Morning chaps. Firstly, quick explanation of some of the clinical language I use here. As well as being your Resident Mentalist, I am also a “nut” AHAHA for mental health. I’m massively interested in the mind and mental illness and read an awful lot about it, so, that’s why I use such language. I don’t, in my day to day life, refer to my BDD as being “comorbid” and say, “I’m feeling rather hypomanic today”. I tend to just go, “RAGH!” instead.
I’m, in general, against the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness in young children unless it’s so severe that it’s obvious that it is mental illness and not something else. And given that- although I believe mental illness is as “real” as diabetes- there are no actual physical tests for it, I think it should be diagnosed with EXTREME caution for many reasons. One being that it can define the child, another being that parents, caregivers etc etc can use it for control, another being isolation, medications etc…
A custom made quick digression in brackets- I say this as someone who became ill before I was even a teenager and was probably one of the mythical “bipolar children” who got the mood swings and psychosis early. But I am glad I wasn’t diagnosed and treated then. It was hard enough for me and my family to cope with that when I was twenty. But god, it would have fucked me up for life!
This is Jani:
I didn’t know there was a childhood schizophrenia. You hear about childhood bipolar (personally, I think that “childhood bipolar” is often shorthand for, “my child isn’t behaving themselves, please drug the fuck out of them, however, this makes for interesting and, “Fuck you, Seaneen” reading), but I’ve never heard of childhood schizophrenia. Adult schizophrenia is regarded as the most severe mental illness, but childhood schizophrenia is even worse.
Having read the article, I should be thinking, “Hmm, don’t give such a young child such strong drugs”, especially when you discover she had some movement problems because of them. But I don’t see what else they could have done at all, and the medications did seem to have an impact. Her treatment, though, was very extreme.
People often rationalise “mental illness” (and those that do use the patronising “” bunny ear air quotes) into non-existence. With children, I can see the value of serious, serious questioning and examination because it is a huge thing to diagnose anyone with a mental illness, but especially a child. I don’t buy into child worship but you should certainly look into EVERYTHING else before you diagnose a mental illness. Only 1% of adults suffer from schizophrenia, and, although the bipolar spectrum is now so wide everyone seems to fall onto it, it’s also not hugely common.
With this girl, though, I don’t see what else they could have said/done. Behavioural problems? It does seem to be somewhat more than that. I think they’re right to diagnose and treat her for schizophrenia. (Say I, in my capacity as someone completely medically unqualified but with, I guess, more contact with people with schizophrenia than your average. Mentalist magnet, that’s me). Although the force of which they did is quite horrible to read. She’s still just a child.
I do exercise skepticism as the article style is very, very emotive, so. But it does SOUND bad, which is all I can go on, eh! I found it quite affecting, which, I guess, is job done.
The last line of the article chilled me. I try not to say, “Poor…” when it comes to mental illness because some people find their experiences valuable, but bloody hell. Poor girl, poor family.
Filed under: Bipolar Disorder
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It’s strange…I saw one case like that, but it wasn’t so classic…more of just a massive brain dysfunction – from a really young age she had intellectual impairment that became schizophrenia.
But there are plenty of studies in which they take patients with schizophrenia, and show doctors pictures of them as kids among other kids, and it is fairly easy to pick out which becomes schizophrenic later. It doesn’t just suddenly start…just like probably bipolar doesn’t either. The roots of the multisystem dysfunction are much deeper until something finally breaks.
Off topic – how ’bout some pictures and info on Boy Cat and Girl Cat?
More grist to the mill.
I bet there are a lot of parents who would accept this as normal behavior.(im assuming that the oven wasnt turned on when she THREATENED to climb in)
Kicked and TRIED to bite her brother….big deal.
Suffers from delusions….imagination.
Paroxymot rage…tantrums
Im empathic with rats……god help us.
I would like to put her parents on a course of treatment that would start with a kick up the arse.
that\s really scary. i’m in agreement on the treatment/diagnosis of mental illness conditions in kids, the brain changes so much at that age, it’s not right to write it off so early.
i’m inclined to agree with the post above as well….
It is amazing and devastating how fast our society is these days to quickly examine and apply labels on the unwary and unsuspected before one such gets a chance to fully bloom into something spectacular .
