[goldgirl]

My t doesn't believe that I am a schizopheric and that the trauma of my sexual abuse could have triggered psychosis, is that possible?

[MickG]

Though I think I came out of the womb looped as h-ll I do believe trauma can cause serious harm to a person and can cause mental illness. I don't like the way your therapist seems to have blown off the link between the two.

I wish you the very best.

[JayS]

I agree with Mick, maybe you need a new T that is more open minded.... I know for a fact that my abuse triggered my psychosis.

[NuckingFutz]

Yes. Child abuse can be a contributing factor to mental illness. As far as your t goes, did she not look at the diagnosis from your pdocs notes. If she did look at pdocs notes and disagrees with the diagnosis I can certainly understand your hurt and confusion. This therapist can't diagnose you. She is over stepping her bounds. I would tell your pdoc what she said and they should give you a referal to a better t. Let us know how it goes.

[MickG]

Originally Posted by NuckingFutz

This therapist can't diagnose you.

That would depend on their qualifications. A qualified therapist (someone with a degree in psychology) can diagnose. The best situation would be if one were to have a psychiatrist and psychologist working together on your case. They would see you separately and come to their own opinion on your diagnosis. Then they would confer to reach some form of common ground on diagnosis and treatment.

My best to you.

[goldgirl]

is there a way to get a dignose checked? who could do that?

[perpetuallysad]

You would just basically get a "second opinion". Who diagnosed you in the first place? Getting an evaluation from a psychiatrist would be my best suggestion. But, don't expect an answer after one visit. It took my psychiatrist 5 years to determine the full extent of my mental illness and only then did he "label" me. Good luck to you.

[Perna]

Originally Posted by goldgirl

My t doesn't believe that I am a schizopheric and that the trauma of my sexual abuse could have triggered psychosis, is that possible?

From other's responses, I'm confused. Schizophrenia and psychosis are not the same. Are you saying your T doesn't believe you are schizophrenic but your sexual abuse triggered psychosis instead or is T saying that you are neither schizophrenic nor have you been psychotic?

I do not think sexual abuse alone is enough to trigger schizophrenia, schizophrenia usually has a heavy genetic component to it, doesn't necessarilhy depend on trauma (I have a cousin with schizophrenia who was not abused, for example). Are you seeing a pdoc? Do meds help?

[spiritual_emergency]

perna: I do not think sexual abuse alone is enough to trigger schizophrenia, schizophrenia usually has a heavy genetic component to it, doesn't necessarilhy depend on trauma (I have a cousin with schizophrenia who was not abused, for example).

I suspect we'd have to bear in mind that there are at least three widely acknowledged contributors to schizophrenic episodes that could basically be summed up as biological, environmental and psychological. In addition, there are multiple causes of psychosis. Various forms of trauma seem to be accepted as a contributing factor by an increasing number of clinicians. The following is one good link on the subject matter. There are certainly others as well.

Schizophrenia and PTSD Connection

The psychiatric establishment is about to experience an earthquake that will shake its intellectual foundations. When it has absorbed the juddering contents of the latest edition of one of its leading journals, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, it will have to rethink many of its most cherished assumptions. Not since the publication of RD Laing's book Sanity, Madness and the Family, in 1964, has there been such a significant challenge to their contention that genes are the main cause of schizophrenia and that drugs should be the automatic treatment of choice.

With his colleagues, guest editor John Read (whose name I shall use as a generic term for this body of evidence), a leading New Zealand psychologist, slays these sacred biological cows. The fact that some two-thirds of people diagnosed as schizophrenic have suffered physical or sexual abuse is shown to be a major, if not the major, cause of the illness. Proving the connection between the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia, Read shows that many schizophrenic symptoms are directly caused by trauma.

The cornerstone of Read's tectonic plate-shifting evidence is the 40 studies that reveal childhood or adulthood sexual or physical abuse in the history of the majority of psychiatric patients (see, also, Read's book, Models of Madness). A review of 13 studies of schizophrenics found rates varying from 51% at the lowest to 97% at the highest.

