Laing's view on psychosis:
"Laing argued that the strange behavior and seemingly confused speech of people undergoing a psychotic episode were ultimately understandable as an attempt to communicate worries and concerns, often in situations where this was not possible or not permitted. Laing stressed the role of society, and particularly the family, in the development of madness. He argued that individuals can often be put in impossible situations, where they are unable to conform to the conflicting expectations of their peers, leading to a 'lose-lose situation' and immense mental distress for the individuals concerned. Madness was therefore an expression of this distress, and should be valued as a cathartic and transformative experience."
Fear arises and evolves into anxiety regarding a threat against the psychotic. Often psychosis begins with fears, leading to anxiety which then leads to insomnia that morphs into hypomania. When insomnia leads to mania, that often occurs due to inadequate rest, both of the body and of the mind.
Indeed, it is anxiety and possible repressed anger that precipitates insomnia which might escalate into hypomania and evolve further into psychosis. However, this is not always the case since the experienced mental health consumer learns the importance of sleep hygiene.
My counter argument to Laing is that psychosis is a resolution of the classic double-bind in a manner that is sometimes incomprehensible to society, due to conflicting desires and expectations on each of us.
In most cases, psychosis is non-violent and harmless.
Rather, it is the ignorance and fear of all involved parties including the mental health consumers and her concerned family members, friends and lovers which contributes to any co-morbidity of violence, be it harm to others or self-harm.
When psychotics do habituate towards violence due to what is dismissed as abnormal fear, that violence has been learned either from within the family environment originally or due to social interactions with the public and privately with care workers. Once learned, violence may become a co-morbid behavior associated with the psychiatric disorder of which psychosis is a symptom.
Thus it is imperative that an anxiolytic agent or physical action occurs to relive the anxiety so that any remaining fear motivates the mental health consumer in a positive and non-violent manner. This may consist of a tranquilizer or a non-violent action that relieves the anxiety.
Then the "best cure" for the psychotic is self-talk that counteracts negative self-talk, i.e. positive affirmations which calm her down, and thus removing the fear and the anxiety that it sometimes causes.
If a concerned family member or friend truly wishes to help a psychotic, then it is best to either believe in her even when her confused state of mind gives reason to fear for her grasp on reality, and to graciously remove oneself from the situation when one feels threatened.
In order to have rapport with the psychotic it is best to calmly facilitate positive non-violent confrontation, even to the point of supporting their belief in their limited world-view as delusion, with the intent of gaining compliance.
Direct confrontation with the psychotic is not often recommended since the subsequent anxiety due to negative adaptation during the resolution of the double-bind will only lead to reinforcement of the very delusion the care-giver is trying to "cure." Indeed, it is not helpful to cure the delusion of the mental health consumer while maintaining her psychosis.
Indeed, the wise care-giver should never patronize or belittle the psychotic lest it threaten their limited worldview. Instead, it is best to wait out the psychosis after treating it with a sedative when calm, non-threatening discussion with the mental health consumer fail to resolve the crisis.
Time is a better medication for most acute displays of psychosis which have little or no violent aspects.
In the case of serious (chronic) psychosis, it may be necessary to commit the psychotic to a psychiatric ward and for the use of the appropriate medication (usually atypical anti-psychotics such as seroquel or Abilify.
However, sedation resulting from anti-psychotic use may result in weight gain and its associated effect on the cardiovascular system.
Consequently, a weight-maintenance program may be useful as directed by a medical professional.
When the mental health consumer has stabilized mentally, it is necessary to provide mental health education including the use of coping strategies which relieve anxiety due to stress. Mental health professionals who omit such education by psychologists and psychotherapists merely set the stage for possible future relapse.
Indeed, psychiatric professionals and their support staff are still required to provide the minimum of self-care training of patients in their care. While sedatives might reduce symptoms of the mental health consumer, medication itself is not therapy.
In my opinion, on-line self therapy usually consists of a careful research and practice of coping strategies to reduce the impact that stress has upon the consumer.
Regarding the discussion of medication by my fellow mental health consumers, only the experienced consumer supplies correct information regarding psychotropic drugs. When a consumer's reaction to a drug appears to be clouded by their feelings about it, I usually consider it anecdotal and a possible emotional reaction rather than a physiological one.
Due to the density of emotional reaction to a particular medication, it is impossible to determine the physiological response to the drug. Therefore I tend not to value anecdotes on how the drug makes the consumer feel. Rather, it becomes more interesting to sift through the consumer anecdotes to find the rare anecdote that displays the physiological response.
I suppose this is why I would rather read the abstract about a medical trial than read discussion of medications on a mental health consumers forum. My impression of such candid on-line discussions is that most psychotropic drugs make people with a mental illness feel like crap because their mental health is compromised by seeing the glass half-empty.
Since they expect medication to dull their senses and otherwise impair their positive appreciation of life, it is no wonder that their impression of medication paints a negative picture of psychotropic medication.
Even so, I am touched by the emotional responses to medication because most mental health consumers would rather be treated as human beings. That is why the medications make them feel like crap: not one medication offers psychotherapy.
In the case of the psychotic mental health consumer, their mental health crisis requires treatment lest their psychoses threaten their safety or the safety of other people, both patients and care-givers.
I merely question the over-prescription of medication and especially the idea that a mental illness requires the long-term use of medications.
Thus it makes better sense to accept the psychotic's delusion as real until the psychotic explains her reason for creating it to not deal with the world realistically. Until then, it makes no sense to sedate the psychotic since most psychoses are harmless and resolve themselves on their own over time.
While I am not suggesting that Seroquel and Abilify are useless, I am adamant that the rights of mental health consumers be protected by informed consent when not psychotic, while obligations by mental health professionals be honored by providing psychotics with fast-acting sedatives which are not habit-forming.
Even if such a drug protocol meant the use of sedatives such as mirtazapine, then the doctor should not reject them because they are reserved for depression. Instead, the drugs used should be based on the criteria of least harm to the consumer.
As for therapy, the risk of burnout from stress has put off most psychology students from deciding to become psychotherapists. I am sure that a part of the reasoning behind this aversion to become a psychotherapist might have to do with the fear of people with mental illness and associate stigma associated with mental illness. It is rare that a psychology graduate is able to empathize with a psychiatric patient because he is apparently more mentally healthy than the patient.
However, on the average, there is actually no difference between a psychology graduate and the patient, except in degree of mental health. A dedicated psychotherapist is in service of the client seeking therapy. Any professional relationship between the client and the therapist is threatened by any overt superiority by either of them.
Thus there is need to emphasize that throughout the post-secondary education of a psychotherapist, the therapist is not the master of the client. Rather, the professional relationship between them implies equality. Without such humility, neither the patient not the therapist will benefit greatly from their relationship.
With regard to R.D. Laing and psychosis, it is important to emphasize that professional service by therapists and psychiatrists to all their patients requires that their clients understand the importance of the professional relationship that underlies therapy. This in no way is a personal relationship.
While the client may think she is under no obligation to behave professionally with her therapist or psychiatrist, it might be useful to consider this: would she think it is appropriate to expect her butcher to be at her beck and call?
Thus, it is important for mental health consumers to understand that the client is obliged to treat the therapist or psychiatrist with the respect she reserved for her favorite teacher in school, be it public or post-secondary.
I myself am thankful to my psychotherapist who provided me with welcome advice when he told me that I would never report to the Emergency ward of the local hospital if I was undergoing a psychosis. I take this to be advice that my mental health is determined by appropriate sleep hygiene and its positive effect of reducing insomnia.
To conclude this blog post I present a quote from psychiatrist Adolf Meyer to temper our reliance on medication to treat mental illness:
"Those who imagine that all psychiatry and psychopathology and therapy have to resolve themselves into a smattering of claims and hypotheses of psychoanalysis and that they stand or fall with one's feelings about psychoanalysis, are equally misguided".
