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Introduction
We were asked to interview Peter Bullimore for our book on Psychosis Stories of Recovery and Hope ([2] Cordle et al. , 2011). Some months after the book came out, I asked Peter if he would come down to London to speak to our local Recovery Group. He travelled all the way down from Sheffield to speak for an hour, for no fee. He then got on the train and travelled all the way back! He was one of the keynote speakers at a one-day conference held in February 2012 at the Wellcome Conference Centre in London. During the afternoon workshop someone asked him for his views on mental health professionals. He replied that he had a number of close professional friends and as I happened to be in the audience he mentioned me. I have seldom felt as I proud as I did at that moment!
Brief biography of Peter Bullimore
Peter Bullimore started off in adult life as a businessman manufacturing fire surrounds. In the first year of their business, he and his business partner had a turnover of £1 million. The work took over his life and he was working 18 hours a day, seven days a week. Slowly over a period of some years he began to become mentally unwell, a combination of physical exhaustion and heavy drinking. He was admitted to the local psychiatric unit. This was to be the first of many admissions over a ten-year period. This first admission lasted six months. One of the psychiatrists told him that he was a chronic schizophrenic and that he would never be able to work again. "A prognosis of doom," similar to that given to [3] Deegan (1996).
After he was discharged he became unwell again. On one occasion he tried to strangle his wife. For her this was the last straw and they separated. When Peter was discharged from hospital the next time it was to an unfurnished flat in Sheffield. He started attending a local mental health day centre, and spent more time staying with his parents. He continued to hear voices and experienced visual hallucinations at the same time.
Peter was helped by a new occupational therapist and also by seeing a different psychiatrist who had...