Forget the headlines-schizophrenia is more common than you think

That is the title of this article.  What do they mean by it is more common than we would think? “Schizophrenia isn’t a specific, rare or rigorously defined illness. Instead, it covers a wide range of often unrelated conditions, all of which are also seen in people who are not mentally ill.  Which illness frightens you most? ‘Cancer?’ ‘Stroke?’ ‘Dementia?’ To judge from tabloid coverage, the condition we should really fear isn’t physical at all. Scared of mum’s schizophrenic attacks, Knife-wielding schizophrenic woman in court,  Schizo stranger killed dad, Rachel murder: schizo accused and My schizophrenic son says he’ll kill… but he’s escaped from secure hospitals 7 times are just a few of dozens of similar headlines we found in a cursory internet search.  Mental illness, these stories imply, is dangerous.  And schizophrenia is the most dangerous.”  All those headlines do to me is get me mad.  We are not all like that.  When I was ill I just was trying to figure what was wrong with me.  In prison when I first was ill I just wanted to be left alone and was paranoid.

Why do the headlines always make the mental ill to be bad why don’t they put up stories about the people that are doing well? “Such reporting is unhelpful, misleading and manipulative.  But it may be even more inaccurate than it first appears.   This is because scientists are increasingly doubtful whether schizophrenia- a term invented more than a century ago by the psychiatric pioneer Eugen Bleuler – is a distinct illness at all.  This isn’t to say that individuals diagnosed with the condition don’t have genuine and serious mental health problems.  But how well the label ‘schizophrenia’ fits those problems is now a very real question.  What’s wrong with the concept of schizophrenia? For one thing, research indicates the term may simply be functioning as a catch-all for a variety of separate problems.  Six main conditions are typically caught under the umbrella of schizophrenia: paranoia: grandiosity (delusional beliefs that one has special powers or is famous); hallucinations (hearing voices, for example); thought disorder (being able to think straight); anhedonia or the inability to experience pleasure; and diminished emotional expression (essentially an emotional ‘numbness’).  But how many of these problems a person experiences, and how severely, varies enormously.  Having one doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily develop any of the others.”  I had most of them when I was ill.  Not in prison then I just had paranoia.  That was one time I did talk to a psychiatrist even though I am shy by nature.  I just wanted to figure out what was happening to me.
Well what causes it to happen to people? “Experiences like paranoia are also linked with a number of psychological traits, such as a tendency to worry, feel depressed, sleep poorly, or jump to conclusions,  These factors seem to work in what scientists call a ‘dose-response’ manner: the more of them you experience, the more likely it is that your mental health will suffer.   Genetic factors also play a part, though there’s no evidence for a single ‘schizophrenia’ gene. Instead, a multitude of genes are likely to be involved- with their effect, crucially, conditioned by environmental factors.  So the people who end up being treated for schizophrenia aren’t the unlucky few who happen to have inherited a rogue gene. The more of the relevant genes you possess, the further you are to the extreme end of the spectrum and the less of a push you’ll need from life events to become ill.”  All I did was get angry and that is the last thing I remember in prison.  I was in solitary and laid down all I remember after that is waking up in a different cell and paranoid.
The last of this article says: “This isn’t merely a theoretical issue: if we target specific problems, rather than a loosely defined illness, we’re likely to improve treatment outcomes for the many people struggling with these debilitating experiences.”  Not everyone has schizophrenia but fall into one or more categories of the illness.  Schizophrenia is the worst to have so I guess they all would not like to be diagnosed with it if they only have one of the criteria.