Originally posted: May 5, 2005 6:03 PM PDT
References:
Adolf Meyer, psychiatrist - legacy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Meyer_%28psychiatrist%29#Legacy
Showing posts with label psychiatry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label psychiatry. Show all posts
20130413
Hold the Psychiatric Professional Accountable (RANT)
There is no such thing as a bad drug regarding antidepressants . There are just psychiatrists who are bad at seeing akathisia for what it is. It is always their mistake to UP the dose, because they see "anxiety" and "mania".
Throwing more prozac at akathisia is the leading cause of suicide & murders, not prozac.
Stop blaming the drug; hold the psychiatric profession responsible!
Do not up the dose if you feel anxious, hyper or manic even when directed. Instead, get a second opinion by a doctor who doesn't have socials with the first.
ymmv
Throwing more prozac at akathisia is the leading cause of suicide & murders, not prozac.
Stop blaming the drug; hold the psychiatric profession responsible!
Do not up the dose if you feel anxious, hyper or manic even when directed. Instead, get a second opinion by a doctor who doesn't have socials with the first.
ymmv
20130112
Overmedication in Psychwards: Its Cure
A hospital psychward demands order.
That's why they're medicated.
Most psychiatric professionals are not in the business of administering therapy in such a setting because working in such a setting only makes them chump change.
Besides most of them know that psychoanalysis usually does not "cure" a patient but merely ensures that he'll be back for more of the same.
Medicating patients in a psychward is more efficient use of resources, and often more humane than the mental hospitals of the past.
Sadly though, the reason why most patients are in a psychward is because nobody actually listens to them and takes care of their needs at home.
Sometimes, a psychward actually has caring professionals to give the minimum of care.
That is because it is difficult to inculcate a caring and compassionate attitude in the profession.
You either have it or you burn out.
For the whole purpose of medication is to avoid burn out, because even a caring professional will be overwhelmed by the horror stories some of the mentally ill have to tell.
If it weren't for the fact that most parents haven't gotten their shit together and take out their unresolved issues on their children, the world would have less rates of mental illness than they currently!
20 percent of people == 1.3 billion worldwide who have a mental illness, which in itself is evidence of child abuse and neglect in their immediate families.
When we learn how to effectively address the risks which lead to abuse and neglect, that'll be when the rates go down.
However, it is the stress of a fast-paced society that breeds mental illness due to ineffective coping skills.
That may be because public education is a fast-paced stream of academics lacking even the basics of teaching kids how to handle stress.
However, I'll bet you teaching them the basics of meditation can and will help to reduce transforming benign schizotypies into mental illness.
And I'll be you too that in nations where the people are obligated to spend five years of Buddhist training (become monks and nuns) before being allowed to become householders probably have lower rates of mental illness than secular nations that manufacture consumers who are first and foremost obligated to become productive members of a fast-paced society, often without giving them a wide range of coping skills to deal with stress.
That's why they're medicated.
Most psychiatric professionals are not in the business of administering therapy in such a setting because working in such a setting only makes them chump change.
Besides most of them know that psychoanalysis usually does not "cure" a patient but merely ensures that he'll be back for more of the same.
Medicating patients in a psychward is more efficient use of resources, and often more humane than the mental hospitals of the past.
Sadly though, the reason why most patients are in a psychward is because nobody actually listens to them and takes care of their needs at home.
Sometimes, a psychward actually has caring professionals to give the minimum of care.
That is because it is difficult to inculcate a caring and compassionate attitude in the profession.
You either have it or you burn out.
For the whole purpose of medication is to avoid burn out, because even a caring professional will be overwhelmed by the horror stories some of the mentally ill have to tell.
If it weren't for the fact that most parents haven't gotten their shit together and take out their unresolved issues on their children, the world would have less rates of mental illness than they currently!
20 percent of people == 1.3 billion worldwide who have a mental illness, which in itself is evidence of child abuse and neglect in their immediate families.
When we learn how to effectively address the risks which lead to abuse and neglect, that'll be when the rates go down.
However, it is the stress of a fast-paced society that breeds mental illness due to ineffective coping skills.
That may be because public education is a fast-paced stream of academics lacking even the basics of teaching kids how to handle stress.
However, I'll bet you teaching them the basics of meditation can and will help to reduce transforming benign schizotypies into mental illness.
And I'll be you too that in nations where the people are obligated to spend five years of Buddhist training (become monks and nuns) before being allowed to become householders probably have lower rates of mental illness than secular nations that manufacture consumers who are first and foremost obligated to become productive members of a fast-paced society, often without giving them a wide range of coping skills to deal with stress.
20121125
Why the 3rd World is Fighting Modernization
- The assumptions of the pioneers of scientific psychiatry about the negative influences of modern western civilization on mental health were not unfounded;
- Rapid Westernizing modernization of tradition-directed societies has been shown to have pathogenic effects on social and mental functioning, and these pathogenic effects are especially deleterious for tribal societies.
- The further exploration and identification of the psychiatric sequelae of rapid sociocultural change and the working out of preventive measures are today among the
greatest challenges confronting transcultural psychiatry.
-- http://www.mentalhealth.com/newslet/tp9901.html
It is these three factors which have had Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq and much of the 3rd World wonder if Americanization is worth the suffering.
For people not currently treated for mental illness but treated within the socio-cultural framework (via shamans and medicine men) are able to be integrated back into society, either due to remission of their transient psychoses or initiation into the magico-religious setting to replace the shaman they were "cured" by.
Yet it is the fear of psychosis felt by society which stigmatizes the mentally ill regardless of culture.
The true fear of undeveloped nations is that rapid urbanization would overwhelm the often underfunded and underdeveloped health-care system.
As well, the replacement of shamans and medicine men with psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers would imply that the ancient healers would become marginalized and not integrated into the urban landscape as a vital link to the nation's cultural traditions at first.
However, Africa seems ripe to have a civilized African be both priest and shaman, doctor and medicine man.
Indeed, it is possible to integrate cultural tradition with Westernized medicine, so that no loss of cultural tradition is incurred.
Let's hope that America does not force a loss of tradition in the new nations born in the ashes of Yugoslavia.
Let's also hope that both Afghanistan and Iraq manage to retain the best that is of imams and of psychiatrists to take care of the shell-shocked.
And let us hope that the Wahabis' influence dies so that the most enlightened of Islam revives the equality of men and women in their rich culture.
20121122
Male and Female Triad of Archetypes in My Dream
It's been about 5 days on my new cyclobenzaprine (10 gm) & gabapentin (100 mg) prescription.
I've noticed dreams during onset to stage 2 sleep. The content of the dreams isn't upsetting, though in the one which awoke me, the main theme I notice is three paired male-female archetypes. Another thing I've notice is that these dreams have started over the past two days when I have used 100 mg gabapentin rather than the usual 200 mg.
Most likely this is due to a combination of having had a full day of being outdoors.
Tuesday I spent time in Vancouver first at the library, then at English Bay and took a lot of pictures; then I went to UBC for the pizza & Pepsi for $3.50 & went home. Wednesday I spent time at UBC, used the free Internet, did some errands and then returned home.
The reason why I feel that the dreams are due to being out and about is because in the past, sometimes I have a dream that's so full of content that I wake up.
While I cannot prove if my dreams are the result of recent existential memories being transfered from short-term to long-term memory, the fact that I awoke tonight implies that I had a larger set of memories accumulated over two days to transfer.
My hypothesis is that dreams are the side effect of memory transfer from short-term to long-term memory. Everything in that dream is symbolic of that memory transfer even though the content of that dream may be off-topic and sometimes out of this world.
