[spiritual_emergency]

A friend brought a post at a different site to my attention. The question had been posed: Can child abuse cause schizophrenia?

The poster had apparently done some research of their own and came across this article posted at Psych Central and reviewed by the site host, John Grohol, which they then linked in that thread.

A moderator at that forum responded:

The article you referenced above is not from a reliable source. Psych Central sometimes publishes articles that are antipsychiatry in nature. This is an example of one of them. The research mentioned in the paper is questionable due to the origins of the article. Note that the study was not published in one of the major peer reviewed publlications...

It is important to realize that there is a lot of misinformation out there on the internet as well. It can sometimes be very difficult to seperate the good from the bad.

Source: schizophrenia.com

John Read's work was originally published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica [Read, J., van Os, J., Morrison, A.P., & Ross, C.A. (2005) Childhood trauma, psychosis and schizophrenia: a literature review with theoretical and clinical implications. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 112, 330-350]. According to Index Copernicus Journals Masters List...

Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica publishes high-quality, scientific articles in English, representing clinical and experimental work in psychiatry. The journal acts as an international forum for the dissemination of information advancing the science and practice of psychiatry. Original articles are welcomed, especially those that bring new knowledge or extend the present understanding of mental disorders. Equal priority is given to review articles. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica is a truly international journal which publishes papers of the highest quality from around the world. Published monthly, each issue is designed to ensure that you are kept fully aware of all important developments in both the clinical and research setting, as well as concentrating on their implications for the advancement of the specialty.

Source: Index Copernicus

I'd love to respond to the thread there but I was banned from that site after roughly 24 hours. My difficulties began when I also quoted from John Read's work.

If any members here participate at both sites and they feel comfortable doing so, they're welcome to share the info above at schizophrenia.com, demonstrating that Read's work was indeed published in a reputable psychiatric journal.

The moderator, at minimum, does seem to understand that some people present opinion as fact on the internet -- it never hurts to remind people of as much.

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[spiritual_emergency]

Quite some time ago I was informed that I had never actually been banned from schizophrenia.com. Apparently, many schizophrenics merely misinterpret server downtime to be the equivalent of repeatedly trying to log-in and not being able to do so while the server is up and running.

That explanation didn't ring quite true to me and neither do I have any cause for taking them at their word but today, I saw a post from a member insisting that not only does no one ever recover from schizophrenia but those who suggest it's possible are suffering from a "mental condition".

I felt compelled to respond and lo and behold, was able to log-in. In my response I noted that many people have made full recoveries. To demonstrate the validity of that claim, I cited the names of several professionals -- all doctors -- who had made full or partial recoveries: Dr. Daniel Fisher, Dr. Rufus May, Dr. Patricia Deegan, Dr. Christiane Northrup, Dr. Frederick Freese, Dr. Ronald Bassman, Dr. Edward Whitney...

This prompted a moderator to edit their own response in that thread to add the following notation to their post:

You should also have a look at page 113 where Torrey indicates "the recovery model " has no foundation in scientific studies or data. ... Also have a look at page 435 " Scientologists, Anti-Psychiatrists, and Consumer Survivors".

I'm not sure if that moderator meant to imply that all those doctors must all be scientologists, anti-psychiatrists or consumer survivors, or if I was. I didn't get the chance to ask.

Meantime, another member noted that his own physician had told him that upwards of 10% of people are incorrectly diagnosed and this is the rationale for why some people recover. The original poster responded:

Your statement has nothing to do with what I am talking about. Those 10% were not cured. They were mistaken to have an illness, which later turned out that they didn't have. That is why they did fine when they went off the medication. No cure was involved.

In response, I quoted Dr. Daniel Fisher...

We who have recovered from mental illness know from our personal experience that recovery is real. We know that recovery is more than remission with a brooding disease hidden in our hearts. We have experienced healing and we are whole where we were broken. Yet we are frequently confronted by unconvinced professionals who ask, "How can you have recovered from such a hopeless situation?" When we present them with our testimonies they say that we are exceptions. They call us pseudoconsumers. They say that our experience does not relate to that of their seriously, biologically ill, inpatients.

