Why don’t you introduce yourself?
Hi, my name’s Tim. I’m 17 years old. I have voice issues in my head. Schizoaffective. I can’t pronounce that word.

What do you mean, “voice issues?” 
Like, voices in my head.

What do they say to you?
To beat people up. Run away.

Do they ever say anything  nice?
No.

Can you hear them now?
No.

Why not?
They’re gone right now.

Why do you think that is?
My meds are working.

What meds do you take? 
I dunno.  Clozapine.

What’s not so good about your meds?
They make me tired. Blood draws suck. I have one once a month.

How many voices do you hear?
Two.

How are they different? 
They say different things. I don’t want to say what.

How do you like your school? 
Good.  We have basketball courts. I like sports.

Do you have a job? 
Yes. I put stuff together.  I put stuff in boxes and deliver them to different, like, places.

Do you go to school?
Yep. I study math, money, reading, some science. We’re studying about Cindy Bentley.

Who’s that?
She did a lot of sports a long time ago. She has the same problems I do. But she still played sports professionally. (mom’s note: Tim classifies as developmentally disabled due to the IQ he’s lost due to psychosis)

What do you want to be when you grow up?
I wanna help pets out. I want to take care of them.  If people don’t take care of them, I will help them.

Like a shelter? 
Yeah.

What else? 
I want to have dogs.  I wanna have many pets. Four.

We have four now. 🙂
Yeah.

You want four of your own? 
Yeah.

What kind?
I don’t know. It doesn’t matter.

Do you feel different than other kids? 
Yeah. I have a friend who has a car. I don’t drive. He can drive. Another flies planes. He’s really lucky.

What else do you want people to know about you? 
I’m good at sports. My voices make me different, but not dangerous. I’ll have to take meds forever.  I don’t like taking meds, but they help me.

Anything else you want to say?
No. Merry Christmas, everybody. If you have any questions, send them to my mom and I will try and answer them.