Source: The Guardian

Read's book is available through amazon.com.

My son has paranoid schizophrenia,and my best friends daughter does too.Neither suffered any form of abuse including spanking.There is the genetic factor...coming from my hubbys side,and there is a winterborne viral link as well .This illness generally manifests around puberty and progresses with each relapse,and stressful events can trigger psychosis...as it is know for schizophrenic to be awakened following a stressful....not neccesarily abusive event.Though it has sat dormant since a very young age.By the way...with my son...the illness sprouted in the young marines.

[WikidPissah]

I think the biggest problem in the system is that if you have significant Trauma in your past, they auto-label PTSD. I had severe abuse as a child, psychotic episodes started in college. I spent years being dx'd as PTSD and even BPD (despite the fact that I only met 2 criteria for it). Finally at age 40 a smart pdoc decided I should have some testing done. BINGO...Schizophrenic. Its also genetic in my family.

I personally feel the trauma had something to do with triggering a dormant gene for schizo, but not that the schizo was totally caused by the trauma.

Originally Posted by Eileen2010

I think the biggest problem in the system is that if you have significant Trauma in your past, they auto-label PTSD. I had severe abuse as a child, psychotic episodes started in college. I spent years being dx'd as PTSD and even BPD (despite the fact that I only met 2 criteria for it). Finally at age 40 a smart pdoc decided I should have some testing done. BINGO...Schizophrenic. Its also genetic in my family.

I personally feel the trauma had something to do with triggering a dormant gene for schizo, but not that the schizo was totally caused by the trauma.

What do you think of young marines boot camp as a trigger?it was very stressful for him...otherwise someone has harmed my boy and he wont reveal it....my sons cousin has schiz too....and puberty is when it manifests mostly

[spiritual_emergency]

A recent post I made elsewhere on the subject...

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

The first point I'd like to address is that of parenting. For some reason, we accept that poor parenting can produce mental illnesses as severe as dissociative identity disorder but when it comes to schizophrenia there is a need to flock to the idea that it can be purely and only biological. Out of respect for the many personal stories I have heard over the years, I think we're doing a grave disservice to the life experiences of many a schizophrenic. There is, in fact, a very strong correlation between traumatic life experiences in childhood and schizophrenia. [Ref: Child Abuse Can Cause Schizophrenia.]

However, I'm also in agreement with Winnicott in regard to the concept of the "good enough" parent. I'm also assuming that "good enough" parents can accept, without being threatened by the idea, the reality that some parents are not anywhere near good or good enough. It's probably not necessary to go into details -- you need only spend a bit of time in environments such as this one to know that some people have had horrific childhoods with horrific parents.

As based on the personal accounts I've been privileged to hear over the years, I do not doubt that poor parenting plays a role in the experiences of some people and out of respect for the suffering they have endured, I feel that message should be heard. However, poor parenting did not play a role in all or even the majority of personal accounts relayed to me.

What does seem to play a frequent role is some event or series of events that significantly challenges an individual's sense of self-identity. These are events that most parents -- loving or otherwise -- have little or no control over. Examples include:

- Failing to achieve a personal or imposed goal or standard
- Moving to a new country/environment
- The loss of a significant relationship
- The loss of financial livelihood or financial security
- The loss of public status or being publicly humiliated in some manner
- Discovering the relative you thought was your blood relative was not your blood relative (i.e. parent, sibling)
- Trauma
- Discovering your partner has been unfaithful
- Serving in a war zone or being told you will have to do so

I have also noted that psychotic episodes seem to be more prevalent during times of life transition when the ego-identity is already in a state of flux and thus, is in a more vulnerable state due to one's transitional state. The most common time for schizophrenia to strike is the transition from adolescence to adulthood. My own experience arrived during the transition from adulthood to mid-life.

