I'm a high-functioning schizophrenic according to my therapist, who I haven't seen in months due to my health insurance changes. I had my first really bad episode of psychosis in 2013 when I was 20, which was exactly identical to the recollection Paul Alexander told in his vice documentary @6:21
Broke up with a long-term girlfriend and entered a state of depression/isolation for months, on top of staying up a lot of nights trying to get good grades at uni to put myself through med school. Then all of a sudden, shit just hit the fan and I got this disoriented belief that the FBI or CIA were after me. I was hallucinating and seeing the words in skate magazines and textbooks morphing into words that were saying things like "you're worthless/we're watching you" as well as being delusional and feeling like everyone was out to get me. I was super manic to the point where my brother, who was living with me at the time, had noticed my odd behavior and immediately called my mom to fly up ASAP to admit me to a psych ward. I stayed for a week and was diagnosed as schizoaffective. Was on a cocktail of meds that sedated the fuck out of me as well as made me so uncoordinated I couldn't even balance on a skateboard, on top of gaining 30 pounds in the span of 2 months from medication side affects.
I convinced my psychiatrist to take me off meds because I was doing better and thought it was just a brief episode of psychosis and nothing more, but then in 2017, I started feeling paranoid and delusional again and contemplated suicide because I had this delusion that everyone including my friends/roommates were trying to plot against me.
I went to numerous psychiatrists that allowed my health insurance to get a second opinion on my diagnosis and they all told me I have schizophrenia, not schizoaffective. One really good psychiatrist though recommended for me to go to out-patient group therapy and it honestly helped me a ton. Checking in about your feelings to complete strangers who are in the same situation if not worse really helped me to feel less isolated and opened me up to discuss my personal demons as well as get professional/helpful anonymous feedback from people who are willing to help/have been in the same situation.
Mental health is so tough and there's still a stigma behind it, but pals, don't be afraid to get help