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Find out more about Miles and his mental health recovery in his #mentalhealthselfie    • Hearing voices, paranoia and schizoph...  

Transcript
Lucy: This is my wonderful house here I live at the moment with my parents. Been here, like, for 20 years; only parted when I moved out to Uni but I came back in January. So yes, come inside.
Lucie: What happens now is that I live with my mom and I have support workers that come in and help me to do stuff in the home, and they also take me out and do stuff and that’s good because I... And they’re not there all the time, they’re just there sometimes and that works better because then I feel like I’ve got a normal life but I’m also getting the support that I need sometimes.
Miles: I got this place after bidding for, like, a year solid on the housing list and excited to finally be in here.
Billy I went from hospital, where I was for nine months, into a rehabilitational unit. I was there for a good couple of years; I'd say three years, and then from there I went to, what they call, like, a satellite house. You still get a carer come in every night and to make sure the house is being run and, you know, everything is up to standard in the house. Clean, tidy, food in the cupboards, no drink and all that… That we’re looking after ourselves. And then from the satellite house I moved to here.
Lucy: I'm so, so excited to be going; I can't believe this day has come. I didn’t think it would, at one point in my life. I thought that I’d always be dependent on my parents, especially when I was stuck in depression.
Lucie: We’re going to split my house into two so that I’ve got the upstairs level and my mom got the downstairs level so I can live a bit more independently with my daughter and not have my mom there all the but she’s still right next door if I need her.
The room that’s my mom’s room at the moment is going to, hopefully, end up being my daughter’s room and the bathroom’s going to stay the same and my daughter’s room’s going to be my new kitchen; my room’s staying the same. And the then office and spare bedroom is going to be my living room and, hopefully, my office as well, in case I want to start working and maybe set my own business up.
Miles: Even though I’m living by myself, I still get support from my CPN in terms of help with my medication and just seeing if I'm generally all right. I’m not stressed, I’m not depressed and I think getting a job adds to that because I’m not in the house all day. I think being in the house all day can make you quite anxious and you cannot want to leave eventually.
Billy: I'm just taking you to the garden. Been 18 months I’ve lived here for now and it's been the best 18 months in the six years that I’ve had… well I suffered from depression, anyway. And this is the beautiful garden; it is massive, as you can tell.
Miles: This is, like, the first time I’ve been living by myself; otherwise, I’ve been living in shared houses and stuff. So I’m really excited to show you what's been going on. Yes, the stairs… Go upstairs; just what stairs are for. And if you turn to the left, onto the hallway; behind this door is the bedroom. Sorry, I’m a bit of a slob. Behind that door is the bedroom and then past the bathroom we have the front room. This is a little poster I want to put up. And that’s the tour of the house.
Lucy: So it's been a week and I’ve settled in so quickly. It's been so lovely, especially with my friend; it's just such a laugh and it's nice to have some space and time to myself. Starting a new chapter of life, I guess.
Billy: With me playing my music, you know, there's another guitarist here, luckily, as well. Seeing how we, kind of, bounced ideas off each other, you know, I’ve got songs, we’ll add in a set in the other.
Miles: The good thing about living on your own… You can decorate how you want
Lucie’s Mum: What are you doing now, Luc?
Lucie: I’m just stripping this wallpaper. So spray-washing it first to get wet and then strip it off.
Lucie’s Mum: Okay.
Lucie: Which is really hard to get off.
Lucie’s Mum@ Yes.
Billy: It is a nice living environment and I would recommend it to anyone that is recovering from mental health illness. Any mental illness, you now, it's just a nice place to be.
Miles: I know, you’ve got to pay bills yourself but I’m working now so I can do that. Good thing is I’m in a area I know… People that I know. So if anything goes wrong they’re just around the corner, I can go there any time. I do like it here.
Lucie: So yes, I'm feeling a lot more confident than I was years ago… A few years ago. Getting out of the house and all; definitely being more independent. I kind of enjoy learning Italian, I learned going to the gym. Enjoying spending time with my daughter and I like spending time with my support workers and my friends and my family...