Helping an Individual Who has Schizophrenia 

 

 


By Paul J. Hannig, Ph.D.

 

Apart from professional medical care, the first line of support for someone who has schizophrenia is the family. If you have a family member who has schizophrenia, you and other relatives can be angels of mercy and healing. A healthy family environment forms the most important therapeutic team in the treatment of schizophrenia. Through your efforts, concerns and wisdom, you can help in rehabilitation and the prevention of relapses. The following questions can assist you in observing the warning signals of this type of mental illness. These signals can occur in various combinations and different severities. But, make no mistake about it, schizophrenia is a very debilitating disease that effects not only the sufferer, but all other family members to one degree or another.

 

 

I have found that the sooner the family recognizes that a problem is occurring, the more effective treatment will be. Accept the concept that you will need to adopt the policy of developing effective strategies, excellent monitoring and recording procedures, and an overall effective plan for treatment. Decide who will be the most important human resources in the treatment of this disorder. Establish a chain of command, with different people taking charge of different functions and responsibilities. There will be a principal caretaker, usually a parent who will try to organize people and activities. It is very easy to lose sight of what's happening to a person suffering from schizophrenia. Executive functions must be established early and eventually transferred over to the afflicted family member. Keep good records and monitor all treatment procedures. Work in tandem with psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health counselors, caseworkers, rehab specialists and vocational counselors. Learn all that you can about this illness and you will not be caught by surprise.

 

25% of schizophrenics almost fully recover, while 50% recover to a certain degree. The remaining 25% require long-term assistance. Do not allow your loved one to lower or discontinue medication without the doctor's consent. Many people with schizophrenia start to feel better and mistakenly lower their medication or discontinue it altogether. They function quite well for awhile and think that they are better. All too often, a relapse occurs and rehabilitation has to start all over again. If this happens to you, learn a lesson from it. It is now time to redouble your treatment efforts and organize your family, social and professional networks.

 

By all means, do not apply too much pressure to the afflicted person. Be gentle in your encouragement for your loved one to slowly resume social, academic and occupational activities. Proceed at their pace! Schizophrenia abruptly interferes with a young person's acquisition of important social, intellectual, occupational and interpersonal development. He or she will have to relearn or learn anew those skills that were so drastically and tragically interrupted.

 

Caretakers

 

If you have a loved one affected by schizophrenia and you are one of the principal caretakers, you will need to learn how to take care of yourself. This is not an easy challenge. You'll probably witness your loved one going through different phases of struggle with the disease. Remember that your loved one is still a very valuable and precious person. There will be times when he/she will be functioning quite well. The basic core personality, spirit and soul of your loved one is still something to admire and love. You, yourself, will have to wrestle with your own painful emotions and anxiety ridden thoughts. It, therefore, becomes very important that you take active self caring measures. I recommend meditating twice a day in order to cleanse yourself of painful emotions and thoughts. Prayer is extremely helpful and if you have the capability, deep feeling methods works wonders.

 

If you are wondering what the Deep Feeling method is, I refer you to that section on this web site. It involves the ability to lie face down into a pillow and cry/Scream out your pain. This method is not for everyone! But, I have found that it works wonders when used in combination with other self care modalities. If you need instructions in meditation, you can check my web site at www.psychotherapyhelp.net or find a proficient teacher. There are many books that describe different meditation techniques. Experiment with these techniques and allow your intuition to guide you towards your own methods. I would also recommend that you pursue the orthomolecular treatment course as well. This involves using the right combinations of megavitamin therapy, combined with holistic health products and food regimens.

 

I have also found that the "laying on of hands" as described by many different healing schools, is excellent for healing transfers. The Reiki method is one such approach. It posits that there is a healing energy that underlies all matter in the universe. By placing your hand or hands over a stressed or ailing part of your body and keeping it there for awhile, you can relieve the stress producing disease. Physical exercise should also be a part of your self care program.

 

Sadness is a prominent and important emotion when you are caring for a loved one afflicted by mental illness. The paradox of sadness is that it connects to its exact opposite, happiness. By working on yourself, you can turn your sadness into happiness. It is through the synthesis and integration of these polar opposite emotions that you reach a new state of stability. I recommend that you read my paper on "Dialectical Dilemmas." It describes how self-healing techniques can integrate the dialectical, polar opposite phenomena that exist in your life. There is really no need for you to get stuck in any one extreme of an emotion. Being human, you have the capacity to heal and change your state of consciousness. Once you realize that you and your loved one are not condemned to a life of struggle with mental illness, you can move on and be happily fulfilled.

 

I am amazed every time that I hear someone proclaim that there is no hope for cure or recovery from mental illness, disordered personalities or other problems. If you commit yourself to working on your well-being, your optimism, hope and effective strategies will change your life and your afflicted loved one's.

 

Effective Treatment

 

If you're wondering what is an effective treatment for schizophrenia, it is any method that helps a child to successfully struggle through a tumultuous adolescence and to emerge on the other side of schizophrenia as an intact adult. For most parents, after their child has the first psychotic episode, they want nothing less than an absolute cure. For the child, there is a passionate desire to catch up to their peers and to experience the exuberance of an endless future. For the person over 30 years of age, effective treatment holds out the hope at getting another chance to finish one's education after many disappointing starts. If the person has reached middle age and has had no chance for parenthood, it is the ability to cope with life without one's parents and other loving relatives. Beyond that age, one may have to face taking it one day at a time with the hope of moments of peace of mind. The senior citizen will need effective treatment that confronts the loss of vitality and strength, while maintaining one's dignity and integrity with safety.

 

Effective treatment for schizophrenia is one that preserves hope that a good day today will be followed by a good day tomorrow. Hope involves coming to terms and making friends with one's schizophrenia; while avoiding the pitfalls of denial and delusion. Effective treatment involves the hope of having a regular paycheck and the privilege to be just like everybody else complaining about life's little petty problems. Effective treatment involves finding meaning in one's life through personal triumphs and victories on a daily basis. Effective treatment involves the ability and privilege to have aspirations that are no different than anyone else's. This treatment should be unobtrusive and non-coercive where hope is never sacrificed and another year of the status quo is not tolerated. Effective treatment lets the person with schizophrenia know that the treatment is making a difference in his/her's life. This treatment should not be about repair, but should contain all the resources for future growth.

 

In recent times, we have come to understand that schizophrenia can contain more neuroplasticity than neurodegeneration. We also irrevocably accept the hopeful challenge that schizophrenia presents more reintegration rather than regression and more hope than hopelessness. We also unequivocally accept the possibility and the probability that the person with schizophrenia possesses enormous potential and creativity that can be mustered and implemented into a life of worth, love and nobility. We need never go back to the dark days of the snake pits and we may never surrender our love and our determination to rise to the highest levels of human potential. Schizophrenia presents us with that challenge!

 

Check out the web resources section of PsychotherapyHELP for links to a variety of mental health and schizophrenia web sites.

 

 

Paul J. Hannig, Ph.D. MFCC * www.nvo.com/psych_help * phannigphd@socal.rr.com * 818-882-7404