ATHENS, Ohio — She was gone for good, and no amount of meditation could resolve the grief, even out here in the deep quiet of the woods.
Milt Greek pushed to his feet. It was Mother’s Day 2006, not long after his mother’s funeral, and he headed back home knowing that he needed help. A change in the medication for his schizophrenia, for sure. A change in focus, too; time with his family, to forget himself.
And, oh yes, he had to act on an urge expressed in his psychotic delusions: to save the world.
So after cleaning the yard around his house — a big job, a gift to his wife — in the coming days he sat down and wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper, supporting a noise-pollution ordinance.
For those who hear (their other) voices
by SixofNine 4 Replies latest jw friends
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SixofNine
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Band on the Run
I read in the NYT that America had exported the medical model of schizophrenia too well. Schizoprhenics were integrated into communities in China. It was not a disability. I know some rare patients who are college profs. Very functional. And the homeless mentally ill show the other spectrum.
I keep reading about it and not understanding it. My physical illness was an orphan illness so I had to stand up to doctors when I wanted to play little girl and just listen to orders. I would love to hear how patients perceive their illness. They are the ones with the experience; not the medical staff.
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soft+gentle
nice article - enjoyed reading that
I don't know about schizophrenia but there is a trend here in the uk amongst family doctors to treat depressed patients holistically. Medications are adjusted to suit the patient and cognitive behavioural therapy is prescribed alongside. An holistic family doctor recommended to a friend of mine that she take her antidepressants every other day and said that another of her patients takes hers every four days - they are told that if their mood drops to take their tablets more often until the mood passes and then go back to taking them every other day/every four days respectively. These patients had been very sensitive to their tablets and had been experiencing horrible side effects when they took their tablets every day. Also they are closely monitored by their doctor who is willing to put herself out to see them more often than usual.
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sizemik
I found the story incredibly inspiring. What this guy has managed to achieve, is of Everest proportions.
I took a home BS with a schizophrenic guy. Fine man, he died of H/A at 43. He was very intelligent and was able to explain his illness to me in great detail. It was really crazy stuff. Every day took all his effort to get through. I feel very grateful having known him now. He was a kind and humble man, but well read.
It pains me that mental illness is so poorly understood. I'm a long time prison volunteer/visitor and see large numbers of people more ill than dangerous. Incarceration with inadequate treatment makes many of them just more ill and crushes anything they've got left. That's called a lose-lose situation. I visit one guy just to try and keep him alive until the next week. Sometimes he almost convinces me it's not worth it.
Mr Greek and his wife have my admiration.
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Band on the Run
OMG. I volunteered for a disabled rights group. The movement to shut the large warehouse hospitals, snake pits, down backfired b/c few resources were available in the community. The driving force was to save government money. Incarceration replaced those hopsitals. The number of actively mentally ill patients in prison settings is simply stunning. Often they cannot conform their actions to the prison rules. They are not defiant but lack the brain function to do so. They are still tazed and otherwise punished for minor infractions. Well, the number of black males in the outside population and in prison is so disproportionate.
The pc term now is mental health consumer. It gives them more dignity and keeps the focus away from disease.
I grew up in the NY area. There were always homelesss around the shelters in the Bowery. When I first had my own apartment, Manhattan resembled Calcutta. Mattresses were strewn all over the street. I had to run a gauntlet. People grabbed me, insisting on cash. I refused so I would buy them food. Go into the food place with them. It infuriated them. They became violent. My neighborhood was basically white artists and ethnic whites. There would be 30-50 rif raf waiting for open drug deliveries. Guiliani removed them from Manhattan but I don't believe he found them homes. The sad thing is that I don't think the mentally ill homeless could maintain a home if they had one.