The true destructive devastation is that if one is a little to far to the left or right and not normal in someone elses eyes they are quickly labeled inadequate and must be drugged beyond belief to be corrected into normalcy or rejected as if the stigmal of the label is to much to bare so lets just drug them out of they’re minds to an altered state of confusion and despare.
Here in the states it was found that saccarin was put into the water to make one more thirsty and to purchase and drink more water . I have found that some of the drugs perscribed by my psych doc. actually mad me worse off than I actually was , I do think theres a conspiracy by the drug companys to lull us into the effects of being drugged to be a constant never ending patient resulting into more and more sales of the classic attached prescription drugs .
They may have made you worse, but they work for millions of people. If there was a conspiracy by the drug company, I think less people would stop taking their meds… or, at least, they would stop, get withdrawal, and start again.
Um, quickly? Didn’t the article say something about going through years of misdiagnosis, etc before coming to this one?
With regards to drugs making you worse… well, you and everyone else. It’s the way of things. Some drugs will work and some won’t and which ones work or won’t will depend on the individual i.e. your wonder drug could really suck for me. This is well known. I fully expect to get kicked around with a few brain hammers before I find one that works once someone finally agrees to treat me.
Btw, the only conspiracy involved with Big Pharma is capitalism. As in, there’s no money in a cure, but tonnes in treatment. It’s the reason why Big Pharma doesn’t do fundamental research. They leave that to the public sector which is grossly underfunded. Basically, Big Pharma takes the “this is what we think is going on” from the public sector and make drugs to treat that. With this sort of thing going on, it’s really a wonder that anything works at all!
Sad. I don’t agree with bipolarbearbum’s take on it, although it is true that a child with such a high IQ could probably be a pretty successful manipulator. She may even be exaggerating her symptoms.
But in the same way that people who write of mental illness as “mental illness”, it is easy from the outside to think this is fake. As someone who has spent time on a psych ward as 1) a medical student, 2) a patient, 3) a patient advocate/observer, the unfortunate reality is that mental illness does exist. When you see it in full, florid action, you know that there are times when medications are the only option.
They get overused, of course. I’ve suffered terrible side effects from drugs that did not help me, often made me worse, and were probably unnecessary. Medications get started too quickly, and not enough effort is made to stop them when no longer needed for the acute situation.
Kids get diagnosed with psychiatric conditions, and put on drugs, far, far more often than they should. Still, I suspect Jani really needs this help if she is to have a prayer of survival, and (hopefully) a level of normal functioning.
Thank you for putting this story on your blog.
Children experiencing psychosis may not be as rare as you think. I was introduced to it (and childhood schizophrenia) by a psychiatric nurse who worked in America. She told me of some pretty disturbing cases – such as very, very young children intent on killing themselves.
Although the prevalence cannot be accurately determined, there are an awful lot of threads on message boards about someones son/daughter hearing voices (telling them to hurt themselves/others) – it just seems that such cases are never reported in the main media. I wonder why.
My family and I have been through pretty much the same thing that Jani’s family has. My son was diagnosed at age 7 with schizophrenia among other misdiagnoses. We first took him to medical professionals and had medical tests (CT scans, EEg, etc.) which all revealed nothing abnormal. The neurologist suggested my son’s problems may be psychiatric. After 6 years of medications that did not help but definitely made things worse, counseling, visits to a psychiatric hospital and being placed in a special education self-contained classroom at school we finally found help. We stumbled upon a mental health counselor who also worked with intuitive kids. She had taken paranormal classes in college and figured out what was going on with my son. Starting at a young age he had been seeing & hearing spirits. Some of them taunted and tormented him. He did not know how to deal with this or communicate what was going on so he reacted with violence (banging his head on walls, kicking, biting and threatening to kill himself). He was also visited by good spirits who told him good things. He wanted the bad ones to leave but not the good ones. Once we figured out he could see and hear them his counselor advised him to talk to them. It worked and he was able to get rid of all the bad spirits and help the good spirits to cross over into heaven. One of the spirits taught him about different energies, chakras and how energy can heal people. He has also been able to contact loved ones who passed away. He was filmed for a special on psychic kids by ABC’s 20/20 that is supposed to air this summer. He also filmed for a movie that is set to debut this fall. You can learn more about him at http://www.Strengthbylove.com. By the way he is not on medication, no longer goes to counseling and is NOT in special education at all. Before you start judging my post consider this: is it harder to believe your child is gifted in a way most of us do not understand or to believe your child is psychotic and no matter how much harsh medication you give him, he will not get better? It shouldn’t be easier for society to believe that every child diagnosed as mentally ill really is than to believe they are gifted with something that is incredible but difficult for us to understand because we don’t have those gifts!
