[Squeaker]

Hi All,

I am so thankful that I have finally found a board that I can come to and maybe find out more about what my dear husband is going through.

Three years ago, when we met, he was outgoing, full of spark and ready to go at any call. Now, He won't leave the house unless someone is taking him to the Dr. and spends most of the time in bed watching t.v.

It seems like every time we went into his psych, all he would do is give him another pill. Now, I think that he is on WAY to many meds and it is taking over with the side effects. YES, he no longer has hallucinations but that is all. He still has the voices and now all of the other sides that are going on. This psych has him on Sertraline, Lamictal, Cymbalta, Diphenhydrmine, Doxepin, Seorquel, Rrisperdal and Thorazine. My God, how much can a person take without "that" effecting the mind. I am so worried about him.

I have gotten him in to a new Psychologist that seems to care about what is going on and he has John going to a new Psychiatrist on Sept. 12 to see about getting his meds changed. I just have no faith in the Drs. that are taking care of Mental Health. HELP

I on on stress overload and I don't want to blow it. I need this man of mine, so much and I don't want to watch him waste away.

Thanks for listening.

Squeaker

[InACorner]

i dont know much about meds...but try writing this in the drug forum...they might have more ideas and stuff....good luck though...

[MissCharlotte]

(((Squeaker)))

You are going through a lot. My son also is ill. It sounds like you are doing all the right things and of course, you are worried and on overload. Have you considered getting a therapist for yourself? This is a difficult illness to manage and it affects the whole family. A therapist for you may give you some of the support you need right now. Also consider joining a support group in your area.

Take gentle care.

[spiritual_emergency]

Well, I'm probably going to have some different things to say. What you do with it is up to you.

Let me start by asking you -- if your car was broken, would you take it to a mechanic who had a reputation for fixing cars or would you take it to someone who kept saying, "Well, we're not really sure what the problem is but why don't you try adding this additive, and this additive, and this additive, and this additive to the engine? We'd really like to do more but quite honestly, we don't know how to fix your car."

Personally, I think I'd seek out a mechanic who had a good reputation for fixing cars. And if I was suffering with schizophrenia, or caring for someone who did, I think I'd want to find a doctor who had a repuation for fixing schizophrenics.

There is a doctor in Finland by the name of Jaakko Seikkula who developed a treatment for individuals undergoing psychosis called Open Dialogue Treatment.
<blockquote>Among those who went through the OPT program, incidence of schizophrenia declined substantially, with 85% of the patients returning to active employment and 80% without any psychotic symptoms after five years. All this took place in a research project wherein only about one third of clients received neuroleptic medication. ... Official government statistics comparing 22 health districts in Finland found that Dr. Seikulla's district was the only one not to have any new chronic hospital patients in a two year period.</blockquote>

85% is an astounding recovery rate but Dr. Seikkula isn't the only one who's managed to pull it off. There was another fellow by the name of John Weir Perry who was Jungian trained. He oversaw an experimental project called Diabasis: <blockquote>"...85% of our clients (all diagnosed as severely schizophrenic) at the Diabasis center not only improved, with no medications, but most went on growing after leaving us."</blockquote>

Before John Weir Perry, there was yet another fellow by the name of Loren Mosher who served as the first Chief of the Center for Studies of Schizophrenia at the National Institute of Mental Health from 1969-1980. He headed up a project called Soteria House.<blockquote>At 2 years post-admission, Soteria treated subjects from the 1971-1976 cohort were working at significantly higher occupational levels, were significantly more often living independently or with peers, and had fewer readmissions; 571/16 had never received a single dose of neuroleptic medication during the entire 2-year study period.</blockquote>

Many years before any of those doctors entered practice there was another form of treatment practiced by the Quakers known as Moral Treatment.
<blockquote>Small, humane, and pleasant environments, these institutions promoted the concept that many lunatics could recover their sanity if treated with decency, gentility, and respect. As peculiar as that notion might appear today, Whitaker in Mad in America writes that "Moral treatment appeared to produce remarkably good results." He cites records from five moral-treatment asylums showing that between 50 to 91 percent of their patients were able to return to normal lives in their communities. Such outcomes led one asylum superintendent to declare in 1843 that insanity "is more curable than any other disease of equal severity.…"</blockquote>

Here's a quote from another doctor who has something to say on the matter...
<blockquote><font color=red>There have now been three World Health Organisation studies showing that the outcome for schizophrenia in Developing countries is better than in the Industrialised world. This is extraordinary. How can places without psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, psychiatric facilities, rehabilitation programs, medication and therapies come up with results considerably better than our sophisticated, scientific industrialised world? A country such as the USA spends 1% of its GNP on one illness, schizophrenia, and has results far worse than countries that don’t spend anything!

How can this be? If it is the case, where would you go to learn about recovery from schizophrenia? Where the best results are, of course.

Dr. Simon Baker</font></blockquote>

Here's the names of a few more doctors who just might have a thing or two to teach us about schizophrenia and recovery: Dr. Daniel Fisher, Dr. Rufus May, Dr. Ronald Bassman, Dr. Pat Deegan, Dr. David Lukoff. Each and every one of those doctors was diagnosed with either schizophrenia or psychosis and they recovered to the extent that they were able to successfully pass through the rigors of medical school and become doctors.

The individuals who can best teach you about recovery are those who are either producing it for others or have produced it for themselves. I suggest you get intimate with a search engine and learn everything you can from those people about schizophrenia and recovery. You may even choose to start at a blog I put together in the wake of my own recovery from psychosis: <a href=http://spiritualrecoveries.blogspot.com>Spiritual Recovery</a>. Feel free to share it with your husband. Note that there is very little information on my blog as related to medication, but I would encourage you to research that thoroughly as well. It concerns me that individuals who are not maintained on medication seem to have higher recovery rates.

It's very tempting to believe that someone else can do this work for us but that's not the way recovery works. No one else can do it for you. Once you have a better idea of what recovery is all about, how others have created it for themselves and others, and how you might be able to create it for yourselves, you'll be better prepared to make your own best choices.

Best.

[Squeaker]

I thank you all for your encouragement and ideas. I too, believe that the medications make things alot worse with all of the side effects. He is now seeing a great psychologist and is actually "talking" which is something that he does not do, for the most part, because he doesn't trust them. We have an appt. in Sept. with a new Pscyhiatrist that is going to try to get him off of all of the "unneeded" meds. I am so thankful for that. '
It breaks my heart to see him going trhough all of this and YES, I am going to get back in to see my psychologist so I don't fall apart, in the mean time. I know that he needs me to be strong and I have to be here for him. All along, I just KNEW that I was going to be able to fix him and now I realize that I can't. I really don't understand schizophrenia and I am trying to learn all that I can about it.
Thank you again for your encouragement.
Spiritual Emergency, I am going to check out your blog and thanks for your ideas too. I don't like meds.

Hugs, Squeaker