Tonight the characters in the dream were 3 females, one a young girl (virgin), the same age as my roommate (maiden), and possibly an elderly woman (crome). The young girl had been befriended by the maiden, but on asking the maiden if she had called the virgin's mother, the maiden got upset. At some point some kind of kitchen utensil is involved and there is a risk of harming the virgin. The maiden is getting angrier and angrier because I am questioning this polite thing to do. The "I" is the observer and I've forgotten the other two male archetypes. Another aspect of the dream is that it's the same place I am going to which is dreamland's analog of reality. Oh, I met the young girl's family, though have forgotten how many members in that family. Possibly it's three including the girl.
The virgin-maiden-crone archetype appears to be similar to the Freudian id-ego-superego, so I will refer to the male archetypes as id, ego, and superego.
The reason why I remember more about the female archetypes than the male has to do with my hypothesis that a person dreams about the opposite gender to help balance out the dominance of his or her own gender. I feel that the romantic notion of a sex dream is wishful thinking on the part of psychotherapists designed more to entertain than to an accurate description of a dream. YMMV
The female triad of archetypes is also myth-poetic, which appeals to me; the male triad of archetypes is not, which represents my current rejection of Freudian archetypes. Indeed, that is why I do not remember nor can I describe the other two males besides the observer. This is because I feel that one cannot separate the male triad of archetypes, for they are homogeneous elements i.e. id=ego=superego, mixed together as one. This implies that I = (id+ego+superego) in the past two dreams.
Even in the dream, the virgin and maiden were only present, I believe, because the maiden is actually the composite of maiden-crone. As a side note, my female roommate had a hysterectomy, and that might have been encoded into the dream as the composite female archetype.
I'm pretty sure this familiar place I return to in my dreams is the analog of the memory transfer going on. This implies that each building I have seen in my dreams, and the different places are actually places where I store memory. This even includes the cars, the river, and the people. It would take a dream dictionary to discover what emotions are being stored with the experiences I have had over the past 60 hours.
I also believe that dreams are entertainment to help relieve the boredom of sleep.
Anyway, I"m going to take another gabapentin, and see if I have another dream...
I've noticed dreams during onset to stage 2 sleep. The content of the dreams isn't upsetting, though in the one which awoke me, the main theme I notice is three paired male-female archetypes. Another thing I've notice is that these dreams have started over the past two days when I have used 100 mg gabapentin rather than the usual 200 mg.
Most likely this is due to a combination of having had a full day of being outdoors.
Tuesday I spent time in Vancouver first at the library, then at English Bay and took a lot of pictures; then I went to UBC for the pizza & Pepsi for $3.50 & went home. Wednesday I spent time at UBC, used the free Internet, did some errands and then returned home.
The reason why I feel that the dreams are due to being out and about is because in the past, sometimes I have a dream that's so full of content that I wake up.
While I cannot prove if my dreams are the result of recent existential memories being transfered from short-term to long-term memory, the fact that I awoke tonight implies that I had a larger set of memories accumulated over two days to transfer.
My hypothesis is that dreams are the side effect of memory transfer from short-term to long-term memory. Everything in that dream is symbolic of that memory transfer even though the content of that dream may be off-topic and sometimes out of this world.
Tonight the characters in the dream were 3 females, one a young girl (virgin), the same age as my roommate (maiden), and possibly an elderly woman (crome). The young girl had been befriended by the maiden, but on asking the maiden if she had called the virgin's mother, the maiden got upset. At some point some kind of kitchen utensil is involved and there is a risk of harming the virgin. The maiden is getting angrier and angrier because I am questioning this polite thing to do. The "I" is the observer and I've forgotten the other two male archetypes. Another aspect of the dream is that it's the same place I am going to which is dreamland's analog of reality. Oh, I met the young girl's family, though have forgotten how many members in that family. Possibly it's three including the girl.
The virgin-maiden-crone archetype appears to be similar to the Freudian id-ego-superego, so I will refer to the male archetypes as id, ego, and superego.
The reason why I remember more about the female archetypes than the male has to do with my hypothesis that a person dreams about the opposite gender to help balance out the dominance of his or her own gender. I feel that the romantic notion of a sex dream is wishful thinking on the part of psychotherapists designed more to entertain than to an accurate description of a dream. YMMV
The female triad of archetypes is also myth-poetic, which appeals to me; the male triad of archetypes is not, which represents my current rejection of Freudian archetypes. Indeed, that is why I do not remember nor can I describe the other two males besides the observer. This is because I feel that one cannot separate the male triad of archetypes, for they are homogeneous elements i.e. id=ego=superego, mixed together as one. This implies that I = (id+ego+superego) in the past two dreams.
Even in the dream, the virgin and maiden were only present, I believe, because the maiden is actually the composite of maiden-crone. As a side note, my female roommate had a hysterectomy, and that might have been encoded into the dream as the composite female archetype.
I'm pretty sure this familiar place I return to in my dreams is the analog of the memory transfer going on. This implies that each building I have seen in my dreams, and the different places are actually places where I store memory. This even includes the cars, the river, and the people. It would take a dream dictionary to discover what emotions are being stored with the experiences I have had over the past 60 hours.
I also believe that dreams are entertainment to help relieve the boredom of sleep.
Anyway, I"m going to take another gabapentin, and see if I have another dream...
20121016
Musings on Anti-Oedipus
According to Anti-Oedipus authors Guattari and Deleuze, "schizophrenia is an extreme mental state co-existent with the capitalist system itself and capitalism keeps enforcing neurosis as a way of maintaining normality."
The suggestion here is that enforcing neurosis is the path to maintaining normality, and capitalism is the enforcer.
As welll, the unconscious undercurrent played out through forces of capitalism (jobs) may have a pseudo-schizophregenic component, of which schizophrenia is an extreme outcome.
My question is, why can't the root cause and effect of the anxiety-insomnia-hypomania-mania-psychoses pathway be properly managed?
I'm referring to stress, which initially causes insomnia due to the effect of anxiety but later evolves into the indirect cause of hypomania, mania and ultimately psychoses.
However, it is stress that activates schizotypies, which are originally benign eccentricities of personality, that may evolve into one of several different forms of schizophrenia, due to the effects of extreme stress and resultant anxiety.
Depression and mania are just expressions of the extreme spectrum of bathos and pathos which both plague and inspire creativity on anyone of suitable fortitude to live with their neuroses.
Of course, the cheap preventative and/or solution for mental illness is to get regular exercise, sleep the optimal 9 hours, and if need be, take the medication suited to a person's personality type to reduce anxiety and/or promote sleep.
If necessary, a few people will respond to something as safe as prescribed medication, provided that the patient BELIEVES that medication works. He also has FAITH that they do work, which strongly implies a placebo effect facilitated by his belief and faith.
Please note that the patient does need to believe in what his psychiatrist or family doctor says regarding medication, and must be positive toward medication using drugs which do the least harm to the patient.
Additionally, the prudent mental health consumer may substitute meditation for medication if the use of stronger medication is counterindicated, be it for ethical, financial, moral, political and/or religious reasons, provide that his belief that meditation works reinforces his faith in meditation and vice versa.
YMMV
References:
Wikipedia article on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Oedipus
20120426
Imagine a Person with Random Talking Disorder
That person with random talking disorder, which is sorta like schizophrenia, actually makes sense to you and I, since we ain't shrinks.
Yet if that person with RTD goes to a shrink, the disorder is mistaken for schizophrenia, requiring medication to shut him up.
Is that not a human rights violation?
RTD is related more to Tourette's except the afflicted do not cuss randomly. Rather, they string together words but it is more coherent than the word salad of true schizophrenia.
Yet were you to tease apart what a person with RTD says, the paragraphs are random.
Tho a person with RTD can say something that takes 140 characters or less.
Essentially RTD is a symptom of too much Twittering!
20110716
Neurosis in my life
Neurosis is prevalent in post-modern society.
I suffer from neurosis, since I am now taking 11 vitamins and supplements.
The psychiatric term is "hypochondriasis."
