Best books about schizophrenia according to redditors

We found 147 Reddit comments discussing the best books about schizophrenia. We ranked the 65 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

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Top Reddit comments about Schizophrenia:

u/Feed_Me_No_Lies · 308 pointsr/IAmA

I say this as a gay man: You've done the right thing and don't doubt it for a second.

I am happily married to a man and we have an adopted son so one can say I am definitely comfortable as a gay person. I am also well aware of the philosophical, parallel arguments between something like engineering homosexuality out of a fetus in untero and cochlear implants killing out the deaf community.

The truth is, if I had the choice, I hope my son would be straight. Not because I'm against gay people obviously, but it is a matter of challenges within the world. My teen life (and young adulthood) was miserable as a gay person. People can say "Oh, it is the fault of society and not homosexuality itself" and while that is very true, the fact remains that being such a minority was a disadvantage in many ways.

Now let's talk about deafness.

The challenges and handicaps to one's daily life that a deaf person faces are so much more severe than anything I've gone through. Sure Deaf culture has formed. Sure, it is vibrant and unique and worth something.

But at what cost? I cannot imagine for a second denying my child something so basic to survival as the ability to hear. I want to slap the shit out of the deaf community for being so against this.

I get it...I get it: "There is nothing wrong with us! There is nothing to fix!" As a gay person I've said the same thing but goddammed if I didn't wish I was straight as a teenager so that I can find a wife and have children. While I would grimace at the idea of someone "turning their kid straight" in the womb, I'd understand them wanting to. I'd get it.

I don't think the similarities between homosexuality and deafness are identical, but there are definitely parallels and I do believe it gives me some insight into this. I also believe we can accurately label deafness as a disability much more readily than we could homosexuality in today's climate, and I understand the definitions of the word disability change over time.

Anyway, have you read "Far From the Tree" by Andrew Solomon? It is his Pulitzer Prize winning book about parents raising children very different from themselves. There are chapters on dwarfism, autism etc and there is also one on deafness. I highly suggest checking it out if you haven't already.

EDIT: Link to the book
[https://www.amazon.com/Far-Tree-Parents-Children-Identity-ebook/dp/B007EDOLJ2]

u/squareball · 83 pointsr/TrueReddit

> I really wish I could get a similar story from Janni's point of view

I read this book a long time ago, when I was a teenager. My mum is a clinical psychologist and it was on our bookshelf at home. It's a really powerful book, I can't recommend it enough.

u/eyeamtheonewhoknocks · 34 pointsr/Fitness

Nobody talks about the gut biome, because noboby understands the gut biome.

The gut biome is pretty much like the early days of quantum physics atm.

If you want to read an amazing book that will blow your mind, read (or listen to) This is your brain on Parasites. The stuff on the gut biome for weight loss, disease and even mental illness is freaky.

u/jbrs_ · 27 pointsr/news

cat litter often contains a parasite called toxoplasma gondii which has been implicated in a number of deviant behaviors and illnesses. read This Is Your Brain On Parasites for more info, it's a very good read.

u/dbspin · 19 pointsr/todayilearned

The study / intervention the article refers to is more commonly known as the Soteria Project. Moser has a book on it - http://www.amazon.com/Soteria-Deliverance-Loren-R-Mosher/dp/1413465234/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321723383&sr=8-1

It's also discussed in Robert Whittaker's excellent history of the American mental health system 'Mad in America'. According to Whittiker (who was one of the first to critique the DSM V; now coming under wider condemnation from the American Psychological association as well as the editor of the DSM-IV TR), Soteria did indeed have quite a high success rate. While schizophrenia obviously has a genetic component there's no reason to assume that its expression isn't environmentally (epigenetically) mediated. Since all protein synthesis is to some extent environmentally mediated - whether through the intrauterine environment or the life course.

u/harpyeaglelove · 15 pointsr/MGTOW


All of these psych drugs (stimulants like riddalin or adderall, antidepressants like effexor or prozac, antispycotics like seroquel and risperdol, mood stabilizers like lamictal, and benzos like klonopin or xanax) are addictive, and the body reacts to them exactly like it would any street drug. The brain is capable of recovering in some circumstances, but lingering effects can last for years or be permanent. Psych meds are incredibly powerful substances that in some cases can be more powerful than common "street drugs". These are not medications. Instead, pyscg meds are powerful neuroactive substances that are poorly understood. In US society, these drugs are heavily prescribed to all sectors of the population. Including children and pregnant mothers.

In a social sense, these drugs are convenient "control" mechanisms for prisons, psych wards schools. They are also heavily prescribed for depression, anxiety etc. Most of this occurs in the USA, in other countries (excluding the UK) prescription rates are fairly low. Women account for something 2/3 of all psych med drug use, and women are usually responsible for drugging their children.

Riddalin is a common "entry" drug for children. Adderall, vyvanse and provigil are also quite common now. It rarely ends with these stimulants and often progresses to the more powerful antidepressants, antianxity, and antipsycotic medications. That's when the long term and life altering damage can occur.

There's considerable evidence both in the scientific literature and NUMEROUS anecdotal stories on the internet for people who get severe withdrawal from the antianxiety, antidepressant, and antipsycotic drugs. As such, they are not treatment for a disorder, but cause their own dependency and addiction profiles. Psych meds are powerful substances that severely affect the body just like any drug or toxin. There's studies on the long term side effects, and how difficult it is to stop taking the drugs. Sexual side effects can be permanent. This condition is called post-SSRI sexual dysfunction and primarly affects those who take antidepressants.

