In Me, Myself and Them: A Firsthand Account of One Young Person’s Experience with Schizophrenia (2007), Kurt Snyder provides his personal narrative of living with Schizophrenia with Dr. Raquel Gur and Linda Andrews offering professional insight into the disease. This book gives remarkable insight into the terrifying world of acute psychosis, where reality cannot be distinguished from delusion and recovery is grueling. However, Snyder’s account does offer hope that one may live a content and functional life despite a debilitating, enduring disease. The book begins with Snyder summarizing his initial experience with Schizophrenia; this occurred in college with delusions of grandeur. Snyder became obsessed with the idea that he was on the verge …show more content…
To me, Schizophrenia is by far the most frightening disorders in the DSM. Snyder’s account of how he truly believed his delusions, specifically those surrounding the debilitating fear for his life, are hard to image. This presents a challenge for me as a counselor in empathizing with clients who are experiencing this. In reflecting on this dilemma, I came to realize that while I may not be able to understand the fear of my life being in danger, I can relate to the emotion of fear; this can be the connecting point for me to the client. Expressing sympathy is also another tool I have when I am unable to empathize with a client’s thoughts and emotions. Furthermore, Snyder’s narrative reinforced my notion of how insidious Schizophrenia can be. That is to say, that while in many cases this disorder may live traces of itself in childhood and adolescents, in some cases it occurs unexpectedly. Snyder details his normal childhood, including supportive parents, with little to no evidence of any sort of trauma or odd behavior; and yet he was still blindsided with the disease. I began to reflect particularly on how difficult this would be for clients experiencing these same circumstances. It will be essential for me as a counselor to recognize that …show more content…
I have always believed that the prognoses for Schizophrenia was, at best, bleak with little chance of any normality or functionality. While I understand that Snyder’s situation is by no means the norm, his current situation offers hope that a life of stability, self-sufficiency and social competence is possible for those diagnosed with Schizophrenia. This assisted in altering my view of Schizophrenia as a “hopeless” situation. It reminded me how important it is to not give up on your clients and believe that they are capable of living, at least to some extent, a fulfilling and functional life. If I as a counselor have no faith in my clients and believe my clients to be hopeless and doomed to their disorder, how can I possibly expect to be able to assist them or for them to be able to help themselves. It is essential to remember that my client has been diagnosed with Schizophrenia and not that my clients is a schizophrenic; this goes for every diagnosis, it does not define who my client
Although Susanna Kaysen’s rebellious and self-harming actions of coping with her psychosis are viewed by some critics as pushing the boundary of sanity, many people have a form of a “borderline personality” that they must accept and individually work towards understanding in order to release themselves from the confines of their disorder. Kaysen commits to a journey of self-discovery, which ultimately allows her to accept and understand herself and her psychosis.
Throughout the novel, I was able to gain a new underlying sense of schizophrenia from Pamela’s perspectives. From attaining symptoms in childhood events, to reading extreme active
The ‘me’ becomes a haze, and the solid center from which one experiences reality breaks up like a bad radio signal. (Saks, p. 13)” These words are the description of schizophrenia, written by a woman who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, Elyn Saks. Her book, The Center Cannot Hold, is the memoir of Sak’s own life experience and her struggle with schizophrenia, or as she puts it, her journey through madness. Although her journey did not lead to a full recovery, as is the case with many individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, Saks was able to live and maintain a life, despite her very negative prognosis.
Mental illnesses are diseases that plague a being’s mind and corrupts one’s thoughts and feelings. Schizophrenia is one of the many disastrous illnesses that consume one’s life, is known as a real disease that deserves much attention. Experts believe that what causes the illness is a defect in the gene’s of the brain, and little signs of schizophrenia are shown until about one’s early adult years. Some effects of schizophrenia can either be negative or positive, but even if the effects could be either one, people should still be aware that there is something puzzling and alarming happening in the mind of a schizophrenic patient.
Schizophrenia is a deteriorating progressive disease, consequently, it is resistant to treatment for the individual suffering schizophrenia. (Catts & O’Toole, 2016). In most cases the individuals suffering from schizophrenia, are resistive to treatment, in most cases, individuals suffering from schizophrenia, and are resistive in taking antipsychotics. (Catts & O’Toole, 2016). Jeremy doesn’t see himself as a “schizophrenic”, he states that “he’s happy naturally”, and often he’s observed playing the guitar and doing painting in his room. Weekly, he has an intramuscular medication to treat his disorder, crediting the support of his wife. It is indicated that the morality rate, in patients suffering from schizophrenia is higher, despite the considerable resources available, in Australia. New data show that in 20 countries, including Australia, only 13.5% meet the recovery criteria, which means that 1or 2 patients in every 100, will meet this criteria per year. (Catts & O’Toole, 2016). This means that there’s a decline in providing support and services to individuals like Jeremy suffering from a mental illness such as Schizophrenia. Many individuals become severely ill before they realise they need medical treatment, and when receiving treatment it is usually short-term. (Nielssen, McGorry, Castle & Galletly, 2017). The RANZCP guidelines highlights that
Schizophrenia is a long term psychological effect that has affected him from taking drugs all these years. All these drugs have negatively affected this individual in the long run and there is no turn around. Once the damage is done it is
There are just as many treatments as there are types of schizophrenia and most come in the form of a pill. No matter the treatment, a person who suffers from the disease will always have a skilled psychiatrist or even a whole team of medical doctors and pharmacologist involved with their health care needs. Some of ...