I recently re-experienced this negative attitude about recovery. A friend of mine, during a discussion in a psychology class, said she knew someone who had schizophrenia, recovered and became a psychiatrist. "He must have been misdiagnosed," was the professor's response. So my friend reviewed my earlier symptoms with me. I met the DSM IV criteria for schizophrenia in the interval from 1969-74. When she presented my history to her professor, he reversed his position and said that the diagnosis of schizophrenia must have been correct. He doubted I had recovered and said, "we now have a case of an impaired physician."

By having earned board certification in psychiatry, having worked as medical director of a community mental health center for 11 years and having directed the National Empowerment Center for 3, years I have proven that I am not an impaired physician. This episode reveals the depth of negative expectations which are taught to students. After all, mental illness is considered a terminal condition for which there is no cure. Therefore anyone who appears to have recovered must not have been sick. This leaves no one with first hand experience of what helps and what hurts to speak for those who currently cannot speak due to their distress...

Source: Healing and Recovery are Real

When asked by yet another member how I defined full (clinical) recovery, I quoted Dr. Courtenay Harding's definition. (Note that personal definitions of recovery are always self-initiated and may include using medication for coping with ongoing or a reoccurence of symptoms).

... when we talk about subjects who are recovered, we're talking about no medications, no symptoms, being able to work, relating to other people well, living in the community, and behaving in a way that you would never know that they had had a serious psychiatric disorder ...

Source: Schizophrenia and Hope

Unfortunately, all those posts of mine are gone now. All that remains is the original poster's insistence that there is no such thing as cure (full recovery) with a brief reference to the erasure that took place and the moderator's assessment...

The poster you mention above has never actually been diagnosed with anything. She only believes she had schizophrenia and has recovered. The research on schizophrenia in recent years has conclusively shown that the approaches favored by her are not helpful to most schizophrenics in treating their illness. She may be a great and inspirational writer to you but to me it mostly looks like ********. She is well aware that she is not welcome here.

Cannonier

Source: schizophrenia.com

For the record, I had mentioned that I had never received psychiatric treatment. Those who know of my history know this is because I didn't know to go to the hospital. Some of them also know that I lived in a remote community at the time and psychiatrists were hard to come by -- they were, in fact, flying them in on a one-day per week basis at that time. I once spent eight months on a psychiatrist's waiting list and the week I was due to finally get in, my father-in-law died and I had to go out of town. When I returned, I just never bothered to call and add my name back to the waiting list; I was already getting well with my own efforts.

In one of my responses that was removed I'd also noted I had two children who had experienced psychosis but of course those posts were not allowed to stand because we wouldn't want to create the impression that I might have had a serious "mental condition" that I had recovered from or share what helped me do so. After all, according to the moderating department of schizophrenia.com no one whose been ill has ever recovered because there is no such thing as cure. Therefore, it's quite understandable why they would want to sweep away any historic details relating to my own experience, my children's, and even my birth father's who was in and out of psychiatric hospitals for reasons I never knew.

Meantime, I had also added my response to the original post above -- the one related to John Read's work. That post was also removed by the moderators. The storyline the reader is supposed to go with is that the original article was the work of antipsychiatrists at Psych Central and the original study was never accepted by mainstream professional journals. Therefore, both are suspect. Besides... as many good schizophrenics know, their job is not to point out factual, verifiable truths, it is to comply with the lies. Those who do not comply will be punished in some fashion. Fortunately, as the moderator pointed out, my own diagnosis is in doubt -- I never was a "good schizophrenic" so I went ahead reposted the response that verified John Read's work had been published.

Meanwhile, for reasons I cannot comprehend, factual information seems to frighten the moderating team at schizophrenia.com, although if you ask me... that's just crazy.

=================================================

Edited to note that the re-post I'd made demonstrating that John Read's work was published in a peer-reviewed professional journal has been removed (again). It may be worth noting, the moderator whose opinion of my posts was "********" was also the same moderator who made the statement that Psych Central publishes "antipsychiatry" articles and that John Read's work had never been published in an accredited journal. There does appear to be some degree of personal bias at work.

I had once said that the moderating team of schizophrenia.com was cultish. I would have to maintain that they do not have appear to have changed since the last time I swung through. The truth is, many people recover from serious mental illnesses -- schizophrenia, psychosis, bipolar disorder -- I'm one of them. I anticipate that my child will also make a full recovery. Unfortunately, recovery is not something that is permitted to happen at schizophrenia.com.

