing well now. And it took a long time to get better. But I in 2018, I made a website for mental health and developing countries, it's the whole time going through my mental illness, my heart just went out to people who had to go through extreme poverty or war, and mental illness as well, I was I felt like I was living in a warzone myself just with my own mental illness and in a living in a sleepy part of Canada. And anyway, so I made the website Mind Aid. And I, I found seven nonprofits that are giving basic mental health care. And these models are low cost, proven effective and scalable. They were these models of basic mental health care were first designed in the 90s, I believe, they were modeled after models of basic physical health care, there were guides for decades on how to fix a broken leg where there is no doctor or hospital around for miles, or any kind of physical ailment. So they did the same for mental health. And the World Health Organization is trying to figure out the best way to roll these models out to the masses. There are over 270 million people in developing countries with no mental health care. So the seven nonprofits, I've found, they're relatively small, they need a lot more help. But they're doing good work. They've helped thousands of people already get back up on their feet with mental health. And I thought there are some other organizations on the website, too. Not all of them, you can donate to that they those seven that I've mentioned, those you can actually donate to, or fundraise for. So yeah, the website is kind of a hub. As far as I know, it's the only web site of its kind in the world. If you go and look for resources to help people with mental illness in developing countries, they're scattered across the web. I've put them on one site. So actually, I actually I actually just found some a couple days ago, about half a dozen more groups I've never heard of before. And I put them on there, including one that's helping people in Ukraine get mental health support. So I haven't added that one to the web just yet. But onto my website yet, but I want to put that up at the top of the page. Yeah, it's, I can talk about my my time with schizophrenia. I can talk more about the mental health and developing countries part I can talk about just mental health tips in general. I've read a lot of books on how to get myself better and I can share whatever you want.

Definitely, what is schizophrenia?

Yeah, so a lot of people say to me, I don't know much about it. And I I'm gonna say this right off the bat, and I wish we weren't in a state that we that I have to say this right off the bat I it's it hurts me to have to say this right off the bat. The stats on violence and schizophrenia are I've read two stats. First off, there's not a lot of information about schizophrenia. There are a handful of books I found. There are a lot more books on depression or anxiety. But with schizophrenia, I found two stats once so in general, the general rate of violence in the population here in Canada and maybe similar in the US, is 2% of the population, the general population are violent. And that doesn't mean they're all killing people. In Canada, the rate of homicide is one person per 150,000 people every year. So that's like .0006% or something. So there's 2% of the population of the general population that's violent. They could be kicking, biting, scratching, violent firefights. The World Health Organization says violence is actually difficult to define. There's a lot of different components to it. psychological violence, the other so the two stats I found on schizophrenia are people with schizophrenia have this exact same rate 2%, it's no different. It's no violent, no more violent than the general population. Then the other stat I found is 4%, that 4% of people with schizophrenia are violent. So still two to 4%. That's relatively, that's low. I mean, 96 to 90% of people with schizophrenia are just not violent. And that's the way I was I, I had, I've never wanted to hit anybody in my life, sick or healthy. I live in Canada didn't want to play hockey, everyone else played hockey, I didn't want to play hockey, I didn't like the fighting. And anyway, I just I, I try to say that, first I first off, because I know some people might be scared of people schizophrenia, I'm trying to change that. And I think if people knew those two stats, like the two to 4%, it's I think that might make things more clear in people's minds instead of this vague sort of random, I don't know, you know much about schizophrenia. So that's, I just like getting that out of the way first, I'd rather not have to talk about that, because I wish everybody just knew that. And I didn't have to even mention violence. It's like saying, people with left handed people who are left handed could be violent, or people who wear glasses could be violent. It's just like, it's it's not that much different. So and I'm not an expert, I this is just stuff I've read. The only official certification I have is an engineering degree. It's just got lived experience and read a lot of books. So question everything I say it's a I could be I try to be as accurate as I can. But I could be wrong in something that's that's the best I know so far. So schizophrenia is it often is depression and anxiety along with it at the same time I did. The schizophrenia parts. 75% of people with schizophrenia, hear or see things they hallucinate. I never did. I was in the 25%. That didn't. And there's another thing called schizoaffective disorder, which is a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar. The stats for schizophrenia, 1.1% of the population has schizophrenia. And if you include psychosis, psychosis and schizophrenia are different. Schizophrenia, I guess, is a kind of psychosis. The stat on schizophrenia and psychosis, I think it's like 3% or 4% of the population has a schizophrenia or, or psychosis it's, yeah. So with, with psychosis, for me, I never hallucinated. But I did have more sort of trippy things going on, like, my sense of time was affected at time just went by so slowly, so unbelievably, slowly. I, I thought sometimes that if my vision went, it wasn't a trippy thing. Like, I just felt like I couldn't see things in three dimensions anymore. I was going on two dimensions. I still, if you throw me a ball, I could catch it. It wasn't like I couldn't see in stereo or anything. It's sort of hard to describe, but I've heard other people with depression, or other mental illness say they feel disconnected. And that's, that's what it felt like I was disconnected. I've heard some people say with schizophrenia, that it's like watching TV, like you can see exactly what's in front of you, but you can't reach out and interact through the screen. You just feel very disconnected. Like you're watching a movie of your life or something. It was so hard to get out of bed in the morning. And to keep going through the day. I really just wanted to lie there. To be honest. The first 15 years of my recovery, I wanted to be in a coma, I literally would rather have just been in a coma. For people that are listening who have it or who have a family member who have it. I want to tell you that it's possible to get through, like there is hope. I sort of have two messages for people who haven't gone through schizophrenia or mental illness. I try to let them know like how difficult it is so people can show more respect and have more empathy for people going through through mental illness or schizophrenia. My other point I tried to make is for people going through it, I want to downplay how difficult because it is, and so you can get through it, you can keep going. One very interesting thing that's being worked on is called Avatar therapy. This is for people who have hallucinations. Through this therapy after maybe 6, 8, 10 sessions or so once a week, their hallucinations stop. Not all of them. Some, it doesn't work for some people, some people get partial results, other people, their their hallucinations disappear, which I think is just incredible, because these can last for years or decades and people and to have them gone in just a matter of you know, a handful of sessions over a matter of weeks, I think is incredible. So they're working on this and trying to get it more. In Canada. There's a group that's made this available to people, they're still working on it and trying to do more research on it.