Part of the etiology of hypochondriasis is the believe that I am taking care of my overall health by taking vitamins and supplements — mentally and physically — combined with the few medications I am taking now — cyclobenzaprine as muscle relaxant (for osteoarthrosic left shoulder and as a sleep aid) and gabapentin (for mild pain and mood stablizer).
Currently I have had two appointments arranged by my primary physician in the coming month:
with a neurologist to determine the neurological origin for the anger-hostility-aggression (AHA) symptoms related to temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and my history of mild traumatic brain injuries, and
with the local mental health centre's psychiatrist to test for bipolar disorder.
I suffer from neurosis, since I am now taking 11 vitamins and supplements.
The psychiatric term is "hypochondriasis."
Part of the etiology of hypochondriasis is the believe that I am taking care of my overall health by taking vitamins and supplements — mentally and physically — combined with the few medications I am taking now — cyclobenzaprine as muscle relaxant (for osteoarthrosic left shoulder and as a sleep aid) and gabapentin (for mild pain and mood stablizer).
Currently I have had two appointments arranged by my primary physician in the coming month:
20110609
Does Early Intervention for Psychosis Really Work?
"The false positive rate in selecting prepsychosis is at least about 60% to 70% in the very best of hands and may be as high as 90% in general practice." — Australia's Reckless Experiment In Early Intervention
By Allen Frances, MD | June 8, 2011 - UBM Medica Psychiatric Times
This article makes me wonder how many lives are actually being improved if for every true case of psychosis, there are 9 false positives.
Though, people tend to worry even when a little kid has a temper tantrum.
Again and again, the experts warn us: psychiatric intervention should begin when the patient is able to give informed consent.
Only in the rare cases do you step in when a child has demonstrated psychosis to get them help.
In summary, every true psychotic, up to nine other people diagnosed as psychotic may be false positives.
As well, most psychotic episodes are of brief duration.
It is also known that Abilify causes brief psychotic episodes in mentally healthy people due to insomnia.
Reference:
Psychiatric Times: Reckless Experiment In Early Intervention: http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/blog/couchincrisis/content/article/10168/1874703
By Allen Frances, MD | June 8, 2011 - UBM Medica Psychiatric Times
This article makes me wonder how many lives are actually being improved if for every true case of psychosis, there are 9 false positives.
Though, people tend to worry even when a little kid has a temper tantrum.
Again and again, the experts warn us: psychiatric intervention should begin when the patient is able to give informed consent.
Only in the rare cases do you step in when a child has demonstrated psychosis to get them help.
In summary, every true psychotic, up to nine other people diagnosed as psychotic may be false positives.
As well, most psychotic episodes are of brief duration.
It is also known that Abilify causes brief psychotic episodes in mentally healthy people due to insomnia.
Reference:
Psychiatric Times: Reckless Experiment In Early Intervention: http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/blog/couchincrisis/content/article/10168/1874703
20110106
The Solution to Ego Addiction
Dialectic Behavior Therapy requires a trusted facilitator with a psychotherapy background to help the client realize that the root of his problems is ego addiction.
A brief definition of ego addiction is the unhealthy exercise of a person's ego which results in negative feelings of abandonment, grief, guilt, psychic pain, and remorse out of proportion with any given situation.
Furthermore, ego addiction may be harder to recover from, because the afflicted have only a vague concept of ego and how it arises; yet they cling to it strongly.
Easterners have a stronger concept of ego and its originations. This is why they reject psychiatry and the DSM. It also explains their belief in karma.
In the East, it isn't the ego that leads to mental illness.
Rather, it is clinging to the idea that the ego is a permanent entity to the point where one fears nonexistence, and strongly believes the self-as-neutral-observer to be a permanent soul.
For certain Easterners who have carefully studied esoteric Buddhism, the five senses and their organs are the five consciousnesses, the mind is the sixth, and the ego and that "soul" are the seventh and eighth consciousnesses.
For advanced meditators, relief from mental unrest is found by visualizing oneself as the deity (usually Amitabha Buddha) and where one is meditating as the mandala palace (the Pure Land). In Vajrayana Buddhism, it may be White Tara and her Pure Land.
Amida Buddha and his Pure Land of Bliss is actually the symbol for peace of mind.
Thus the solution to the mental unrest caused by ego addiction begins by first stilling the mind through meditation in a social setting conducive to it.
Then, as a result of dialog and practice with a trusted master (therapist), the practitioner behaves in a peaceful and non-violent manner.
20101219
Update on my Meds
Today I am on my last of 7.5 mg (half of 15 mg tablet) of mirtazapine.
Fifty tablets of mirtazapine are stored with a package of 25 caplets of diphenhydramine in my drawer to be used as sedatives for insomnia only.
Thursday I got a new prescription for gabapentin, which helped bring out the best of me. My meds came from my primary GP, but in retrospect, it would have been less of a hassle to get it from my secondary GP, except that I couldn't get up at 7.30AM to get in to see him.
I got a good result from 200 mg Thursday night, and there was little sedation. The next morning, I took 7.5 mg of mirtazapine and the histamine-related sedation left me with impaired balance and related effects which took me 2 hours to adapt — the gabapentin helped because I took a 100 mg dose about an hour after the sedation hit me.
This morning, gabapentin has sparked a remarkable difference in me. I actually felt friendly and outgoing, and it appears to have reduced the usual shyness I used to have.
Yet much of my behavioral negativities actually has very little to do with the medication, but with being able to try something different.
Although I'd like natural health-food remedies and the like, psychopharmaceuticals are the emergency backup plan. With cognitive behavior therapy, they have worked in my case.
If insanity can be defined as doing the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome every time, then sanity is the ability to do something different.
Here is how I am going to do something different: I am open to responses from the anti-psychiatry crowd. Also, will the people who have tried gabapentin please respond?
Any responses demonizing medication will be ignored; such fear-mongering is based on emotional reasoning, which could lead to cognitive distortions.
If any thought pops in your head before you write, then please reread what I wrote and think through your feelings before responding. I'll try to do my best to think, think and think in kind! :)
Update for 20130116: I'm now on cyclobenzaprine 10 g and gabapentin 200 mg at bedtime.
Fifty tablets of mirtazapine are stored with a package of 25 caplets of diphenhydramine in my drawer to be used as sedatives for insomnia only.
Thursday I got a new prescription for gabapentin, which helped bring out the best of me. My meds came from my primary GP, but in retrospect, it would have been less of a hassle to get it from my secondary GP, except that I couldn't get up at 7.30AM to get in to see him.
I got a good result from 200 mg Thursday night, and there was little sedation. The next morning, I took 7.5 mg of mirtazapine and the histamine-related sedation left me with impaired balance and related effects which took me 2 hours to adapt — the gabapentin helped because I took a 100 mg dose about an hour after the sedation hit me.
This morning, gabapentin has sparked a remarkable difference in me. I actually felt friendly and outgoing, and it appears to have reduced the usual shyness I used to have.
Yet much of my behavioral negativities actually has very little to do with the medication, but with being able to try something different.
Although I'd like natural health-food remedies and the like, psychopharmaceuticals are the emergency backup plan. With cognitive behavior therapy, they have worked in my case.
If insanity can be defined as doing the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome every time, then sanity is the ability to do something different.
Here is how I am going to do something different: I am open to responses from the anti-psychiatry crowd. Also, will the people who have tried gabapentin please respond?
Any responses demonizing medication will be ignored; such fear-mongering is based on emotional reasoning, which could lead to cognitive distortions.
If any thought pops in your head before you write, then please reread what I wrote and think through your feelings before responding. I'll try to do my best to think, think and think in kind! :)
Update for 20130116: I'm now on cyclobenzaprine 10 g and gabapentin 200 mg at bedtime.
20100625
Client-Centred Therapy and Depression
In my case, I am certain that client-centred therapy plays a role in my recovery from depression, along with cues from the season.
