Note: The Better India does not endorse any of the actions mentioned in this report as actions recommended for persons living with Schizophrenia. The views and thoughts expressed are those of the artist alone.

“If there is a workshop with the name ‘Mental Health Creative Workshop’, nobody is going to come for it. If you want to go out there and make a change, you cannot say ‘mental health’, because that is exactly what people are so scared of. You cannot put a ghost in front of someone who is afraid of ghosts and say, ‘Hey! Let’s be friends’. You have got to do it with a completely reverse approach,” says Reshma Valliappan, who was diagnosed with Schizophrenia at the age of 22.

This is exactly what she has been doing since a long time now. Through art and creativity, she has been taking a completely reverse, and awesomely effective approach to address the issue of mental health, which is otherwise considered nothing but a taboo in our society.

This is her journey.

The person:

During the early years of her treatment, Reshma was given an extremely large amount of medication until a point where even her psychiatrist did not consider it humane to give any more medication.

Because of the medication, she was sleeping almost 18 hours a day and was suffering from numerous side effects. “I remember sometimes while I would be sleeping, my mom and dad had to move my legs for me, quite like being a........

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