I wanted to clarify the fact that I am not trying to say that all people who are diagnosed as mentally ill are really psychic or intuitive. I am simply stating the fact that this story is oddly similar to my family’s story and since none of these incredibly harsh medications seem to help her maybe their is another explanation.
Crystal, in the UK a mental health counsellor who said the issue was down to good or bad spirits would be struck off. That’s not mental health advice, it’s ramming a quasi-religious belief system down the throats of vulnerable families.
When I was younger I was told by well-meaning Christians that my mental health issues were in fact problems with “my relationship with God.” 25 years later, after being belatedly diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and associated depression issues, I’m still trying to undo the harm caused by nice, kindly people and their beliefs.
People can believe what they want to believe, of course – but I’d prefer to stick with science, which (for all its faults) at least tries to deal with the real world in which we all live, and not the delusional ones which exist in people’s minds.
Isn’t that half the problem with schizophrenia in the first place?
Your chakra-wielding ‘mental health counsellor’ sounds to me like a dangerous quack, and, if I may say so, you sound like their publicist.
Wow, that was awfully harsh! I am not trying to ram my personal beliefs down anyone’s throat. I’m sorry that happened to you previously. I am only offering another POSSIBLE explanation. I also admit that I am not a very religious person. Yes I do believe in God but am not a religious nut. I am more of a spiritual person than a religious one. I know what my family and I went through and we posted our story online to help others. Science would be wonderful if it always worked but unfortunately it doesn’t. There are things out there beyond what we “know”. You are allowed your doubts and I had mine in the beginning as well. My son has proven his abilities to many people including myself. We will continue to help anyone who needs it. I don’t see how I could be someone’s publicist when I did not give a name or suggest that others see her. You should really get all the facts before blasting someone else. It makes no difference to me what you say or believe because I know in my heart what is true. You also call this counselor whom you have no knowledge of a chakra-wielding mental health counselor. However if you read my post I did not say that the counselor spoke of chakras. The fact that she would be written off in the UK (no different from here in the US) is a big problem. We are so eager to accept the opinions of “professionals” that we can’t think for ourselves and be more open to possibilities. I think you misunderstood the intent of my post completely. I can only offer the information I have to others and hope that in some way it helps them. What they do with the information is their choice.
First off, because this is *really* getting to me: Science does NOT have faults nor does it not work all the time. You people are confusing limitations for defects. Science has limitations. Say it with me, limitations. This is VERY different than faults/working intermittently.
I also find it sadly ironic that Crystal points out that this “counsellor” didn’t say anything about chakra’s and complains about being “blasted” yet that’s exactly what she’s doing to Nev, blasting him/her and misreading his/her post e.g. Nev said nothing about Crystal shoving her opinion down anyone’s throat. I could go on.
(Btw, Crystal, this rant of your proves that you do care very much what Nev has said.)
Now, I could go on and tare apart the pseudo-religious BS that Crystal believes in (this nonsense has been well documented). But, that’d just add more fuel to the fire and quite frankly, would involve effort that I’m not willing to put in. I’ll just say to Crystal that it’d probably be in you and your child’s best interest to look at reality instead of taking the path of least resistance. Because, when it comes to a desperate parent, what’s easier to lull you into a sense of security, admitting that your child has a serious problem, or buying into a hand-wave-y notion that (s)he has a “gift”?
… Paranormal classes at college. That just slays me …
Apologies to Crispy Grey Matter for my terminology. I wasn’t referring to ‘faulty science’ as such, rather the human failings of the system in which it exists.
