Schizophrenia

by frankiespeakin 38 Replies latest jw experiences

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  frankiespeakin

  While doing some personal research on the subject I came across this. Basically in the jungian world it is discribed as an overpowering of ego by the unconsciousness.

  "If the human race survives, future men will, I suspect, look back on our enlightened epoch as a veritable Age of Darkness... They will see that what was considered 'schizophrenic' was one of the forms in which, often through quite ordinary people, the light began to break into our all-too-closed minds."
  
  — Dr. R.D. Laing

  Here is an interesting take on it by one who went through a 6 week experience of it and a psychiatrist(pactice in San Francisco now dead) that has great success in treating those that have it. These are all Jungians BTW.

  http://jungianschizophrenia.blogspot.com/2009/01/inner-apocalypse-in-mythology-madness.html
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  nuthouse escapee

  Frankiespeakin: I took the time to read the entire link you provided. My son has schizophrenia. He was in a loving environment and allowed to have his fantasies/delusions. The whole mess started when he was 16 yrs. old. It began with him asking me if I had put 'something' in his food. He thought I was trying to poison him. It progressed to him hiding a butcher knife under his mattress so that 'someone' wouldn't come in and kill him at night. He was not medicated until 2 years later when things got even worse. So I have a problem with that theory that if left to their fantasy they will come out of it.

  As I said he was not medicated until 2 years later. So he definitely didn't 'work through' it in 6 weeks, not even six months. He started becoming violent and his only emotion was rage. There was no other emotional response at all. The freakiest was when he declared he was the Devil and 3 days later he thought he was God.

  He came home one day after work convinced that people were all looking at him and laughing at him, especially women. He then said he wanted to kill them! We took him to his psychiatrist and she immediately had him committed to a Mental Health Facility. He was not medicated right away and spent 6 weeks there. He wouldn't bathe or change his clothes and they let him do that if he wanted.

  Nothing was working so he ended up medicated. So, maybe this method doesn't work for everyone. Just thought I'd tell you my experience with dealing with it, and it wasn't pretty. Leslie
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  rip van winkle

  Leslie
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  clarity

  Leslie ... your heart must have broken for him ...and for you.

  So sorry.

  I have never heard the story of how this affliction starts before,

  do you know what causes this? Hope he is getting better with treatment.

  Thanks for sharing this with us.

  clarity
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  nuthouse escapee

  Schizophrenia can come on after a traumatic experience. In my son's case we figure the trigger point was when his sister (my daughter) almost died of anorexia. She was 13 years old and when hospitalized the nurse took us aside and told us that her urine was like mud and that her kidneys had almost completely shut down. She was 78 Lbs when admitted to the hospital. She was hospitalized for 3 months.

  My older brother, year and a half older than me, began his journey down the schizophrenic path when he was 19. Our mother passed away and this shock started it for him. He was never medicated and not violent until in his 30's. If he didn't like something you said he would hit you. I nearly lost the hearing in my left ear from him hitting me upside the head. It came to a head when he reached his 40's and threw a knife at a guy where he worked. Needless to say he lost his job. He ended up on Welfare and finally got treatment after a suicide attempt. As you can see, I'm not blowing smoke out my arse, I have dealt with this with 2 family members.
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  still thinking

  My good friends younger brother is schizophrenic, he went to prison for trying to kill someone before he was diagnosed. And is now locked up, pretty much for good unless they find some medication that can help him in the future.

  It is a dangerous thing to muck around with and give advice or ideas over the internet. It should be dealt with by a qualified doctor.

  I do NOT think it has anything to do with closed minds....it is a mental illness. We are not in the dark ages.

  I feel the same about believers that hear voices and try to convince others that it is a good thing. THEY may not have a mental illness but, you never know what you might be responsible for in someone else that does have a mental illness and hears voices too, if you manage to convince them that their voice is Jesus, well, they might go and kill someone and think Jesus told them to mightn't they? People need to take more responsibility for this behaviour. It is not a joke.
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  Band on the Run

  Sorry, I watched films of R.D. Laing and read his main books in college. I am glad we were exposed to his views. For me, though, he serves an academic purpose separated from clinical reality. Schizoprehnia seems very biologically determined but not completely so (otherwise it would be a neurological disorder). The genetic link is so strong and antipsychotics to do work , paritally. Schizoprehnia is hard for me to understand, no matter how many books or articles I read.

  I am curious what a Jungian treatment approach would be. Why can't a quasiLaingian view and medication be combined? I am not aware of any case where no treatment was successul-if the diagnosis was accurate. Suicide or violent behavior towards others is a very real threat until some management is established.

