Won't be blogging for a while

I'm off on vacation with Ian and Chris and will be back later in August. There is the usual amount of last minute rushing around and I am exhausted!

 I doubt I'll be posting anything during the vacation, but will be always on the lookout for good material for this blog.

I hope all of you are enjoying your summer. Stay healthy and well.

...Rossa

Handbook of Complementary and Alternative Therapies in Mental Health

I've been so busy preparing my book proposal that I haven't had any time to write this blog. While researching the market for my book I came across the following text book that I think readers ought to know about. I checked the Index rather quickly and I notice that even F.M. Alexander, originator of The Alexander Technique, is listed.

Handbook of Complementary and Alternative Therapies in Mental Health, edited by Scott Shannon, MD. Dr. Shannon is a former head of the American Holistic Medical Association, another excellent resource to keep in mind.

Editorial Reviews

"Handbook of Complementary and Alternative Therapies in Mental Health represents a comprehensive overview of reapidly expanding field that includes chapters by 24 leading psychiatric/psychological experts in these fields... There are few previous books of this nature or scope for professional audience... This is an excellent compendium of integrative and holistic therapies, not just for mental health... This groundbreaking text should become a standard reference for any mental health care professional. It is well written, and a pleasurable read."

-WORDTRADE

"Shannon imposes a detailed format that includes an in-depth overview of the field, safety considerations, extent of published research on each approach, and validation of effects... Shannon makes a persuasive argument that Eastern and Western medicine can easily complement one another and reinforce each other's strengths in healing many forms of mental illnesses. Highly recommended for graduate students, researchers and clinicians in both mental health and medicine."

-CHOICE

"Mental health professionals would be well advised to look into the topics covered in this book, both to broadentheir professional horizons, and, to get some idea of what their clients are likely to be up to."

-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF PSYCHIATRY

"This is a very useful book, organizing a large amount of information in a relevant, easy-to-use format. It provides a clear, up-to-date description of the interface between current medical practice and the therapies it covers, particularly contraindications and potential interactions. It is an important beginning of the dissemination to mental health professionals of information about alternative therapies many clients are already using."

-divine, inc.

"This volume is a significant contribution to the emerging field of complementary and alternative medicine. Dr. Shannon's survey of the scientific evidence underlying complementary and alternative approaches to mental healthcare is dazzling, and will add to the growing respectability and acceptance of these approaches. Shannon shows compellingly that pharmacological treatments for mental disorders, which currently dominate psychotherapy, are but one possible approach. This book will become a classic in its field."

-Larry Dossey, MD

Author: Reinventing Medicine and Healing Words

"Dr. Scott Shannon has compiled a thorough guide to alternative therapies in the mental health field; one that will be most useful for both patients and health professionals. There is so much more out there than conventional approaches. This book tells you what is available and how to make use of it."

-Andrew Weil, M.D., Author of 8 Weeks to Optimum Health and Director of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson

"Self-care is the the foundation of 21st century medicine, and with this book Scott Shannon has powerfully provided the reader with access to a multitude of options for improving their mental health. While filling a critical void in medical reference texts, this book also allows the public a comprehensive and in-depth look at the mental health therapies of holistic medicine -- America's newest specialty."

-ROBERT S. IVKER, D.O., President-elect of the American Board of Holistic Medicine and author of the bestselling SINUS SURVIVAL

"Well researched and well written, this compilation enhances our understanding of CAM approaches and enlarges our perspective as mental health professionals."

-JAMES S. GORDON, M.D.

Author, Manifesto for a New Medicine: Your Guide to Healing Partnerships and the Wise Use of Alternative Medicine; Founder and Director, Center for Mind-Body Washington, DC

Continuing on the path

Last week I had a phone appointment with Sue Frederick, a career intuitive/numerologist. Numerologically, I am in my second Saturn return. Though I missed a career path in line with my "non-awakened" self on my first Saturn return  (aged twenty-eight), I have a second chance around the age of fifty-eight. Since I had already read Sue's book, and know my number (22/4) I was mainly using this conversation as a chance to see if she could add anything that would help me with my future plans, which include retiring in two years.  What I was hoping, was that Sue might suggest something different than the path I have been on for nine years.

What I have been doing the past nine years is my path, according to Sue. She must have noticed the enthusiasm I displayed when I talked about schizophrenia. No doubt I was born to have a son develop "schizophrenia," and then for me to find it the most interesting thing that ever happened to ME! But how can you think it's all about you, some may ask, when clearly your son has suffered this terrible tragedy?  Well, as you know, I don't see schizophrenia as a tragedy, I see it as an opportunity for growth, especially for the so-called afflicted, but also for anyone around him or her who cares to listen and learn.

I did get some immediate ideas from Sue about taking advantage of my second Saturn return. One is to do a proper book proposal, including a market analysis, chapter summaries, etc. I have been concentrating on finishing the manuscript edits, but Sue convinced me just to get the proposal sent out to agents before August. The book doesn't have to be finished. I knew that, but an agent had asked me to send him the finished book, so I was putting all my effort into finishing it. Sue says September will be a numerologically  important month, and the proposal should be in as many hands as possible by then. The stars will do the rest. Oh, yes, a laptop is essential for what I want to do, she added.

