Should we prescribe typical or atypical drugs in the treatment of schizophrenia and related disorders? I hope in the next few lines to clarify the debate over this.

My own experiences of schizophrenia date back to around the turn of the 1990s. This was a very difficult time incurred by the use of cannabis and other factors. These included family pressures and pressures of university, relationships and so on.

There is no doubt to me that I was quite unwell for the first three or four years of the last decade. Some of my symptoms - both positive and negative - were very frightening. Looking back on them, my nature of recovery today is all the greater an achievement given what a mental state I was in. I owe myself - and others - thanks for coming back from this.

I would sometimes feel most uneasy in the simplest of situations. More difficult tasks became almost impossible due to the grip of my psychoses. Something like surviving a simple Underground journey became - to me - close to a true nightmare.

It was quickly apparent to my immediate peers that I needed treatment. The first treatment I was offered was an unusual atypical antipsychotic - sulpiride - that never worked. It is notable that this drug, in fact, consistently worsened my condition no matter how compliant I was.

This set of events continued almost unchecked until my first productive admission in 1993 at the Royal Bethlem Hospital. Here - with horror - I was immediately removed from this treatment and placed on a typical medication that quite evidently changed things very fast. This older style pill began to work where the supposed newer treatment had failed. It was - as I often describe - a rope being thrown to me in a very dark place. I have no doubt it was a turning point in my journey.

However, with the use of occupational and "normal people" therapy there remains conclusive evidence that a very recent couple of atypicals effected the true brilliant light in this journey of constant darkness. Their difference from the very first treatment began to make their mark.

And I sit here today and write with the above lucidity thanks to their research. I could list a very large array of real successes since that moment in 1996. There is no doubt that these achievements have been supported by the backbone of remaining compliant with the real new age order of medication. In fact I am convinced they will completely sustain this.

There are still difficulties regarding my situation and there is often discrimination about mental health issues within the community. It remains often the last taboo of the ignorant. We are unable to take up prejudice against race, background, sexuality. So some small minded individuals remain of the opinion that this is fair game. In fact research would show that it is the most unfounded prejudice of all and absolutely the least fair.

Statutory agencies often remain no better. There is a huge distance between what they claim to offer and what the client actually receives. Time and time again I have myself been made false promises by various parties that insist they are protecting my interests. When all is said and done they are simply protecting what they view as theirs.

Nonetheless it is certain that the basic step of providing a bare minimum of the appropriate choice of tablet has time and time again enabled me to find breaks in these clouds. Often when I have finished a day's work and taken my medication, the positive effect of simply being permitted to do this has, in itself, been of genuine encouragement.

I have brought the debate of atypical versus typical medication to a good number of lecture stands in a good breadth of places. Every time the audience has conceded that the most recently evidenced atypical treatments are the true source of hope within psychosis.

My conclusion is that you get what you pay for. The amount spent on development of the real class choice of "Rolls Royce" atypicals tells. It is without any doubt to me that the handful of these (and you probably can guess them) outweigh perhaps all treatment options within the entire scope of the psychosis debate. This I feel sure is a given.

I want you to sense the hope I feel in my journey now. But I really want you more to feel how it is due to compliance with, and respect for, these atypicals in the way I have written above. It is the undeniable duty of those who hold the power to supply everyone, who is in need of this chance, with this opportunity. So much of my success is tainted with a sorrow for those who are denied this chance. These drugs are, undoubtedly, the only real way forward.