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Coming to Terms with Schizophrenia
"Can I ever forget that I am schizophrenic? I am isolated and I am alone. I am never real. I play-act my life, touching and feeling only shadows. My heart and soul are touched, but the feelings remain locked away, festering inside me because they cannot find expression…" Anonymous schizophrenic, New York Times, March 18, 186. These words were written by a victim of schizophrenia, one of the most devastating and misunderstood mental illnesses currently known to mankind. This disease comes in different degrees and has symptoms which vary from person to person, sometimes making it difficult to detect, and much harder to understand. It is obviously difficult for the victim to live with schizophrenia. The disease also devastates the victims family. Although it is difficult to live with a schizophrenic family member, there are ways to cope with the ordeal. The first step toward gradual family recovery is recognizing that the victim is struggling with schizophrenia. Second, the family members must pinpoint the negative effects the disease is having on their emotions. Finally, the family must help the victim and each other begin the walk down the road to recovery with supportive therapy.
Family members must accept that schizophrenia is a disease that distorts its victims perceptions of their environments, severely cripples their minds, and usually eventually causes them to become very detached from the world around them. The word schizophrenia literally means "splitting of the mind." This does not at all refer to a split personality disorder, which has nothing to do with schizophrenia. The disease is not uncommon. It affects one in one hundred people worldwide. It usually strikes young men between the ages of sixteen and twenty, and young women between the ages of twenty and thirty. (British Columbia Schizophrenia Society, ) Although a cure has not yet been found, it has been proven that supportive therapy and treatment with prescription drugs are beneficial (B.C.S.S., ). If a family member suspects another family member has this illness, they must be sure of this by checking for its symptoms. The symptoms of schizophrenia are both striking and subtle. Some of the more glaring symptoms are delusions, hallucinations, and chaotic speech. Delusions are false beliefs that defy logic and common sense (Young, Patrick. Schizophrenia, 5). Examples of delusions may include the victim "knowing" he is being watched, sincerely believing himself to possess mystical powers, or being convinced that people are trying to kill him. Delusions may even lead schizophrenics to believe that their family members are against them. Louise Wilsons son got caught up in this delusion. Wilson wrote
"He refused to touch any food that I had prepared or handled, not even a bakery Order Custom Essay on Coming to Terms With Schizophrenia
cake, if my hand had untied the string. Not until years later did we hear he
thought his food was being poisoned." (Young, 6)
Another of the obvious symptoms of schizophrenia is hallucinations. Hallucinations are when the victim senses something that is not there. This can range from hearing voices in the mind, seeing imaginary people, or feeling insects crawling on the skin. It is most common for schizophrenics to hear voices. The voices usually "vilify and curse the schizophrenic, telling him how wretched, evil, and terrible he is." (Young, 7) Sometimes, the voices may order the victim to hurt themselves, do something strange, or even kill someone. In these cases, "there is always a danger that such commands will be obeyed." (B.C.S.S., 5) The other major symptom of the illness is disjointed conversation. The victim may make vague statements that have no connection to each other, or they may be very hard to comprehend. (Lundy, Alan. Diagnosing and Treating Mental Illness, 4). The victims thoughts do not flow together; they are jumbled and confusing, and the fragmentation of their mind becomes evident in their speech. Some of the symptoms of schizophrenia are more difficult to detect. These include withdrawal from social activities, sudden fanatic beliefs such as becoming extremely religious, irrational angry or fearful responses to loved ones, displaying little or no emotion, and sleeplessness and agitation. (B.C.S.S., 1) The victims families may not initially take these into account as symptoms of schizophrenia because they may seem to be responses to stress, a bad day, or a response to something like a death in the family. However, as the symptoms persist, they eventually become more noticeable, more disturbing, and stranger. The best thing to do when suspecting a family member is schizophrenic is to get it diagnosed. Diagnosis and admitting that a loved one is mentally ill are the only ways a family can begin to recover.