Since my work is cut out for me before I leave on vacation in August, I am encouraging Chris to write a blog post on the topic "what worked for you and what didn't work for you in your recovery?" He is free to trash  his parents' misguided efforts to help. It may be a question of getting him to stop writing.

For the memoirists out there

Nice little piece from the New York Times about a mother who wrote her scorching memoir before she had children.

Every memoirist makes her own set of rules to write and to live by, and in these 12 years, the strictest rule to which I have adhered has been this: Before I have written anything about my son, I have asked myself whether I could imagine him turning to me some day, and saying, I wish you hadn’t told that story about me.

Read more

E. Fuller Torrey a texbook case

I haven't been posting for a while, and thought I should stir the pot a little lest this blog be forgotten. Trolling the Internet today for ideas I came across this article in Salon on Jared Loughner, the Arizona gunman, that dates back to January this year.

I have never liked Dr. E. Fuller Torrey because I think he lacks empathy. He compartmentalizes people at best and wants to institutionalize and drug them at worst. He's determined to force medicate people, which I know has it's appeal for many, but not for me. However, I came across this quote from an article in Salon, and it's so weird that Torrey thinks lucid dreaming is for sickos. It's not just E. Fuller Torrey. Most psychiatrists think lucid dreaming is a dangerous sign of psychosis. (I'm trying to teach myself how to do it.) What planet do they live on?

Salon: I was struck by his obsession with "lucid dreaming."

Torrey: When someone comes in and talks about lucid dreaming, drugs are the first thing I wonder about. But with schizophrenia, you can get almost anything that's weird like that. In itself, it didn't stand out to me.

Comments to this article

Hepola said that stood out to her, and Torrey seems to see it as a sign of mental disturbance or drug use. Anyone know why? I though lucid dreaming was just an interest of some people. I remember Omni publishing an article, back in the 80's, on learning to lucid dream. How is it, or an interest in it, connected to mental disorders?

—Christopher1988

This is the first I read about Loughner's interest in lucid dreaming. My first thought was: There's nothing insane about it, and in his case, perhaps he was desperate to try to control nightmares. It's possible that a normal person's worst occasional nightmare is the stuff of a schizophrenic's nightly experience.

—Quiet Type

I object to the characterization that lucid dreaming is the result of a drug addled brain, or something that signals mental illness.

I've been lucid dreaming for most of my adult life but didn't know it had a title until a dozen or so years ago---and I'm a senior citizen.

Lucid dreaming means that I can not only remember dreams and recount them in detail, but I can wake up briefly (for instance, to go to the bathroom or reclaim the covers from under my husband) and return to the dream when I fall back asleep. And sometimes I can change things in the dream when it continues.

It's a pleasurable experience in general. In fact, I also used to be able to fly in my dreams but that "ability" seems to have left me as the years passed. I miss the feeling of taking off and soaring just as if it were happening in the waking world. In fact, I've actually said to people how much I miss flying in my dreams---and I'm far from crazy. Also, when I have the rare nightmare, I actually have to get out of bed, walk around, and do something to wake myself fully before attempting to sleep again because those kinds of dreams can -- and have -- also continued, and can be a horrible experience.

When I discovered information on the internet about studies done on lucid dreaming, I also read about keeping a dream journal. But that seemed stupid to me because I didn't feel the dreams were sending me messages (although they are often based on memories of people and places--oftentimes out of their normal context) and I figured they were meant for me to enjoy and not analyze.

Having explained all of that, I need to say that I've only been "under the influence" of drugs twice in my life when the doctor gave me something to ease migraines. That was a long time ago and the second time (when I took it before bed) I clearly was able to "talk" myself through the dream it produced. (This is the result of the pill. It will wear off and you'll be OK...) That drug was eventually removed from the market but not before I flushed my bottle full down the toilet.

The only "mental illness" I've experienced is SADD (seasonal affected disorder--a form of depression resulting from lack of sunshine in winter months).

Moreover, there are probably millions of us lucid dreamers in the world. We are of danger to no one. I think it's unfortunate that the "respected psychiatrist" didn't challenge the questioner. Lucid dreaming (I believe Loughner called it by another name in his YouTube ramblings) is not responsible for the actions of that young on Saturday.

—greenholdt

People on psych drugs are "consumer leaders"

The NAMI Convention  is now well underway in Chicago. Holistic types seem thin on the ground. While a convention always has an impressive list of speakers and corporate goodwill, are people missing a very fundamental point here, that all the meds and all the institutional "help" can get in the way of cure. Most people I have corresponded with over the years about their mental health have told me that recovery happens off the drugs, and is a very personal story of coming to grips with yourself. My feeling is that a lot of people get lost in the bureaucracy of health care and that becomes the on-going story. Never enough money, the wrong medications, the side effects from the medications, trouble with the insurance company, problems with social housing. The professionals are in charge of the game and making a living from it. I might feel reassured by all the convention hoopla if statistics bore out that vast numbers of people are getting better using all those new drugs and hospital and recovery programs.  Success favors the individual who makes it his or her business to recover.

