Difficulty assessing effort drives motivation deficits in schizophrenia, study finds

That is the title of this article I am writing about. “Individuals with schizophrenia often have trouble engaging in daily tasks or setting goals for themselves, and a new study from San Francisco State University suggests the reason might be their difficulty in assessing the amount of effort required to complete tasks.  The research, detailed in an article published this week in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, can assist health professionals in countering motivation deficits among patients with schizophrenia and help those patients function normally by breaking up larger, complex tasks into smaller, easier-to-grasp ones.”  The tasks they set themselves up for maybe too large and they need to make them smaller and easier to grasp.  That makes sense if you have to clean house just start small and clean a little of a room or just one room at a time.
I wonder if that is easier to do. “This is one of the first studies to carefully and systematically look at the daily activities of people with schizophrenia - - what those people are doing, what goals are they setting for themselves,’ said David Gard, an associate professor of psychology at SF State who has spent years researching motivation and emotion. ‘We knew that people schizophrenia were not engaging in a lot of goal-directed behavior.  We just didn’t know why.’ In 2011, Gard received a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study the reasons behind this difficulty in goal setting.  An earlier article detailing other research from this study, published in May in the journal Schizophrenia Research, showed that when people with schizophrenia do set goals for themselves, they set them for the same reasons as persons without: to connect with others.  But motivation deficits are still common among these individuals, and his latest study set out to pinpoint the reason.” I haven’t set any goals for myself in a long time.  I have been thinking about it for some time.  I do feel a need to change some things in my life.  I have become to set in my ways again.
How did they figure out what might work? “Through a series of cognitive assessments and random phone calls, Gard and his colleagues at SF State and the University of California, San Francisco collected data from 47 people with and 41 people without schizophrenia.  Participants were called four times a day, randomly throughout the day, for a week and asked about their current mood, as well as what they were doing; how much enjoyment they were getting out of it; and what their goals for the rest of the day were.  The results were coded by variables such as how much pleasure they were getting out of their daily activities and how much effort was involved, then compared that with the results from the cognitive assessments.  Gard and his fellow researchers found that, while people with schizophrenia engage in low-impact, pleasurable goals - - such as watching TV or eating food for enjoyment - - as much as others, they have a greater difficulty with more complex undertakings or goals requiring more effort.”  That is what I have to do is stop watching so much TV and start reading again I haven’t read a real book in over five years.  Start my walks again get out of the house.
The article ends with: “There’s something breaking down in the process around assessing high-effort, high-rewards goals,’ Gard said.  When the reward is high and the effort is high, that’s when people with schizophrenia struggle to hold in mind and go after the thing they want for themselves.  The findings indicate that health-care providers who want to help individuals with schizophrenia set goals for themselves should break larger tasks into smaller, simpler ones with rewards.  For example, instead of guiding a patient specifically toward the larger goal of getting in physical shape, a provider could instead encourage them to gradually walk a little bit more every day. That’s something we would do for everyone else, but it might have been avoided in patients with schizophrenia because we thought they weren’t experiencing as much pleasure from their activities as they actually are,’ Gard added.  We can help them to identify things that are pleasurable and reward them toward larger goals.” I believe I will give it a try and just start smaller and walk around the lake to get my mail like I used to and build up my walking again and get out of the house.

Changing into a Smile

I have traveled partially around the world as a child, later settling into Colorado with my family, I noticed I was saddened by all the friends I had made while I was growing in child hood that were suddenly left behind, and just as perplexed as to making new friends in neighborhoods which carried no décor of ancient history, no space of hills or streams, no enchantment.  The fantasy of childhood became a lackadaisical definition of growing years older when you could not; the confusion of being older to live and survive was denying adolescence.  I sit around these days living memories, and trying to keep up with society surrounding me and fearing failure, being all a matter of time and need, home, energy food, transportation, water, and all the necessities which were never necessities when I was a child.  The world carries on, and I too wonder how far does a person go in order to maintain their life without resiliency and all the more a lack of motivation.  I can feel the indifference in my shoulders, I no longer hold my world above me for the moment, and my esteem is shallow.  I feel like this some mornings, not throughout the day, just long enough to tell myself that I need to carry on.  Going to the mental health clinic gives me determination to keep my inner strength and my faith grows with the understanding of others whom have met with similar emotions and scenarios of livelihood anymore holding on to those smiles which say everything will be alright. 

