for annie, discussion of genetics of schizophrenia

[Guest guest]

First, I am really glad you went to see your mom.

I hope I can do the same, should my mother's health decline. It is HARD to see

our parents and loved ones lose themselves.

I hope the following link may be helpful?

http://www.everydayhealth.com/schizophrenia/genetic-risks-of-schizophrenia.aspx

Yes it is general, but the interviewee comes from the well-respected McLean

hospital in Belmont, MA A friend of mine, suspected BPD, went there, and found

their treatment cutting edge.

When the doctors say there's a genetic component to a disease, they are often

just validating the obvious. Every disease has a genetic component.

This article mostly explains the risk of children inheriting the disease. But it

also caught my attention, Annie, because it echoed your words. Most people with

the disease don't have a first degree relative who has it.

For me personally, I see all these " mental " illnesses as vulnerabilities that we

are born with. If we have fairly decent childhoods and learn how to handle

stress in ways that insure we care for ourselves body, mind and spirit, we don't

succumb. But I know for a fact, because my doctor finally admitted to me, that

anyone can have a psychosis under the right (or should I say wrong) conditions.

Whether it lasts, depends on how it is handled. Or whether the patient gets

educated.

From experience I can tell you there are cases that are helped by medications

and cases that are not. Some of us only need the medications for short times. We

recover completely between bouts.

How a patient heals, or not, can depend on the story the doctors tell the

patient. The mind is a very powerful tool. There is an experiment being done in

Finland, to intervene in the family setting when first-time psychosis occurs.

What they folks doing treatment do, is come into the home in a very

compassionate way, to work with the family and have the patient in the home.

They encourage the patient to stay connected with their family and treatment,

even if they are hiding out in a bedroom, by keeping a door open for example.

Often, without the use of physical restraints, and instead letting the patient

be, the patient calms down and considers things like medications. Interestingly,

most patients don' t choose to take the antipsychotics. Instead they choose

things that reduce anxiety or help them to sleep. This seems to speed the path

to full recovery. The Finns in this study take their time with the patients,

offering hope and long-term care. Mosr of the first time sufferers recover a lot

of their normal function, and learn how to deal with residual symptoms, if they

occur.

For many folks with psychosis, the key to alleviating symptoms is getting sleep.

No sleep is HUGE in triggering psychosis, for those with the vulnerability.

Just thought this might help. You and your sister may both be right. When I read

your post I thought to myself, but transcient psychosis can be one of the BPD

symptoms. Your nada does not need a schizophrenia diagnosis, for your sister to

be spot-on.

Best,

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the head's up on this, . I will check out the link. I'm

very interested in the genetic aspect that " predisposes " an individual to

getting one mental illness or another, in the same way that those with little

melanin in their skin are " predisposed " to getting severely sunburned. (Which

reminds me how our nada would let Sister and me get severely sunburned each

summer when we were too little to be responsible about limiting our own sun

exposure on the much-anticipated yearly vacation at the beach, to the point of

blisters forming on the skin. Nada would cooly tell her small howling children

that if we were burned and in pain, it was our own fault.)

I am currently interested in a theory I came across, and a research study, that

discusses how borderline pd may be the way psychopathy manifests itself in

females. I find this plausible in my own nada's case, and will be interested to

find more articles and studies on this theory.

Thanks,

Annie

>

> First, I am really glad you went to see your mom.

>

> I hope I can do the same, should my mother's health decline. It is HARD to see

our parents and loved ones lose themselves.

>

> I hope the following link may be helpful?

http://www.everydayhealth.com/schizophrenia/genetic-risks-of-schizophrenia.aspx

>

> Yes it is general, but the interviewee comes from the well-respected McLean

hospital in Belmont, MA A friend of mine, suspected BPD, went there, and found

their treatment cutting edge.

>

> When the doctors say there's a genetic component to a disease, they are often

just validating the obvious. Every disease has a genetic component.

>

> This article mostly explains the risk of children inheriting the disease. But

it also caught my attention, Annie, because it echoed your words. Most people

with the disease don't have a first degree relative who has it.

>

> For me personally, I see all these " mental " illnesses as vulnerabilities that

we are born with. If we have fairly decent childhoods and learn how to handle

stress in ways that insure we care for ourselves body, mind and spirit, we don't

succumb. But I know for a fact, because my doctor finally admitted to me, that

anyone can have a psychosis under the right (or should I say wrong) conditions.

Whether it lasts, depends on how it is handled. Or whether the patient gets

educated.

>

> From experience I can tell you there are cases that are helped by medications

and cases that are not. Some of us only need the medications for short times. We

recover completely between bouts.

>

> How a patient heals, or not, can depend on the story the doctors tell the

patient. The mind is a very powerful tool. There is an experiment being done in

Finland, to intervene in the family setting when first-time psychosis occurs.