Other factors that seem to play a role have included:
- Drug reactions (involving both "sanctified" prescription drugs and recreational drugs)
- Sleep deprivation
- Deliberate attempts to remove or strip down the ego-identity such as meditation or contemplation
- Ongoing and relentless stress

Very rarely, true physiological causes have been to blame; brain tumors were identified as the cause in two individuals; possible Lyme Disease in another. I have spoken with one person who could not identify any triggering event but they also relayed that their episodes seemed to begin in childhood.

Quite often, multiple factors played a role, i.e., sexual abuse+loss of a significant relationship. Among the people I spoke with, I did not ask if there was a history of mental illness within the family. Some people furnished that information readily.

For what it's worth, I had a very loving mother. She was not perfect but I did not doubt that she loved me. I feel I have also been a loving parent to my own children. Despite as much, I had a breakdown and one of my children also has a diagnosis. I would identify multiple losses and trauma as the triggers for my experience. In my child's case, sleep deprivation, drug use, financial stressors and the loss of a significant romantic relationship all seem to have played a role.

[Typo]

I have had severe manic states where I would hallucinate and lose touch with reality, those only where triggered by me dealing with issues relating to the abuse I suffered as a child.

Stress is a trigger for many things (psychotic epsiodes, manic states etc.)

I'm bipolar II, and I know the truama of the abuse (and other truamas) helped awaken that for me, I am gentically pre dispositned to devlop bipolar disorder. (runs in the family)

Any major stressor, or life changing event can trigger a mental illness into being, it doesn't just have to be abuse, but I know the abuse is what started it for me.

So yes, abuse can help create and trigger a mental illness. I know it did for me.

Well I know of some things that I feel contributed...one is the young marines boot camp...another is he had been huffing freon...another is that a boy tried to bother him in a bad way...and another was that he felt friendless.I feel so alone because as an adult I am not allowed to visit him in prison since he doesn't want me to .I tried sooo hard before he turned 18 to get him help but there wasn't much I could do since he refused meds and ditched me anytime there was an appointment,he also became a danger to us and himself.The laws as they stand are not supportive for the schizophrenic or their loved ones and the streets are filled with homeless schizophrenics.I think it is a travesty that as a human race we are at this stage in the care and treatment of the mentally ill.This boy was a straight A student and suffers horribly in his mind.I fear him on top of all this because he would booby trap doors by balancing a butcher knife atop them,and once the voices made him say why don't you just kill yourself to me while I was crying.He is unwilling to take meds and his illness has progressed to constant pacing andwriting/drawing scary things.I dont know if ill die with and remedy for my son.This part I have shared is a drop in the bucket and doesnt begin to explain all of the situation.

[shichi]

I don't think trauma itself causes schizophrenia - IMO you have a genetic pre-disposition to it that is triggered by a multitude of factors [stress, drug use, etc.].

That being said, symptoms of PTSD and schizophrenia can appear superficially alike [such as hypervigilance, flashbacks which can seem like hallucinations], so teasing out what is trauma and what is psychosis can be hard. It's also plausible for a person to have both - it's not a differential diagnosis.

Also, trauma can influence the nature of a person's psychosis. An interesting hypothesis my therapist noted to me was that as a child, in order to escape a traumatic situation, some would create a fantasy world as comfort. That, for instance, can flavour a person's psychosis.

I'm going to have to go with trauma experienced at key developmental stages is the major influence/factor to mental health and mental illness.
This I know from my own experiences , reading and talking to other schizophrenics.

[Shoe]

I think when my mother took me to Sunday school sort of help set the stage for my psychosis years later. I remember the teacher telling us that God was everywhere and we couldn't hide from him. I remember this one kid saying that he could hide in a garbage can in New York city and God couldn't fine him there. The teacher said, " No, God can still find you there." I also learned that if we were bad that when we died we would go to hell and suffer for eternity at the hands of the devil and that even having bad thoughts was a sin.
No wonder I went crazy ~ Shoe