WHEN she was 19, Louise Gillett suffered a nervous breakdown and was sectioned in a mental health hospital.

The 44-year-old author of Surviving Schizophrenia: A Memoir, says she was very confused and delusional at the time.

“I was convinced I was about to die, or that I was dead already,” she says. “I was sure that I was being followed and spied upon. I could neither sleep nor eat, or communicate with any degree of coherence.”

Louise says she hated being hospitalised, where she was forcibly given medication.

“I left after about three months, symptom-free, and managed to stop taking psychiatric drugs within a year.

“I was still very anxious though – which is, I think, why I eventually broke down and was sectioned again, twice over the next 12-year period.”

Now she leads a normal life with her four children in Christchurch. She has had no symptoms of mental illness and taken no mental health medication for more than ten years.

“Since the birth of my children – the eldest is now 12 – I have fully recovered. I do not hear voices, or suffer hallucinations, or have any other symptoms that are associated with mental ill health.”

In fact until the publication of her book, nobody knew about her diagnosis. For Louise had kept it a secret because she felt that the worst thing about being diagnosed with schizophrenia was the shame and stigma associated with the term.

“I’m actually campaigning for a change of name for the diagnosis to thought disorder or something which sounds more innocuous.”

Louise has also launched a creative writing group in Christchurch with the charity Rethink Mental Illness to help other people in a similar situation.

The group is open to anyone. The workshops are being held weekly on Friday afternoons in Mudeford. Cost £2 per session. For details contact Louise on 07923 569 273 or at christchurchwritinggroup@rethink.org.