Fair enough. But, I wouldn’t say that the Scientific system has flaws, but rather the system that is in place to support it. Sorry for being overly anal. But, I feel I need to separate the Science from the nonsensical politics.
At any rate, I’m sorry if I came off too strong in that (and possibly this) post. I’ll just shut-up now as I’m exceedingly tired.
Crystal, believe me I could have been a lot harsher. And I very much doubt there are any more demonstrable facts to be got – although perhaps if I bought the books advertised on your site, I might get a lot more new-age mumbo jumbo.
The fact that your counsellor would be struck off in the UK is not the problem. The problem is that she is allowed to spout baseless twaddle to vulnerable people in the US.
As for being eager to accept the opinions of professionals, I think I’d rather do that than accept fiction as fact, thanks.
By the way, you forgot to mention that some of the information you offer appears to have a price tag attached. Are you sincerely deluded, or are you trying to profit from other people’s problems?
This is all getting way out of hand. The books available on my website only tell the story of what my family has gone through. We do not charge anyone to help them! Once again, you speak without any real knowledge of the situation. I will no longer post on this site because it is obviously full of hatemongers who judge without knowing what they are really talking about! This doesn’t benefit anyone. My only intention was to offer an alternative. My son’s gifts are not fiction they are proven fact! I really don’t care what any of you think. You are entitled to your opinions and that is fine but don’t hate on me for what I know to be truth! That is why these gifted children are afraid to tell anyone what is really going on with them.
Crystal, agreed. Nev, you know I know where you’re coming from, but this is someone’s personal life you’re talking about. Please exercise some tact!
Crystal, thank you for sharing your opinions.
Apologies all round. Tact is not my strong point.
Indeed. But, for the sake of completeness, I think it should be pointed out that there are two things going on here. The first being Crystals personal life and the second her opinions. The former should be talked about with care, of course. However, when one puts there opinions out there, they must acknowledge that others will post there opinions on that.
I understand that Crystal thinks that her child has these skills. However, there hasn’t been one documented case of anyone having such abilities… ever. The closest that it has come is oddly accurate with a complete inability to reproduce those results in a controlled setting (people trained to not give anything away due to body language, hot/cold reading, etc). So, I hardly find it out of line to point that out regardless of any reaction Crystal may or may not have. And in fact, given that such things have been consistently used to take advantage of people, in my opinion, it would be irresponsible not to point it out.
Probably shouldn’t reply have been awake for a million years. Argh,
i have bipolar and my son does too. he was dx’d at 8 (but unwell since 2 1/2) and took meds for bunch of years. it was really really hard and really really horrible. when he got older he refused treatment and has now been untreated for 3 years. he has denial of illness. he’s been unwell alot, with psychosis at times. he lost his whole childhood really. he spent last year in the basement, and has just Emerged. happy to say that in the last (very) few months he has made some friends and a couple of weeks ago showed up with a girlfriend! socialization was the biggest problem that i could see. all i’ve wanted for him is what he seems to be doing now. smiling (sometimes) and going out with friends. when in school he was only able to do school for half days, often with a personal aide. he was kicked out of a few schools. he spent a couple years living out of the home (danger to his siblings). Sometimes i suspect he might have schizophrenia (my brother does). but it doesn’t really matter at this point since he’s not willing to get help.
I’m just going to go against the grain here and say that, having had symptoms of bipolar disorder from a very young age, I wish I had been diagnosed as a child. Two years on from getting the correct diagnosis, I have finally found the right medication and have been feeling well (continuously, dependably well) for almost eight months now. I have no memory of ever having felt this well before in my life. It’s easy for me to do all those things one is expected to do (shower, show up at school/work, eat, have friends, et c.) and I am mad that I spent so many years of my adolescent and young adult life unable to do any of these things and feeling worthless and horrible for all the trouble I brought on my family and from the daily barrage of criticism that if I would just try, I wouldn’t have any of these problems. It was always treated as a behavior problem and it wasn’t a behavior problem.
I don’t mean to say that medication would necessarily have been appropriate but with the proper diagnosis I would have had a chance at getting appropriate school support and I probably wouldn’t be quite so alienated from my family – they would at least have had an alternate explanation of my ‘lazy’ and ‘ungrateful’ behavior.