Social withdrawal and Schizophrenia

That is the title of this article I am writing about.  This article hits close to home. “A new study finds that adults with schizophrenia who keep to themselves often did so as children, but that social skills training can be an effective way to overcome any difficulties presented by socializing with others. If you’re feeling alone, you’re not alone. That’s one of the key messages that institute-supported researcher Sandra Matheson wants people to take from her meta-analysis of social withdrawal and schizophrenia that was published recently in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.  The report, which compared six studies that looked at childhood social withdrawal in adults with schizophrenia and in at-risk children aged 9-14 years, found that childhood social withdrawal in combination with three potential markers of schizophrenia risk –delay in speech or motor development, presence of psychotic-like experiences, and social, emotional or behavioral problems –was an indicator of vulnerability for schizophrenia.” I was shy as a kid and still am.  Although friends always counted me in stuff either way.  Although I did not have any other problems like the ones mentioned besides being shy.
The article also says: “That’s not to say that children who are shy, or don’t have a lot of friends or don’t play well are going to develop schizophrenia later in life, Ms Matheson points out.  What the results of the study tells us is that adults with schizophrenia who are socially withdrawn, quite likely displayed those same attributes when they were children and that not wanting to socialize with others is a common occurrence in people with schizophrenia. The study considered withdrawn children to be those who frequently refrained from joining in social activities with their friends and was measured by using the Childhood Behavioural Checklist, which is widely-used psychological questionnaire that assesses a number of behaviours and is filled out by either parents, teachers or the child themselves. I mostly read books when I was a child.  I had a few friends did not make a lot until high school.  The shyness in adult life was offset my alcohol that is why I am an alcoholic. I drank to talk to women or anybody.
The article finishes up saying: “The encouraging new from the study is that children who scored high on the Child Behaviour Checklist for social withdrawal who also received an intervention such as social skills training were able to modify or overcome their tendency to withdraw.  Helping a child to overcome any difficulties they may experience-whether it’s learning to play a sport to improve motor skills, developing better social skills or sorting out any behavioural problems- is going to be of benefit, whether the child develops schizophrenia or not, says Ms Matheson.  Children with at least one first-or second degree relative (ie. Parent, sibling, or aunt, uncle) with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were not considered by the study to be as vulnerable to developing schizophrenia as children who displayed the three risk markers mentioned earlier, but were more vulnerable than children who were considered to be typically developing. Previous studies have found that social skills competency in people with schizophrenia is associated with better functioning in the community and predicts positive vocational functioning, regardless of cognitive abilities, and or social skills training is an effective way to improve social interactions.” I know one of the questions to ask is can it help an adult.  I read and know a lot of schizophrenics would like to socialize more than they do now.  It would also help them find employment.

Collaborative Efforts Help Mental Health Patients Quit Smoking

That is the title of this article and blog.  It is not worth it to smoke anymore.  I am glad that I quit fifteen years ago. “Persons with mental illness account for more than one-third of adult smokers in the United States and despite a decline in tobacco use during the past five decades, there has been no change in the smoking rate for patients with poor mental health.  To combat reliance on tobacco in mental health populations, experts agree that mental health services and government-sponsored tobacco control programs must work together to improve education and access to smoking cessation programs.”  It is time to quit that is what I felt when I decided to quit.  I could not have done it before than because I enjoyed it too much.  I always carried cigarettes on me.  When I quit I had four packs on me that I gave to a friend besides the two cartons.

I cannot say that I quit with smoke aid.  The wellbutrin I took to stop smoking just made me so upset that I quit in a month.  I just did not want to take it anymore and I wasn’t craving so I quit. “Historically, mental health care has operated separately from general medical practices where collaborations exist to strongly encourage smoking cessation in typical patient populations, said Jill M. Williams, MD, professor of psychiatry at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.  The result of this disconnect, according to Dr. Williams, has left smokers with disparities to become dominant group of smokers in the United States. This includes smokers with mental illness, as well as other addictions and the very poor. Disparities research indicates we need tailored strategies to effect these remaining populations of smokers, she said.”  I had to ask my doctor when I wanted to quit.  A lot of people with mental illness do not have PCP’s.  I believe you have to have a reason to quit.  It was not that I would die young that made me quit.  It was the reason of having my granddaughter in a smoke free house.  I was not even supposed to quit that was supposed to my ex-wife.  She did not quit.
The article says: “Williams said partnerships between mental health providers and state or county tobacco control programs benefit patients, providers and programs.  For patients, smoking cessation improves their health be reducing the impact of smoking-related illnesses.  This in turn lowers costs in treating those illnesses.  The paradox is that we still pay for the heart disease and cancer that these smokers develop so it makes more sense to help them stop smoking, explained Williams. Likewise, tobacco control programs, already leaders in advocacy, can emphasize the need for smoking cessation programs and policies that focus specifically on underserved populations, including individuals with mental health illness. Ultimately, coordinated efforts can strengthen and expand treatment programs, control healthcare costs, and improve the well-being of individuals with mental illness and other disparate populations, which have limited access to smoking cessation options, said Williams.”  If you can quit why not if it means you will be here longer with your loved ones, I enjoyed every minute I had with my granddaughter when she was a baby that I would not trade to this day for a cigarette.

