Breaking The Code On Schizophrenia

An article appearing in the website of the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (www.bbrfoundation.org ) points to a discovery in the quest to find what causes schizophrenia. Apparently scientists at a university in Indiana have found the genes most likely to result in this life-changing and potentially debilitating illness. While the article states “ ‘genes are not destiny, ’ ” the findings appear to be another step in pinpointing causes, possibly better treatments, and, who knows, maybe even a cure. Epigenetics is a word I’ve heard oftentimes lately regarding schizophrenia and mental illnesses. People who are biologically susceptible (due to genetics) may also have something occur in their lives (the environmental part, which can be anything from prenatal viruses to trauma to drugs). Taken together, this combination may trigger illness later on in their lives. While this discovery may just be a baby step or a knockout punch remains to be seen. Everything takes time and maybe those living today will not personally benefit, then again we can cross out fingers and hope. The link to the article is as follows:

http://www.thebalitimes.com/2012/05/21/scientists-pinpoint-schizophrenia-genes/

Toxic Religion & Toxic Blogs = Trolls

I’ll never claim to have that one absolute, final answer. Everyone is on his or her own journey and I would never consign a fellow traveler to hell because he believes differently from me. Usually I know better and stay away from people who will send you off to eternal damnation because you dare to disagree.

Still, I plead guilty to being a troll. I read that term on someone’s blog: a person who scrolls through posts with the purpose of sending nasty replies. Actually, I take it back (my being a troll) since that wasn’t my purpose. I just happened to come across a post I took issue with. Usually when that happens I ignore it, which I think is the best way to deal with such situations–and face it, we’re not going to love and agree with everyone and vice versa. While my reply was innocuous, it earned me a place with the boogeyman, so said the blogger. Oh, well, I should have known better. As a child, I was told not to talk religion and politics in public, but this time I succumbed and for that I apologize to said blogger.

On one other occasion, I also did the unthinkable. I was on the site of a psychologist who wrote parents of adult children with schizophrenia should feel guilty for causing their child’s illness. I responded with X#$^&!!! since he was so full of crapola and not worthy of a PhD. Therapists with those beliefs are eligible to join the clubs of Dumb Doras, Dumb Bunnies or Tweedledees and Tweedledums. They shouldn’t be practicing because they cause more harm than good. But enough of my rant and to everyone in bloggingland have a nice day and beware of trolls.

Family-To-Family

Even though I have my Cracker Jack PhD in psych, making me an expert in all things mental illness, I am taking NAMI’s (National Alliance on Mental Illness) twelve-week course. I figured there is always something new to learn, and at the very least be with people who share the same sorrows, who understand where I’m coming from without explaining myself, ad nauseam.

What’s most valuable is the support from my fellow members, and while I hate to admit it, “misery loves company.” There are people in my group with stories that make your head turn 360 degrees. A woman mentioned that her son almost killed a police officer this year. Thank goodness he didn’t or he’d be spending his life behind bars (probably in solitary confinement), despite his MI. Another man is suffering because his wife is “no longer the person he married.” He still loves her, or tries to, even though she is a stranger and put their child at risk. He can barely get the words out with the misery etched on his face. And the rest of us–one by one the stories continue, each sadder than the next.

MI is not of your “casserole” variety illness where neighbors drop by bringing dinner, desserts, and needed support. You are left on your own to pick up the residue, the enigmatic remains in search for a new normal, which lands you in alien territory, often hostile.

In addition, having a loved one with a mental illness results in universal depression where others in the family suffer, too. I can attest to that, and all members in my group are struggling with grief whether it’s been one year or twenty since they began this unwelcome, disheartening journey. Such a cruel illness!

Depression, Migraines, and Insomnia

For those of you who have never had one, a migraine is a headache times 10, 100 or more. It occurs on the side of the head, the temple, with an intense, throbbing pain often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light or sound. It is a vascular disorder, systemic in nature, causing the blood vessels in your head to swell.

When I was a kid, I used to hate people telling me to just relax and they’d get better. I knew that slowing down or taking it easy would not make them vanish. Since mine have been getting worse over the years, I had a MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), where pulses of radio wave energy are sent through your brain to provide pictures of your head. The test doesn’t hurt, but you get to hear a jack-hammer for about half an hour, and if you are claustrophobic you may have a problem since your top half is placed inside a small machine. Cat scans (CT scans) can also be done, but I chose the MRI to avoid radiation.

Since my results were normal (I guess the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz would be envious), my migraines are due to genetics. (My mother had them and so does my sister.) Women are much more likely to get them as well as depression. A recent study at Women’s Hospital in Boston says that women who get migraines are 40 % more likely to get depression. The study doesn’t show cause and effect. It just notes that there’s a specific common biological mechanism linking both.

And to complicate matters, insomnia can precede or co-occur with depression. Moreover, any “abnormalities of sleep neurophysiology” have been reported, on average, in more than 90 % of people with depression says the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. For some reason the rate of sleep abnormalities is even higher in women. (Aren’t we lucky?)