Are there any role models, you have other people, you know, have that also deal with mental illnesses as well?

Hmm. I have some role models for people with mental illness. I do know that there's a lady, a young lady, Cecilia Mcgough. And she's got a TED talk. She has schizophrenia. And her TED Talk that came out in 2015 is called I am not a monster schizophrenia. She's in her mid 20s. And in her, she's trying to tell people like I have schizophrenia, but I'm not a monster. I don't you know, I'm not I'm not out to hurt anybody. She started a nonprofit. She's in New York City. She has student advocates with schizophrenia or psychosis all around the world. And they help cause schizophrenia often hits people, late teens or early 20s. With women that might hit a bit later, maybe late 20s. But that's not set in stone, you can get a girl who gets it like 13 or something. It's schizophrenia is also known to skip generations sometimes that there's still a bit of there's mystery around it. They don't know exactly, everything about it. But she her nonprofit, she's got a student advocates, because schizophrenia often hits and at the university age, and I'm really impressed with what she's doing for schizophrenia. It's she when COVID hit, she started posting videos of their zoom sessions with their student advocates with schizophrenia or psychosis all over the world. And for the first time in my life, I was seeing pictures of people who have the same thing as being schizophrenia. They'd have like a photo of like a zoom session with like, 10, 12, 20 people on it. And they just keep posting these and posting these, and I never seen so many people. And it just shows how much we're not represented in the media, or how many people even I've met in my life, we all kind of hide around it. We're not out loud and proud with it. And I wish that would change with with COVID. Things have changed a lot more with mental health that everything's out in the open, but they say that some mental illnesses still earned out as much as they should be. So it's on my website in the about section. I've got a couple links there to people who sell T-shirts and clothing for people to promote schizophrenia awareness. So I'm trying to be I'd like to have more people at schizophrenia held in mainstream conversation. So yeah, Robin Williams son, Zach Williams. He is and Tim Shriver of the founder of the Special Olympics. And Allison Janney, the actress from the TV show The West Wing, they and others have a#BreakTheChains platform. Because some people with mental illness are actually kept in chains in some countries. They estimate hundreds of thousands not millions, but hundreds of thousands of people with untreated mental illness kept in chains in 60 countries. And I linked to their their website on my on my website, hashtag break the chains and that there's a pledge there you can sign. They're looking for 20,000 signatures if any of your viewers want to sign that. They're trying to get help to unchained people with mental illness. And yes, Zach Williams helps promote that. The bottom there if you scroll down just a little bit. Yeah. Then the blue break. #BreakTheChains there's a link there. Yeah, yeah. That's the page. Yeah. There's Allison Janney and there's a video there that Allison Janney image there, that's a YouTube video with Alison and Zach and Tim Shriver and some other celebrities who are helping Stop, this is a pleasure. They've got 13,000 signatures so far, you're looking for 20,000. And there's some things there you can share on social media. Mostly, it's, I'd have to say that if anything that helped me, later in life, like specifically through my disease, it was my bike trip across Canada that really put some wind in my sails. That gave me a lot of confidence. It taught me about pacing, I know, I biked from Vancouver to St. John's, Newfoundland. And I did that with my disease. From I had to pace myself just, I didn't I, I really had to watch my emotions, not to get too stressed out. And not to get too depressed, I had to try to keep them balanced as best as I could. And it was tough, but the, the pacing of myself through my bike trip that I think that helped. And plus just the confidence it was, I remember thinking, you know, if I can, if I can bike across Canada, maybe I can get through schizophrenia. And, yeah, February 11 2021, my disease stopped, the pain just stopped, I still took my medication, I'm still on it now. But I the symptoms stopped, I've been left in this kind of the last year has been