Some people recover, others never recover. Children almost certainly get permanent damage as their brains are still in development. Lots of dumb ass women take these drugs during pregnancy, damaging their kids brains before they're even born. Then the dumb cunts take it after they give birth, so they are shit mothers doped out on drugs. These are the same dumb cunts who will quickly go to a doctor and start poisoning their kids once the PTA meeting goes badly. Then they'll bitch and moan like the cunts they are about why the kid isn't getting better. Eventually, the poor kid will probably fail to do well in school because the drugs cause brain damage, and the dumb bitch will make his life even more difficult until he escapes at the age of 16 or 18. With brain damage and a dumb bitch as a mother, his life is going to be very difficult. Life is hard enough, life with withdrawal or brain damage can lead to homelessness, jail, lifetime of addiction, and worse. Homelessness due to psych med withdrawal and long term side effects is extremely common for men.

Women have it easy. Even if a young girl gets brain damage, no one will care - standards are so low, and any guy will fuck a girl if she's wet between the legs (or use lube if she can't get wet). If she's got a pulse, she'll never be homeless. Even a heavily brain damaged girl will get a job and a college degree no matter how badly damaged they seem to the world. IF that doesn't work out, she'll just find some dude to take care of her. These drugs primarily affect men, because society puts so much pressure on them. Even small amounts of brain damage, or withdrawal can fuck their careers and futures up permanently.

Scary shit, good reason to never ever send your child into a public school system if it can be helped. Public schools have gotten worse since I was a child. Pyschiatrists and other such doctors"child psychiatrists" are all greedy cunts who want to poison your kid so that they can make some extra money. Most psychiatrists are too brainwashed to understand how the drugs really work, and believe everything the pharmaceutical company tells them like idiots.

Most parents are blue pilled faggots who will listen to the female's desire to do the "right thing". Doing the "right thing" is brain damage to young children with fragile brains. If your child survives the brain damage, he will be prone to addiction and other emotional issues for a very long time. These drugs affect every single part of the brain and especially affect the emotional and sexual portions of the brain.

Also note: there's no such thing as a child dose for these drugs in the literature. They're designed for adults. It's literally GUESSWORK, and everyone reacts differently to different doses. It's a real fucking mess, but doctors pretend they know what they're doing, and are protected from legal repercussions from any consequences these drugs may have on children.

Very few if any studies have been done on children for more than 6 weeks. This is true for stimulants, antidepressants, antipsycotis, mood stabilizers and benzos. There's not much scientific understanding about how these drugs actually work, and there's even less understanding about their long term effects on adults. For children the knowledge is even less thorough.

There's a handful of studies that have been carried out on these drugs for more than 6 weeks in adults, and I don't believe there's ever been one carried out long term in children. The fact is that almost EVERYONE takes these drugs for more than 6 weeks, so there's very little knowledge about how these drugs actually work long term. There is also plenty of evidence that these drugs are no more effective for treating their make believe "diagnoses" than a placebo pill.

There's literally studies that have been carried out which demonstrate that placebo and antidepressants or ADHD meds are equally effective over the longer term. In some studies, patients actually do BETTER for more than 6 weeks on the placebo and those on the drugs do considerably worse. This also holds true for benzodiazepines, and antipsychotic medications as well.

A pulitzer prize finalist (male author) has published two very informative and scientifically based books on the subject of psychiatry and psychiatric medications. He's not a scientologist, just a concerned journalist.

Here's the links for those who are interested:

https://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Epidemic-Bullets-Psychiatric-Astonishing/dp/0307452425/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527721857&sr=8-1&keywords=anatomy+of+an+epidemic

https://www.amazon.com/Mad-America-Medicine-Enduring-Mistreatment/dp/0465020143/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1527721886&sr=1-2-fkmr1&keywords=made+in+america+robert+whitaker

TLDR: All pysch meds are poorly understood in adults, and very few if any studies have ever been conducted in children. In adults, psych meds can cause severe withdrawal reactions, nerve damage, and permanent sexual dysfunction in both men and women. There's considerable documentation that placebo pills are more effective than psych meds for treating the "diagnosed condition". Robert Whitaker's two books are excellent, easy to read documents that can explain far more than I can on a reddit post.


u/webalbatross · 11 pointsr/cogsci

Sure! Alexander Lowen's Fear of Life and The Language of the Body are both excellent starting points. For something a bit more technical, there's Wilhelm Reich's Character Analysis.

u/IndependentRoad5 · 11 pointsr/CPTSD

A good book on this (at least that Ive read) is Mad in America by Robert Whitaker. The entire field is built on a house of cards

u/roast_spud · 9 pointsr/books

Psychology (studied, but never practiced)

Here are a selection of interesting books:

u/equus007 · 6 pointsr/skeptic

That's not eugenics. It's economics. We would need to seek out their siblings as well if we were interested in wiping out genes. They are also only getting a month off their time.

These are both reversible treatments. None of the whopping 41 people to date have been sterilized. That's BS.

I was wondering why this article is so one sided and heavy on the history and then figure out the author wrote a book about it. This is probably just his standard lecture.

u/SevenEves · 6 pointsr/ClinicalGenetics

Not exactly specific to genetic counseling but I liked these two and read them before going to school:

  1. Far From the Tree - each chapter explores the experiences of living with or having a child with a certain identity or condition

  2. Genetic Rounds - a narrative by a geneticist (MD) and each chapter tells a story about a different child or family he's met impacted by a genetic coundtion (I'm not sure why it's so expensive on Amazon, I'm sure you'd be able to find it cheaper elsewhere!)