More personal stories of recovery including those of many of the professionals I mentioned above can be found here: Voices of Recovery. Another respondent in that thread has also added this name to the list: Janet Frame

~ Namaste

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[spiritual_emergency]

It's a repost, but it still fits...

At the end of the day, how did schizophrenia.com score?

Civility: I have to give credit where credit is due. With the exception of the moderators, the participants were kind, courteous, supportive and empathic.

Expression: Expression is only permitted within a narrow framework as defined by the site moderators. Any other personal perspective will be modified or deleted by the moderators.

Quality Information: The schizophrenia.com site is large and I'm not in any position to determine the quality of every single article there. You've already seen what I saw, so I suggest you make your own decision as to the quality of the information offered.

Balanced Moderation: It was the most controlling and heavily moderated environment I have ever witnessed in any online community.

schizophrenia.com will make it to my links section, but only in the warning section.

Source: schizophrenia.com

And let that be a lesson to all of us to not only choose our caregivers wisely but also our peers and support groups. People cannot get well in an environment where they are repeatedly told they can never recover and where the voices of those who have or have helped others do so, are silenced.

~ Namaste

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[pachyderm]

Originally Posted by spiritual_emergency

Quote:

The poster you mention above has never actually been diagnosed with anything. She only believes she had schizophrenia and has recovered. The research on schizophrenia in recent years has conclusively shown that the approaches favored by her are not helpful to most schizophrenics in treating their illness. She may be a great and inspirational writer to you but to me it mostly looks like ********. She is well aware that she is not welcome here.

Cannonier

Source: schizophrenia.com

Result from clicking on the link you provided (system here does not seem to want to quote it exactly):
The specified message [125738] was not found.

Added note of my opinion: their referring to E. Fuller Torrey is not an encouraging sign!

[TheANGIE]

The poster you mention above has never actually been diagnosed with anything. She only believes she had schizophrenia and has recovered. The research on schizophrenia in recent years has conclusively shown that the approaches favored by her are not helpful to most schizophrenics in treating their illness. She may be a great and inspirational writer to you but to me it mostly looks like ********. She is well aware that she is not welcome here.

Cannonier

Source:

Hey... you didn't have to edit out my name...on this post SE...I stand by what I said.. and you are more than just an inspiration to me... let me post a lil story.

A little over a year ago I was in a very bad place...in fact unknown to people I was actually about to take my own life. I'm not one for a lot of drama... so I wasn't going around telling people, "I'm gonna do it... I'm gonna kill myself...this is it." That's just not my style... I was just going to make an exit when I was done getting revenge on my now ex husband but then husband. For some reason on another board I was drawn to you SE.. it's not like me to put my business out there for people, not the private stuff anyway...the raw stuff that no one knows. In private messages and without even knowing if you were a man or a woman I began telling you my whole messed up life story from start to finish..in condensed form of course. It took a couple of days as I recall. I was in a state of shock the whole time and for the life of me then and even now, I don't know what compelled me..except the fact perhaps that soon it wouldn't matter anyway. The whole time I sent you the story you said little except to encourage me and let me know you were reading and were there. I cried a lot those days.
Those days...
Back when I was writing that to you I was a very angry person. I was visiting the very boards you are having trouble with now and flaming the very person who gives you the most grief for your beliefs fairly hard. See, I was off the medications because they had proven to be more detrimental than beneficial to me. They had lowered the quality of my life instead of raising it. I had tried every kind in every dosage and every combo...and still I had side effects and symptoms. Medications were not the answer for me... and I asked for help on the boards only to be met with, "Medicine is the only way". When I tried to explain that the medication was not something I could do and that I had to find something else I was told that I was in denial basically and to go back on medicine. Because I was in a deluded state about that site already...I was quite ill at the time, this only served to cause me to fall into a more serious state of delusion about the agenda of the site itself and my response was to become hostile towards the people who came against me. The very person who is coming at you now was a major player in that as you well know. The delusions about the sites agenda are not the issues you have... I want to mention this... so no one plays with my words...it's not even close.
With your help I was able to recover enough to set the anger issues aside...it didn't happen instantly...but it did happen as I regained my mental health. I still have a long way to go with regards to other things... I am a work in progress.
I have mended fences with Cannonier or at least on my end I have. I understand that he does what he does because he is walking in the light he has. He is only going on what he knows is tried and true in his opinion...it's unfortunate though that such a brilliant person like him can't open his mind and even investigate the ideas you present because he's missing so much that I know he could use to help so many which is the mission of his heart like it is yours. I take offense to his treatment of you... it's sad because I always thought him to be more mature than he's acted.

