My guest post for Virgil Stucker

In August I answered an invitation from Virgil Stucker and Associates to submit a post to their site in anticipation of September being the month dedicated to mental health advocacy and suicide prevention themes. The request was open-ended: I could write on basically whatever I wanted to write about, and if I had any particular treatments that I thought others would want to hear about, they wanted to hear about those, too. I thought that was a pretty decent invitation because it didn’t filter what was considered “acceptable” treatment from “unacceptable treatment.” Anyone reading my blog this past year knows that I’ve been pushing Focused Listening, so if you don’t want to hear any more about this treatment, you can stop here. On the other hand, if you are curious to read different perspectives on mental health recovery from parents and professionals, you can find them on the Virgil Stucker and Associates blog.

Virgil Stucker has over thirty years of leadership experience in the recovery movement (encompassing therapeutic communities and directorships of not-for-profit organizations). Virgil Stucker and Associates empowers mental health decision making for families and individuals facing issues due to serious mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, bipolar and personality disorders, schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorder as well as substance abuse.

Rossa Forbes reflects on where an open mind led her when she sought help for her son, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

August 29, 2018

Guest Post

Guest post by author, Rossa Forbes.

I wish recovery were simple and straightforward for people like my son Chris who have experienced a serious mental illness. Often parents speak about recovery in terms of getting their old son or daughter back, meaning I suppose that their child’s personality, skills, and accomplishments before the onset of psychosis were pretty darn close to being as good as these things can be.

What a difference a change of continent makes

Abilify (aripiprazole) is still considered an antipsychotic in Europe (or in Switzerland, at least) but by changing continents with my recent move to the US, I find that Abilify has grown in stature, no longer a drug used by a small percentage of the population, but more like a drug superhero that watches over a lot more people with its magic protective powers. The drug superhero is paid handsomely for services rendered.

We all know that several years ago pharmaceutical companies began to market Abilify as an add-on treatment for major depressive disorder, downplaying its original role as an antipsychotic. Then, $uddenly, our $uperhero $aw a chance to help more people, $o pre$to chango, our $uperhero is now primarily an antidepre$$ant.

I don’t normally read the folded up drug information that comes inside the box. This time the Aripiprazole Oral Solution information was printed on two front and back pages of letter size paper stapled to the receipt, so it was hard not to be curious about the contents.

Let’s assume that a person who is being treated for depression, but is otherwise quite functional in his or her day to day life, decides to actually read the Aripiprazolerole literature, like I just did. She will see that the first page through to the very top of page two Continue reading “What a difference a change of continent makes”

Come to Jesus

I’ve been busy transitioning to Florida starting in early August. Apart from buying a new car, finding a family doctor, camping with a cooler in my own home because the fridge died, setting up new accounts everywhere, I’ve also had my first experience in the United States with buying prescription drugs (in this case Abilify) and trying to find an “open-minded” psychiatrist, meaning one who is willing to respect the current low dose of medication my son is on and to collaborate with Chris in an eventual tapering program.

I can’t say I was shocked at the price that the pharmacies here bill the insurance company because I knew that prescription drug prices in the United States are astronomically high compared to most other countries, but when you come face to face with it, that’s another story. Ouch. The first time Chris attempted to pick up his Abilify prescription, he realized that the doctor had ordered the tablet form of Abilify. $1800! I heard the pharmacy clerk whisper to her co-worker.

What? $1800 for presumably a 30 day supply that costs the equivalent of $120.00 in Switzerland?

Once Chris clarified his need for liquid Abilify with the doctor, we went back to the pharmacy and I heard the pharmacist whisper “$500.” Well, that’s not so bad, I thought, although it seemed a bit strange that the liquid was cheaper than the tablet form.

Then I saw the bottle. The measly 30 ml supply of liquid Abilify cost $30. A 150 ml bottle costs the equivalent of $200 in Switzerland. Doing the math, 1 ml of liquid Abilify costs $16.66 in the US and $1.33 in Switzerland.

“Do you want us to put you on automatic monthly refill?” the clerk asked Chris.

“No, no, no!” I frantically signaled to him from where I was sitting, lest he cave, which he has a habit of doing. Obviously, the clerk isn’t clued into the fact that Chris doesn’t take it as it’s prescribed. That’s the same challenge he’s going to have to put to a psychiatrist. He doesn’t take it as prescribed, which is the beauty of liquid Abilify, the flexibility inherent in an easily titratrable form. We left CVS with the prescription filled and no money forked over.