    These books are both more about families' experiences than GCs, but I think they offer a good introduction into what we can encounter in our work.
u/JimJamz11 · 5 pointsr/Jung

In jungian terms, and, Jung talks at some length about this in his seminars on Nietzsche's Zarathustra, Nietzsche lacked a connection to his "Anima", his inferior function and in turn the unconscious.

(https://www.amazon.com/Jungs-Seminar-Nietzsches-Zarathustra-Jarrett/dp/0691017387/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1472918280&sr=8-2-spell&keywords=Carl+Jung+Zarathrustra)

This is the abridged version and is only around 350 pages of what, in its full form, is a whopping 1500 pages. I think its important to keep that in mind while reading.


Anyway, remember we talked about Sensing and Emotion to be Nietzsche's inferior functions. If we look at his life, his chronic illnesses (sensing) and his incredible loneliness(emotion), as many of his friends deserted him later in life, and his love of his life did not accept his love, we can see where his life lacked a strong connection to his philosophy.

Was Nietzsche a Dionysian anywhere else than in his philosophy? At one point, I believe, he had a good strong friend group. But nearer to the end of things, he was incredibly isolated, awkward as hell, and spent a lot of the time watching others in beautiful places. With this in mind, Jung talks about the Apollonian archetype as being an over intellectualized character, not necessarily in the soulless, over rational sense we know nowadays, but in the strongly spiritual/intuitive, bigger than life, on top of the mountains (6000 feet above good and evil) sort of way. Someone who cannot connect with others because hes caught up in intellectual spiritual realms or head spaces. Nietzsche fell into a sort of Enantiodromia, which, is a jungian term to describe being so one-sided that you fall into the opposite side of the spectrum. He lived the apollo life style, that was so part of his age, too the extent that he espoused the anti-thesis, the Dionysus lifestyle.

Nietzsche was a profound thinker and poet, a prototype of the psychologist par excellence. He could see other peoples projections easily, but never his own. With this in mind, lets look at the 'ugliest man'. In other-words, the ugliest man, is the normal man, and was always Nietzsche's shadow, as shown in much of his writing, and especially Thus Spoke Zarathustra. He wanted to be anything but, but paradoxically, it is what he wanted most at times. It is the normal man who experiences the sensing and the emotional aspects of life, which are crucial for a wholesome life. It is the normal man who actually exist in other-words. This is what Nietzsche's unconscious, his Anima, theoretically longed for. To be loved, to be normal, to be amongst other men. Nietzsche story is, fittingly, very tragic. I find that the people that are very steeped in Nietzschean thought tend to identify with too much with a strict Dionysian nihilism. Which is a shame, because I think Nietzsche, though very much birthed the concept, didn't think people would of interpreted like many do. That is, many get to caught up in the intellect and debase every experience, which lifts them up just enough to isolate them from others and just enough to fall down hard into the abyss they made for themselves. Its a vicious cycle! Perhaps getting more down to earth, forgetting his theories and the problems of society, and just feeling and sensing, would be a good way to compensate for this one-sided life style.


All this being said, take this with a grain of salt. I am not a a philosophy major who focused on Nietzsche, but my brother is. So I have had the honor to butt heads with him my entire life on these ideas, which is not to say I haven't read a good deal myself, and don't have a lot of respect for Nietzsche! (and again, sorry for writing so much, I probably over did it)

u/apostrotastrophe · 5 pointsr/booksuggestions

If you're a Nick Hornby fan, here's what you should do - he's got three books that are little collections of the column he writes for The Believer called "Stuff I've Been Reading". They're hilarious, and each one gives you 5 or 6 great suggestions from a guy whose taste is pretty solid.

Start with The Polysyllabic Spree and then go to Housekeeping vs. the Dirt and Shakespeare Wrote for Money.

He's always saying his favourite author is Anne Tyler - I can corroborate, she's pretty good.

This isn't really "literature" but you also might like Mil Millington. He's funny in the same way and even though as I'm reading I'm like "huh.. this isn't that great" his novels are the ones that I end up reading in one 8 hour sitting.

You might like David Sedaris - I'd start with Me Talk Pretty One Day

And someone else said John Irving - he's my very favourite.

A good psychology book (and I'm a major layperson, so it's definitely accessible) is The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks and Mad in America by Robert Whitaker.

u/brainmindspirit · 5 pointsr/askscience

The term "addiction" is kind of loaded. Clearly the brain centers involved in addictions to heroin or cocaine are also involved in normal life. On a purely physiological basis, love is an addiction. So I'm with Seinfeld when he says, there's no such thing as sex addiction. We are all sex addicts, which generally bodes well for the survival of the species.

To take the 30,000 foot view, consider the possibility that addiction and depression share a common antecedent: that both are caused by a defect in the brain's reward system that manifests in adolescence. Causing the patient to have a blunted response to pleasurable things, to the point where it's even hard to imagine being happy. Depression is more complicated than addiction -- in depression you can have a disorder of energy regulation, and a disorder of cognition. But in both cases, the patient is incentivized to stimulate the reward center of the brain directly with drugs. Life itself isn't enough.

Unfortunately, antidepressants don't strike right at the heart of the matter. Typically they improve thinking, they don't directly affect the reward center. Any drug that does will eventually turn you into a rat pressing a bar; eventually the drug is enough; you choose to engage with the drug rather than life.