Also... I'll never forget my wish after reading the story The Skelton Woman... I said...
"I could use a tearful fisherman about now.."
so to conclude my story...I got my wish... my tearful fisherman is plowing up the field to plant the fall crops... he did save my life ...but so did you SE...
thanks..
from,
I AM

[spiritual_emergency]

lol. They keep changing the addy. Here's the current url where the conversation has continued: http://www.schizophrenia.com:8080/ji...=125879#125879

My last comment has been...

Meantime, I have been logging our discussion and you can be sure, it will be widely circulated. I want people to understand that this is what those in recovery are up against -- from some of the professionals they may work with and some of those who profess to be offering support. It's a tough row and then, it gets tougher. People should anticipate they will be slandered, they will be accused, they will be lied about. You just have to keep walking.

~ Namaste

I still find it mind-blowing that they don't want anyone to talk about full recovery there. Anything that speaks in support of it is discredited, whether it's an "antipsychiatry" article from Psych Central or the accumulated stories of professionals who have recovered.

I also expect those posts will soon be erased -- just like in a dysfunctional family where everyone is expected to pretend that what really happened, didn't happen at all. Shhhhh. Let's pretend it's all okay. But at least we'll know we're pretending and that the situation is actually pretty messed up.

~ Namaste

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[pachyderm]

It seems they have a "mission" and that mission is to "support" schizophrenics and that you are a threat to that mission. It seems unlikely that you will find any change taking place there on their attitude towards you.

[spiritual_emergency]

Originally Posted by pachyderm

It seems they have a "mission" and that mission is to "support" schizophrenics and that you are a threat to that mission. It seems unlikely that you will find any change taking place there on their attitude towards you.

No pachyderm, but I didn't expect them to change their attitude toward me. They don't like me. I can live with that.

Meantime, there was a post there yesterday from a fellow who went by the name of pinocchio. He was lamenting the things that cannot be said out loud and how necessary hope was. He pointed out that the readership far outweights the proportion of people who post and that he, himself, was fearful of posting for fear of being ostracized and abandoned by the moderators and community. If I speak there (an ability that likely will not last much longer), it's for people like pinocchio. It's not for the benefit of people like Cannonier. And if I get my feelings hurt (and I will) I'll simply ask my friends for some hugs.

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[TheANGIE]

I have now asked some very pointed questions of these moderators there. Like why is it so important to keep these teaching from being presented...why can't they be presented and allow the people to chose? I was going to allow SE to handle it completely alone... she is a big girl, hasn't asked for my help and frankly doesn't need it... but when I saw that a 3rd moderator joined in... one that stays in the shadows all the time it sounded an alarm in me. Why is it sooo important that they pulled out the big guns? It made me go ... WT....and now... I will stand with SE there...something I KNOW they NEVER wanted to see.
Oh hi guys..

[spiritual_emergency]

Oh dear. It appears that the server at schizophrenia.com is down because try as I might, I can't log in to respond to my last post: http://www.schizophrenia.com:8080/ji...=125936#125936

Thank goodness that's all it is. I thought I might have been banned... again... but just like a fairy tale with a happy ending, the primary administrator assures me that people are never, ever banned from schizophrenia.com.

~ Namaste

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[spiritual_emergency]

As an addendum: The poster you mention above has never actually been diagnosed with anything. She only believes she had schizophrenia and has recovered.

I've never been shy about sharing that I have no formal diagnosis. If all I ever did was speak from my personal experience, Cannonier might have a good point. But I don't.

- Daniel Fisher, Patricia Deegan, Rufus May, all those other doctors I mentioned -- they were all diagnosed schizophrenics.