From the NAMI Convention agenda

1:30pm-5:00pm    Ask the Doctor Sessions and “ASK US”

(A chance to ask questions of top researchers and clinicians sharing work underway to treat and defeat mental illness. You’ll also have the chance to hear important perspectives from our consumer leaders.)

For the record, here is a PARTIAL LIST OF PAST EXHIBITORS AT NAMI NATIONAL CONVENTION (A - M only). The full list is found here.

3dASAP Promotional Solutions
Abbott
Abraham Low Self-help Systems
Allsup
American Psychiatric Nurses Association
American Psychiatric Association
American Psychological Association
Anne Sippi Clinic Adult Community Services
Astrazeneca Pharmaceuticals
Behavioral Tech, LLC
Borderline Personality Disorder Resource Center
bp Magazine and Esperanza
Bristol-Myers Squibb
California Association of Marriage & Family Therapists
Cenpatico
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Changing Options, Inc.
College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists
Consortium on the Genetics of Schizophrenia (COGS)
CooperRiis: A Healing Community
Cyberonics, Inc.
Defense Centers of Excellence
Disability Rights Section, U.S. Department of Justice
Dominion Hospital
EmFinders
FDA Office of Women’s Health
Fred Friendly Seminars, Inc.
GlaxoSmithKline
Gould Farm
Hanbleceya Treatment Center
Harmony Behavioral Health
Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center
Hazelden Publishing & Education Services
Hopewell
Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital
International Center for Clubhouse Development
Irwin Foundation
Janssen, Division of Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Johns Hopkins University
Keffer Software Products, Inc.
Lakewood Center
Lilly
Magellan Health Services
Maguire Publications
Maryland Psychiatric Research Center
McGraw Systems
McLean Hospital
McNeil Pediatrics
MedicAlert Foundation
Meehl Foundation
Menninger Clinic
Mennonite Media Productions
Mental Health Co-op
Merry Meadow Farm
Mytherapysession.com

and

Here is a list of NAMI donors and amounts for 1st Quarter 2011

Bristol-Myers Squibb Campaign for a Better Tomorrow $100,000

Bristol-Myers Squibb NAMI Family to Family Education Program $62,500

Bristol-Myers Squibb NAMI Corporate Supporter Membership $25,000

The George Cohee Foundation General Donation $6,034.00

The Susan Stein Shiva Foundation General Donation $5,000.00

Anonymous General Donation $200,000.00

Anonymous General Donation $200,000.00

Allsup, Inc. HelpLine $25,000.00

Pfizer Multicultural Action Center $10,000.00

Bristol-Myers Squibb Campaign for a Better Tomorrow $100,000

Bristol-Myers Squibb NAMI Family to Family Education Program $62,500

Pfizer Treatment Access Education and Outreach Project $25,000.00

Pamlab Corporate Supporter Membership $35,000.00

Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceutica NAMI Beginnings $60,000.00

Shire Child & Adolescent Action Center $150,000.00

Pfizer Campaign for a Better Tomorrow $25,000.00

The Van Ameringen Foundation Parents & Teacher as Allies $45,000.00

$1,136,034

Major Foundation and Corporate Contributions Registry

TOTAL: $2,084,568

Valet service

Chris is doing everything for us except donning the uniform and flicking lint off our shoulders with a brush. His agenda is blank now that the summer is here and his voice teacher is on vacation, choir and amateur opera rehearsals are in hiatus, and his part time employer is also away. Oh, yes, Dr. Stern is away for most of the summer, too.

So, here's what he's doing. Menu planning, grocery shopping, cooking, laundry, pick-up and delivery of Ian's shirts, cleaning the apartment once a week, sorting the mail and accepting the delivery of packages. In his spare time (there's still a lot of it), he has initiated the process for becoming a citizen in this fair country and is dealing with the bureaucracy involved.

Though he says he's feeling overwhelmed (he's a young man, after all, housework is stressful), he does this all so enthusiastically and well that it raises the question, why isn't he in full time work or back at university or in vocational training? It's been seven years now since his first hospitalization, and ten years since we began to suspect something was not right. His intellect is not impaired, he's much better than he's ever been, but he's still hanging around the apartment with Ian and me, his parental units.

I do believe that people who have experienced what Chris has gone through tend to be too self-sacrificing for their parents and others, no thought for themselves. This is something to be worked through, but how? Being a valet to his parents surely isn't helping, unless this is just something he has to do as part of the working it out process. Our situation is a bit complex in that we are not citizens of the country we are living in, and Ian and I do not intend to stay here after we retire. This means that if Chris wants to remain here with his brother Alex after we leave, he'll need citizenship. What he would do here without a skill is beyond me, but that's a long way off, in any case, and maybe by then he'll have one.

I know Chris is thinking about possible directions, but this is still in the thinking stage. I will be overjoyed when he exercises more structure to his day in a field of his choosing.