Hope & Recovery

I am writing about hope and recovery again it has been awhile since I addressed this subject.  I hardly get down in the dumps.  I will for a while then I realize that things will always get better that you just have to keep trudging along.  You have to help things move along in the right way also you cannot just sit back and think things are go to get better on their own.  I have a hard habit since I was young of forcing things to work.  Sometimes they do not like my ex-mother in law said you cannot force things.  She was right about my marriage.  Although I still keep trying and if I did not when I was in the state hospital, I might still be there.
When I received a pass to visit my family I not only visited them but I also registered for college hoping I would go and change my life.  I was released two months before college started to a boarding home for dual diagnosis.  Life has a funny way of happening.  I have faced a lot of obstacles in my life where the worse could have happened and I would not be here writing this if it all happened.  Sometimes you just have to believe no matter how bad things seem to be that it will get better and it always does.  I once face twenty four years and did not make a deal and if the judge would have gave me the law the way it was written I would only been found guilty of a misdemeanor.  Instead of doing two years until my appeal was approved.

I knew I would get out.  It keeps getting better as time goes along.  That is the same with recovery.  You just have to keep pushing forward.  There are going to be relapses along the way although you find out what is going wrong and you fix it.  Just like when they first put me on Geodon it kept making my fall asleep during the day until I switched it to night time.  I take it when I want to fall asleep now.  My life I believe is going on the greatest time it ever has. I write it in hopes it will rub off on other people.  I do get down but not overnight or anything.  I usually just get angry that things are not going right.  Although even if I do not wish things to get better they do.I believe it is rubbing off on my daughter usually when things go wrong she will be upset I noticed this last time she did not.  She weathered the storm and now things are a little bit better for her.  I only hope that my grandkids see things as I usually do not preach to them but show them through my actions.  They would not understand now anyway that life is a trip.  Things are not perfect but I cannot complain.  I am free and that is what I wanted most of my life as I was always locked up. Just keep pushing forward and know that hope & recovery can and will happen.

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.

Obesity 4 Times More Likely in Schizophrenia Patients

That is the title of this article that talks about obesity in schizophrenia patients. “The risk for abdominal obesity is more than four times higher in patients with multi-episode schizophrenia compared to the general population, according to new meta-analytic research. These individuals are also at greater risk for other cardio-metabolic problems- such as low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, metabolic syndrome, hypertriglyceridemia and diabetes.”  I already have a stomach.  Which I wish I could get rid of it because I was doing that and it stopped working and I fear I have gained some weight that I lost but not all.  I always get my labs checked when I go to the doctor.  The only thing I ever cared about is the diabetes number.  I go next Monday to check again.  My other numbers are usually ok.

