HAMPTON Amber Main stood in her family's living room, wearing only a towel and dripping water on the floor. She stared at her family as if they were strangers.

When she finally spoke, her words were scrambled. Nothing made sense.

It was January 2007, and for months the Hampton University freshman had been exhibiting classic signs of schizophrenia: She heard voices. She thought cameras were planted everywhere to spy on her -- even in her glasses.

Main's grades slipped from A's to F's as she stopped going to class. One day, she left her car door open and ran about a mile to a friend's home without realizing what she was doing. It was then that she knew "something is wrong with me."

That January night, Main's family took her to the hospital.

"They couldn't get me to calm down," she said. "I thought I was someone else. I thought they were going to throw me in the psych ward and never let me out."

Main was diagnosed with schizophrenia last summer. A quiet, determined woman, she is now among the 1 percent of Americans with the mental illness. With the help of medicine and therapy, she has spent the past year rebuilding her life as a typical college student.

This week, she'll take her story public. The 19-year-old, who moved to Hampton in 2002, will be featured on "True Life," an MTV documentary series that examines issues faced by young people. The episode, "I Have Schizophrenia," will follow Main's struggle to get her academic life in order after battling the mental illness.

She is matter-of-fact as she explains her decision to submit her story to MTV: "I'm not my mental illness, it's just something I have to deal with," she said. "I don't want to hide what I am, or what's a part of me."

Schizophrenia is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain and typically hits women between the ages of 17 and 40, and men between the ages of 17 and 25, according to William T. Carpenter, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Main began noticing symptoms when she was 18, but brushed them off as hormonal or stress-induced. She had major mood swings. It sometimes took her hours to get out two or three sentences.

A movie buff, Main could no longer watch movies because they caused her to go into psychosis, getting so involved in the plot that she thought it was part of her real life. She left the room or curled up in a corner whenever the TV was on.

In February 2007, Main was put on anti-psychotic medication. The hallucinations and paranoia dwindled as the drugs worked. Now she takes anti-psychotic medicine daily to keep the symptoms at bay.

"I pretty much felt like my normal self after that," she said. "I was like, 'Wow, I was acting so strange, I'm so sorry everyone, I don't know what was wrong.'"

According to Carpenter, who also works with the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, anti-psychotic medications tend to maintain their effectiveness over time. But they aren't guaranteed to prevent a relapse.

Main's mother, Rebecca Main, worries that her daughter's illness may affect her prospects of getting a job and having her own family. But she praised her for the progress she's made.

"She's already been through so much," she said. "You want to be protective and grab your children and hold them and not let the world in. But she's got to learn how to be in the world, and she's done a wonderful job."