Once I went to my first interview with the psychiatrist (shrink), I gave the 18 yr old diagnosis of borderline personality disorder whilst trying to present most of the sequelae of it.
In response I got the medication (meds) I wanted: mirtazapine.
After that, I decided to stabilize while recovering from shingles, which arose due to stress probably not related to mirtazapine.
After doing research on mirtazapine, the shrink realized with my help that I would be better letting my GP handle my meds after talking with the psychologist.
Currently, therapy is going well, and so's my life.
Yet the main reason is probably because it's summertime, tho it is because I acted to resolve family issues especially social rejection.
Recovery from mental illness does require a lot of work on the client.
What is helpful is not the medication roulette; it's being able to choose the medication and the course of therapy.
This would not have been possible 18 years ago.
The reason why I waited until now was because I felt after my initial years of therapy in the early 1980's, that I wasn't ready for talk therapy and mirtazapine was introduced in 1996.
I do not regret not going in for therapy earlier.
My only wish is that Remeron be more closely examined to be a safer anti-depressant for people whose moods are stabilized and are willing to be compliant with psychotherapy i.e. the older adult patients exhibiting depression without psychoses.
YMMV
Once I went to my first interview with the psychiatrist (shrink), I gave the 18 yr old diagnosis of borderline personality disorder whilst trying to present most of the sequelae of it.
In response I got the medication (meds) I wanted: mirtazapine.
After that, I decided to stabilize while recovering from shingles, which arose due to stress probably not related to mirtazapine.
After doing research on mirtazapine, the shrink realized with my help that I would be better letting my GP handle my meds after talking with the psychologist.
Currently, therapy is going well, and so's my life.
Yet the main reason is probably because it's summertime, tho it is because I acted to resolve family issues especially social rejection.
Recovery from mental illness does require a lot of work on the client.
What is helpful is not the medication roulette; it's being able to choose the medication and the course of therapy.
This would not have been possible 18 years ago.
The reason why I waited until now was because I felt after my initial years of therapy in the early 1980's, that I wasn't ready for talk therapy and mirtazapine was introduced in 1996.
I do not regret not going in for therapy earlier.
My only wish is that Remeron be more closely examined to be a safer anti-depressant for people whose moods are stabilized and are willing to be compliant with psychotherapy i.e. the older adult patients exhibiting depression without psychoses.
YMMV
20100526
Normalizing Depression and Paranoid-Schizoid Behavior: Notes on Melanie Klein's Theory of Childhood Development
This note is about a "psychobabble" term which is used in everyday language on the street i.e. mainstream use. This term is "paranoid-schizoid".
"Psychobabble" is slang used to describe jargon used by the medical profession to describe behavior and mental conditions, according to a committee-approved manual called DSM-IV.
Within context of this note, first mainstream use of "paranoid-schizoid" will be briefly discussed. It will then be followed by introduction of the term in M. Klein's theory of child development.
Paranoid-Schizoid in Everyday Language
"Paranoid-schizoid" is rarely used in everyday language in its positive sense. Instead it is used to label other people for their eccentricities.
Usually, the term is used when people run out of emotionally charged words such as "crazy" and "weird" to separate people into "good" and "bad" categories, according to social norms.
While most people may be able to define "paranoid" accurately, as paranoia and suspicion out of proportion to a given situation, the term "schizoid" is equated to "crazy" and/or "weird", and falsely associated with schizophrenia.
It is not the purpose of this note to define schizophrenia. However, the term "paranoid-schizoid" is used as a description of a particular form of schizophrenia. Within context of this form of schizophrenia, paranoia and a tendency to be alone appear to be two common traits.
Overall, the term "paranoid-schizoid" is used to describe abnormal behavior with the context of mental health.
Paranoid-Schizoid in Child Development
M Klein uses two terms in her description of early childhood development, "paranoid-schizoid" and "depressive" within context of the term "position", which is defined as "a set of psychic functions that correspond to a given phase of development, always appearing during the first year of life, but which are present at all times thereafter and can be reactivated at any time."
Within context of Klein's description, the word "development" is a generalized term consisting of infantile psychic life i.e. development of the mind of a child during the first year of life.
During the first year of life, a child first begins and completes the paranoid-schizoid position of development. If her environment and up-bringing meet her requirements, then she passes through the depressive position.
Within context of the state of mind of children, the paranoid-schizoid position develops from birth to 4-6 months of age. Between 4-6 months of age, the child develops the depressive position. However, it is normal to move between the two positions though most children's minds will operate in the paranoid-schizoid position.
Klein developed the Object Relations Theory to hypothesize how children view objects in relationship to themselves, mainly as part objects in early childhood.
Within context of childhood development, paranoid refers to the central paranoid anxiety which is defined as "the fear of invasive malevolence". Schizoid refers to the central defense mechanism, splitting, "the vigilant separation of the good object from the bad object."
In healthy childhood development, the child splits its external world, its objects and itself into two categories: good and bad". By doing so, he incorporates attitudes or ideas learned about these two categories into his personality unconsciously, and identifies with the good.
Good consists of love, loving and gratification; bad consists of hate, persecution and frustration.
In this way, splitting is used by the child to protect the good from being destroyed by the bad.
With growing maturity, the child will experience her mother as pleasant and beneficial.
Through maturation, the paranoid-schizoid position is replaced by the depressive position in the child's mind as he becomes more able to tolerate frustration and hold onto the good object for increasing periods.
Thus enabled to accept his bad impulses without fear that these impulses will destroy it, a more reasonable view of the self and object as possessing both good and bad attributes, leads to the greater integration and maturity of the depressive position.
"Depressive and paranoid-schizoid modes of experience continue to intermingle throughout the first few years of childhood."
Commentary on the Term Paranoid-Schizoid Within The Medical Context
With respect to children, these two positions of child development are not psychiatric conditions. Both "paranoid-schizoid" and "depressive" refer to states of mind in normal childhood development. Thus, they are not medical conditions in need of fixing.
Even when paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions may be used by the child in later years in reaction to stress both within the family (i.e. sibling rivalry, misbehavior, etc) and outside the family, they are mind tools being used by the child to defend her psyche.
Rather than using medication to treat fears and anxieties, it would be more beneficial for parents to model adaptive coping strategies for the child to give her more ways of dealing with anxiety and fear.
References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoid-schizoid_position http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_relations_theory#Paranoid-schizoid_position http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_relations_theory#Depressive_position http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_Relations_Theory Analysis of Kelly Jacobson's The Origin of Mouthstones: http://excavatingalfred.blogspot.com/2009/12/object-relations-every-person-has.html
"Psychobabble" is slang used to describe jargon used by the medical profession to describe behavior and mental conditions, according to a committee-approved manual called DSM-IV.
Within context of this note, first mainstream use of "paranoid-schizoid" will be briefly discussed. It will then be followed by introduction of the term in M. Klein's theory of child development.
Paranoid-Schizoid in Everyday Language
"Paranoid-schizoid" is rarely used in everyday language in its positive sense. Instead it is used to label other people for their eccentricities.
Usually, the term is used when people run out of emotionally charged words such as "crazy" and "weird" to separate people into "good" and "bad" categories, according to social norms.
While most people may be able to define "paranoid" accurately, as paranoia and suspicion out of proportion to a given situation, the term "schizoid" is equated to "crazy" and/or "weird", and falsely associated with schizophrenia.
It is not the purpose of this note to define schizophrenia. However, the term "paranoid-schizoid" is used as a description of a particular form of schizophrenia. Within context of this form of schizophrenia, paranoia and a tendency to be alone appear to be two common traits.
Overall, the term "paranoid-schizoid" is used to describe abnormal behavior with the context of mental health.
Paranoid-Schizoid in Child Development
M Klein uses two terms in her description of early childhood development, "paranoid-schizoid" and "depressive" within context of the term "position", which is defined as "a set of psychic functions that correspond to a given phase of development, always appearing during the first year of life, but which are present at all times thereafter and can be reactivated at any time."
