Schizophrenia and Faith

The True and Living God created this vast boundless universe. He also created this earth with all the plant life and animal life. He also created mankind.

I personally believe that it is possible to have a personal relationship, fellowship, and communion with the Great God of Creation. We can do this through the avenue of faith. It is because of my faith and relationship with God that I have survived schizophrenia and addiction. I have literally been to hell and back. It is because of God's love, compassion, grace, and mercy that I am even alive. According to the laws of science I should be dead a hundred times over. Because of all the suicide attempts and all the accidental drug and alcohol overdoses I should not be alive.

During all that pain, suffering, torture, and torment my faith in God is what got me through it all. I carried it all to God and left it with Him. I literally poured out my heart to God with tears in my eyes. I also had faith in God that some day things would improve and get better. I had the dream that some day I will get well and become a productive member of society. I dreamed about going to school and working again some day. By my faith in God I kept my dreams alive.

Then at the appointed time God made my dreams come true. I went to the Beacon Unit at the Rehab in Waterville. The Doctor there found the right medication that actually worked. While there I attended the Work Center. I took upgrading, woodworking, job development, and personal development. By doing that I fulfilled my dream of going to school.

A few months after graduating from the Work Center I landed a full time job at a candle factory. I worked there full time for five years. After the five years I got laid off. Since then I have landed a job putting flyers together. I also have two writing jobs. I write for the Schizophrenia Newsletter published by the Kentville Chapter of the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia. I also write for the Mental Health Perspective Newsletter published by the Kings County Chapter of the Canadian Mental Health Association.

There is one more thing that I can't forget to mention. While living at the rehab I met my present wife. We will be married for seven years on September 1st. We are going to go to Moncton to celebrate our anniversary. We are going to eat out at the Swiss Chalet and we are going X-mas shopping.

If it was not for my living faith in the Living God I would not be where I am right now in my life. I would either still be living in my own hellish psychotic world completely cut off from reality or I would be in the grave right now.

It is my faith in God that brought me through all the pain, suffering, torture, and torment unto the other side of the light. Before I lived in total darkness but now I am living in brightest light possible. The light couldn't get any brighter.

I am very grateful and thankful to God for all that He has done for me. It's all because of God that I am where I am at in life right now. I cannot express in words just how grateful and thankful that I am.

I would like to end by saying if you are a consumer suffering from any form of mental illness take courage and put your faith in the True and Living God and He will in His love, compassion, grace, and mercy help you through all the pain, suffering, torture, and torment and bring you through the darkness into the other side of the light.

I believe that it is God the Great Physician who can bring healing to those suffering from mental illness. He will use medicine, psychology, and spirituality. Believe in God. There is hope.

The Mental Health Perspective Speech

Here is a speech I delivered at the AGM Meeting of the Kings County Chapter of the Canadian Mental Health Association. It is about the reasons why I am glad and grateful about being part of The Mental Health Perspective Newsletter.

The Mental Health Perspective Speech

I would like to begin by stating that I am very grateful and thankful to be given the opportunity to be part of The Mental Health Perspective consumer led initiative.

Being part of this initiative gives me the opportunity to fulfill my passion in life for writing and helping others. I personally believe that the reason for all the pain, torture, and torment I have experienced in life due to my mental illness and addiction with drugs and alcohol is to share my experience, strength, and hope with others.

I can empathize with those who suffer from mental illness and/or addiction. I can relate to my fellow consumers. I can combine the facts of mental illness with my personal experiences and try to be of help to others.

I have literally been to hell and back many times over. I know what it is like to live in my own little world completely cut off from reality. I was completely alone in life. Even when I was in a situation for socializing I was completely cut off from the outside world and felt like that I was all by myself in this world. It was like that I was the only person existing in this life. There was no one else experiencing life but me. It was a life of torture, torment, pain, and suffering.

I am just grateful and thankful that I have been delivered from that hell and been brought back to reality and experiencing what it is like not to be alone and now having that oneness and connection with others.

I write about mental illness so that I can be of some help to my fellow consumers. To inform them about the facts surrounding mental illness and to give them hope that recovery is truly possible.

Although I must confess that some people never recover completely due to the nature of mental illness. But if I can help them in some way learn to cope and to deal with the issues surrounding mental illness I have fulfilled my mission in life.