The article says they checked a lot of people for this study.  “For the study, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 136 studies involving 185,606 patients with schizophrenia – 28 of which provided data on nearly 3,900,000 population controls matched for age and gender.  This study is one of the largest ever conducted on people with schizophrenia. The findings reveal that patients with multi-episode schizophrenia were 4.43 times more likely to have abdominal obesity than controls.”  They studied a lot of patients.  People with schizophrenia are more likely to have obesity than the regular society.
The article goes on to say: “Furthermore, the risk for low HDL cholesterol, metabolic syndrome, and hypertriglyceridemia were more than doubled, at 2.35, 2.35, and 2.73, respectively.  The risk for diabetes was nearly double in these patients, and the risk for hypertension was increased 1.36 fold. With the exception of diabetes and hypertension, the risk for these conditions in multi-episode schizophrenia patients was also significantly increased versus that for first-episode or drug-naïve patients. Schizophrenia researchers have warned that weight gain occurs in up to 40 percent of patients taking medications called second-generation or atypical antipsychotic medications, which have been found effective in controlling major symptoms of schizophrenia.”  I do not know why it is so hard to lose weight I am doing the same things that I did when I lost twenty pounds so why did it come back.  I do have high blood pressure controlled by my medication. I really cannot remember if the weight came on first or the high blood pressure.  I was sick with something else and it all was happening about the same time gaining weight. Also at that time I had quit smoking.
According to the article: “Given the high rates of metabolic problems, the researchers propose that schizophrenia patients should, at the very least, have their waist circumference measured regularly, and, ideally, also their fasting glucose, triglyceride, HDL cholesterol, and hemoglobin A1C levels.  The also suggest routine screening of cardiovascular risk factors at key stages to create a risk profile for patients that takes into account their personal and family history.  This risk profile should afterwards be used as a basis for ongoing monitoring, treatment selection and management, wrote the researchers in World Psychiatry.”  They are all things I always check with my PCP.  I just want to see where I am at so I can make more changes if needed to make sure I am losing and not getting diabetes.
In closing the article says: “Lead researcher Davy Vancampfort, Ph.D., of the University Psychiatric Centre KU Leuven and collegues believe it is important to educate schizophrenia patients and their family members about the increased risk for cardio-metabolic abnormalities and ways to lessen it.  According to the researchers, many schizophrenia patients are either unaware of the need to make appropriate lifestyle changes or do not possess the knowledge and skills to do so.  The findings support guidelines from the World psychiatric Association recommending physical health screenings and monitoring in patients with schizophrenia. And further emphasize the need for patients with schizophrenia and their family members to be educated about the possibility of cardio-metabolic risk.”  I am already thinking about the changes I am going to have to make. It will be good because I want to do it for myself.

Living with Dual Diagnosis

Being dual diagnosed and having to maintain sobriety is something like climbing a tree with leather shoes on.  You can’t make mistakes in keeping up with your symptoms as you realize what your mental illness is about and you can’t backslide when it comes to relapsing when it comes to drugs and alcohol.  With the 12 steps of A/A and N/A to guide you, you must also look into the guidelines of psychotherapy and how you want to continue to grow beyond the misery you have lived in.  I look into my own life right now and feel slightly down trodden as to how my survival will continue, how I will live without fear or remorseful feelings. My problem is common with many people through the world, and that is looking for work and having not very much in order to live on or provide for loved ones.  Depression is a part of dual diagnosis, as well as schizophrenia and manic-depression, how well many consumers have felt the grasp of these illnesses, yet not so much when having to live on only so much because you are lacking an income or even worse a home to live in.  I began to see that those on social security or other means of an income provided by the government are much more the better off than those struggling without any source of income or housing.  I must maintain, obtaining my medications, seeing a therapist, gain employment and maintain a place to live besides other necessities in order to say, I am living.  I see other people slipping into other worlds, using drugs and alcohol because they could not find their way back into society by working, often times living in resentment because they cannot find peace nor do they have resilience.  Living with a dual diagnosis is virtually the same, having to climb a slippery tree and not look down from where you are, such as crossing a street and not looking back, the feelings the same, trying to overcome the hurdles which are boundaries before you.  I want to feel as if I have overcome my mental illness, yet as long as I know that I could lose my motivation in keeping my strength, I know I will be dependent upon the system to keep me climbing with some success.

There have been some intense feelings about my dilemma of  losing my job and having to search for another, or live off unemployment for a short while and those feelings are the very ones I have been diagnosed with.  Yet the smiles and laughter I once had seem to have highs and lows as well with me as well and all that I perceive makes me that much more closed about what is right in maintaining not only being my mental strength but my self-esteem as well.  

Written by Donald S