The Soloist
Mental condition does not discriminate. Despite Nathanial Ayers’ talent as a music performer, artist, and usually good upbringing, schizophrenia nonetheless found a way to enter into his life. Through meeting compassionate journalist Charlie Lopez, Nathanial Ayers surely could begin his road to recovery and learn to trust again. Schizophrenia is a persistent and debilitating brain disorder. It can be the effect of a number of things such as a difference in brain biochemistry and composition and also genetics. Most men develop schizophrenia within their late teens and early on twenties. This is seen in the case of Nathanial Ayers since it slowly started to be more obvious that something was wrong when he moved into Juilliard because an early twenty year old while witnessed simply by not only his teachers and classmates but also by simply his family members as well. Great symptoms of the sickness cause visitors to enter their particular world and by doing so, drop touch with reality. Several positive symptoms that Nathanial Ayers displayed include hallucinations, delusions and thought disorders. The positive indication that regularly came up throughout The Soloist was the believed disorder as when Dorrie Lopez would ask a basic question such as why he loved Mozart, Nathanial would be sent off into answering the question in this jumbled method that it will be very difficult to understand what having been trying to claim. Another sign that many people with schizophrenia have is substance abuse problems with the most typical addiction getting to nicotine. Nathanial Ayers was the different to this prevalent symptom when he abhorred cigarette smoking and anyone that smoked. In addition to schizophrenia, there is certainly often bigotry and/or hyper-religiosity as proved by Nathanial’s preoccupation with race, ethnicity, and intimate preference when ever describing the Toy Area of Are usually “Los Angeles is a Mozart city, however, you have Walt Disney, Colonel Sanders, LAPD, the blacks, all the Yo-Yo Man people, Jews, just like JEW-liard, homosexuals. They’ve got one particular, two, 3 homosexual pubs down there” (Lopez 60). Despite these types of symptoms, Nathanial Ayers was often a captivating and charismatic person. Quite often however , the symptoms might take a your hands on him and create sometimes a very irritated and risky person. Knowing the challenges facing him, Steve Lopez still wanted to turn into a part of Nathanial Ayers your life to make a big difference.
Nathanial Ayers had a generally good childhood. Things did start to fall apart the moment his father and mother divorced although, and he was forced to maneuver with his mother and siblings away from his father which will devastated him. He specifically had a hard time adjusting to his new step-siblings when his mom remarried. One positive aspect of the move was that in their new city, Nathanial was able to get new in order to foster his musical expertise. He had a number of music educators one of them being William Celestial satellite who captivated a fire in Nathanial to keep to improve his music and made him excited for the first time seeing that his dad left. His next teacher was Gary Karr who soon noticed that “He looked like there was struggling with his racial identity in a practically all-white environment” (Lopez 164). As Nathanial’s problems with racial hostility became worse, Karr went to the administration to suggest that he might have a mental state but they terminated him and Nathanial missed an opportunity to obtain the help that he necessary. As Nathanial progressed, his talent eventually led him to Juilliard on a scholarship grant. During his first term, he do incredibly well despite the pressure that this individual felt to do well every day. During his second session however , after a summer in Aspen, some thing had evidently gone wrong. His degrees began dropping, started ability to hear voices, became jumpy and provocative, and his family barely recognized him. A particularly unnerving experience was when Nathanial began burning off his clothes while visiting classmate Daniel Spurlock. Alarmed, his guests called for help and Nathanial was taken to a hospital where he was officially diagnosed with schizophrenia. His classmate later noticed that at the time, Juilliard as certainly not a growing environment also because of Nathanial’s background and issues, it was possibly the worst place for him to be. Nathanial’s complete malfunction led to him dropping out, and winding up on the roadways.
When Nathanial Ayers 1st met Sam Lopez, having been very stressed and hesitant as stated by Steve Lopez “He’s continue to suspicious of me personally, suspicious of every thing around him it seems” (Lopez 4). After a handful of initial meetings with Dorrie Lopez, Nathanial Ayers began to see him as a much less sketchy person, becoming “a little more comfortable each time” (Lopez 12). As Charlie Lopez started to bring Nathanial Ayers music related things such as new violin strings and new instruments, Nathanial’s gratitude towards Steve Lopez began to grow. With the devices now in Nathanial’s control, Steve Lopez started to understand that the devices may be producing Nathanial a target for you to get mugged and suggested that Nathanial visit the Lamp Community agency to obtain help. This individual soon noticed though, that Nathanial was very apprehensive to receiving any treatment. Steve Lopez saw how big a part music was in Nathanial’s life and used that to entice him into bettering him self such as obtaining him to start going to Light fixture, getting him into an apartment of his own, as well as attending live shows at Disney Hall which usually led to even more opportunities for him. Through these possibilities, Nathanial turns into increasingly open up and 6 months after conference each other, a friendship created between the two men. While time continued, his illness would seem to be getting better, with his transformation getting most evident when he visited Steve Lopez’s house to shell out time with his family intended for Easter since noted simply by Steve Lopez “The transformation of this person who hopped back in fear at the first conference is dizzying. At the moment she has entirely unprotected and totally free, reveling in the own revival. He appears to be savoring the day, the food, the company” (Lopez 222). At other times however , his illness would come in surf of extreme anger, most often if he believed that someone was trying to get him committed to a mental medical center such as when Steve Lopez arranged for a court hearing so his sister could take care of Nathanial’s legal and business affairs. Struggling with a delusion, Nathanial assumed it was every a ploy to receive him fully commited, became angered and started screaming expletives at Sam Lopez sense betrayed by him. In spite of the outbursts, Nathanial would eventually realize that having been wrong and would constantly come around and pardon. After Nathanial received his very own music studio and enjoyed a concert towards the end of the book, he responses on how this individual doesn’t understand if he could ever return to the way it was before his illness, not necessarily realizing how long he had previously come not merely because of the support that Charlie Lopez presented but likewise because of allowing for himself to get the help.
Mental illness has been the object of several debates because of many persons not knowing the right way to properly talk about and treat it. The views on how to treat schizophrenia in the book varies greatly. At the agency Lamp Community, they will try to help their clientele to make cultural connections within a supportive environment and come up with a goal which usually Nathanial already accomplished by their standards. Mollie Lowery, whom established Lamp, wanted to assure it would be a location without view to make their very own clients experience more relaxed and open to help. A lot like Lamp may be the Village which is run simply by Dr . Mark Ragins. This individual agreed the first step in treatment is definitely making a person comfortable to come in on his own. Doctor Ragins likewise believed that making connections with people was more important than making an analysis and Nathanial would only get better if perhaps he designed enough trust in people to go after his personal recovery. Nathanial had problems trusting persons when it came to his mental health in the first place because of his negative experiences by other mental hospitals in which they would offer his surprise treatment and a plethora of diverse psychotropic drugs. A completely diverse view on how to treat the illness came from a great anonymous psychiatrist who worked well at the La County Mental Health Section. She disagrees with Doctor Ragins and his coddling method of treating patients saying that the actual really need is usually psychiatric counselling and medication. Mistaken for which side to take, Steve Lopez asked Dr . Prchal and Doctor Shaner which side was right. Their particular take is that Dr . Ragins and the anonymous psychiatrist were both right as you cannot find any right or wrong with no absolutes in treatment. Doctor Ragins’ way was what worked great for Nathanial while pushing him only made him want to rebel against any kind of help he could acquire.
Nathanial Ayers’ journey through schizophrenia was obviously a long and troubling 1. By him finally staying willing to acknowledge help intended for his illness and the generosity of Steve Lopez while others, he was capable to finally claim back his passion as a artist and learn to raised cope with his schizophrenia.