ABOUT

This is my life story in five minutes

1968 - Born in Lancashire, England.

1976 - (8) Suffers maternal abandonment.

1979 - (11) Starts smoking cigarettes.

1982 - (14) Hospitalised in Belgium for acute alcoholic poisoning.

1985 - Begins smoking cannabis regularly.

1986 - (18) Accidentally takes an "heroic dose" of magic mushrooms.

1989 - (21) Graduates with 3rd class honours in chemistry.

1989 - Cannabis now causes immediate panic feelings. He feels he's wasted years, and begins learning classical piano in earnest.

1990 - After a year in his 1st job, he leaves feeling anxious and paranoid.

1992 - He leaves his 2nd job after extensive bullying. Much of it took two decades then a good CPN, for him to learn that the derogatory words directed to him in the 3rd person, had been creations of his own psychotic mind, and had not been real.

1992 - (24) He's admitted to a mental hospital and diagnosed with schizophrenia. Thankfully, the gravely serious illness, psychotic depression, became more apparent, so his prognosis improved.

1992 - Living off benefits, he volunteers in Winwick hospital's social therapy department.

1993 - He risks his income for an MSc in computing, luckily getting a grant.

1994 - (26) He sees Clare from the course who's much older, and he later graduates.

1994 - Suspicion and distrust remain innate. He lasts three days in a commercial software house.

1995 - Clare gets him weekend piano tuning work in a Dickensian like mill.

1995 - He annoys Ronnie, the brilliant elderly piano player and teacher, who gives lessons there. As Michael is psychologically fragile, and had let himself idolise Ronnie, the ensuing but unwittingly harsh tirade, hospitalises him.

1997 - He gets a job where he did his MSc.

1997 - (29) Passes Grade 8 piano playing with merit!

1998 - Suspicions/ paranoia arise again, especially about Clare. He's hospitalised; maybe for the last time, because he gets a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, and goes on lifelong lithium therapy.

1999 - Michael becomes a Roman Catholic. C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity", and Clare's weekly organ playing at Mass, are great influences.

2000 - His employer makes him idle for a decade, whilst medically, he is also on high doses of Risperidone. Writing poetry, tentatively at first, helps to give him meaning.

2006 - Clare is in hospital for 7 months, with septicemia. She is fighting for her life. It is won, but she is now permanently wheelchair bound, and partially deaf; the latter being due to a side-effect of Amikacin. Quickly after this major experience they decide to marry.

2010 - Redundancy puts Michael into the DWP's ESA Support group, as he's not viewed fit enough to work. With obvious free time, his poetry and general English skills improve greatly. He becomes a prolific writer.

2012 - (44) Square one: Clare dies. Michael is alone, unemployed, with low self-esteem, on £500 a month, for bills and everything, and he's caring for his incontinent elderly dog, that he has no heart to euthanise.

2013 - He begins to voluntarily walk dogs every Thursday for the RSPCA.

2014 - (46) Psychology sessions nevertheless highlight avoidance. So, he is told to join a local writing group. By reading a few of his better poems he's wins quick respect.

2014 - Michelle, a great animal lover, "winks" at him on the match.com dating site. The fact that he was an RSPCA dog walker made him stand right out to her.

2014 - They quickly and regularly meet. Michael soon proposes; notably before Michelle becomes pregnant.

2015 - (47) After six months together they marry, and share week-12 baby scans at the wedding. The week-20 ultrasound scan reveals a tragedy. Rose Megan, their only child, has severe spina bifida. After 2nd opinions she is stillborn.

2015 - Miscarriages and standard life problems follow. However, their relationship is a one in 10,000 chance, because Michelle also has bipolar disorder. That irony is a lucky one, that helps them to better understand one another. So, happiness continues, and pointless alternatives like self-pity remain rejected.