Remembering Halloween as a Child

"As a kid, I always enjoyed Halloween. It was a fun time to meet with friends, dress up in a favorite costume, and gather treats from around the neighborhood. It is easy to remember my favorite costumes over the years. I was a rabbit one year, and a nurse another. My younger brother dressed up in a dog costume and a pirate costume. There was a year when we were both clowns."

"Sparky, our little dog, often got involved as we put a red handkerchief around his neck. Everyone wanted to play with him, and he was on his best behavior. Sparky was at least as excited as we were, as he loved being walked around our neighborhood, and this was even more special, as it broadened his horizons. Growing up, I could never imagine a future with schizophrenia and its devastating isolation."

"I never experienced clinical symptoms of schizophrenia as a young child or high school student. But as a young teenager, I began to withdraw from friends at school. My life revolved around my violin. I was competitive and began practicing four hours a day at age 13. I became a violin student of a college professor at the Cleveland Institute of Music Conservatory at age 13, her youngest student at that time."

The narrator recalls joyful Halloweens with costumes, neighborhood trick-or-treating, and a playful family dog named Sparky who enjoyed walks. The family lived in a parsonage on five wooded acres where the children built forts, boats, and bike paths. The father served as pastor of a small Baptist church. Early life was socially connected and musically focused. At age 13 the narrator practiced violin four hours daily, studied with a college professor at the Cleveland Institute of Music Conservatory, and joined the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. Teenage withdrawal emerged and later schizophrenia produced devastating isolation.

Read at Psychology Today