Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Report card

Chris is doing well. Ian and I stick to our vow to not discuss Chris under almost any circumstance (the low Expressed Emotion thing). Chris has enrolled for another night course in computer technology, having finished the two week intro while Ian and I were away in August. He was asked, and forced to turn down, a request to join a rock band because unfortunately it interferes with his night course. He continues his once a week voice lessons and sings in the church choir.

He sees the sound shaman once a week. The shaman, in addition to working his magic on Chris's chakras through sound, has suggested to Chris that he might want to put some of his energy into finding a girlfriend. Can a girlfriend come before a paycheck? We'll see. If he does find a girlfriend, she might be attracted by his cooking skills. He's becoming quite good at feeding the family on a nightly basis and he does a lot of the grocery shopping.

Chris continues to whittle away at the medication while seeing Dr. Stern twice a week. For those who are new to this blog, a large part of my energy was spent in the beginning fighting to get him off the medication. After being off the meds for a few months, he relapsed, although not due to the withdrawal. He went back into the hospital and was put on meds once again, most unfortunately. I argued again with the doctors to get him off them. Chris is now in the process of handling his own medication withdrawal. I noticed the other day that he seems more at ease with people, although, he still tends to stand while others are sitting, making it slightly socially awkward. I expect that to dissipate over time, but I do not feel it is meds-related.

He's thinking hard about where he wants to go in life. There are a few open houses coming up with programs that he might want to pursue. I hope he goes to them.

Chris has also started to complain that he feels that all he does is errands for us. Good. I hope he is waking up to the idea of striking out on his own, becoming his own person, ditching the ties that bind.

P.S. I forgot to mention the vitamins, as Duane noted in the comments to this post. We have a more relaxed attitude toward the vitamins than previously. Chris is no longer taking 35 vitamins a day. That was becoming a bit of a tyranny. (See: The tyranny of vitamins). Instead, he has scaled down to the Dr. Hoffer basics - NADH instead of niacin, vitamin C, a vitamin B, and recently he has started taking 4 omega 3s per day.

7 comments:

  1. Rossa,

    I'm a believer in Orthomolecular Medicine, especially when it comes to young people... Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D. had a ninety percent success rate - full recovery, with young people!

    I know you're well-versed on Orthomolecular, but for any of your readers who want to learn more... The Orthomolecular Vitamin Infomation Center -

    http://www.orthomolecularvitamincentre.com/disorders.php

    Also, Andrew Saul, Ph.D., Editor of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine has a great site -

    http://www.doctoryourself.com

    ISOM and physician referral -

    http://www.orthomed.org/resources/resources.html

    I hope the best for you and your family!

    Duane

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  2. Also, as you know, Linus Pauling, Ph.D. considered us humans to be a lot like guinnea pigs - we need to take lots of vitamin C...

    Lots of it!

    I take a thousand milligrams in chewable form every few hours throughout the day... If a person is taking too much, it will run through them (not to be too graphic), but if so, just back it off a bit.

    The best things about Orthomolecular is that it puts a person in charge of their own health, it's cheap, and it works... especially with young people!

    Duane

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  3. Thanks, Duane. It is always good to reinforce things in the comments I may have forgotten. I'm going to put a reference back into today's post about the vitamins. I myself take 6 grams of C a day, 3 grams of niacin, a vitamin B, and vitamin E.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rossa,

    I'm a parent too, and our son went through some rough times... He's doing great now...

    From Bloomberg, Bipolar Juggernaut... Our son, Brian Sherry is mentioned in the article -

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aBYgkHznuux0

    His "bipolar" symptoms were brought on by Paxil (which he was taking off-label for irritable bowel syndrome). This was all a long time ago... He has since fully recovered.

    Full recovery happens all the time.

    Duane

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  5. I read the Bloomberg piece about your son. What really gets me is how a doctor can seriously believe that one individual has all these diagnoses? The multiple diagnosis thing is rampant and brought about by the multiple drugs used to treat one or more of these dubious conditions. I'm glad you took charge and brought your son back to good health. (Somebody has to have some sense here!)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Rossa,

    The doctors who believe that one person can have so many diagnoses are the ones that are insane :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Like, totally agreed. Where are their heads at?

    ReplyDelete

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