"Who am I and what am I here for" are the fundamental questions of our existence on this planet.
I am Rossa Forbes, a pseudonym for me. I became a new me, a wiser and more focused me, when my oldest son was diagnosed as having schizophrenia. That was six years ago when "Chris" was 19. His diagnosis forced me think about many things in a different way.
My blog is for people who expect more out of recovery than what they are currently achieving.
I was naive when I started on this journey. Over time I became very critical of the medical treatment Chris was receiving when I realized he wasn't getting better, despite the huge amounts of money being spent. I expected "better". I expected "well". Doctors instead spoke about "recovery". Recovery is such a vague concept. It seems to be associated with quality of life, another term that I abhor when it comes to schizophrenia. Who wants to be spoken of in terms of "quality of life" when you are young and your whole life is ahead of you?
BS (before schizophrenia) I thought life was pretty good. I still do, but it is much more meaningful. Schizophrenia is not like other illnesses. I do not really consider it an illness, so if you are looking for advice on medications and how to deal with schizophrenia as a brain disease, this blog is not for you. I do consider schizophrenia a "problem". Something isn't working well for the individual and it is certainly a huge problem for the family members. Problems can be solved, however. They take time and effort. Nobody said this was easy. A brain disease, on the other hand, sounds final. And, of course, expensive medications are prescribed for this brain disease. These medications also have rather serious side effects.
While I hesitate to even use the term "schizophrenia" in this blog, it is useful shorthand for a collection of characteristics related to someone who is having difficulties with living.
The purpose of my blog is to do the following and more:
1. Introduce you to holistic therapies that my son underwent (I tried most of them, too.)
2. Explain why a holistic approach is better than a medication only approach. Holistic allows that low doses of medication can be useful and often necessary, but should not be considered a long term strategy.
3. Stimulate a positive and even humorous perspective about the condition
4. Encourage you to think that the expected outcome of this condition is to achieve total health
5. Demonstrate that writers, artists, poets often have a better understanding of schizophrenia than your doctor does
6. Establish a platform for the book that I am writing (feedback is most appreciated!)
Posts
So do you think that some people have Schizophrenia from something other than a chemical imbalance? If so, what's in your mind causing Schizophrenia? How does one fix it? Through foods, etc? Thanks! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat I know is that "schizophrenia" is a name given by doctors for what others like me would call an extreme stress reaction, the cause of which is often not on the surface for everyone to see. It usually happens to young people who are struggling to leave home for the first time or encountering other triggers in the journey into adulthood. Like it or not, it's the family who has the most influence over the individual, and the family can be the problem, or the solution. My entire blog is devoted to many ideas and therapies that work, but one thing you might want to do is to plug "expressed emotion" into the search tool and that will give you a very good clue about how the family can help or hinder the person. One thing that prevented my son from getting better sooner was my pre-ordained timetable of recovery. I feel that I put too much stress on him to reach his potential well before he was ready. Thanks for commenting!
ReplyDelete