If the problem is severe enough to be a long term interference with a child’s school attendance and friends and their place in the family, then it is worth naming. Better to be labelled with an accurate label: mentally ill behavior is going to bring on some kind of label and I would rather have been labelled ill and been helped than to have been labelled as a lying, lazy, careless person and shunned and punished for it.
It probably would have helped me, too, since it did kind of ruin my teenagehood. But I found it so hard to cope when I was diagnosed, and I was “mood disordered” at 16 and people were horrible to me because of it and thought I was pulling something.
Katherine,
I am very glad to hear that you have found a medication that seems to be working for you. That is a very difficult thing to do. Even when you do find the right medication it can be difficult to find the right dose. Just as a word of caution your body can get used to that medication and or dosage and no longer work thus starting the search for the “right” medication and dose all over again. That is one of the biggest problems with the mental health system.
I’m also bipolar, and have been since I was child (obviously to me) I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 21 – though I was noted as “mentally ill” from the age of 18. As a kid I was taken to see educational and paediatric psychologists (I don’t really remember) at a very young age because my bheaviour was crazy to say the least – my temper tantrums were extreme by all accounts. The psych suggested smacking me (helpful psych) in many regards i’m glad I didn;t get a diagnosis young (except for various people to label me as quite hyperactive unfortuantly everyone’s reticence to not label or diagnose anything meant they overlooked the fact that I was dyslexic and dyspraxic (something which came out in university) which made life – difficult – to say the least. I was a hyperactive, nutty child with learning disorders – I was very bright (I often feel that this illness has robbed me of a lot of that brightness and sharpness that was evident through my childhood and teenage years) and whilst a diagnosis of being manic depressive is difficult to deal with – if they’d at least attempted any kind of treatment – preferably therapy based – with me when I was child then I’d probably have not had such a hellish teenage-dom and early adulthood. So much is put down to beign ” a phase” and something kids will grow out of that problems end up being overlooked and ignored. I don;t think necessarily pumping kids full of drugs or giving them big dramatic labels helps – but early signs of mental illness/ potential future mental illness are often obvious in children and young teens and nothign is doen about it.
I often wish their were appropriate structured classes/ activities etc – to allow children with the indications of mental health problems to work and grow healthily like normal children – I guess the issues is that somethimes some kids need a little more guidance a little bit more care and a little more help than others in the whole rigmarol that is growing up. A label is fine – providing it is used appropriatly and helpful treatment and aid is given – but all too often a label feels like stamping a faulty good and leaving it to the wayside.
It’s all about balance and much as I know better balance is needed that the current system in existance I wish I knew how best to impliment that .
I wish i’d known that I wasn’t compeltly weird and alone in my young life. I’m not entirely sure that being labelled manic depressive would have helped – but perhaps giving more overt aid and guidance to my school and family and helping me through some of the pitfalls of growing up may have saved me a lot of personal emotional agony.
You would think that psychiatrists would be good at identifying the early stages of mental illness in children, I wonder how many introduce their own kids to the mental health system.
It is nearly impossible to get an accurate diagnosis because many of the disorders have the same exact symptoms!
That, surely, is why it’s better to err on the side of caution and wait until an accurate diagnosis is possible.
I think what Crystal is getting at is that there is an overlap of symptoms, not the exact same ones (sorry, the anal just comes out of me sometimes
).
At any rate, when it’s problematic to get an accurate diagnosis in adults, when the patient somewhat knows what’s going on, what makes you think that it’s going to be easier to do the same thing in a child, who by all rights does not know what’s going on? Not to mention that the presentation of mental illness in children is different and still basically unknown!
I think it should be mentioned as well that relative to medicine as a whole, Psychiatry is proverbially still dancing around the fire worshipping it. Seriously, what we consider Psychiatry today is really only a few decades only. We shouldn’t really expect them to have much of a clue (not that I don’t have fun jabbing at them from time to time because of exactly that). Hell, they’re still arguing over how to define bipolar (standard categorisation and the spectrum approaches both have serious problems with them)!
So, let’s cut them a little slack when it comes to things that they admit that they don’t know.
