Voices that 'faded' away

An unusual subject drew the academic and film aficinadoes alike to the film screening of A Drop of Sunshine based on the life of Reshma Valliappan who was diagnosed with schizophrenia at 22 and was able to overcome the worst of it by 30.

Schizophernia is only one word but infused with multiple interpretations like mad, incurable, violent, suicidal, chemical imbalances, crazy and most of all a lifelong condition. The diagnosis is invariably followed by inevitable dependency on medicines or so the psychiatrists who treat schizophrenia conventionally, would have us believe.

Reshma is certainly not the only one who has overcome the disease but what makes her special is the way with which she crossed this ‘dark tunnel’. She and her parents challenged the conventional ways of treating schizophrenia only through medicines, a decision which unlikely to come very easy for others in a similar predicament.

Even as she was on medicines, Reshma’s father, a scientist, felt that perhaps they should look for alternative routes for their daughter to overcome the symptoms, hearing ‘voices’ being the foremost.

Taking the help of book therapy, her parents surrounded her with books on the subject in which the protagonist goes through similar ordeals. “I began reading these books that were lying around the house and realised, ‘OMG, that is exactly what I am going through. I had to read the same book a zillion times to understand this was what was ailing me too,” Reshma explains.

There were other ways where her family and her therapist ‘allowed’ Reshma to take her own decisions - including giving up medication “because science could not give me answers” about my illness and allowing her to move out of the house to be on her own, without the support system that she was dependent on.

Reshma too shares that the rebel in her could not be quelled for long and once encouraged by her friend to befriend the voices in her head -she did so only to discover that this was a better approach. “It was these voices that asked me to take up painting and I did.” Today, Reshma is a successful professional painter.

After the film’s screening, Aparna shared, “Before starting the film I had some other ideas about the subject of my film but eventually I ended up making a film on schizophrenia. The film revealed a lot to me while shooting and somehow I have this karmic connection with Reshma.”

On asking the kind of problems she faced, she said, “This was an alien subject for me and a lot of stigma is attached to it. People shy away from talking on camera. But, Reshma was ready to talk her illness.” In the process, she is empowering not only herself but others afflicted similarly.