Families with a member suffering from any illness may be stressful enough but families with members diagnosed with schizophrenia are often faced with additional challenges such as the “external stressors of social stigma, isolation, and emotional frustration”. Many times, family conflicts arise as members attempt to provide care on an everyday basis (Chien, 2010, pg. xi). “A Beautiful Mind” is a brilliant motion picture directed by Ron Howard that chronicles the life of one John Nash, a prominent mathematician and the challenges he endures throughout his adult life afflicted with a chronic mental illness. “A Beautiful Mind” allows us to gain insight into the stressors that many families undergo when faced with living with a person with schizophrenia. This paper will explore the impact of schizophrenia on the lives of the Nash family as depicted in the aforementioned movie. Exploring the impact of the disease on the Nash family’s life will be followed with a discussion regarding an assessment conducted of the family, through the use of the Calgary Family Assessment model. Conducting the assessment allowed us to determine two nursing priorities, and nursing interventions in relation to them through the use of the Calgary intervention model. Essentially it becomes evident that the challenges faced by the Nash family are in the functional domain. The families inability to effectively communicate and problem solve becomes evident, which is negatively impacting the families ability to function effectively. Our nursing interventions guided by the Calgary Nursing Intervention Model will focus on providing the Nash family with the support needed to bring about change in the affective domain in foster effective communication with the famil...
Many people have come and gone through my life. Like a revolving door, but it doesn’t matter how long they stayed in my life. To me, it only matters on how they made an impact on me. I think about Kurt Zuidmulder every day, he was a coach, teacher, and father. He was also a friend to the whole community of Hermantown, MN, and Hibbing, MN. He was the greatest human I have ever met, and I will never forget him. Kurt affected me through his larger than life personality, his incredible sense of humor, and his overall kindness.
Often, people feel that someone is following behind them in the dark, scheming of something evil, maybe see something pass by through the woods, hear weird sounds, or jumble up meaningless words. It may be a once-a-month feeling, in which the person would not be a “schizo”; but it may be an everyday thing, every moment, disabling the person to function properly, captivating them in their own worlds. Schizophrenia may account for such symptoms. After all, by probability, one in 100 people are said to develop schizophrenia (Myers). But there is hope for getting well and adjusting to society again – research is ongoing and people are more understanding. Media portrays the disorder as an aesthetic achievement. Although intense with many psychotic factors, the Black Swan illustrates the perfection a human being can accomplish through being psychotic.
Mark Edmundson, published the essay “Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here” on August 22, 2011 in the Oxford American. Edmundson received his education at Yale University and is currently a professor of English at Virginia University. In the beginning of the essay, He describes the initial feelings of a new college student and explains what is expected throughout the process. He adamantly expresses the need to find oneself, which he feels is the true meaning behind achieving higher education. He describes sources of pressure students face when trying to get an education, which include expectations from society, family, and even the university the student is attending. The institutions are pressuring students to avoid making an impact on society and only getting a degree for the purpose getting a job.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Arasse, Daniel. Complete Guide to Mental Health. Allen Lane Press,New York, 1989. Gingerich, Susan. Coping With Schizophrenia. New Harbinger Publications, Inc. Oakland, 1994. Kass, Stephen. Schizophrenia: The Facts. Oxford University Press. New York, 1997. Muesen, Kim. “Schizophrenia”. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia. Microsoft Corporation, 1998. Young, Patrick. The Encyclopedia od Health, Psychological Disorders and Their Treatment. Herrington Publications. New York, 1991.
There are many disorders throughout the world that affect people on a daily basis. They are life altering and life changing. They affect how a person can function on a normal level of life. This, in itself, is an interesting way of viewing the disorder, but it truly is the way that schizophrenia is viewed. The term normal is in its self a complex concept, but to understand that for the purpose of schizophrenia; normal is anything that deviates from the socially accepted way of conducting one’s self. The person affected by this disorder is drifting away from reality and, at the same time, drifting away from who they have been their whole life.
...le to concisely communicate their feelings to another party. While there are individuals who have trouble communicating there are individuals like John Nash who have power to communicate but are troubled with other symptoms of schizophrenia such as persecutory delusions. In short I have learned that mental disorders are complex; therapists must approach every disorder with the same amount of seriousness so that they can be helpful to their patients. Also the restrictions for each disorder must be specific and narrow so that it is possible to accurately diagnose a patient and avoid a misdiagnosis. By learning about the ridged qualifications for different illnesses I have gained a greater grasp on the biological aspect of mental disorders, and how different medication can interact internally within different chemical imbalances in the body.
In the essay "It’s Hard Enough Being Me," Anna Lisa Raya relates her experiences as a multicultural American at Columbia University in New York and the confusion she felt about her identity. She grew up in L.A. and mostly identified with her Mexican background, but occasionally with her Puerto Rican background as well. Upon arriving to New York however, she discovered that to everyone else, she was considered "Latina." She points out that a typical "Latina" must salsa dance, know Mexican history, and most importantly, speak Spanish. Raya argues that she doesn’t know any of these things, so how could this label apply to her? She’s caught between being a "sell-out" to her heritage, and at the same time a "spic" to Americans. She adds that trying to cope with college life and the confusion of searching for an identity is a burden. Anna Raya closes her essay by presenting a piece of advice she was given on how to deal with her identity. She was told that she should try to satisfy herself and not worry about other people’s opinions. Anna Lisa Raya’s essay is an informative account of life for a multicultural American as well as an important insight into how people of multicultural backgrounds handle the labels that are placed upon them, and the confusion it leads to in the attempt to find an identity. Searching for an identity in a society that seeks to place a label on each individual is a difficult task, especially for people of multicultural ancestry.