The psychiatrist recommended by the family doctor isn’t taking on new patients, I found out. Now I was on my own, with no recommendation at all, so I started calling around. I was told that my best bet was at a behavioral health center. I found one near our home and phoned for an appointment. Had to leave a message on the answering machine. No one called back. I thought about just driving over and asking for an appointment, but that would be too simple, and was obviously the wrong approach to take in these matters. A human to human interaction when booking an appointment is so passé. I was learning. I went to the company’s website, filled out a message form involving no more than 220 characters, and hit “send”. Continue reading “Come to Jesus”

B vitamins and niacin – anecdotal cure #2

I know when I write a blog post about nutrients, I’ll have to deal with comments from advertisers feigning interest in my blog and even signing up. Why do they do this? It’s so fake.

Be that as it may, I’m still trying to figure out why B vitamins performed a minor miracle for me vis a vis anxiety that had me teetering on a state of mononucleosis, yet didn’t cure Chris of his anxiety vis a vis “schizophrenia.” I took all kinds of B vitamins in pill and yeast form and, within a week, my bloodwork was back to normal. A miracle akin to what eating grapefruit does for high blood pressure.

I’m not so convinced that B vitamins in large doses can achieve consistent results for the anxiety associated with psychosis. Perhaps what is standing in the way of better results is the support of the medical profession for B vitamin therapy for cases of psychosis.

Grapefruit consumption and the country reporting the lowest cause of death from hypertension

In my last post I supplied some ancedotal evidence about the amazing grapefruit’s ability to lower blood pressure. Coincidentally, we, meaning Chris and me, have just moved to Florida. Let the grapefruit fest begin! (Except for me with my low blood pressure.) As further proof that grapefruit lowers blood pressure, I’d like to show you what I’ve since learned, by introducing Exhibit A, my husband, and Exhibit B, the country of Japan.

Exhibit A: Ian, my husband, is worried about staying in Switzerland without me while Chris and I take up residence in Florida. Ian won’t be joining me until he retires from his job early next year. The usual stresses (paperwork and logistics) of a transatlantic move have also weighed heavily on him. Ian will continue to cohabit our flat in Switzerland with Taylor, our youngest son.

Not unsurprisingly, my husband’s blood pressure over the past year has been on the high side. Just before we crossed the pond in early August, it became worrisomely high. So, I convinced him to have a glass of grapefruit juice every day. After doing so, he said he felt better but of course, wanted to have it checked by a doctor, so we got him in for an appointment the week after we arrived here. He was greatly relieved to learn that his diastolic blood pressure had dropped a whopping 19 points (!) since it was last measured in July. There was no need to discuss medication, according to the doctor.

Exhibit B: Curious about grapefruit’s astonishing effect on blood pressure I did a bit of internet research on Florida and grapefruits and learned the following: Continue reading “Grapefruit consumption and the country reporting the lowest cause of death from hypertension”

Anecdotal evidence

Like many people, as I’ve aged, I’ve learned to trust my intuition when summoning the body’s ability to heal using non-drug interventions whenever possible.

Three examples come to mind:

Example #1. The amazing grapefruit. A few years ago for a while on and off I could hardly get out of the bed in the morning. I simply didn’t have enough energy to propel myself and had to sit down or lie down at every opportunity. My naturally low blood pressure had never bothered me before. What was I now doing differently that might contribute to the problem? It had to be something. The answer: Stop the recent daily breakfast routine of a glass of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice. Switch my daily baby aspirin from nighttime to daytime. Baby aspirin taken at night lowers blood pressure. I certainly didn’t need to aggravate my low blood pressure.

So, I’m guessing that anyone with high blood pressure should do the opposite: Drink grapefruit juice daily and if taking a baby aspirin to avoid strokes and heart attack, take it at night.

The usual disclaimer applies: I am not a physician. Check with your doctor.

Other examples of unexpected and rather miraculous healings to follow in future posts.

Fare thee well

I said goodbye to Jennifer a couple of weeks ago after making two quick trips out to see her in the space of a few days. On the first trip, I brought her a pretty floral dress picked up on sale that I thought would look good on her. She was delighted and said she would wear it to church that weekend.

To put an optimistic spin on whether she will do the Focused Listening program that I have been encouraging her to do, the answer is she has NOT been doing it, and my hope is that she will turn to it in future when she’s in a state of mind that will allow her to take more control of her health. To underscore this message, I typed out a letter for her that I slipped into the dress bag. I said that the only real gift I could give her was the music program.