At present, there are no answers why the three are linked, merely hypotheses, but I suppose we’ll be hearing more in the future, so this post is just a brief overview of research to come. Since my mother had all three, as do I, I’ll try to keep abreast of the findings. (And BTW, thanks Mom!)

Off With Her Head!

When my kids were little and in a different room, I would sometimes feel as if I were missing a piece of myself—literally—like an arm or a leg. Now with my older son so ill with schizo-affective disorder, I feel as if I am missing my head, and truth be told, I wish I were. How much easier it would be to not think about anything, have nothing to worry about, cry about, to feel as empty as a fishbowl minus the fish. Yes, I’d like to take a flying leap into that empty bowl and disappear or be sucked into the black hole of oblivion and feel nothing.

He just called and as often happens I needed to take an anxiety pill right after to stop obsessing. I expected him to bring up a subject I suggested to his guardian: for him to see a holistic doctor as an adjunct to his psychiatrist at the local mental-health center. One of his problems is anosognosia, the inability to recognize something is wrong. Since he thinks he is not sick, he hates his psychiatrist and taking medication so I thought he’d jump at the chance of seeing a holistic doctor or neuropath. Strangely, he didn’t mention it so I suspect he already forget that he talked it over with his guardian, saying he was interested. This illness has robbed him of so much including his cognitive abilities. Years ago when he joined Mensa his IQ was in the 150s; now I wonder if it is even half that. His memory stinks and he’s also turned into a one-trick pony with his only interest being religion. Don’t get me wrong; I think it’s nice that there is something that gives him peace, but he used to have many interests: science, language, music, everything, but now his life has shrunk to the eye of a pin. So off with my head, please! What a lousy, stinky illness this is.

Taking It To The Max

Four families have filed an appeal with New Hampshire’s Supreme Court after a judge in Superior Court voted to allow Granite Pathways, a clubhouse for people with mental illnesses, to continue operating. After GP went before the variance board three times and got their approval, the plaintiffs took it to Superior Court. At the hearing the plaintiff’s lawyer said this had nothing to do with mental illness; it had to do with the church allowing “a business” on their property. Of course, he couldn’t help but add repeatedly that people with “schizophrenia, paranoid schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder” would be there. When the judge decided we didn’t even need a variance to begin with, they were livid and an article appeared in our local newspaper saying we will turn the area into a campus for the mentally ill. Since the fire department regulations state we can only hold 35 people at a time, I fail to see how this is possible. The lawyer for the plaintiffs is merely trying to incite the public. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by this latest twist of the screw, but I am, a little. During the past year and a half that we’ve been open, there hasn’t been even one incident. We do not take any taxpayers’ money since we operate on private grants and donations. What could be better? No one even knows we are here except for these four families that are spending huge bucks to try and get us out. The lawyer for the church where we are located is working pro bono and since it is the city being sued, we don’t have to pay attorney fees. While the uncertainties make it stressful, there have been so many supporters (family members, neighbors, friends, professionals) that I am filled with gratitude. This will all end at some point, and in the meantime we are still open, working towards healthier and better lives for those who already have it hard.

As Good As It Gets

Being an avid news junkie, I have an excuse for having a mental illness. Does it seem like there is more chaos going on in the world of late? At first glance it appears so, but in thinking it over, I’ve concluded this has always been a wacked-out world with uncertainties and disasters killing off loved ones as if they were less than zero. We don’t see these catastrophes coming because there is no way we can, and I’m referring to the dreaded calls-in-the-night variety. Each of us has lived through our own battles, but they are all the same on a basic level, since pain is pain. The only thing I’ve learned, from my own traumas, is empathy; still, I would have gladly done without the suffering. In fact, I’m one of those people who regrets being born. Yes, I would have preferred to have skipped over the whole shebang.

During this past week, I’ve read of a U.S. soldier killing 16 civilians in Afghanistan; mass murders in Syria by government forces; senseless, multiple homicides in the U.S.; and some jerkoff shooting someone for cutting him off on the highway. I no longer try to make sense out of these atrocities. Why bother? Nothing has changed since egg met sperm and I’m not referring to humankind alone, but all life. The strong feeds on the weak and that is the way it is, which, by the way, is not necessarily bad. It just is. Some people deal with these incomprehensible acts through religion, others resign themselves to the fates: “wrong time, wrong place.” Others take up arms and try to right the wrongs of the world. As for me, I’m in the resignation camp, hold little judgment—at least I try. That doesn’t mean I don’t take a stand on issues close to my heart. I just know sometimes you win and sometimes you lose because justice is elusive, culturally based, and changes with a gust of wind.

On the other hand, I do feel fortunate to have lived during the latter 20^th and early 21^st centuries when things were relatively good–comparatively speaking. If you look at history, we have had it easy in Western society. Oh, we’ve had the usual wars and conflicts, but we also have indoor plumbing, antibiotics, and a system that makes an attempt to help the less fortunate. Sure I can complain (and I do) that enough isn’t being done, but when I think of how it was and still is today in some of the underdeveloped parts of the world (particularly for women and the mentally ill), I feel privileged. So, this is as good as it gets. Agree? Disagree?