During the past 18 years, I have enjoyed life in full recovery from schizophrenia, though I was told initially that this could never happen.

Following years of suffering from debilitating schizophrenia, my journey to working again was rough. Ironically, my first symptoms in 1999 at age 17 included a strong obsession with work and school, with very little time left for friends or family. Oddly, as my illness progressed, the opposite happened. I gradually found myself unable to study or work.

Looking back years later, from a place of stable recovery, I ask myself, why could I not handle even a part-time or low-stress job? I understand today that this was because I was experiencing certain symptoms of schizophrenia, namely delusions, paranoia, and catatonia, which left me disabled. Delusions

In 2002, the fall semester of my senior year of college, I began to believe I would become a prophet and was destined to be a billionaire. My racing mind believed I could change the lives of millions living in poverty across Africa.

Delusions, in my experience, are not simply passing thoughts, but are fixed, false beliefs. Never in my life have I been so obsessed with anything as I was with delusions. This made it difficult to focus on anything else, even for a few minutes. I remember trying to study for a class and not being able to read the words on the page, though I........

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