I was seventeen years old and I had just graduated from high school in the top 5% of my graduating class. I was accepted into a prestigious university. By the end of my first fall I was severely depressed. I would sleep all day. I had given up on my dreams and lost all sight of my ambitions. Towards the end of my first year, I saw a psychiatrist and was put on medication for depression. I did not think the medication worked so I stopped taking it. My second year was marked with bouts of paranoia, emotional instability, restlessness and a lack of focus. Needless to say my grades were poor, often failing. At the end of the second year, I started seeking psychiatric help. I was placed on medication for a bipolar disorder. I decided to put college on hold and started working. I stopped taking my medication. After a little more than a year, I entered into a deep psychosis and became unable to work. I lived in an alternate reality and I believed whole-heartedly in its veracity.
I thought my parents saw the reality that I saw but it was not until months later that they became aware of the fact that I was hearing voices that only I could hear. I went to a neurologist who sent me for an evaluation. The evaluation said that I would never be able to return to college or live a normal functional life. I was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. I was referred to a psychiatrist and placed on anti- psychotics.
Through our pastor, my parents found out about the Don Dickerman Deliverance Ministry. During my first day in Texas, I remember still being in touch with the alternate reality. After the deliverance, this alternate reality started fading into the past. I still thought about it from time to time but eventually I was confronted with the truth that it was never real. Altogether the episode had lasted for eight months. Shortly after my visit in Texas I started setting goals again. I began to see a future for myself apart from living day to day. I became ambitious once again and returned to school. I earned my Associates degree in under a year with close to a 4.0 GPA. I am now at another university with close to a 4.0 GPA, a few semesters from graduating with my Bachelors.