Within context of Klein's description, the word "development" is a generalized term consisting of infantile psychic life i.e. development of the mind of a child during the first year of life.
During the first year of life, a child first begins and completes the paranoid-schizoid position of development. If her environment and up-bringing meet her requirements, then she passes through the depressive position.
Within context of the state of mind of children, the paranoid-schizoid position develops from birth to 4-6 months of age. Between 4-6 months of age, the child develops the depressive position. However, it is normal to move between the two positions though most children's minds will operate in the paranoid-schizoid position.
Klein developed the Object Relations Theory to hypothesize how children view objects in relationship to themselves, mainly as part objects in early childhood.
Within context of childhood development, paranoid refers to the central paranoid anxiety which is defined as "the fear of invasive malevolence". Schizoid refers to the central defense mechanism, splitting, "the vigilant separation of the good object from the bad object."
In healthy childhood development, the child splits its external world, its objects and itself into two categories: good and bad". By doing so, he incorporates attitudes or ideas learned about these two categories into his personality unconsciously, and identifies with the good.
Good consists of love, loving and gratification; bad consists of hate, persecution and frustration.
In this way, splitting is used by the child to protect the good from being destroyed by the bad.
With growing maturity, the child will experience her mother as pleasant and beneficial.
Through maturation, the paranoid-schizoid position is replaced by the depressive position in the child's mind as he becomes more able to tolerate frustration and hold onto the good object for increasing periods.
Thus enabled to accept his bad impulses without fear that these impulses will destroy it, a more reasonable view of the self and object as possessing both good and bad attributes, leads to the greater integration and maturity of the depressive position.
"Depressive and paranoid-schizoid modes of experience continue to intermingle throughout the first few years of childhood."
Commentary on the Term Paranoid-Schizoid Within The Medical Context
With respect to children, these two positions of child development are not psychiatric conditions. Both "paranoid-schizoid" and "depressive" refer to states of mind in normal childhood development. Thus, they are not medical conditions in need of fixing.
Even when paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions may be used by the child in later years in reaction to stress both within the family (i.e. sibling rivalry, misbehavior, etc) and outside the family, they are mind tools being used by the child to defend her psyche.
Rather than using medication to treat fears and anxieties, it would be more beneficial for parents to model adaptive coping strategies for the child to give her more ways of dealing with anxiety and fear.
References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoid-schizoid_position http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_relations_theory#Paranoid-schizoid_position http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_relations_theory#Depressive_position http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_Relations_Theory Analysis of Kelly Jacobson's The Origin of Mouthstones: http://excavatingalfred.blogspot.com/2009/12/object-relations-every-person-has.html
20071122
Short Meditation on Alternative Medicine And Its Spiritual Roots
In the post-modern era, anti-psychiatry is in vogue. Medications usually induce the very symptoms they are supposed to suppress. Benzodiazepines are notorious for causing suppressed anxiety, sedation and other effects which leads to more anxiety, insomnia and even seizures.
I can think of better medication using rhodiola, 5HTP, valerian, skullcap, and hearty Indian food.
If you combine this with meditation techniques and positive thinking, then stress can be handled, nervousness will reduce, anxiety will fade, and smile will always be quickly found.
All it takes is dedication and practise.
As a Buddhist I know this. The earlier one realizes that one's role in the world is to awaken others to their spiritual destiny, the better.
For such an awakening is the key to becoming better people, even if one does not become famous or successful or even a rich person.
Indeed, true wealth is found in being humble and not being attention to one's self.
At the root of this wealth is unconditional love.
I can think of better medication using rhodiola, 5HTP, valerian, skullcap, and hearty Indian food.
If you combine this with meditation techniques and positive thinking, then stress can be handled, nervousness will reduce, anxiety will fade, and smile will always be quickly found.
All it takes is dedication and practise.
As a Buddhist I know this. The earlier one realizes that one's role in the world is to awaken others to their spiritual destiny, the better.
For such an awakening is the key to becoming better people, even if one does not become famous or successful or even a rich person.
Indeed, true wealth is found in being humble and not being attention to one's self.
At the root of this wealth is unconditional love.
20070724
How to Turn A Child Psychotic
Just put him on anti-depressants (paxil), psychostimulants (wellbutrin or adderall or ritalin), and anti-psychotics (haldol).
Then put him into the social welfare system (family services) and bounce him from foster care home to temporary residences for children at risk, when he goes berserk.
Within months he'll be another psychotic kid who is happiest when he's pulling stop signs out of the ground and beating up the care worker.
And the shrinks and social workers will pretend the medication isn't working and up his dose only to cause seizures that look like psychosis.
Hey dumb-asses!
Sedate the kid on clonezepam. Then put him on an atypical anticonvulsant like lamotrigine and ativan at bedtime.
Stop overstimulating his brain with useless anti-psychotics and psychostimulants.
Then put him into the social welfare system (family services) and bounce him from foster care home to temporary residences for children at risk, when he goes berserk.
Within months he'll be another psychotic kid who is happiest when he's pulling stop signs out of the ground and beating up the care worker.
And the shrinks and social workers will pretend the medication isn't working and up his dose only to cause seizures that look like psychosis.
Hey dumb-asses!
Sedate the kid on clonezepam. Then put him on an atypical anticonvulsant like lamotrigine and ativan at bedtime.
Stop overstimulating his brain with useless anti-psychotics and psychostimulants.
20070709
The Japanese Way
Out of all the Asians, I feel that Japanese wouldn't do getting psychotherapy from a non-Japanese who doesn't understand the culture.
IMHO it would worsen whatever is bothering the person. It's also a form of colonization, since psychiatry is a European form of social control.
In short, an Asian would become assimilated with all the risks that brings.
In Asia, psychiatry is just a form of social control. In Japan, the average stay in a mental institution is about 407 days. Outpatient service is usually with a psychiatrist and if he finds you are worse for wear, then it's not talk therapy. He will give you a shot of a typical antipsychotic, which will have nasty side effects, all the ones the typical Asian will get, guaranteed.
However, the psychiatrist profession in Japan denies the existence of schizophrenia. In their eyes it is an invention of Americans since American manufactures most of the older antipsychotics.
Japan's answer was to have Otsuka Pharma make Abilify, which is an antypical antipsychotic that appears to relieve most of the psychosis without the side effects. However, therapy with Abilify is expensive. The drug costs about $100-150 a month.
In Canada, your GP and pdoc have to justify its use because other drugs do not work. This means your Pharmacare file has to have a history of prescribing you antipsychotics before you even get Abilify. Some patients don't get lucky, and their lives have been ruined by thorazine. Other patients get seroquel, sleep all the time, and have diabetes.
Otsuka is the same company that makes Pokari Sweat and Calpis. Pokari is the earliest energy drink. Calpis is a flavoured yoghurt drink. Despite my lactose intolerance, I had no problems with it -- though my lactose intolerance is hit or miss. Last night, I had a clam chowder with no side effects. Maybe the wasabi pills are working.
Having told you about psychiatry and its effects on the Japanese, let me get to the meat of today's entry.
It is the Japanese way for the woman to rule the roost because Japanese men are no help in raising kids. So even when they marry white boys, the average Japanese woman will pick a man most like her dad, who is usually not the ruler of the nest at all. YMMV
Anyone who knows the Japanese, whether by birth or by marriage, will confirm this truth. If your family isn't like this, then you're either lying to yourself or you actually were born into or married into a good family. Treasure them, cos other families are run by the mother.
I think it's safe to say that's why the mental health system won't give me therapy. They know the Japanese are generally non-compliant and do not respond well to the big horse pills they tend to give us. We do not need over 300 mg of seroquel. 25-75 mg is enough. And why give us that when 50 mg of Gravol is fine?? Forget benzodiazepines; we get easily hooked on them. As for antidepressants, we need a walking buddy. Exercise is the only cure, along with getting out everyday, rain or shine.