- The people John Weir Perry worked with (and produced an 85% recovery rate with, without medication) were all diagnosed schizophrenics.

- The people that Jaakko Seikkula worked with (and produced an 80 - 85% recovery rate with, with minimal or no medication) were all diagnosed schizophrenics.

Other physicians have produced recovery in diagnosed schizophrenics. But this cannot be spoken of at that site. It is verboten. And that, quite honestly, is just sad.

~ Namaste

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[spiritual_emergency]

TheANGIE: let me post a lil story...

Awww. I missed that at first Angie. There's a slight delay in posts being posted for new members so sometimes, they get inserted in between other posts. I remember that time though. I remember those pictures and the way they all lined up: Persona, Ego, Anima/Animus, The Angelic Self.. the Puer. I didn't know you were as far gone as you were but I could tell you were hurting.

It feels good to read through all that. Thank you for sharing that. And it also feels good knowing you're in the place you are now. You're so much happier there and there is no doubt in my mind that you have been getting better for quite some time in exactly your own way.



~ Namaste (To one of my favorite teachers)

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[pachyderm]

It occurs to me that perhaps there is no one thing that is schizophrenia (not a new idea). Maybe things lie along a spectrum, or more than one spectrum. As they do with autism, for instance. (I have felt for a long time an affinity with autistic people.) Maybe there are multiple causes, not one, and the disorder shows similarities, because there is a common effect that gets displayed by the human brain, whatever stresses are the causes.

Certainly the people who have schizophrenia, or show symptoms that are schizophrenia-like, lie along a very long spectrum. Some are what might be called "high-functioning" and some are not. The healing approaches that work well for some might not work well at all for others. The people who insist on "one-size-fits-all" treatment are misleading the people that need help.

The discussion on schizophrenia.com, which displays invective on several sides, shows that the people involved do not feel very secure in their respective positions. It is not a very reassuring show (for me), for those affected and wanting help for their afflictions.

[TheANGIE]

I wonder if the fact that the alternative treatment I'm using that's working so well is explained away as me being deluded. It's sad the number of people who come to me in secret for alternative means out of fear and the fact that they know not to do so on that site.
In a skype conference the other night I was asked about taking medications and listening to this person or that person. I said that we should all be working together for the benefit of everyone who suffers from this diagnosis, medication has it's place... but therapy has a place too and people need to be taught management skills as well. No one is doing this, but we could all certainly work together and not against each other. Personally, I like the total cure idea...but I know some can't grasp that... and you have to meet people where they are.. some can't grasp ever being medicine free, but alternative therapies can help them anyway in the management of certain aspects of their illness.
SE... remember what I said about screen shots... I have been taking screen shots of my post since I started at that site ...the first one when I was endlessangie... like in 2000. Your words aren't as easy to change when you have a screen shot.

[spiritual_emergency]

TheANGIE: we should all be working together for the benefit of everyone who suffers from this diagnosis, medication has it's place... but therapy has a place too and people need to be taught management skills as well. No one is doing this, but we could all certainly work together and not against each other.

I'm in total agreement. I suspect that can't happen there as a result of the dogmatic belief structures that are held by the admins.

Meantime, I did point out that repeated insults from the administrators only continue to demonstrate their willingness to bully participants. I've also let people know I'll happily supply them with the names of at least five other discussion sites that do not endorse harassment. People do have other places to go.

And so do I at the moment.

~ Namaste

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[spiritual_emergency]

pachyderm: It occurs to me that perhaps there is no one thing that is schizophrenia (not a new idea). Maybe things lie along a spectrum, or more than one spectrum. As they do with autism, for instance. (I have felt for a long time an affinity with autistic people.) Maybe there are multiple causes, not one, and the disorder shows similarities, because there is a common effect that gets displayed by the human brain, whatever stresses are the causes.

Yes, schizophrenia is basically an umbrella term for a cluster of symptoms that has always been difficult to categorize. For this reason, some people emphasize that Blueler's original term was "the schizophrenias" in acknowledgment of these multiple causes and manifestations.