Well, it's enough until it isn't, which is another facet of addiction. Which is, that the brain resists the drug, does everything it can to resist its action. So in the case of opioids, which stimulate the reward center in the brain, and sedate the anxiety center, over time the reward center becomes even more numb and the anxiety center becomes even more over-activated. You wind up more depressed and anxious than you were to begin with, and plus you're hooked. Meaning, removing the drug at that point makes things unbearably bad.

This is true for cocaine, which stimulates the reward center directly, cutting out the middle-man so to speak. Also true for Xanax, which like heroin gets into both the reward center and the anxiety center, moreso the latter.

Emperor's New Drugs More about antidepressants than addiction but good discussion of the parallels between addiction and depression, and touches on spiritual issues like hope

Mad in America This guy is making hay discussing oppositional tolerance, and lambastes the pharmaceutical industry for putting profits first. The website is an iconoclast's dream.

I've approached the question in a bit of an unconventional manner, partially because addition, like depression, is multifactorial. The bio-psycho-social approach has merit. Clearly there are biological factors having to do with the brain's reward center, what's wrong with it to begin with, and what happens after prolonged drug exposure. I imagine most responses will take this tack. There's a psychology to addiction (which people don't talk about much these days). And there's a social component as well, note the parallel between the burgeoning number of people who have "given up" looking for work, and the addiction epidemic. I would submit that model, while valid up to a point, is incomplete. Both addiction and depression have a spiritual dimension, and we will never wrap our head around those things until we take that into account.

With that in mind, I'll say that Man's Search for Meaning is, by a wide margin, the most helpful book on mental health I've ever read.

ETA

That said, given an individual who is susceptible, what makes a chemical addictive is

- how much the drug stimulates the reward centers, and suppresses the anxiety centers

- how quickly it does so

- whether it induces tolerance

- how it induces tolerance (oppositional tolerance is worse than just not working anymore)

- whether the drug activates satiety centers, directly or indirectly (because of side effects).

So, cigarettes are more addictive than chewing tobacco, because one hits a lot faster than the other. Heroin more addictive than codeine, ditto. Prozac is less addictive than MDMA (what's usually in "ecstasy" or "molly") because antidepressants don't whack the reward center like MDMA does. MDMA is less addictive than amphetamine, because MDMA is more likely to just stop working, whereas amphetamines are more likely to induce oppositional tolerance. Alcohol is less addictive than Xanax, because most people get tired of all the puking. Buprenorphine less addictive than oxycodone; while both stimulate the reward center, the former directly stimulates satiety centers as well (leading to speculation that buprenorphine might turn out to be a great antidepressant)

Thought questions.

​

  1. Given this conceptual framework, is cannabis addictive? Don't give me a counter-example, like, "I had a buddy who was a total pot-head." I had one patient who was addicted to water, to the point where he had to be hospitalized, several times. What effect does cannabis have on the reward center over time? Do people become tolerant to cannabis over time? If so, to what effects? Do people "fiend" for it usually? Is it more addictive than cocaine or meth? (The DEA thinks so...)
  2. Are video games addictive? What about Facebook? The CTO of Facebook says it is addictive, intentionally so. How?
  3. Is porn addictive? Casual sex? Is love truly an addiction, as we have defined it? If not, why not? (Is sex always just a matter of just pressing the bar? Is it ever?)

    ​
u/rogue-seven · 4 pointsr/AvPD

You really should read Mad in America just so you learn that psychiatric scientific studies can also be biased and mistakes in psychiatric diagnoses are fairly common, and if you are going to think like this (and puncture others optimistic bubbles) at least I hope you got a second opinion other than the psychiatrist’s that gave you this diagnosis.

u/MyOwnPrivateUniverse · 4 pointsr/schizophrenia

Surviving Schizophrenia is probably the best one.

u/subtextual · 3 pointsr/IAmA

(Note: Not the OP; am a psychologist.)

One thing it may be helpful to think about is that limited ability to self-motivate is a very common symptom of schizophrenia - it's called avolition. Just knowing that it is a symptom of his schizophrenia may help you better come to terms with your brother's difficulties striving for more than playing video games all day.

Here is a good resource for family members of people with schizophrenia that might give you the info you are looking for. Here is another resource. The Complete Family Guide to Schizophrenia is a pretty good book, and if you browse on Amazon you'll see that there are several other good books on the topic that are available.

u/cdeverett · 3 pointsr/WTF
u/ManyPhilosopher9 · 3 pointsr/personalfinance

You are not alone. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder 11 years ago and also work in the technology field. I’ve been managing it but cognitive issues have developed over time. My biggest fear and anxiety is the same as yours, that I might not be able to support myself or carry out everyday functions. This week has been one of my toughest weeks. I’ve had to take the last couple of days off to see my psychiatrist and come up with a game plan. I believe that if it can get better for others, it can get better for me.

Now on to your case:

I absolutely believe you in regards to how others react to your difficulties because it is a plausible reality. I have seen this first hand in my sister’s case. She struggles with the same condition as you but unfortunately is not always as self aware as you seem. Take comfort in knowing that this is not your fault and there are many others all over the world who are in the exact same situation as you. Try to aim towards being kinder to yourself, but I do understand that Schizophrenia can make it more challenging.

Considering your obstacles, you accomplish more work in an hour than most do in a single day. Those who judge, would crumble if they were in your situation because they come from a position of weakness. Also, avoid trying so hard to blend in. It is a waste of brain power and an added stressor.

I have learned to separate good advice from bad advice and there’s a lot of bad advice out there. As well intentioned as others can be, I try to filter out advice which come from uninformed views on mental health. Some who are close to me don’t even believe in mental health and will equate everyone’s struggles objectively. Talking to professionals and reading books on the topic have helped me understand common attitudes to avoid. Stigma is a mental health topic in itself.