What they folks doing treatment do, is come into the home in a very

compassionate way, to work with the family and have the patient in the home.

They encourage the patient to stay connected with their family and treatment,

even if they are hiding out in a bedroom, by keeping a door open for example.

Often, without the use of physical restraints, and instead letting the patient

be, the patient calms down and considers things like medications. Interestingly,

most patients don' t choose to take the antipsychotics. Instead they choose

things that reduce anxiety or help them to sleep. This seems to speed the path

to full recovery. The Finns in this study take their time with the patients,

offering hope and long-term care. Mosr of the first time sufferers recover a lot

of their normal function, and learn how to deal with residual symptoms, if they

occur.

>

> For many folks with psychosis, the key to alleviating symptoms is getting

sleep. No sleep is HUGE in triggering psychosis, for those with the

vulnerability.

>

> Just thought this might help. You and your sister may both be right. When I

read your post I thought to myself, but transcient psychosis can be one of the

BPD symptoms. Your nada does not need a schizophrenia diagnosis, for your sister

to be spot-on.

>

> Best,

>

>

[Guest guest]

This is so interesting to me, because the closest I have ever come to feeling

like I was losing my mind was when I could not sleep to save my life after

having my first child. Partly it was the obvious: I was up with a waking infant

to nurse, but I could not sleep when she was not awake, neither when she was

napping during the day, nor between feeds at night. My whole nervous system

went into hypervigilence mode and would not relax enough to let me sleep.

I never felt or became psychotic, but my brain did some really weird things from

the sleep deprivation. For me, becoming a mother, and not having the support of

my NADA at that time opened up so many questions. How had I been mothered as an

infant? How had my mother been mothered? Could I do it well just instinctively

even if I had not been mothered well? How was my mother (I had not yet started

to think of her as a NADA (just as a really difficult and sad person)capable of

rejecting me, her own daughter?

I felt fiercely protective of my infant, but I wondered semi-consciously

somehow, " was I capable of rejecting my own child in the future too? It was

really scarey. It all felt so much bigger than me and it was as though, I could

not let down my guard so as to sleep because of it all. There were days when I

felt I just could not drive because I feared my motor coordination was effected

adversely by being so sleep deprived and I especially didn't want to be in an

accident with an infant in the car.

HC

>

> First, I am really glad you went to see your mom.

>

> I hope I can do the same, should my mother's health decline. It is HARD to see

our parents and loved ones lose themselves.

>

> I hope the following link may be helpful?

http://www.everydayhealth.com/schizophrenia/genetic-risks-of-schizophrenia.aspx

>

> Yes it is general, but the interviewee comes from the well-respected McLean

hospital in Belmont, MA A friend of mine, suspected BPD, went there, and found

their treatment cutting edge.

>

> When the doctors say there's a genetic component to a disease, they are often

just validating the obvious. Every disease has a genetic component.

>

> This article mostly explains the risk of children inheriting the disease. But

it also caught my attention, Annie, because it echoed your words. Most people

with the disease don't have a first degree relative who has it.

>

> For me personally, I see all these " mental " illnesses as vulnerabilities that

we are born with. If we have fairly decent childhoods and learn how to handle

stress in ways that insure we care for ourselves body, mind and spirit, we don't

succumb. But I know for a fact, because my doctor finally admitted to me, that

anyone can have a psychosis under the right (or should I say wrong) conditions.

Whether it lasts, depends on how it is handled. Or whether the patient gets

educated.

>

> From experience I can tell you there are cases that are helped by medications

and cases that are not. Some of us only need the medications for short times. We

recover completely between bouts.

>

> How a patient heals, or not, can depend on the story the doctors tell the

patient. The mind is a very powerful tool. There is an experiment being done in

Finland, to intervene in the family setting when first-time psychosis occurs.

What they folks doing treatment do, is come into the home in a very

compassionate way, to work with the family and have the patient in the home.

They encourage the patient to stay connected with their family and treatment,

even if they are hiding out in a bedroom, by keeping a door open for example.

Often, without the use of physical restraints, and instead letting the patient

be, the patient calms down and considers things like medications. Interestingly,

most patients don' t choose to take the antipsychotics. Instead they choose

things that reduce anxiety or help them to sleep. This seems to speed the path

to full recovery. The Finns in this study take their time with the patients,

offering hope and long-term care. Mosr of the first time sufferers recover a lot

of their normal function, and learn how to deal with residual symptoms, if they

occur.

>

> For many folks with psychosis, the key to alleviating symptoms is getting

sleep. No sleep is HUGE in triggering psychosis, for those with the

vulnerability.

>

> Just thought this might help. You and your sister may both be right. When I

read your post I thought to myself, but transcient psychosis can be one of the

BPD symptoms. Your nada does not need a schizophrenia diagnosis, for your sister

to be spot-on.

>

> Best,

>

>