Poor girl. To have such problems at such an early age…
The good thing is that they are finding ways to cope. Hopefully, being home will add something to her stability.
But, I’m wondering, since they started into experimental antipsychotics, if they tried cannabidiol (cannabis constitute if you can believe it). It’s had some good success in Schizophrenia (though still *very* preliminary).
http://www.scielo.br/pdf/bjmbr/v39n4/6164.pdf
I mean, if she’s refractory, what do they got to lose?
[...] addendum #2: there has been a great discussion about childhood schizophrenia going on at The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive. [...]
Thanks for blogging about this. What a story. I wonder if we’ll ever have a way of finding out how she’s doing in the future.
Wow, I just assumed that a child of that young age wouldn’t fall victim to schitzophrenia. It’s got to be a very lonely existence for the familay and their child eduring this rare onset of symptoms.
I just hope that they can find qualitly support care to help them through tough times
Louise x
I feel so much for that girl and her family. Sometimes I feel like we’re still stuck in the dark ages when it comes to mental illness, especially when it comes to children and mental illness.
Yes, children have tantrums, imaginary friends, rage, and violent behaviour. But those behaviours are not always benign and just simply ‘part of childhood’. It seems to me like this girl’s behaviour is very extreme (not just simple ‘tantrums’, etc) and is causing suffering to her and her family. It seems like in general there is no consideration that children could suffer from something like schizophrenia. On the flip side, children who exhibit disruptive or unusual behaviours are often overdiagnosed with ADHD.
I wish there was more help available for her and her family.
I experienced my first depressive episode at age 8. I wish that someone had even entertained the notion that I was not okay and needed help. I guess that I was perceived as being a little sad, all kids get sad sometimes. A diagnosis might at least have helped point myself and my family in the right direction. Maybe I could have learned to deal with my moods better through therapy as I grew up instead of becoming an adult who felt defective and lonely for most of her life.
<a href="This story is about a little girl who was diagnosed with bipolar.
As a parent, I inevitably come into contact with a lot of children, all of whom indulge in truly odd behaviour in their own special way. From my experience, Jani’s behaviour, as described in the LAT article, is very much out of the ordinary (if I may be permitted to use such a loaded term).
Of course this does not prove that she has schizophrenia.
There is a lot of discussion at Furious Seasons about the information that was left out of the article concerning the parents behaviour towards Jani & how this might be contributing to her behaviour, see the father’s blog
I can’t imagine the kind of stress that the parents are under but I’m troubled by the idea that any parent would starve their child in order to “break” them.
I’m also concerned about the effect of psychotropic drugs on a developing brain & not just in an abstract, impersonal way. As a parent who suffers from mental illness I’m always a little worried about the possibility of passing it on to my children, though I would resist medicating them unless there really was no other option.
The effects of antipsychotics on adults are not completely understood & the side effects on adults can be pretty horrible to deal with (apologies if this post is a little disjointed, I am in the process of quadrupling my dosage of Seroquel at the moment & everything is more than a little hazy), but we put up with them in order to function & feel halfway normal. I can’t imagine how confused & miserable my childhood would have been if the best part of it was spent in a Thorazine haze.
Jani’s parents seem to have accepted the diagnosis as undisputed fact & are unwilling to entertain any other possibility. A psychiatric diagnosis should be fairly tentative even if the symptoms are glaringly obvious. Treatment should be centred around the alleviation of symptoms while allowing the patient the best quality of life possible. In theory, an adult patient should be able to make informed choices about their own treatment (if they are well enough). A child cannot, so the parents should be open minded about every possibility before setting that child on the path to a lifetime of medication.
Of course, I don’t know any of these people personally & I can’t make any sort of informed judgment without knowing all the details. All I can do is hope that Jani finds the right treatment & is able to live as full & happy a life as is possible, which is as much as any of us can hope for I suppose.
Also did they choose that picture because it was the most mental looking one or what?
I’m also feeling rather RAGH today, but my knuckles are to sore to be bothered punching the wall
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. by Albert Einstein.
My son has ADHD, with moderate learning difficulties and has in the past self harmed. He does hear voices and he does see things flash past the window, he sees the light that surrounds people. From the age of three he talked of his other parents who died in a fire. Now he is nine he doesn’t even remember talking about it.