Building a support network is a huge leg up towards improvement. I don’t know everything about your family situation but try not to give them such an easy time of being ignorant and cruel. As hard as your post was to write, you are able to express yourself in a productive manner. Seek out ways to use this strength to educate family about the reality of your condition and how they are contributing through their cruelty. Maybe appealing to them to read books such as The Complete Family Guide to Schizophrenia can help. Therapists, psychiatrists and social services can help with building a support network.


Take care of yourself first before anything else, you’re awesome.

Edit: From reading other posts, I want to add that not everyone is against you. Some are kind and understanding but I support you on the plausible reality that there is truth in what you say.

u/RightForever · 3 pointsr/PublicFreakout

Don't fall for the ignorance of stigmatized mental health.

People with schizophrenia are more often victims of violence than perpetrators.

A person with well managed schizophrenia is statistically 0% more dangerous than the total general populace.

People with depression have a higher statistical chance of violence than schizophrenics.


According to most psychologists. For example the authors of Schizophrenia For Dummies

Which is a great and easy to understand book, on a very difficult to understand topic.

u/shamelessintrovert · 3 pointsr/Schizoid

I finally got lucky and found a therapist who gets me. Never heard of schizoid (we learned together) but has super-solid attunement skills. So... there's hope.

Agree on Divided Self (assuming that's the Laing you mean?) really good read. The Masterson/Klein book is pretty good too.

I wish more of us were given bupropion right out of the gate (is also the only daily med that helped me). SSRIs are generally not going to be our friend and when some people are only willing to give meds one or two tries, I think a lot is lost...

u/r271answers · 3 pointsr/Tulpas

I super-majorly-insanely recommend the book Rethinking Madness by Dr. Paris Williams. While it doesn't cover tulpas directly (that I remember anyway) it does talk about the failures of traditional psychotherapy and alternate forms of therapy that have been much more successful. Honestly though, I think every human being should read this book.

u/not-moses · 3 pointsr/mentalhealth

Suggested (I have worked with over 60 sz patients and about 20 families of sz patients):

  1. Read this article on the five stages of recovery about the other party, seeing where they are among those five stages.

  2. Read this article on the patterns & characteristics of codependency about you and them.

  3. Read about the Karpman Drama Triangle about you and them, and them and their other, original family members.

  4. Learn about family secrets, double-binding via paradoxical injunction, and the emotional blackmail used to protect them, because it is typical in the childhood families of those who were invalidated, insulted, rejected, disclaimed, criticized, judged, blamed, embarrassed, humiliated, victimized, demonized, persecuted, picked on, bullied, scapegoated, and/or otherwise abused by others upon whom one depended for survival in early life. (The experts on all this include Theodore Lidz, Gregory Bateson, Paul Watslawick, Don D. Jackson, Jay Haley, Ronald D. Laing, Aaron Esterson, Jules Henry and Mathjis Koopmans.)

  5. Read about reactive attachment disorder, because it is usually what the child acquires when abused by those she must depend upon to survive... and if the genetics for sz are there, may drive them "over the dam" into florid sz as adolescents or young adults.

  6. Look for CoDA meetings in your area and go to six before making a decision to continue or not... because it is likely that you will need to know about psychological boundaries and how to raise and lower them appropriately as they struggle with both paranoid fear of abuse here and paranoid fear of abandonment there.

  7. Look over these books, pick one or two, and read it about you and them.

  8. Look over this link to this book and/or this book, get the book(s), and work through it/them for your own sake, regardless of what they do or do not do.

  9. Come to understand that they may (we do not diagnose here) have developed sz as a coping system for the C-PTSD that is typical among adult survivors of psychological abuse. BPD is a set of dysfunctional -- but understandable -- coping mechanisms for untreated child abuse and resulting C-PTSD. The best psychotherapies for it are those that understand the causes resulting in and physiological conditions of a shredded autonomic nervous system no longer capable of managing their "fight-flight-freeze" response to perceived threat.

  10. Regardless of what she does or doesn't do, you may do very well for yourself to learn this method of seeing, hearing and otherwise sensing what is so that you can manage your frustrations and perhaps even guide the rest of the family to act appropriately under difficult circumstances.
u/Pangyun · 3 pointsr/ptsd

> Peter Breggin has built a career on antipsychiatry. Yes, he's a psychiatrist; he's also a hired gun in legal cases as an expert witness blaming psychiatric medications and ECT. That doesn't mean he can't be right or can't have a point, but he has a definite objective and a lucrative six decade career on the line as a contrarian.

If that's the line of argument that is going to be pursued, ok, what was said is true. But you can also find psychiatrists with a lucrative career who at the time were pretty much in favor of the current treatments. If you go to the book "mad in america" on amazon.com,

https://www.amazon.com/Mad-America-Medicine-Enduring-Mistreatment/dp/0465020143/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523327241&sr=1-1&keywords=mad+in+america

Then go to "look inside" , go to pg 265, starting with the heading "eye on the castle", you can see the example of a psychiatrist who made a lot of money working for the pharmaceutical industry and doing research that had some ethical problems and that helped the industry. The preview of this part of the book only shows up to pg. 268, but that at least shows some of the information in case someone is interested.

u/PurpleJollyBastard · 2 pointsr/schizophrenia

Yeah, I wasn't told that either. I found that stuff out through my own research.

