Page 11 - atd

a11
local Wednesday 3 august 2022

Jeremy Ruiz: “I managed to deal and live with seven different

voices in my head”

Even though he has faced head, that’s usually a symp- the voices”, he says.
many situations in his life tom of another problem
and was diagnosed with – as happens with people Ruiz chooses several mo-
schizophrenia, a mental who experienced trauma ments each day when he
condition which causes or who are addicted to al- sits and drinks coffee with
him to hear seven differ- cohol. As time went on, he the voices. One of them
ent voices, he managed began taking medication he calls the ‘coffee break’,
to overcome and live with to try to remove the voices where he sits and talks with
them every day. Now, Jer- from his head, but never the voices, makes a check-
emy Ruiz feels happy and succeeded. list how the situation is on
at peace. “Instead, I started suffer- that day. “My approach
ing secondary effects from is to see what the voices
In an interview with our re- the mediations, my tongue need so that they can be
porter, Jeremy Ruiz said would swell, every three happy, so I can be happy,
that six years ago he gave days I could sleep because we can be happy, instead
a presentation to the direc- the medications were ac- of acting like they don’t ex-
tor of Aruba’s correctional cumulating in my system ist. I deal with the problem.”
facility, KIA, and to some and I couldn’t get up be-
departments. Now Ruiz is cause of them”, Ruiz says. Ruiz is a person who gives
on vacation in Aruba, to lessons and guidance to
marry his partner Jenni- Because of this, he spoke people who are residents
fer. Here he explains that with his father and said that of mental health facilities
he likes to come back to that was no way to live, be- in the Netherlands. “I try to
Aruba to tell those who are cause the voices he was help them when they have
interested how he sees cer- hearing were not becom- to deal with problematic
tain aspects of his life, and ing less, and he was get- or annoying voices. Each
he always like giving back ting more problems with day I let the loudest voice,
to Aruba. the medication itself com- the one that needs the
pared to when he was us- most attention – for which
Ruiz told us he was born in ing substances. So he got I have a collection of text,
the Netherlands and came help from his father to move paintings, something on
to live in Aruba as a child. to the Netherlands to find which the voices feel re-
But when he was 25 years another way to cope with flected – and this way my
old, he decided to go to the voices he was hearing. relationship with the voices
the Netherlands in order to changed. Instead of being
get a better understand- In the Netherlands he met my enemy, they became
ing of the mental condition groups who see voice a friend. I’m conscious that
from which he was suffer- hearing as an experience each voice has its char-
ing, schizophrenia. Living of special senses. Ruiz says acter and their own way
back in the Netherlands, that there are also people of being. I have one that
Ruiz learned to see his con- who feel things on their skin, I call the pessimist; he can
dition in a different way, for example. Came a time never see things in a good
“in a more positive way, that the amount of voices way. But with time I learned ceived help 16 years ago, exist by giving medication
not like an illness, but like he was hearing increased, to use what he says to help he wouldn’t have made it or keeping someone at
something to deal with that and now he hears seven me.” to the Netherlands. “Fun- home is not a solution. My
doesn’t necessarily require different voices. “My mind dacion pa Maneho di mother and father made
medication”. projects a form for them, Ruiz says that before he felt Adiccion (Addiction Man- sure that I could go to the
and just as when I speak less in control because he agement Foundation) in Netherlands and still have
He categorizes himself as a to people, I can see them didn’t understand the situ- Sero Colorado coached a study in sport. That’s
‘voice listener’, because he when I speak with them.” ation, but through reading me, that’s where I came where I began finding psy-
hears seven different voic- books and learning from from. They helped me pre- chological and psychiatric
es every day. He is aware He declared that his fam- experience at the same in- pare to go to the Nether- help, where I said I no lon-
that he has been hearing ily has been a big help in stitute where he received lands. Even though I don’t ger wanted help to silence
them for five years now. his life and they accept help, he got the opportu- live on Aruba now, that the voices. They heard me,
When he was a child, at that the voices are part of nity to start in the school helped me to go as far as over there organizations
13 he began experiencing him, and are not trying to system, six years ago. Each I went, together with my fa- help in different ways, they
with addictive substances, change him. “They always time he starts with a new ther. Although there might see it differently. I found
and when he was 19 he loved me, even though class with a new group in be people who say this isn’t something that allows me
was sent to a rehabilitation they might not understand three different places in fruitful, I can say that it did to live at peace, I don’t
center in Santo Domingo, or know, as a mother, fa- the Netherlands, he gives work for me.” feel negatively towards it
and this is how he was di- ther or partner, they don’t lectures and presentation. and it doesn’t break me.
agnosed with schizophre- know what it is because “The basis is that the one His message is that “some- Since I made peace with
nia. “I think that was when they can’t feel nor see it. who went through the ex- times, people need to see the voices I hear and their
I was around 21 or 22”, he But they know as a part- perience can help another certain life lessons and influence on my character
says. ner to accept the behav- to deal with their experi- certain things that hap- and way of thinking, I feel
ior, the thought, the daily ence”, he says. pen with people in Aruba, happy. I just got married,
Ruiz says that nowadays life, because every day and remove the taboo to I have a twelve year old
in psychiatry when a per- from when I wake up in the Regarding the mental talk about the subject. Just son, and I feel happy and
son receives a diagnosis morning until I fall asleep at health system in Aruba, giving something a name, at peace.”
of hearing voices in their night – I even dream with Ruiz says if he hadn’t re- and then act like it doesn’t