As well, the one best therapy for the typical is Karaoke & sake. I don't mean getting drunk and singing Rollin' Stones tunes. What I mean is going yuppontoi and belting out enka classics. These are classical drinking songs similar to blues. None of those incomprehensible JPOP tunes. This is the real Japanese experience.
Yes, for the average Japanese-American (and Japanese-Canadian), the best therapy is to go back to your roots. Why? Cos that's the Japanese way. We were descended from the gods, you know. This is why Americanization is so hard on us, and our elders are dying off from suicide.
However, while you are out there finding your roots, avoid thinking about how you grew up. Wake up from that nightmare, even if you have to learn to meditate and jiu-jitsu. It may even help to become Buddhist, even if it is Jodo Shinshu. But never ever mention family life. Lie about it. Present the positive, hide the negative. Praise your mother!!
For that is the Japanese way.
IMHO it would worsen whatever is bothering the person. It's also a form of colonization, since psychiatry is a European form of social control.
In short, an Asian would become assimilated with all the risks that brings.
In Asia, psychiatry is just a form of social control. In Japan, the average stay in a mental institution is about 407 days. Outpatient service is usually with a psychiatrist and if he finds you are worse for wear, then it's not talk therapy. He will give you a shot of a typical antipsychotic, which will have nasty side effects, all the ones the typical Asian will get, guaranteed.
However, the psychiatrist profession in Japan denies the existence of schizophrenia. In their eyes it is an invention of Americans since American manufactures most of the older antipsychotics.
Japan's answer was to have Otsuka Pharma make Abilify, which is an antypical antipsychotic that appears to relieve most of the psychosis without the side effects. However, therapy with Abilify is expensive. The drug costs about $100-150 a month.
In Canada, your GP and pdoc have to justify its use because other drugs do not work. This means your Pharmacare file has to have a history of prescribing you antipsychotics before you even get Abilify. Some patients don't get lucky, and their lives have been ruined by thorazine. Other patients get seroquel, sleep all the time, and have diabetes.
Otsuka is the same company that makes Pokari Sweat and Calpis. Pokari is the earliest energy drink. Calpis is a flavoured yoghurt drink. Despite my lactose intolerance, I had no problems with it -- though my lactose intolerance is hit or miss. Last night, I had a clam chowder with no side effects. Maybe the wasabi pills are working.
Having told you about psychiatry and its effects on the Japanese, let me get to the meat of today's entry.
It is the Japanese way for the woman to rule the roost because Japanese men are no help in raising kids. So even when they marry white boys, the average Japanese woman will pick a man most like her dad, who is usually not the ruler of the nest at all. YMMV
Anyone who knows the Japanese, whether by birth or by marriage, will confirm this truth. If your family isn't like this, then you're either lying to yourself or you actually were born into or married into a good family. Treasure them, cos other families are run by the mother.
I think it's safe to say that's why the mental health system won't give me therapy. They know the Japanese are generally non-compliant and do not respond well to the big horse pills they tend to give us. We do not need over 300 mg of seroquel. 25-75 mg is enough. And why give us that when 50 mg of Gravol is fine?? Forget benzodiazepines; we get easily hooked on them. As for antidepressants, we need a walking buddy. Exercise is the only cure, along with getting out everyday, rain or shine.
As well, the one best therapy for the typical is Karaoke & sake. I don't mean getting drunk and singing Rollin' Stones tunes. What I mean is going yuppontoi and belting out enka classics. These are classical drinking songs similar to blues. None of those incomprehensible JPOP tunes. This is the real Japanese experience.
Yes, for the average Japanese-American (and Japanese-Canadian), the best therapy is to go back to your roots. Why? Cos that's the Japanese way. We were descended from the gods, you know. This is why Americanization is so hard on us, and our elders are dying off from suicide.
However, while you are out there finding your roots, avoid thinking about how you grew up. Wake up from that nightmare, even if you have to learn to meditate and jiu-jitsu. It may even help to become Buddhist, even if it is Jodo Shinshu. But never ever mention family life. Lie about it. Present the positive, hide the negative. Praise your mother!!
For that is the Japanese way.
20070608
Using the Mad to Save the Mad
Sociologically, magico-religious healing plays a central and positive role. The magic and faith in the healing powers of the shaman aids in strengthening the group, tribe or caste by defining a common foe, and in identifying the evil, invisible spirit that has been causing illness.
In this way, it is possible to control one’s own environment and the immediate neighbourhood and to influence it.
Moreover, the healing ritual of the shaman late into the night helps to sublimate difficult somatic instincts and to channel them in a socially acceptable and legal way, without being stigmatized in the society as being abnormal or an ill-person.
In our society we have abnormal and ill people who are stigmatized daily as "mentally ill." While being educated about their illness and treated, the medication may affect them so that they are unable to work when exposed to the stresses of the modern workplace.
At the same time, conventional medicine has a stranglehold on the people. If one is a shaman, then most doctors will jealously guard their territory and look down upon alternative forms of healing, even to the point of subjecting shamans to public ridicule and even stigmatizing them as mentally ill and hospitalizing them. All this does is make modern medicine look bad.
While traditional folk medicine has a long tradition in Nepal, it must not be forgotten that what is folk medicine now used to be common practice. It wasn't until the 19th century that doctors began to believe in the disease model of health. Since then, health-care may have made leaps and bounds technologically but overall it's also created problems especially within psychiatry.
If we think of each potential schizophrenic as a would-be shaman, ignorant of hir role in society, then we have here a pool of new medical workers who can augment the hospitals and doctors in their work. While it will be tough to weed out people who are too sick to decide the best health-care for others, the results will be worth it because we will have trained health-care workers supporting doctors and hospitals.
Rather than medicating a potential schizophrenic, it would be more humane to have hir employed. Since the only purpose of medication is social control, this is malpractice. For mentally ill people who are employed suffer less from their illness than their unemployed brothers and sisters.
Note that the shaman is not schizophrenic because rather than being impaired by anxiety and fear, he is channeling his anxiety and fear in socially acceptable way, rather than being plagued by insomnia's nightmares and the descent into mania and madness.
In this way, it is possible to control one’s own environment and the immediate neighbourhood and to influence it.
Moreover, the healing ritual of the shaman late into the night helps to sublimate difficult somatic instincts and to channel them in a socially acceptable and legal way, without being stigmatized in the society as being abnormal or an ill-person.
In our society we have abnormal and ill people who are stigmatized daily as "mentally ill." While being educated about their illness and treated, the medication may affect them so that they are unable to work when exposed to the stresses of the modern workplace.
At the same time, conventional medicine has a stranglehold on the people. If one is a shaman, then most doctors will jealously guard their territory and look down upon alternative forms of healing, even to the point of subjecting shamans to public ridicule and even stigmatizing them as mentally ill and hospitalizing them. All this does is make modern medicine look bad.
While traditional folk medicine has a long tradition in Nepal, it must not be forgotten that what is folk medicine now used to be common practice. It wasn't until the 19th century that doctors began to believe in the disease model of health. Since then, health-care may have made leaps and bounds technologically but overall it's also created problems especially within psychiatry.
If we think of each potential schizophrenic as a would-be shaman, ignorant of hir role in society, then we have here a pool of new medical workers who can augment the hospitals and doctors in their work. While it will be tough to weed out people who are too sick to decide the best health-care for others, the results will be worth it because we will have trained health-care workers supporting doctors and hospitals.
Rather than medicating a potential schizophrenic, it would be more humane to have hir employed. Since the only purpose of medication is social control, this is malpractice. For mentally ill people who are employed suffer less from their illness than their unemployed brothers and sisters.
Note that the shaman is not schizophrenic because rather than being impaired by anxiety and fear, he is channeling his anxiety and fear in socially acceptable way, rather than being plagued by insomnia's nightmares and the descent into mania and madness.