Even though some people never recover completely they can still find meaning, happiness, and purpose in life. They can still become productive members of society.

Another reason I write about mental illness is to try and be of help to the family members of those with mental illness. I personally believe that sometimes the family members suffer more than those that actually have the mental illness. Family members find it very difficult to deal with and cope with their loved ones illness. Illness in the family causes a great psychological torment deep within their hearts, minds, and souls. If I can help them in any way to achieve healing within then I have also fulfilled my mission in life.

Another reason that I write about mental illness is to try and stamp out the stigma towards those that are ill. Stigma is a very real obstacle for consumers to overcome. I personally believe that stigma causes more pain and torment than the illness itself.

We have come a long way in stamping out some of the stigma but we still have a long ways to go. I personally feel that one of the ways to stamp out stigma is to educate society about the facts of mental illness and to dispel some of the myths that are believed out there amongst society. If I can dispel some of the myths and remove some of that stigma within the minds and hearts in some individuals of society then I have fulfilled my mission in life.

In conclusion this project is of great value and very beneficial to me as an individual. It is also of great value and very beneficial to the mental health community and to society as a whole.

Everyone recovers at different rates and different levels and some barely recover at all. Despite all this it is still possible for consumers to find happiness, contentment, and peace of mind. There is hope.

Direction in Life

I personally believe that consumers are quite capable of finding direction in their lives. When we have the right medication that keeps our positive symptoms under control we are able to think rationally, logically, and organize our thoughts so that they are connected and make sense. Because of this we are able to have organized direction in our lives. We don't have to aimlessly wander around in life not knowing where we are heading in life. We can have objectives to focus on in life. We are able to have a plan and follow it. I personally believe that if we fail to plan we plan to fail.

We need to decide what we want to accomplish in life and draw up a plan to follow to make it a reality. We need to draw up a plan with long term goals, mid term goals, and short term goals. They say that most successful people in life had a plan to follow. They knew all their goals and objectives and simply worked on them. As a result of this they became successful at achieving what they wanted to accomplish in life. They were not aimlessly wandering around in life but had direction in life.

If my reader is a consumer you can be successful in life, you can find direction in life, and you can fulfill all your dreams and aspirations in life. Just decide want you want to accomplish in life, draw up a plan, and start working on it. You need to be 100% focused on your objectives. You need to drive out all distractions out of your mind. All you should think about, and all your daily activities should be on making your plan a reality. Focus, focus, focus. That's the key to success.

I have been doing a lot of thinking about what I want to accomplish in life. I have a good idea of what I want to do with my life. Now all I need to do is take my own advice I have been sharing in this article and draw up my plan and get down to some serious business. I need a plan to be 100% focused on. Drive out all distractions out of my mind and make my objectives a reality.

This will not be easy. It will be very difficult. But the end results will be worth all the hard work. I personally feel that having direction in life, focusing on our plan, and working on that plan will bring joy and happiness in life.

I believe that happiness is a result of being successful at what we want to accomplish in life.

Decide what you want to accomplish, draw up a plan, focus and work on that plan and bring direction and happiness into your life. I certainly am.

Recent Research in Schizophrenia

Recent Research in Schizophrenia
By
Dr. David Mulhall

The nature of research in a field of Schizophrenia is there are studies ongoing throughout the world on a wide array of topics both on the cause of the illness looking at early history, genetics, the onset of the illness and review of treatment interventions both medication, psychosocial interventions that may be of benefit. Given that Schizophrenia is likely to have a multi factorial cause and a significant number of different gene markers suggesting vulnerability to the illness it is likely that we are dealing with a spectrum illness rather than one sharply defined illness with clear boundaries. In addition the development of new insights and knowledge is slow, gradual and incremental in type, thus there is no one single piece of research in the past few years which has “solved the problem”. There however have been ongoing advances and I will highlight a few of them. For further information readers are referred to the Early Psychosis Nova Scotia Program which may be accessed via the internet and has a significant amount of detail for those with Schizophrenia, their family and professionals involved in treatment.

