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SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― New treatments by UC Davis medical researchers are providing hope for people suffering from schizophrenia, and one local man has already seen the benefits.

The taboo topic of the disorder was recently brought into the spotlight by the move "The Soloist," which has actor Jamie Foxx playing a muttering homeless person who wears a tin foil hat meant to block radio waves invading his brain.

This is the stereotype of a schizophrenic, but 25-year-old Jarad Kidwell was cheering. His life mission is to get the word out about how early treatment can save your life.

Jarad loves skateboarding. He's been hooked since he was just a kid, and it was a big part of what had been a pretty carefree life.

"I was kinda popular in high school," Jarad said. "Did a lot of skateboarding, had a girlfriend, good family life, just really loved people in general."

But when Jarad went to college at age 19, he says things started changing in his head. He started seeing and hearing things that weren't really there.

"Having… delusions, like CIA stuff coming after me," he said, and the symptoms became worse. "I'm like, 'Whoa, this is pretty bizarre. The walls are talking.'"

Jarad tried to rationalize what was happening to him by telling himself that such experiences were just part of growing up.

"I convinced myself that everybody has telepathy, that it was part of maturity [and] just an unspoken truth," Jarad said. "I convinced myself of that and just kept going on with my day."

But he couldn't hide it from his family, who noticed that something was wrong.

"[He] was just staring off," said Jarad's stepmother, Billy. "We took him to the medical doctor, who wasn't terribly helpful."

A psychiatrist diagnosed Jarad with schizophrenia. Jarad was lucky: The work his doctor is doing at the UC Davis Imaging Center is cutting edge.

Dr. Cameron Carter explains that a modified MRI machine performs a procedure called a functional MRI study, which looks at the brain while it works. A patient responds to images on a screen and performs tasks, and the scientists can actually see where the problems are.

"We can look at changes in the circuitry of a person with schizophrenia," Dr. Carter said.

This kid of diagnosis helps tailor the patient's treatment, and they're trying something new at UC Davis.

"The computer based training that we use here actually exercises the brain and encourages networks to work together in an organized way," Dr. Carter said.

The treatments helped Jarad so much, he now works for the clinic. He admits he was close to giving up. At his lowest, Jarad tried to commit suicide.

"I was dying, I had a rope burn around my neck, a big bruise around my neck," Jarad said.

He's found ways to cope, but admits it's still hard sometimes.

"Rare occasions, I may hear a little voice come out but I pipe it down real quick," he said. "It's really mastery over the brain, and it's possible and nobody can control your own thoughts but yourself."

Dr. Carter says schizophrenics make up to 10 percent of the U.S. population who qualify for disability payments.

"One in a hundred people has schizophrenia," he said. "That means it really affects everybody… if you had 300 classmates in your graduating class, by now, three of them would have developed schizophrenia."

Jarad wants to go to grad school for psychology or social work to counsel people with schizophrenia and do research.

Eighty percent of patients treated at the extraordinary UC Davis clinic are able to lead normal lives.

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