I am fortunate enough to be reasonably mentally stable and I always do my best to acknowledge what ever he may believe or how he maybe feeling. I try to live my life in harmony and strive to gain a happy balance of the physical, emotional, spiritual and mind. Walking, riding and swimming for my mind, laughter, tears and lots of self enquiry for my emotions, nature for my spirit and for my mind lots of books feeding me knowledge. I have suffered with anxiety in the past, I have never taken any meds, I was offered but refused. Neither will I medicate my son, I hope I can continue to give him the techniques and mechanisms he needs to cope as a human in a crazy mixed up world. We have to accept the beauty of life but also its shadow.
Carl Gustav Jung has played a key role in psychiatry and has emphasised particularly the importance of balance in terms of spirituality, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. There is no conspiracy theory when it relation to drug companies. Economy of scale allows medication to be the cheapest form of therapy for mental illness. CBT is used in abundance because it is cost effective and has a quick turnaround time. Perhaps if there were more altruistic psychotherapists out there, the delusional behaviour of the nutter’s in this world could be acknowledged because that’s what we all strive for in world with so many people, to be seen, to be acknowledged and to feel heard, hence this blog. It worked for elyn r. saks, she was fortunate enough to have the cash. Or perhaps if more people used psychotherapists, their rates would become cheaper.
In my past I have experienced some shit and I have found the use of chakra healing fundamental to my process of healing from undiagnosed post traumatic stress disorder. It worked for me. I don’t know much about drugs but I can gather that some works for some and some don’t. Can we not make that comparison with spirituality? What works for one will not work for another. Who am I to judge if a life has come to fruition and happiness has been found.
As humans we have to adapt to our environment, the new breed of humanity is here so lets embrace, accept and acknowledge delusions rather than suppressing, ignoring and not wanting them to exist, as Hitler did.
I think you’re comparing apples to oranges here. PTSD, a lot (most?) of the time, is not chronic i.e. it goes away. There are drugs that can be used to treat it, but therapy is the main stay of that diagnosis.
Bipolar/Schizophrenia are very different beasts. There is a ‘but’ to that though. Cyclothymia, in some cases, can be managed without meds. I am not aware of anyone with Schizophrenia successfully managing there illness without meds. Though, I’m sure that there exists some out there with ‘mild’ symptoms that can do it. Come to think of it, I heard of a ‘hearing voices society’ that might fit that criteria.
Perhaps your child’s symptoms are mild enough that such things are possible for him too? If so, that’s absolutely wonderful! Children should be on as little medication as possible (IMO of course).
In other words, saying that the diagnosis that you have experienced in your and your families lives enables you to generalise to all of mental illness, even the more severe (e.g. Bipolar), is, to put it politely, a stretch. Or even the same illnesses for that matter. Severity can differ greatly. Some (most?) people need a pill to keep them from crawling up the walls. C’est la vie.
I think it should also be pointed out that just about all mental issues are directly connected to stress. So, anything that would help manage stress levels would help out the illness (indirectly). This would include your ‘chakra healing’. In other words, while reducing your stress level won’t help the illness itself, it’ll make it easier to do so. So, it’s more of a indirect help rather than a proverbial pill in and of itself.
I also wouldn’t say that meds are cheap. Zyprexa for instance has a starting dosage of 10mg per day (in every study I’ve seen). The generic would cost $240/mo* at that dosage. And that dosage might have to go up. Seroquel’s cost for the lowest end of the ‘therapeutic range’ (300mg/day) would be $140/mo* (generic) and Seroquel XR being $230/mo* (no generic available yet). Anti-psychotics are bloody expensive. Similarly for any of the novel anti-convulsants. So, therapy may very well be less expensive depending on your health plan, frequency of visits, base cost per visit, etc.
At any rate, it is said that after the first mention of Hilter, no more useful discussion will follow; the conversation is effectively killed. Though, I will leave this conversation with one last point. I’d suggest that you look up just how many people experience a lifetime mental illness and whether that has increased over time. That should shed some light on whether there actually is a ‘new breed of humanity’.
* Prices are in Canadian funds and found from canadadrugs.com.