Focus is the motion of maintaining the emotions, the ideas, and energy of our lives.  Knowing how we will achieve reaching those boundaries and crossing them so that we have succeeded in being what we choose to be.  We can choose to be healthy, or we can choose to be morose, even mentally ill.  Some people don’t have a choice because their illness may be more than mental, being physical, it may be harder to smile, but when you focus on reality, knowing what you want, how you want to feel, and what you want to understand, life means something more than hardship and you are not at a loss to overcome the negatives in your world.  Crossing into a new world, changing ideas, means challenging not only yourself, yet building your strength, so that you mean to be yourself, surrounding yourself with others whom have the same strength and character as you want for yourself, with the ideology that you can believe in something great and maintain your future with such the belief that you will always be a part of the world you see.

Written by Donald S.

Mental Health and those of Fame

BEFORE I GET INTO The BLOG, I WOULD LIKE TO REMIND OUR READERS THAT The RECOVERY BLOG IS MOVING TO A NEW LOCATION: OUR BLOG WILL CONTINUE FROM OUR NEW HOME:  http://www.mhcd.org/blog I recently read an article from the New Yorker magazine over the internet concerning the rock star Bruce Springsteen. I can relate to parts of his emotional attitudes about his drive to success through his ambitions, being, “pure fear, self- loathing and self- hatred”. I experience some of these emotions every day, as I wake to go to work, what I have to do to do the work correctly or enjoyment, what I haven’t done, the traveling, meeting new people; those are the instances which cause me the fear I suffer from, in having to have a successful day. These are true demons in Bruce Springsteen’s life, the fear, loathing and hatred which he experiences and we all do at some time or another and experiencing these emotions, “demons” have you, always have an effect on our lives or any other emotion we might handle within our minds which are negative.
Feelings of loathing have always been a part of the realms of the artistic, whom are taking themselves beyond others whom they may feel less than of or the lesser by their own self-esteem, yet in the long run of this gamut of negative emotions, we are freeing ourselves and for a moment we are free from the negative, creating something we can feel rewarded for outside of the harbored blatant emotions.
Even rock stars get the blues: Bruce Springsteen talks depression - Los Angeles Times
Bruce Springsteen’s emotions show in the song entitled “The Streets of Philadelphia”, a song he wrote and produced which shows his loathing and fear of not only parts of society, yet of this world he has experienced through the knowing others. I listened to the song, and throughout, I feel the memories of my life toying with me, causing anger and fear and a deep sadness and loathing of the times I spent not only as a transient, yet as a vagrant and drug addict. I once considered my life as not worth living then, yet I am overcoming these emotions to make my life better. Bruce Springsteen thinks of himself as “a work in progress, this is a part of his good fortune and the stress he lives with as a part of his abilities and being important.” Being satisfied that you area as good as you are, is a show, and you’ll never be a success. He speaks of other actors and musicians, “the motivation, is the element of need to remake the self, where you live, the entire audience surrounding—and it is the desire of becoming renewed.” Knowing a person lives in doubt, and is critical of themselves is knowing that someone must find that niche of their own sanity and know that they have a vast world to deal with, and if you don’t, your first realization is that there isn’t anyone there to understand you and that you should understand that as a myth.
Written by Donald S.
JUST A REMINDER THAT THE RECOVERY BLOG IS MOVING TO A NEW ADDRESS: OUR NEW HOME IS: http://mhcd.org/blog