On my final visit, I brought along a mutual friend who is keen on checking in with Jennifer from time to time. I’ve instructed my friend in the basics of the music therapy and she’s in charge of some money donated by our Club’s Board members that is earmarked for further equipment if there is a need.

Jennifer asked us if on our way home, we could to take her back to her old flat (15 kilometres away!) so she could get in her daily 3-hour walk back to the hospital. It was a blazing hot day. She doesn’t use sunblock. I noticed that Jennifer was back to wearing flimsy slippers, not the sturdy walking shoes she’d gladly accepted from me on a previous visit for exactly that purpose. I wince when I think of her walking all that way in the heat in those shoes. I’ve dealt with the same lack of follow through or understanding of protecting one’s health and comfort with Chris.

The difference between her and Chris? Chris lives with his parents and I’m constantly in his face about wearing sunblock, wearing the right shoes, and doing some useful exercises to improve his mental health. Jennifer’s care has been entrusted to the state. I’ll never figure out why so many parents spend so much of their energy trying to get the state to parent their grown children. I can well understand the impulse, but when you see that the state is an imperfect parent, and always will be, wouldn’t it make more sense to hunker down with your relative for far longer than you would care to parent, and focus, at the very least, on protecting one’s physical health?

Fare thee well, Jennifer. I hope that in time you will figure out what you need to get to a better place.

Interview with Joseph Polimeni, MD on shamanism and schizophrenia

Joseph Polimeni, MD, is a Canadian psychiatrist and the author of the 2012 book Shamans Among Us: Schizophrenia, Shamanism and the Evolutionary Origins of Religion. The central premise of the book is that schizophrenia patients are the modern manifestation of tribal shamans, people who were vital to the success of early human cultures. “Shamans Among Us is the most detailed and comprehensive evolutionary theory yet assembled to explain a specific psychiatric diagnosis.”

I learned about Dr Polimeni’s work when I read Dick Russell’s memoir My Mysterious Son: A Life-Changing Passage Between Schizophrenia and Shamanism. I highly recommend both books.

The idea that people with schizophrenia are the modern manifestation of shamans is gaining a certain currency, to whit Phil Borges 2015 documentary, Crazywise. Borges spent many year documenting and filming tribal cultures and began to question why it is that ancient and tribal cultures reserve an honored place for the same kinds of persons who in Western cultures are labelled schizophrenic or bipolar, promptly medicated, and then largely degraded and ignored.

Dr. Polimeni’s belief that “the inborn cognitive factors or personality style that would have predisposed certain people to become shamans is the same psychological mindset that underlies schizophrenia ” seems entirely reasonable to me. As because it also seems reasonable to me that any mother would know her child’s inborn cognitive factors and personality style that might align themselves with shamanistic traits, I sent him a copy of my book. In it I flag several traits I noticed about my son that might work well with this theory.

RF: Dr. Polimeni, as it happens you didn’t read my book. I thought a psychiatrist with your research interests would be curious enough to do so. When I contacted you after I didn’t hear back from you, I let you in on a not very well kept secret, that male readers in general don’t want to read memoirs written by women. We were both somewhat amused, but I’m guessing you still haven’t read my book? Is that correct? Continue reading “Interview with Joseph Polimeni, MD on shamanism and schizophrenia”

Shamanism and the Evolutionary Origins of Schizophrenia

Enjoy this 2013 presentation by Joseph Polimeni, MD on his theory about why schizophrenia (and bipolar disorder) persists over time.

In my next post, I interview Dr Polimeni about his book,
Shamans Among Us: Schizophrenia, Shamanism and the Evolutionary Origins of Religion.

Why I don’t write about Chris much anymore

I haven’t updated readers a very long time on what Chris is doing. The main reason is that he’s thirty-four, and well, it just gets awkward. He’s done enough therapy and the ball’s been in his court for quite a while now. I’ve written my book, we can all take a breather.

Chris will be moving to Florida with me in August where he plans to enroll in a program that will help him find a job and upgrade his skills. My husband will join us when he retires early next year. Chris has a new girlfriend who he met in April. Not great timing given the move, but these kinds of things have their own timing.

He’s becoming more assertive and motivated by doing the Focused Listening music therapy every day and having a girlfriend who’s pushing him to achieve more. I feel like we’re in a holding pattern right now waiting to see if the promise of the music therapy will come to pass. (I’ve been told that I won’t recognize the old Chris once his ear muscle is no longer weakened by the medication. (Chris may want to begin tapering his medication after he transitions to his new environment.)