Heres a source that confirms what I said: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prognosis_of_schizophrenia

​

In regards to resources for caregivers, I've heard positive things about these two books:

Surviving Schizophrenia, 6th Edition: A Family Manual

The Complete Family Guide to Schizophrenia: Helping Your Loved One Get the Most Out of Life

u/drubard · 2 pointsr/occult

Carl Jung has been, in many quarters, a significant influence on occultism, although he hasn't been directly acknowledged by the big chaos magick writers that I've noticed. Nietzsche was a big influence upon Jung's thought which has been noticed and written about lately:

http://www.amazon.com/Jungs-Seminar-Nietzsches-Zarathustra-Jarrett/dp/0691017387/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417962404&sr=8-1&keywords=nietzsche+and+jung

http://www.amazon.com/Nietzsche-Jung-Whole-Union-Opposites-ebook/dp/B000P0JNHQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1417962404&sr=8-2&keywords=nietzsche+and+jung

u/ponspeduncles · 2 pointsr/slp

Still Alice a personal account about Alzheimers

Far From the Tree, a family centered book on identity and disability

Since you mentioned Ted Talks, check out Temple Grandin's Ted Talk on her perspective of Autism Spectrum Disorders

u/Schizotiger · 2 pointsr/mentalhealth

https://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Schizophrenia-6th-Family-Manual/dp/0062268856 <- this book may be helpful in understanding what he is going through, but also help guide you through how the disorder works and how to best treat this young man.

So, a couple of things- at this point, it sounds like he's doing alright, so there's no need to worry about treating him differently than anyone else. The main thing that would cause a concern would be if he made a remark about hurting himself or other people. In that case, you might need to call 911, especially if it happens quickly. But this is alllll theoretical- there's no evidence (AFAIK) that he is near or at that point. So let;s not worry about it for now :)

He may be experiencing hallucinations or delusions. A hallucination is when one of our senses (hearing, seeing, touching, etc) is actively creating sensations that are not real. Delusions are thoughts that are bizarre and not founded in reality. These symptoms can be intense, constant, and frightening.

My advice would be to read up on schizophrenia, learn more about it, and be an advocate for positive mental health treatment. Schizophrenia is very stigmatized and I would be surprised if a couple of his teammates are unsure of how to handle his symptoms, should symptoms crop up. Reach out to the young man, tell him that you are there for him if something comes up. I can't stress the importance of this. Him knowing that there is a trusted leader of the team that he can go to when something goes awry for him is going to be huge.

Most of all- don't let stigma interfere with you're teams perception of him. He's a guy that plays on a soccer team; regardless of his diagnosis, he's found something he loves, and he's really not different from the rest of the team. :)

u/Nsekiil · 2 pointsr/Psychonaut

I think like most things the answer is not black and white. There is mistreatment of the mentally ill in America and there’s plenty of evidence that many mental disorders that we treat as chronic, or lifelong, in America are temporary ailments in less western cultures. I suggest reading Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the enduring mistreatment of our mentally ill. if you’re interested in reading more on the topic. I read this book about 10 years ago and it had a long lasting effect on how I feel about mental illness and the American psychiatric association. I think there are schizophrenics that are absolutely mentally ill but how we go about treating them is not humane or effective.

u/isopropyldreams · 2 pointsr/MorbidReality

A surprising number of these books were assigned reading from classes.

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

And I'm currently reading a book recommended by an excellent redditor somewhere in this sub, Mad in America by Robert Whitaker

u/[deleted] · 2 pointsr/science

Many people with schizophrenia and psychotic disorders live fulfilling lives without medicine, too.

Living With Voices: 50 Stories of Recovery has examples of this. (edited to fix the link; not sure what happened there)

I'm glad that medicine helps so many people, but I do hope the choice to not take psychiatric medication becomes more accepted as well. People should be given the chance to explore both approaches.

u/ShallowDAWN · 2 pointsr/askphilosophy

As someone doing their PhD and teaching Psychology in a University I really worry about how psychology is teaching people about mental activity and what large sampling often means - of which I hopefully have a first of a few papers coming out saying its more professional acquiescence that we often think more people are better because usually we lower the amount of time and both qualitative and valid quantitive data we get from the people we study.

Unfortunately for you, you have also pick up on a subject specifically which already has refuted the position you take. I would suggest if you want to understand Schizophrenia really well read Romme and Escher's work - personally i used a lot of the 50+ stories in [their book on recovery] (https://www.amazon.com/Living-Voices-50-stories-recovery-ebook/dp/B0148OFHY2/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483735816&sr=1-2) for my work. I would dive head first in the many people doing more qualitative work and using things like art to drive work and in some cases get large samples (insert me droning) to challenge many of the theories and ideas coming from the neurobiological side and the classical DSM side, yes small compared to the dominate cogneuro biology side but still a wealth of information.

I am currently working with theory around consciousness and some ideas from people like the social materialists to suggest that the multiple interpretations of art can still be studied and rather scientifically if we stop doing many things in psychology that keep us in a lab doing 9-5 (unfortunately when you break down some of the reasons even the maths ones most of psych is better off being more like anthropology - or at the very least, accepting that the qualitative intensive form of research often uncovers useful, meaning, valid and reliable evidence).

And don't rely back on Kelly's little scientist model - all of economic behaviour work really stamps on it, as do many criticisms of it even though it is wide spread and part of how a lot of people teach psychology (Laura Schulz actually has some good evidence for it being small data that we work well with interestingly which means, given the cognitive biases and heuristics, humans probably work better on small data than on big data to work the world out - just image if we could see the quantum superposition of things we would break probably).

u/ohgeeztt · 1 pointr/mentalhealth

> that 15 times higher chance is absolutely meaningless

No its not. We know its not because one, 15 times is an impossibly huge percentage (1500%!!!) to pretend its not. Also we can ask them about what factor increased their risk of suicide.

