My Bio
Matthew grew up on a small hobby farm in Prince Edward County near
Ameliasburgh. He briefly attended Kente Public School before being
pulled out to be tutored at home; where he fostered interests in the
environment and public policy. Upon becoming a teenager, Matthew
attended Moira Secondary School where he participated in various
extracurricular activities including: badminton, track and field and
model UN. He went on to attend Queen’s University in the fall of 2009
majoring in Political Science. Upon completing first year, Matthew began
to deteriorate at school struggling academically and living on the
streets for a period; experiencing spiritual renewal he attempted to
improve the culture at Queen’s by pushing it in a new direction. He also
had ambitions to protest the Steven Harper government during the spring
2011 election — attempting to host a debate at Queen’s between Harper
and select students. After experiencing a psychosis while attending a
leadership conference in Montreal during the early summer of 2011 things
began to rapidly come undone. Matthew ended up pulling out of
university at the start of third year after experiencing a second
psychosis and being hospitalized in Belleville and began to drift for a
period, to get away from everything he travelled to New Brunswick and
was hospitalized again in Campbellton in the spring of 2012. Enjoying
the atmosphere out East he went on to Halifax and then returned to
Prince Edward County experiencing another psychosis in Belleville over
Christmas 2012. He then began steady antipsychotic therapy after
realizing that some kind of change was necessary and was also enrolled
into Ontario Works and then the Ontario Disability Support Program. He
was treated by the ACTT team under the supervision of Dr. Alnaickly
slowly putting on weight and achieving little for a period. Realizing
that change was needed a weight loss program was initiated in July 2015
along with some mild exercise. Matthew founded a local think tank that
winter focused on improving public policy internationally (playing a
small role in the Syrian conflict and the U.S election). In the summer
of 2016 he started a more robust exercise routine under the tutelage of a
dear friend. He also started flax oil (omega 3’s) for brain health.
With improving cognitive function from exercise Matthew made a series of
step improvements in how he managed his schizophrenia, making constant
notes of what worked and what didn’t. He published his first in a series
of YouTube videos on the subject in the summer of 2018 along with his
first blog entry “Strategies for Improving Schizophrenia Outcomes” which
was published at the time as a Facebook post. In the spring of 2019 he
began writing a book on public policy — the draft of which was finished
in the spring of 2020 then edited and published in January 2021. Matthew
went on to found a charity for the environment in the summer of 2021,
followed closely in September 2021 by the opening of the Schizophrenia
Help website which focuses on helping those with schizophrenia recover
as best they can after being diagnosed with the disease.
Matthew
enjoys going to the gym, researching, hanging out with a friend or two,
walks/jogs, building (not with his hands though), attending
conferences, biking and attempting to give back to the wider community
(in a not too vain attempt at self-preservation).
Contacts:
matthew.schizophreniahelp@gmail.com
Threema ID: WV8Y35Z9
Social:
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