As for the biological/biochemical response, I found myself pondering yesterday... What is the neurological portrait of PTSD, anxiety and depression? These same states often make up part of the negative symptoms associated with schizophrenia. I've also often wondered, in terms of my own experience, what was the effect on my "mind" of my body pumping out high stress chemicals for 10 months? I'm sure that contributed in some fashion although I don't know to what extent. Calm and supportive environments do seem to play an important role in recovery, perhaps because it also helps calm the body and mind and thus, reduce or inhibit that biochemical response to threat.

~ Namaste

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[pachyderm]

Originally Posted by spiritual_emergency

As for the biological/biochemical response, I found myself pondering yesterday... What is the neurological portrait of PTSD, anxiety and depression?

Sometimes I can almost feel the chemicals coursing through my brain, telling me DANGER, DO SOMETHING NOW! or whatever...

[Yoda]

This is a very interesting discussion. Way too complex for my mind to formulate responses to everything I have read but I do appreciate what has been written.

I don't know if it truly would be considered a recovery from schizophrenia but at the very least I think John Nash learned how to minimize the effects of the disease. What more could one ask for? He is a Nobel Economics laureate and his story is told in the movie "A Beautiful Mind".

I don't know anything about the community mentioned earlier in this thread but I do know that sometimes communities seem almost arbitrary in banning folks. I myself am in the middle of a temp ban from a community and have been struggling to understand why but one of my fellow rebels at that community said it seems simply that the admin doesn't like me. Go figure. What is there not to like about Yoda?

[pachyderm]

I see that the thread on schizophrenia.com is now locked -- after a post by someone telling about a discussion between adults that degenerated into childishness, and then a comment from an assistant administrator that did not make a whole lot of sense to me. As we learn in therapy, when the discussion becomes personal and emotional, something more is going on than just the discussion of the subject matter that is supposed to be the topic.

[quote=pachyderm;1097484]It occurs to me that perhaps there is no one thing that is schizophrenia (not a new idea). Maybe things lie along a spectrum, or more than one spectrum. As they do with autism, for instance. (I have felt for a long time an affinity with autistic people.) Maybe there are multiple causes, not one, and the disorder shows similarities, because there is a common effect that gets displayed by the human brain, whatever stresses are the causes.

Certainly the people who have schizophrenia, or show symptoms that are schizophrenia-like, lie along a very long spectrum. Some are what might be called "high-functioning" and some are not. The healing approaches that work well for some might not work well at all for others. The people who insist on "one-size-fits-all" treatment are misleading the people that need help.

((pachy)))) I do not usally post here. I read your post thou and i think you are very right . Years ago before my son got the DX for PDD. He almost got a Dx for this. They are very close at times I have to say. imo

I also have to say that either DX he had gotten. I just wanted it to be the correct one. As he was very young at the time. I did not feel they were right. The autism Dr agreed with me and the neroagist.
((spelled wrong))
Your also right there is no one size fits all treatment. With anything ...
sorry SE if I got off track....
will not interup again

[TheANGIE]

The Admin that resorted to the name calling and locked the thread over there after the post was made pointing out that he was being childish has now started to attempt to discredit both the person who posted that post showing his childishness and me. Why? Because we dare to stand with SE and to challenge the policies there. Since they can't actually silence us, discrediting us is the only recourse. His claim is ....I think he's alluding to the idea that we are either the same person or that one of us is using the other ones account and making all the post. That would mean that either I or my common law husband can compile post and post them at lightening speed. Oy. Well, we've spoken to enough people on voice chat and we are about to send out an open invite to all who want to join us for a voice chat tonight... you know.. it might be just the way to really talk to people....in a question and answer format in VOICE on yahoo....or skype.
Anyway... it's funny to me... they really think the whole point of my posting the post I made was to sway their thinking, but really it wasn't...I know there is no way of doing that. LOL It was to make the people aware to keep looking for another form of treatment beyond the one offered there. That's all I wanted to do... stir up some attention and get a thread locked..because locked threads ALWAYS get looked at by everyone....and the ones who want an alternative now no where to look...elsewhere.

[pachyderm]

Originally Posted by TheANGIE

The Admin that resorted to the name calling and locked the thread over there after the post was made pointing out that he was being childish has now started to attempt to discredit both the person who posted that post showing his childishness and me.

Could you post a link to that new discussion?