​

> Just saying "I have thought of killing myself" isn't enough to get hospitalized.

Thats not true. People have been hospitalized for that. Also if they are actively suicidal, most of them will not be helped by being locked away.

​

> The posts on this subreddit do not equate to actual research and studies done

​

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00127-014-0912-2

https://www.madinamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/12-month%20outcome%20of%20patients%20with%20bipolar%20disorder%20following%20hospitalization%20for%20a%20manic%20or%20mixed%20episode.PDF

​

There now you have both empirical and anecdotal evidence. If you would like more theres a whole book on how poorly this practice has done.

u/burke_no_sleeps · 1 pointr/schizophrenia

"Surviving Schizophrenia" -- the version I own was published in the '60s, not sure how it fits with modern research; this is an updated version -- suggests trying an elimination diet. Basically, strip all of one food group out of your diet, for two weeks, and record how it affects your mental and physical health.

I've read a handful of unverified research suggesting sz symptoms are linked to undiagnosed and untreated allergic reactions, coupled with an over-production of.. I think epinephrin? not sure. Basically a stress-handling chemical similar to adrenaline.

An elimination diet is an easy-to-do first step towards recognizing an allergy, but the quickest route might be asking your doctor to do a full allergy workup.

The more fruits, veggies, and nuts you can fit into your diet, the better you'll feel, really. Try replacing red meat with chicken or fish, or eating vegetarian meals a few times a week. Canned fruits are fine as long as you strain out the sugary syrup. Fresh or frozen are ideal.

Personally I find that eating salmon, nuts, and yogurt (not all together.. although..) makes a noticeable difference in my mental clarity, and eating a lot of starches or red meat makes me groggy and confused. I also have been trying to keep my caffeine intake low because after two or three cans of soda I start to get really anxious. I tend to carry trail mix or a baggy of cereal around to munch on, so I'm not tempted to spend money on less healthy snack options.

u/mst2010 · 1 pointr/schizophrenia

2nd half:

Peter Giovacchini (1993) – Schizophrenia and Primitive Mental States

http://www.amazon.com/Schizophrenia-Primitive-Ment-Peter-Giovacchini/dp/0765700271/

David Garfield (1994) – Unbearable Affect: A Guide to the Psychotherapy of Psychosis

http://www.amazon.com/Unbearable-Affect-Guide-Psychotherapy-Psychosis/dp/1855755475/

John Steiner (1994) – Psychic Retreats: Pathological Organizations in Psychotic, Neurotic, and Borderline Patients

http://www.amazon.com/Psychic-Retreats-Pathological-Organizations-Psychoanalysis/dp/0415099242/

Murray Jackson and Paul Williams (1994) – Unimagineable Storms: A Search for Meaning in Psychosis

http://www.amazon.com/Unimaginable-Storms-Search-Meaning-Psychosis/dp/1855750759/

Lawrence Hedges (1994) – Working the Organizing Experience: Transforming Psychotic, Schizoid, and Autistic States

http://www.amazon.com/Working-Organizing-Experience-Transforming-Psychotic/dp/1568212550

Vamik Volkan (1995) – The Infantile Psychotic Self: Understanding and Treating Schizophrenics and Other Difficult Patients –

http://www.amazon.com/Infantile-Psychotic-Self-Fates-Schizophrenics/dp/1568213794/

Hyman Spotnitz – Psychotherapy of Preoedipal Conditions: Schizophrenia and Severe Character Disorders (1995) –

http://www.amazon.com/Psychotherapy-Preoedipal-Conditions-Schizophrenia-Character/dp/1568216335/

Clancy McKenzie (1996) – Delayed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders from Infancy: The Two Trauma Mechanism

http://www.amazon.com/Delayed-Posttraumatic-Stress-Disorders-Infancy/dp/9057025019

Peter Giovacchini (1997) - Schizophrenia and Primitive Mental States

http://www.amazon.com/Schizophrenia-Primitive-Ment-Peter-Giovacchini/dp/0765700271

Brian Martinedale, Ed. (2000) – Psychosis: Psychological Approaches and their Effectiveness.

http://www.amazon.com/Psychosis-Psychological-Approaches-Their-Effectiveness/dp/1901242498

Murray Jackson (2001) – Weathering the Storms: Psychotherapy for Psychosis

http://www.amazon.com/Weathering-Storms-Psychotherapy-Murray-Jackson-ebook/dp/B005WH0PZQ/

Paul Williams (2001) – A Language for Psychosis: Psychoanalysis of Psychotic States

http://www.amazon.com/Language-Psychosis-Psychoanalysis-Psychotic-States/dp/1861561660/

Colin Ross (2004) – Schizophrenia: Innovations in Diagnosis and Treatment

http://www.amazon.com/Schizophrenia-Innovations-Diagnosis-Colin-Ross-ebook/dp/B00IOPWAF6/

Hyman Spotnitz – Modern Psychoanalysis of the Schizophrenic Patient: Theory of the Technique (2004) –

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Psychoanalysis-Schizophrenic-Patient-Technique/dp/0970392362/

Johannessen, Jan Olav (2006) – Evolving Psychosis: Different Stages, Different Treatments

http://www.amazon.com/Evolving-Psychosis-Treatments-International-Psychological/dp/1583917233