The main medication interventions over the past forty years have been based on the belief that there is an imbalance in neurotransmitters. In illnesses such as depression the main neurotransmitter is Serotonin with psychotic illnesses such as Schizophrenia it is Dopamine. Street drugs which cause an increase in Dopamine such as amphetamines, cocaine and LSD can all cause drug induced psychoses. All medications thus far that have been used for the treatment of psychosis will reduce the level of Dopamine. Over the years the main thrust of medication intervention has been to develop medications that are effective in targeting specific areas in the brain with minimal effects on other areas of the brain which utilize Dopamine for other purposes. The original group of medications such as Chlorpromazine, Haloperidol were effective in treating positive symptoms but also caused marked problems with movement disorders. The newer medications such as Olanzepine cause significantly less movement problems, however the more recent group of medications have in general been associated with greater weight gain and unwanted metabolic affects, i.e. increased vulnerability to diabetes and elevated lipids. One of the latest medications available in Canada currently not funded in Nova Scotia is Ziprasidone (ZELDOX) which is an effective antipsychotic medication with minimal impact on weight and does not cause metabolic abnormalities. A more recent trend has been to look at other neurotransmitters. It is known that the Serotonin system has some role in psychosis and a newer “angle” is the role of Glutamate with alteration of these levels causing features of both positive and negative symptoms of Schizophrenia. A street drug Ketamine (Special K) has often caused people to present to the Emergency Room with illnesses that resemble Schizophrenia. It also causes exacerbation of symptoms of Schizophrenia in those with prior diagnosis. The importance of Glutamatergic transmission is underscored by recent report that a “mGLU2/3” agonist is effective by itself in treating the illness. This is the first successful treatment not directly based on Dopamine level alteration. At present this drug is in early stage of development but researchers are looking at other agents currently used in psychiatry such as Topiramate which has a “Glutamate type activity” to determine whether it would be of clinical
use.

Other areas of interest are looking at methods, community interventions that might help detect Psychosis sooner. There interventions when applied to “vulnerable populations”, i.e. those with family histories of illness, etc. showing some benefit but attempts to replicate the benefit in the general population have not bee successful.

There appears to be some early indication of benefit of the use of Omega 3 fatty acids in helping with recovering from Schizophrenia. It is important to understand that these agents are taken in addition to conventional treatment and not instead of.

Other areas of interest are looking at brain scans of those who have high risk for psychosis to determine whether you can predict who will develop the illness and who will not.

The role of lifestyle interventions to minimize the impact of weight gain, metabolic changes, etc., those on medication have also been assessed and require a significant amount of intervention and have had a modest benefit.

Other studies have looked at the level of functioning of those who then develop psychosis at a later stage and how it helps differentiate the outcome of first episode psychosis.

Finally there is ongoing concern about the vulnerability to psychosis in those using street drugs and the arguments about the increased potency of cannabis with some levels of THC being high in “SKUNK” a potent cannabis agent. It appears there is a sub group of adolescence who are vulnerable to these agents and development of an earlier onset of psychosis in addition significant risk of relapse in those who continue to use street drugs from an episode of psychosis.

This is a brief review of some of the fields of study which help in forming day to day care. Please check the Early Psychosis Nova Scotia internet site for further details and for new developments.

A Mental Health Perspective Newsletter

The Kings County Branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association publishes a monthly newsletter called A Mental Health Perspective.

This newsletter covers various topics on mental health issues. It has information on different types of mental illness. It has announcements on various programs and activities at the CMHA office. It provides information on different services in our area that help mental health consumers. If you are interested in mental health issues it is a must read.

If you would like to have a free copy or multiple copies of this newsletter you can contact CMHA at: 902-679-7464 (phone) or communityoutreach@cmhakings.ns.ca (e-mail) Arrangements can be made to have it delivered right to your door even if you don't live in the Kings County area.

globeandmail.com: We're all to blame for staying mum on mental illness

Here is an article from the Globe and Mail

It is about schizophrenia and violence. Very few people with schizophrenia commit violent acts. But the reality is that those that don't receive treatment are capable of committing violent acts. Society is to blame for this because it's because of stigma by society that prevents people from seeking treatment.

I think that you will find this article a real eye-opener.

globeandmail.com: We're all to blame for staying mum on mental illness

Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia: Kings County Chapter

The Kings County Chapter
meets on the second
Wednesday of each month
At St. Joseph's Church
on Belcher St. in Kentville
in the downstairs room.

Entrance is through the
side door on the South
side of the Church Building

The meetings start
at 7 o'clock

Come and join us.
There is always something going on
Speakers, Lunches,
Information, Discussions, Videos.

Our next meeting is on
Wed, September 10