I took the poster who talked about his experience, as a child, with adults acting like children, to be talking about both sides acting as children, not just the administrators there. But I have to admit not to reading carefully enough to be sure of that.

It is interesting to me to try to understand why people will do things like that, not just to "judge" them. If you see that they are threatened by a different point of view, you might see some way of dealing with them more effectively, or at least thinking about them more productively, if you cannot change them in any way.

[spiritual_emergency]

pachyderm, this is the most current link: http://www.schizophrenia.com:8080/ji...0827&tstart=25

Angie, I'm very sorry to see that you were targeted. I realize that between members there will sometimes be conflicts and heated discussions but my own expectation is that moderators and administrators should be setting an example for civil discourse. What is most disturbing to me about the thread above is...

- A moderator who refers to a member's contributions as "********".

- A primary administrator who does not seem informed enough to know the basic criteria required for a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

- A second moderator who resorts to name-calling and targeted harassment.

And all this is occuring in an environment that is supposed to assist people in healing and recovery. I cannot for the life of me ever imagine any of the moderators here, or DocJohn himself, repeatedly tagging a member with the label "Nasty" and to follow that up with a signature tag that reads: Please be civil and supportive...? Gads! The irony of the hypocrisy is like a lead weight.

When moderators and administrators set that kind of example, it doesn't surprise me that some members might model their own behavior accordingly. What's admirable is that the vast majority of participants are not willing to lower their standard of behavior to that exemplified by the administration. That's the truly astounding thing. The majority of partipants have a personal standard that is higher than that demonstrated by the administrators and they are the ones who are "ill".

Meantime, I do strongly believe in the benefits of peer support and there are many other places people can go. I'm not all that good at being loyal to only one site which is maybe a good thing because it does mean I can come up with a handful of alternate sites people can utilize if they have become a target of someone. The fact that the perpetrators are the administrative team is merely shameful.

An IP address is personal and confidential information and a responsible administrator will not reveal those personal details in a public capacity. The fact that you and your husband have the same IP address is logical -- not suspect. But that administrator revealed that detail to the community-at-large as a means of trying to cast doubt upon your actions and turn the community against you and your spouse. Its deeply disturbing behavior coming from a community leader.

Never, never, never could I recommend that site to anyone who is trying to heal or recover. It is an abusive environment and abusive environments inhibit recovery.

Bah!

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[spiritual_emergency]

Yoda: I don't know if it truly would be considered a recovery from schizophrenia but at the very least I think John Nash learned how to minimize the effects of the disease. What more could one ask for? He is a Nobel Economics laureate and his story is told in the movie "A Beautiful Mind".

John Nash has probably served as a mentor to countless individuals who carry the label of "schizophrenic". One of the misleading details about his personal recovery however is that medication contributed to his eventual recovery...

In the movie, Nash -- just before he receives a Nobel Prize -- speaks of taking "newer medications." The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill has praised the film's director, Ron Howard, for showing the "vital role of medication" in Nash's recovery. But as Sylvia Nasar notes in her biography of Nash, on which the movie is loosely based, this brilliant mathematician stopped taking antipsychotic drugs in 1970 and slowly recovered over two decades. Nasar concluded that Nash's refusal to take drugs "may have been fortunate" because their deleterious effects "would have made his gentle re-entry into the world of mathematics a near impossibility."

Source: NAMI: John Nash - Recovery Without Drugs

I can only imagine that if he ever showed up at schizophrenia.com to share that detail, he would be hounded out of there by the moderation team.

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[spiritual_emergency]

I came across this in my wanderings...

Evidence is also consistent that negative attitudes towards individuals with (or with a risk of developing) schizophrenia can have a significant adverse impact. In particular, critical comments, hostility, authoritarian and intrusive or controlling attitudes (termed 'high expressed emotion' by researchers) from family members have been found to correlate with a higher risk of relapse in schizophrenia across cultures. [Bebbington P E, Kuipers E (1994) The predictive utility of expressed emotion in schizophrenia: an aggregate analysis. Psychological Medicine, 24, 707-718.]

Source: http://wiki.psychcentral.com/index.php/Schizophrenia

I don't think it's rash to suggest that if the above is true of family environments, it's also true of online "support" environments.

Kindness -- it's not exactly rocket science.

Bah!

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