RealizingYour Recovery

There is up and there is down. There is right and left. There are many opposites in our world; take for instance success and failure. We were not all born a success nor a failure, nature dictates through the human species the weaknesses and strengths we are born with. We learn to crawl before we are walking, to laugh before we speak, yet as we age, we begin to make choices beginning with the words yes and no. In Recovery we choose to secure the help of clinicians and other faculty members of the mental health system when we feel we are slipping into purgatory and we try to follow the dictates of our therapist so that we can walk the road of Recovery. For instance, signings of an admissions form and consent form; without these there is no information to be understood of our past or going forward in our Recovery through other offices. There is the medication to be taken, by whose consent, and are you willing to volunteer yourself to take a medicine which may help. What is the beginning or end of all this to become stable in Recovery?
Fear is one motive of stopping your treatment to Recovery, lack of strength; not being able to stand up to the ignorance your peers might place upon you. Stigma or self-stigma in realizing that you have a mental illness and denial, in trying to keep old friends and find new streets with the same corners. Jeopardizing your Recovery is swallowing poison and leaving yourself stranded without knowing what to do in such a vast wilderness of chance. What do you do to maintain your Recovery and or Sobriety? Turn your back to the offers of false strength which will not carry you, open your eyes to what you have been blind to, that which you do not see. Leave behind the drunkenness and drugs, if you seek an education instead of a corner to play on, you’ll find someone who will help guide you into the books you dream to read. Follow advice! Make sure it’s the advice of someone you know is doing well, a professional, a dear friend, a family member who will not forsake you. The words of your clinicians are spoken from experience, and there’s no reason you cannot understand if you want to change your life.
Reality will dawn and the ideas will arise if you believe there’s a chance you can overcome your illness. At MHCD we don’t preach ideas we help others to understand what is needed as a part of Recovery. You decide, and we lead you to reaching your goals. We give support so that the consumer can grow out of their own stigma and attain the ideas and motivation that are inherited in the client. You decide; arise or backslide; you are the one who can say yes or no.
Written by Donald Sammons

Motivation

This was something I was thinking about yesterday. Long before I read this article, I was thinking about how I am out of school and doing pretty good in my recovery. I am still setting goals to achieve. The goals give me a reason to exercise and achieve what I would like to have happen in the future. To take my walks on the weekends and stay motivated. It also gives me hope for the future. I believe goal setting is important for anything you would like to achieve.
Motivation gives you something to look forward to. In this article it says: “That motivation can change from one time to another.” That is so true at first you are really motivated and then if it does not happen fast enough or say you did not lose any weight if that was your goal. It is easy to get discouraged. What if you achieve your goal of getting an apartment and then you do not set any more goals. I believe that motivation and hope go hand in hand. You hope that you may be able to achieve any goal you set. When you achieve your goal you are more motivated to try and set another goal.
I like that they also say in the article: “That looking at a person’s strengths and how one can help them set personal goals.” That helps a person a lot more to achieve your personal goal. I read a lot about people that are dealing with schizophrenia and dealing with this disease on a daily basis can be hard. To set a goal is not something they can deal with every day. I believe they would have to set little goals at first.
I think the article says it best “It may take a lot of hard work and love, but one can still have a really good life.” I believe that is all we can all ask for is to have a good life no matter what problem you may have. To have hope that you will at least achieve that goal.

Motivation

Motivation has a color within the eyes, gray; cold blue and dark is being without its direction. Having a reason for doing something, it is as sunlight, clear and forever crossing the universe. Some people lose their way, crossing into the storm before clear skies the turmoil changing the way they began to build their reality.
Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia to name a few of the maladies which have become mortal enemies to the life and endeavors of people who once thought they could lift the mountains beyond the seas can be slowly relinquished. Motivation becomes blue as the sky, as we seek through reason to carry on, forward to greater endeavors. Yet, often we sit and think, then lose thoughts, eventually hope of sailing beyond the storm which has invaded our minds. Many of us turn to drugs, alcohol, degrading ourselves in public, losing the last vestiges of wealth in belief we can become something we are not; life becomes insanity.
At MHCD, many have crossed that threshold, and have begun to return to face life without fear or mental instability, holding on to something newer than the cold gray blue dark pessimisms of life or ideas of rejection or a narcotized dream. Recovery begins with acceptance and reason, the attitudes which lead to what you can believe and what you can see and tell yourself, defining what you have experienced as the therapist gives you the building blocks to begin putting your life together with part of that new ship to cross the seas.
Though some of us make use of medications, with which to stand, this doesn’t mean we are apt to forever fail; we only cross the barriers much more slowly, gathering momentum with our hope for only one reason, to understand in what we believe and with determination.
I must act
Ideas are borne silently
Rain falls quietly

Written by
Donald Sammons
February 14, 2010