Costello authors a book

AppinIsobel · Mar 01, 2012, 09:17 PM

Was Grandpa's Accident Actually a Suicide?

Claudia M. Gold, M.D. is a pediatrician who blogs on Boston Com

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/childinmind/2012/02/was_grandpas_accident_actually.html

Quoted from a recent book review published Feb 19 2010

The central thesis of an important new book, A Lethal Inheritance: A Mother Uncovers the Science behind Three Generations of Mental Illness, is that the answer to this and other similarly painful questions about family history are critical to the mental health of future generations.The author, Victoria Costello, is a science journalist and mother of two sons diagnosed with serious mental illness, one schizophrenia and the other major depression, in their late adolescence.

Another Costello probably ?

Mar 01, 2012, 10:05 PM

umm is there something you want to tell me. are you costello in disguise?

Confusedinomicon · Mar 02, 2012, 12:51 AM

I read her posts all the time...>>;
(Even though I'm not a schizophrenic)

This surprised me.

I think it is the same person..

costello · Mar 02, 2012, 09:31 AM

Well, I'm not Victoria Costello. Costello's not even my real name. I chose it because it was the name of my favorite dog.

costello · Mar 02, 2012, 01:41 PM

Thanks for bringing this book to my attention, AppinIsobel. I was delighted to find that both of the public libraries I have cards for have this book. I ran out on my lunch hour and borrowed it.

Just glancing through it, I can see that I don't agree with her on everything, but there's one very important thing we do agree on: full recovery from schizophrenia is possible.

p. 188-9

Quote:

DEFINING RECOVERY

One thing I found troubling was when clinicians and laypeople who heard Alex's story would insist that his present level of functioning means he must have been misdiagnosed a decade ago. I've since discovered that this reaction is a common one, reflecting a widespread cultural unawareness of the possibility of recovery from severe mental illness. It's a new concept in psychiatry as well, in that it has only received serious attention since the late 1990s. In an eye-opening article in 2000 for Monitor on Psychology, a publication of the American Psychological Association, Patrick McGuire quoted one psychiatrist as saying, in response to a colleague who had dared to raise the subject, "Recovery from schizophrenia? Have you lost your mind too?"

A New York Times article on the current state of psychiatry reported that "a 2005 government survey found that just 11 percent of psychiatrists provided talk therapy to all patients, a share that had been falling for years and," the reporter surmised, "has most likely fallen since." Neither do many psychologists provide psychotherapy to people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, according to Patrick McGuire, reporting from inside their professional association. McGuire also quoted consumers talking about where the mental health field needed to go. One echoed my own experience, saying "People [tell me] 'Oh, you were misdiagnosed, otherwise, you couldn't be where you are now.' I mean, that's an impossible ciruclar argument."

McGuire also spoke of Patricia Deegan, who has a psychiatric disability and a doctorate in clinical psychology. Back in 2001, she was quoted in his article as saying: "There is no one out there teaching patients how to cope with stressing voices. Or how to avoid or get out of the delusional vortexes of thought that you slide into. I think psychologists are a decade behind." Since that interview, Deegan has apparently stopped waiting for the field to catch up with patients' needs. With her company, PDA, she's created a self-help course for schizophrenics on how to deal with their voices, and computer application to enable mental health consumers to participate equally in decisions (with their providers) about psychiatric medications.

pachyderm · Mar 02, 2012, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by costello

Patrick McGuire quoted one psychiatrist as saying, in response to a colleague who had dared to raise the subject, "Recovery from schizophrenia? Have you lost your mind too?"

You see, they too can be wrong!

Mar 02, 2012, 09:47 PM

Haha Costello I wondered the same thing when someone sent me a great link earlier.

But after reading a bit more I realized it wasn't you. But at first I was like " wow, did she really write a book! ". Mostly I just think you could write a very good book about you and your son, you have a lot to share.

costello · Mar 03, 2012, 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anika

Haha Costello I wondered the same thing when someone sent me a great link earlier.

But after reading a bit more I realized it wasn't you. But at first I was like " wow, did she really write a book! ". Mostly I just think you could write a very good book about you and your son, you have a lot to share.

I feel like I have lots of opinions and some personal experience but little real solid knowledge. I'm not sure anyone has any real knowledge of sz, though. There are lots of theories out there, but no one really knows, you know?

I glanced through this book last night. Mostly I wanted to read her son Alex's story and how he got better. Unfortunately it's interspersed with "information" - much of which seems to be regurgitated from sources I consider to be suspect. For example, she says brain scans show that bipolar brains have shrinkage in certain areas, a shrinkage which can be largely corrected with a medication. She actually uses the word "neuroprotective" to describe the drug - lithium, I believe.

She focuses on her own family to show that depression, suicide, alcohol/drug abuse, bipolar, and even "rage"-aholism are all genetically related to one another and to sz. She even throws in the fact that her family is Irish. I think she does spend some time discussing various genes which she thinks are implicated in this genetic illness. I skipped a lot of it, because I wanted to follow the Alex's story.

I guess nothing here sold me on the genetic, biological disease model. (Although I admit I would be a very hard sell.) I don't think you have to appeal to genetics to explain why people who are unhappy, unstable and emotionally unskillful tend to raise children who are unhappy, unstable, and emotionally unskillful and who in turn grow up to produce children of their own who are unhappy, unstable, and emotionally unskillful.

Alex's story was interesting but fairly familiar to anyone who's been reading lots of stories of people of people dx'd with sz. He was a slightly autistic baby and toddler, preferring to play alone. His dad was alcoholic, and his mom, depressed. The family moved a bit too often for a sensitive child. His folks divorced when he was 9. He went from a small gentle grade school to a huge, busy junior high. By high school he was distinctly odd, refusing to wear shoes at school, for example. He had artistic skills and his mom placed him in a special school for artistic teens where he failed. He began using drugs, mainly marijuana. His mom put him in a program for teens who were using drugs where she learned he was stealing and tagging. When he was 18, he was dx'd with sz, because he was hallucinating and believed he was being spied on by aliens who were living among us and who he called "walk-ins." When he was 20 he quit taking his Zyprexa and went on with his life, apparently with no further serious problems.

Maybe I missed something in there while skipping huge sections, but I don't see what he did to "cure" himself of his "disease." Possibly just quitting the street drugs? He himself doesn't believe he ever had sz - which is also familiar to people who read stories of sz, usually called "denial" or "lack of insight" or "agnosia."

Shoe · Mar 03, 2012, 10:49 AM

Kempf uses the term social recovery and social recovery with insight in 1948. I really believe that Mahoney and Kempf hit at the core cause of schizophrenia, but that truth is too ego dystonic to accept for most people.
I think it is best for me and everyone else here if I don't post anymore at this website. I wish everyone the Best and take care.