I caught it early, on prodromal phase.
I went to a psychiatrist for my mood swings, and my major depression. After a few months, I had voices and delusions
We caught it early when I was catatonic, so they had a clue on what was going on, unfortunately I still had delusions and hallucinations even on a medication.
I definitely agree. Access to help early in any stage of mental illness makes so much of a difference. For me my depression was caught fairly early but i was not always compliant with the treatment. As for the Schizophrenia, it had a very insidious onset, so i wasn’t even aware that i started behaving differently or that i’d become delusional. Obviously when the hallucinations started the cat was out of the bag, but i was still reluctant to receive treatment as i thought everyone was out to get me.
I think it took about 3 years from the first mild symptoms of overt mental health problems to seeing a psychiatrist. It took another 18 or so months after that to get a definite diagnosis.