Story from Elementary School

[Dave Darling]

Hey, something that happened to me as a child- this was in elementary school. I did not play with the other children at recess, I would just go to some remote area of the playground and sit there until it was over. One day I was just sitting there by myself and a voice spoke to me, it said "Don't be afraid." "You have a mental illness." I asked the voice in my heart, saying "Who are you?". The voice said "God." I did not realize it at the time but I had the beginning effects of schizophrenia, I had the prodrome, that explained the way I was. I was very bad socially through middle school and high school, I had only 1 or 2 friends, everyone else in the school hated me. Finally in the first week of my freshman year in college I started hearing voices, I came down with full-blown schizophrenia when I was there, I went completely off the deep-end and landed in the psych ward at the local hospital and eventually flunked out of college after 2 semesters. I was an atheist and a hardcore drug user but I gave my life to Christ in 2003, I was then delivered from the voices and was restored to my right mind, I still have some symptoms but I believe my complete healing is coming!