Having a schizophrenic in the family is very difficult. The family members undergo a whirlwind of depressing and negative emotions. Giving in to these emotions may worsen the situation. Therefore, family members must evaluate how they are feeling, and what effects it is having on the rest of the family and the schizophrenic member. Although it is difficult, the best thing they can do is realize that changing their outlook will benefit the other family members. It is very hard for parents to watch their child fall victim to the diseases troubling and confusing symptoms. One parent of a teenager with schizophrenia wrote,
"The typical family of a mentally ill person is often in chaos. Parents look frantically for answers that cant be found. Hope turns to despair, and some families are destroyed no matter how hard they try to survive." (B.C.S.S., 6)
Parents may experience some emotions such as sorrow, fear, and guilt. (B.C.S.S., ) They must recognize that they possess these notions, and realize that they can overcome them. Sorrow can cause the parents to feel as if they have lost their child. Although the child has severely changed, he or she is only lost if the disease goes untreated. They are struggling with an illness, and showing them support and getting them treatment is the only way parents can really keep their child. Parents may fear that their child will hurt himself or others. While it is difficult for them to picture their child doing that, it is good that they are recognizing this possibility and should therefore seek help. Parents may also feel guilty; thinking that they are to blame for their childs illness. This is not the case. Schizophrenia is not caused by outside factors. It is no ones fault. (Lundy, 67). Siblings also experience difficult emotions when one of their brothers or sisters is a victim of schizophrenia. Sometimes, they may develop attitudes of bitterness, dislike toward the affected sibling, or blame each other. (B.C.S.S., ) They may feel bitter and ask why their sister has to be a schizophrenic. Truthfully, there is no explanation. No one gets a mental illness for any reason, which is why they are so hard to deal with within the family. Although it is hard, they must accept that their sibling is ill, and that the best they can do is support her through her treatment to try to get her well. They may also begin to secretly dislike the affected sibling, thinking that they really do love her, but wish that she would not act so strangely. It is difficult for someone to watch a sibling they have grown up with become paranoid or delusional. However, they do not mean to be embarrassing; they are ill. It is still hard for the siblings to accept the fact that they cannot do anything about it, except support the ill one. In addition, siblings may sometimes blame each other or their parents for the cause of the family members schizophrenia. They may think that if their older brother had not gotten expelled, there would not have been enough tension in the family to cause their younger sister to become schizophrenic. Siblings may also believe that if their father did not always go out of town on business trips so much, their younger sister never would have become ill. Again, no one causes schizophrenia; it is a mental disorder that appears to be caused by imbalances within the mind. Blaming other family members will not solve the problem or pinpoint its cause. It will only make the situation more difficult (Lundy, 67). After family members determine the effects their emotions are having on the rest of the family, they can take steps to change them, such as discussing their feelings with each other or a therapist. This can help them come to terms with the illness and seek recovery together as a family.
Finally, the family must work with each other and the mentally ill member to seek recovery. Both the victim and the family can be helped with supportive therapy. This type of therapy aims to give the patient support and "emphasize structure in his or her life." (Young, 76) Patients will try to learn to distinguish dreams from reality, relearn social skills, learn to deal with their surroundings, and try to get their lives back on track. Although it may take a long time for the patient to establish trust with the therapist, because schizophrenia makes the victim distrustful, they may eventually begin to discuss their delusions with their therapist. This allows the patient to distinguish fact from fantasy and learn how to overcome their irrational beliefs. Supportive therapy is also extended to the rest of the family and its recovery. Supportive family therapy treats the victim and the family together. It allows the family to view their separate personalities and their "family personality." By evaluating how they interact and looking at the range of their emotions as a whole, the recovering family may begin to see ways in which they should improve themselves to gain stability back in their lives. Therefore, "family therapy can prove exceptionally valuable in getting to the root of a problem." (Lundy, 68) Although the recovering schizophrenic also needs antipsychotic drugs to control the disease, supportive therapy is the best way for both the victim and the family to mutually recover together. Medical treatment helps the patient to recover on his or her own, and supportive therapy enables them to be aided by the support of the family as they all recover as a whole through therapy. (B.C.S.S., 1-14) Seeking treatment together is very beneficial, as it allows family members to deal with their emotions and recover along with their ill family member, even though they are all receiving treatment at different degrees.
In conclusion, schizophrenia is a complicated and disabling illness which requires time and effort to heal. The illness has the definite potential to destroy the victim, and it also harms the victims family in a different yet equally painful way. It is not easy for a family to cope with one of their members struggle with schizophrenia, but there are ways to make it easier. First of all, they must recognize the symptoms of the illness that their member is suffering from. Second, the family must learn to deal with the emotions that the schizophrenia is causing them to have. Finally, the family must get the victim treatment and supportive therapy while they undergo therapy at the same time. These all allow for a fuller healing process and can hopefully help the entire family, both the sick and the healthy, put the pieces of their lives back together.
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