this kind of debriefing phase, like I get to actually think and ponder and reflect on what I've been through. And, and so what I'm trying to do is I'm working on actually getting out of the pain out of the fighting, like getting out of the Holocaust, or getting out of the natural disaster, I'm getting into a place finally of just peace and contentment. And just I can sit here I can enjoy life, I'm not being I'm not trying to figure out how to make it through the next few minutes. I just just get to sit here and enjoy life. And what I'm trying to do is I get time to think about what I've been through. And I'm slowly gaining some I'm gaining confidence and strength and holding my head up high for the first time in 30 years, I get to hold my head apart and say look like I'm I don't have to hang my head in shame. It's, I get to stand tall. And this is all very new to me. So the things that schizophrenia, either I'm thankful for, I'm working on that. And I'm making headway. I know that one of the big things that I've been thankful for through the whole time, I guess would be more empathy for other people. What I'm thankful for now is that for people who I look at other people on the street, or people anywhere, and I'm much more understanding, maybe not of their specific problems, but of the depth of their pain, or their suffering, I get now a lot more the suffering and struggles that people go through, even though I don't know their exact experience. I don't think you need a reason to help. I think it's, I think it's just get up and do it. If you if you're if it's something you're interested in. And you don't you don't even have to be passionate about it. Don't Don't wait for the passion to, to to hit you if that means sometimes passion doesn't come and try something that interests you and go with that. There's a book on that. It's called the motivation myth. He says people think they need to wait for this lightning bolt of inspiration to say, that's what I'm going to do. He says sometimes that happens, but oftentimes it doesn't. And he says, the trick is people think they need to have the confidence before they start. But he says when you start in you take these small steps, take a small step, that will give you a bit of confidence. Take another small step that'll give you a bit more confidence. And just keep taking these small steps, the steps, the actions give you the confidence. You don't have to wait for the confidence in order for you to take action.

If you could go back in time, and give your younger self some advice, what would you tell them?

So it comes back to what I was talking about at the start. It's you're capable of so much more than you think you are. I believe we all have vast, vast, vast amounts of courage, patience, determination, dormant, lying dormant inside us, waiting to be used at a moment's notice. during crisis. It's there all the time. We're capable of so much more. If I could tell myself Matthew, this is what you're gonna do with your life down the road. This is what's going to happen to you. I'm like, Whoa, I don't know about that. I don't know if I can do that. What? Really, that's what I'm going to go through. Wow. Holy smokes, but If I told myself, Matthew, you are going to be given, you already have deep within deep within you lying dormant. Courage, patience, determination, and you will be able to get through this. You will you will come out the other end you will find peace and contentment. It's, uh if I could tell my younger self that I would have, I'd love to hear it.

Interesting input Matt. Well, thank you again for being on the show. This has been great.

You're welcome. Thanks so much. You've got some questions I haven't thought about so that's, uh, you've been getting my mind working.

Working to man. Yeah, so a special thanks to our sponsors here. Allison Roberts, grab her book, it's behind the power. It kind of serves a powerful book on on breaking unhealthy thought patterns and creating a more powerful version of yourself in the future. And then our second sponsor lifework systems, they're a collaborative partner, big business, they work with corporate businesses and companies and create the culture that people really want to have. So if you own a business and you want to improve your company culture, reach out to this woman here. Alright, and also we're available on our Roku channel. So I'm Jimbo Paris is the Jimbo Paris show. Thanks again Matt. Great having you.

Thanks so much. Thank you for listening to the Jimbo Paris show.