  How would Jung treat schizoprhenia or even bipolar? I understand Jungian therapy for neurosis but its use in more serious disorders confused me. Friends do Jungian therapy for neuroses but after reading quite a bit of Jung, I can't quite pictue how it works in every day reality. Jung is very fascinating to apply to religion, spirituality, world literature, or the arts. I would love to be a fly on the wall as Jungian analyst are trained.

  It is strange b/c I studied Jung and Freud in college. I was keenly interested in JUng's ideas but Freud's straight forward writing style impressed me. With the passage of time, Freudian psychoanalysts I knew switched to psychopharmacoogy. My professors at a women's college were very upset I was doing anything vaguely Freudian, and the medical model has gained acclaim.

  I wonder if the pendulum will swing the other way, back to psychoanalysis.
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  Band on the Run

  FYI, there is no such thing as schizoprehnia. Schizophrenias is a better term. I don't understand it. Mothers used to be blamed. Yes, mom was too cold. Doctors placed great guilt on women. Now, it is seen as mostly genetic and biochemical. There are positive and negative symptoms. The medications we have now only treat one group of symptoms. I believe brain scans show actual areas of pathology in the brain.

  Even if it is genetic and biological, though, psychological treatment can help. A person's circumstances-their socio-economic level, family, friends, and current events - affect the course of the illness. I never understood what is psychiatry and what is neurology b/c both are brain disorders. Neurology's brain lesions are more visible. Recent tech shows that less visible brain defects are present in schizophrenia. Psychiatric illnesses are those illnesses where external circumstances affect the course of the illness. Neurological illnesses are not affected by external circumstances.

  In the course of my lifetime, schizoprehnia was viewed as the product of a cold, bitchy mother. The Witnesses viewed the hallucinations and delusions as demonic (I've seen that they have revised their view). Despite knowing medical reasons, I cannot tolerate being around anyone actively hallucinating b/c of the demon fear in me. When I was young, it was a sign of weak moral character. Science showed it was just an illness-albeit a very severe one. Better and better drugs are available on the market but they have very bad side effects.

  It wasn't science alone that made a difference. Somehow patients deinstitutinalized organized themselves and started lobbying for better understanding and better science.

  This isn't my field. I could be wrong on details. My interest is triggered b/c of the JW connection with demons. I truly felt that demons could jump on me if we visited Witnesses on a psych unit. They can jump out of wigs, clothes and board games. Right? Pretty puny demons if you need a wig or board game from which to jump, possess, and ravage. Curious how the Witnesses made the transition from demons to modern science.

  Does anyone know of exorcisms or quasi exorcisms by the WT org? One day you are evil and possessed and the next day you need a medical doctor.
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  nuthouse escapee

  Thanks Clarity, my son is now 37 and I have been assured that he is doing ok. (He lives with my ex)

  Still Thinking: It is an illness with varying degrees of severity. Some see, smell and hear things that aren't there, which isn't going to hurt anyone but others like my brother and my son are dangerous without medication. The Mental Health Facility my son was in is known around the world and people come from all over to go there. The information we were given is that 1 in 100 people have some form of the illness. Perhaps the people in this study had one of the less severe forms of the illness or maybe they went into remission and had a mental break later. The problem with schizophrenia is that every time a person has a psychotic break they get worse. These are the same people who when not medicated push people off sub-way platforms.

  I better stop posting as I don't want to hi-jack this thread. My apologies Frankiespeakin. This is just a really emotional topic for me. Leslie
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  still thinking

  I agree nuthouse...My uncle was also schizophrenic. I am unsure of the cause as it could have been through head injury. He was a boxer in his younger days. And due to self medicating (alcohol consumption) had a lot of motorcyle accidents. Lamp posts would leap out and he would wrap himself around them. Every time was another head injury. And everytime he got worse. I don't know if he would have developed the illness anyway, but I have heard stories from when he was in his late teens that were not the norm so I think the illness began before the head injuries.

  He managed to live on his own and function in society. Holding down a job etc. BUT he would have violent episodes. One day he was standing in the bank waiting to see a teller and he turned around and punched a lady in the face. He used to hear voices, and he used to argue with them. This got much much worse as he aged and I had seen him walking down the road waving his arms around and shouting.

  He was dangerous to live with, as he stayed with us for a while when I was a child and he did weird stuff that he said he was 'told' to do, like trying to hit my mother with a hot iron. But he managed to get through life without getting into too much trouble with the police except for the bank episode.