I’m Corey, and this is my story…
I had a good upbringing; both my mum and dad took care of me and my five other siblings. Until the unthinkable happened to my youngest sister, Jorja Rose. On the 4th April 2016 she was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour. She battled it for 18 months until she passed away on the 21st October 2017, she was only two years old. It left us all heartbroken and with poor mental health. When I was 17, my psychosis symptoms started.
I was only aged 14 when my sister passed away. I was referred to CAMHS as I had started to self-harm as a way to cope, and I had anger issues. I did some work around bereavement and I was told I had something called complicated grief.
As I got older, I began drinking, at first just socially with friends on the weekends. Over time, I started drinking alone, and it began to take a toll on my wellbeing. One evening, a friend encouraged me to try drugs, saying it would help me feel more in control. At first, it made me feel more confident, but gradually I began to rely on it to cope.
After a few months, my mental health started to decline. I began experiencing unusual thoughts and feelings, believing that others could read my mind or control my thoughts. Realising something was wrong, I went to my doctor and asked for help. I was prescribed medication and sent home.
Not long after, during a particularly difficult time, I felt extremely distressed and made an impulsive decision to harm myself. Almost immediately, I regretted it and sought help from a family member, who quickly got me to hospital.
When my mum arrived, she told the doctors, “That’s not my son, something is very wrong.” At that point, my mental health had deteriorated significantly, and the team explained that I needed specialist care and arranged for me to be admitted to a mental health ward.
For the next couple of years, I was in and out of different hospital settings. I continued to experience paranoid thoughts which made me distressed and I reacted violently – believing at the time it was the right thing to do to protect myself and others.
During that time I had a Community Psychiatric Nurse (CPN) called Tanya, she helped me to gain insight into my illness which was called drug-induced psychosis. This was later changed to Paranoid Schizophrenia and Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder.
In April 2025 I moved to Cygnet Sherwood House. When I first arrived, I spent a lot of time in my room, I didn’t really want to engage with the staff or eat meals in the dining room.
I soon realised that I could talk to the staff – when I felt paranoid about something or had a thought in my head, I could go and tell them and it helped me a lot. The doctors here also reviewed my medications. All of the staff here are really reassuring – they are always there for you.
I’m hoping that soon I’ll be ready to be discharged, but at the moment I’m working towards being able to manage my medication. I join in with the psychology group and there’s a walking group too, which I join sometimes. The Occupational Therapists put on different activities as well.
I’m enjoying taking leave, I like to go to Nottingham when I can as it’s comfortable and familiar for me. I also take leave with my family now, which I love to do.
Being in a rehab ward has helped me even more than I thought it would. I feel like I’m making really good progress, as I’m no longer paranoid, I don’t hear voices anymore, and I’m feeling more like myself again.
In the future, I’d love to be an Expert by Experience and use my lived experience to help others. I feel like it will help me turn something negative into something positive.
There is a lot of stigma about people with schizophrenia – that we are dangerous, but actually, we tend to be scared of everyone else and what might happen to us. I would like people to better understand the illness and judge others less.
I want to share my experience to reassure people that it’s possible to be somewhere like a PICU, and still be able to turn things around. You can come back from anything if you put your mind to it.