CARIMAC Times 2016: The JREAM Edition Journalists Reviving Awareness of what Matters | Page 81

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he stared at it, turned, and then
walked away. She headed to a chair
that was placed next to the fence,
sat, and watched as cars and groups
of people moved along the road on
the other side.

As she spoke, she nodded. Her eyes were fixed
on the road. She stood, removed her blouse,
skirt and undergarment. She returned to the
chair and sat, nude.
On that day, Natalie Irving, 43, experienced
her first “major” psychotic episode. She later
discovered that she had a mental illness —
schizophrenia.
Then 30-year-old, Irving is among the 27,000
individuals living with Schizophrenia in Jamaica,
a small-island state with an estimated population
of 2.7 million people.

According to the Ministry of Health, schizophrenia
affects approximately one per cent of the
population, with the first signs usually manifesting
in people who are between the ages of 15 and
34 years.
Sounds of change
“I was hearing voices. I was there talking to
myself and suddenly the voice told me to take
off my clothes, so I took off everything. People
were passing and staring at me, and my son
was crying and pleading with me to get dressed,
but I ignored them,” she recounted.
Irving’s 14-year-old son asked his uncle to
intervene, as he was unable to convince his
mother to get dressed. He, along with other

members of the family, made efforts to take
her to see a doctor, but she refused.
“I was suspicious of the doctor and didn’t want
to go. So my family got him to come to me.
He recommended that they take me to the
psychiatry department at the hospital.”
Irving was told information she was not
prepared to hear.
“The psychiatrist there asked me many questions
about my life. And based on what he was asking
and what I was answering, I [too] realised that
something was really wrong with me. I was
diagnosed with schizophrenia,” she said, adding
that, for her, schizophrenia is hereditary, as
other members of her family have also been
diagnosed.
Irving explained to CARIMAC Times that her
relationship with her children had suffered as
a result of her being ill.
“My son remained with me, but I couldn’t manage
to take care of my last child, who was a baby
at the time... she had to live with her paternal
grandmother. And I lost my second child in a
custody battle. Her father used my illness to
his advantage.”
The child’s father painted the picture of a
dangerous woman who is of unsound mind and,
therefore, incapable of caring for herself and
others, especially a child. The court acquiesced.
“She was also very scared of me, and whenever
I would go to look for her, she would run away,
scream, and hide. It affected her negatively
and was really painful for me. Even to this day,

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