20070225
Religious Fanaticism: Insanity or Truly Devoted
With the authorization of the American Journal of Psychiatry we are republishing the Case Study of "Brother David" [not his real name]. We believe that Brother David's story, most of which was never published by any of the nation's key newspapers, will give the serious reader a better understanding of the fragile and fine line separating sanity with insanity in matters of faith.
We have written of the errors of fanaticism and of radical asceticism. In this fine study by Dr. Laura Weiss Roberts, et al, the reader will achieve a better grasp of the dangers of faith-related extremisms.
Brother David's story may initially bring memories of the ancient ascetic of Biblical times, until the reader realizes that he was a member of the Heaven's Gate cult who committed suicide in Rancho Santa Fe, California, in March 1997.
But what if the faith-related extremism is expressed in the form of believing that the group one is a part of will save, say, the Roman Catholic Church from its arch-enemies? Or another that instead believes that the Roman Catholic Church is evil? Or yet another group bent on the destruction of the "infidels". To what extent will they go to achieve what they believe is their well justified mission?
In any case, this fine Case Study may be considered as a home-study crash-course on the radical faith-related mentality and logic that we must avoid at all times, regardless of the faith we may profess.
And so begins a case history of a certain member of the Heaven's Gate cult, whose leadership's anti-sex repressions lead one man to request castration.
This is a must-read in order to help one understand the mind of a religious fanatic.
20070213
Margaret Trudeau says quitting marijuana helped mental health
Quitting cannabis has been an important part of her recovery from mental illness, Margaret Trudeau said Monday at a press conference in Vancouver for the Canadian Mental Health Association's upcoming Bottom Line Conference.
Trudeau, who suffers from bipolar disorder, spoke openly with reporters about her experience with depression and the effect of her long-term marijuana use.
Margaret Trudeau went on to claim that marijuna can trigger psychosis. However, this is inaccurate. What THC, the psychoactive drug in marijuana, may do is trigger anxiety. It is the user's reaction to that anxiety which leads to psychosis, not marijuana itself.
While paranoid thought may be a result of such anxiety, the fear of being caught intoxicated is more of the reason for paranoia than THC itself.
Therefore marijuana does not cause psychosis. Maladaptation to anxiety about one's substance abuse is more directly causal to possible psychosis than taking 200 micrograms of THC.
Compare this to a man being found out about his online time spent exclusively surfing for porn. If he knows it to be wrong to spend so much time online, and discovers he is being shamed by looking at porn, he may exhibit anxiety which may result in agitation, anger, and sometimes irrational behaviors associated with guilt. Thus he will act guilty and get upset, perhaps even exhibiting rage and possible brief psychosis.
So in Margaret Trudeay's case, she may have gotten high on pot, been caught by paparazzi and discovered her pictures in national tabloid with guilt-inducing headlines.
I would attribute her crises to public censure more than to occasional use of marijuana.
However, quitting pot did help Ms. Trudeau manage her bipolar disorder by reducing risk of anxiety. Thus, being drug free does improve mental health.
Trudeau, who suffers from bipolar disorder, spoke openly with reporters about her experience with depression and the effect of her long-term marijuana use.
Margaret Trudeau went on to claim that marijuna can trigger psychosis. However, this is inaccurate. What THC, the psychoactive drug in marijuana, may do is trigger anxiety. It is the user's reaction to that anxiety which leads to psychosis, not marijuana itself.
While paranoid thought may be a result of such anxiety, the fear of being caught intoxicated is more of the reason for paranoia than THC itself.
Therefore marijuana does not cause psychosis. Maladaptation to anxiety about one's substance abuse is more directly causal to possible psychosis than taking 200 micrograms of THC.
Compare this to a man being found out about his online time spent exclusively surfing for porn. If he knows it to be wrong to spend so much time online, and discovers he is being shamed by looking at porn, he may exhibit anxiety which may result in agitation, anger, and sometimes irrational behaviors associated with guilt. Thus he will act guilty and get upset, perhaps even exhibiting rage and possible brief psychosis.
So in Margaret Trudeay's case, she may have gotten high on pot, been caught by paparazzi and discovered her pictures in national tabloid with guilt-inducing headlines.
I would attribute her crises to public censure more than to occasional use of marijuana.
However, quitting pot did help Ms. Trudeau manage her bipolar disorder by reducing risk of anxiety. Thus, being drug free does improve mental health.
20070210
LSD use never leads to suicide, but may be "one straw too many."
I was musing about a question posted by a certain Psychfo contributer, one of many members of Craigslist. She asked about a friend who died after taking LSD. I denied that LSD contributed to that kid committing suicide.
However LSD could have indirectly led to him accidentally killing himself by being a dumbass. LSD appears to open one up to the concept of non-self i.e. that we're not narcissistic individuals trying to look out for number one, ME. This appears to cause an LSD user to question his or her meaning of existence. As a result of indiscriminate drug use, this existential challenge may lead to one straw too many on the camel's back for the user, regardless of her age.
Sometimes, the ravages of teenage hormones might end up with the kid psychotic, but LSD is not the cause of the ensuing diagnosis, be it schizophrenia or a mood disorder. Rather, LSD, like other recreational drugs, are tools put into the wrong hands. Such drugs are neither harmful nor deadly except to an ignorant kid who has no clue about the pharmacology and toxicology of illegal substance use.
How the Tibetan Book of the Dead fits into this is that prior to DEA's demonization of entheogens such as LSD and MDMA, they were used therapeutically by shrinks and therapists. The near-death experience provided by LSD, peyote, MDMA and even GHB is a powerful therapeutic tool. By making such entheogens illegal, the DEA has turned such tools into another way to uncover probable mental illness in children.
Then they are given potentially dangerous psychoactive drugs such as Prozac, which might result in a neuroleptic malignacy(sp?) syndrome and might even cause a worsening of symptoms including the rise of another disorder such as OCD. In truth, illegal drugs do not make kids crazy.
IMHO They'd be crazy soon enough from working crazy hours full-time once they turn 18. :p
What might make kids crazy is being given powerful psychoactive meds in an attempt to manufacture another schizophrenic, another MDD case, another OCD hand-wringer, another ODD-CD delinquent.
IMHO Meds and kids don't mix. YMMV
However LSD could have indirectly led to him accidentally killing himself by being a dumbass. LSD appears to open one up to the concept of non-self i.e. that we're not narcissistic individuals trying to look out for number one, ME. This appears to cause an LSD user to question his or her meaning of existence. As a result of indiscriminate drug use, this existential challenge may lead to one straw too many on the camel's back for the user, regardless of her age.
Sometimes, the ravages of teenage hormones might end up with the kid psychotic, but LSD is not the cause of the ensuing diagnosis, be it schizophrenia or a mood disorder. Rather, LSD, like other recreational drugs, are tools put into the wrong hands. Such drugs are neither harmful nor deadly except to an ignorant kid who has no clue about the pharmacology and toxicology of illegal substance use.
How the Tibetan Book of the Dead fits into this is that prior to DEA's demonization of entheogens such as LSD and MDMA, they were used therapeutically by shrinks and therapists. The near-death experience provided by LSD, peyote, MDMA and even GHB is a powerful therapeutic tool. By making such entheogens illegal, the DEA has turned such tools into another way to uncover probable mental illness in children.
Then they are given potentially dangerous psychoactive drugs such as Prozac, which might result in a neuroleptic malignacy(sp?) syndrome and might even cause a worsening of symptoms including the rise of another disorder such as OCD. In truth, illegal drugs do not make kids crazy.
IMHO They'd be crazy soon enough from working crazy hours full-time once they turn 18. :p
What might make kids crazy is being given powerful psychoactive meds in an attempt to manufacture another schizophrenic, another MDD case, another OCD hand-wringer, another ODD-CD delinquent.
IMHO Meds and kids don't mix. YMMV
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