Franco De Masi (2009) – Vulnerability to Psychosis: A Psychoanalytic Study of the Nature and Theapy of Psychotic States

http://www.amazon.com/Vulnerability-Psychosis-Psychoanalytic-Therapy-Psychotic/dp/1855755041/

Ira Steinman (2009) – Treating the Untreatable: Healing in the Realms of Madness

http://www.amazon.com/Treating-Untreatable-Healing-Realms-Madness-ebook/dp/B00582MGQQ/

Yrjo Alanen (2009) – Psychotherapeutic Approaches to Schizophrenic Psychoses: Past, Present and Future

http://www.amazon.com/Psychotherapeutic-Approaches-Schizophrenic-Psychoses-International/dp/0415440130/

Paul Williams (2010) – Invasive Objects: Minds Under Siege

http://www.amazon.com/Invasive-Objects-Minds-Relational-Perspectives/dp/0415995477/

Daniel Dorman (2011) – Dante's Cure: A Journey Out of Madness

http://www.amazon.com/DANTES-CURE-Journey-Out-Madness-ebook/dp/B005UFUW30/

John Steiner (2011) – Seeing and Being Seen: Emerging from a Psychic Retreat

http://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Being-Seen-Emerging-Psychoanalysis/dp/0415575060/

Evelyn Liegner (2011) – The Hates That Cures: The Psychological Reversibility of Schizophrenia

http://www.amazon.com/Hate-That-Cures-Psychological-Reversibility/dp/1936411067/

Paris Williams (2012) – Rethinking Madness: Towards a Paradigm Shift in Our Understanding and Treatment of Psychosis.

http://www.amazon.com/Rethinking-Madness-Understanding-Treatment-Psychosis/dp/0984986707/

Pamela Fuller – Surviving, Existing, or Living: Phase Specific Psychotherapy of Severe Psychosis (2013) –

http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Existing-Living-Phase-specific-International/dp/0415516625/

John Read, Ed. (2013) – Models of Madness: Psychological, Social, and Biological Approaches to Schizophrenia

http://www.amazon.com/Models-Madness-Psychological-Schizophrenia-International/dp/1583919066

Ty Colbert (2015) – Healing Runaway Minds: How to Understand and Recover from Major Mental Disorders with Special Emphasis on “Schizophrenia”

http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Runaway-Minds-Understand-Schizophrenia/dp/0989160734/

David Garfield and Ira Steinman (2015) – Self Psychology and Psychosis: The Development of the Self During Intensive Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia and Other Psychoses

http://www.amazon.com/Self-Psychology-Psychosis-Psychotherapy-Schizophrenia/dp/1782202285/

Christopher Bollas (2015) – When the Sun Bursts: The Enigma of Schizophrenia

http://www.amazon.com/When-Sun-Bursts-Enigma-Schizophrenia/dp/0300214731/

Andrew Lotterman (2015) – Psychotherapy for People Diagnosed with Schizophrenia: Specific Techniques

http://www.amazon.com/Psychotherapy-People-Diagnosed-Schizophrenia-International-ebook/dp/B015CLFL0U/

u/Concise_AMA_Bot · 1 pointr/ConciseIAmA

+Feed_Me_No_Lies:

I say this as a gay man: You've done the right thing and don't doubt it for a second.

I am happily married to a man and we have an adopted son so one can say I am definitely comfortable as a gay person. I am also well aware of the philosophical, parallel arguments between something like engineering homosexuality out of a fetus in untero and cochlear implants killing out the deaf community.

The truth is, if I had the choice, I hope my son would be straight. Not because I'm against gay people obviously, but it is a matter of challenges within the world. My teen life (and young adulthood) was miserable as a gay person. People can say "Oh, it is the fault of society and not homosexuality itself" and while that is very true, the fact remains that being such a minority was a disadvantage in many ways.

Now let's talk about deafness.

The challenges and handicaps to one's daily life that a deaf person faces are so much more severe than anything I've gone through. Sure Deaf culture has formed. Sure, it is vibrant and unique and worth something.

But at what cost? I cannot imagine for a second denying my child something so basic to survival as the ability to hear. I want to slap the shit out of the deaf community for being so against this.

I get it...I get it: "There is nothing wrong with us! There is nothing to fix!" As a gay person I've said the same thing but goddammed if I didn't wish I was straight as a teenager so that I can find a wife and have children. While I would grimace at the idea of someone "turning their kid straight" in the womb, I'd understand them wanting to. I'd get it.

I don't think the similarities between homosexuality and deafness are identical, but there are definitely parallels and I do believe it gives me some insight into this. I also believe we can accurately label deafness as a disability much more readily than we could homosexuality in today's climate, and I understand the definitions of the word disability change over time.

Anyway, have you read "Far From the Tree" by Andrew Solomon? It is his Pulitzer Prize winning book about parents raising children very different from themselves. There are chapters on dwarfism, autism etc and there is also one on deafness. I highly suggest checking it out if you haven't already.

EDIT: Link to the book
[https://www.amazon.com/Far-Tree-Parents-Children-Identity-ebook/dp/B007EDOLJ2]

u/psysaucer · 1 pointr/Jung

does anyone know where I can find the complete jung's seminar on zarathustra online?

u/otismatis · 1 pointr/exmormon

I really wish I did - this is just anecdotal information, based mostly on my own experience.

I will say, though, that up next on my queue of books is a book called Muses, Madmen and Prophets, which I hope addresses some of these very things. I will return and report.

u/catherineirkalla · 1 pointr/occult

There are very few cases where I would agree with you on this. Considering this person doesn't seem to be distressed by his experience I don't see any reason for them to seek therapy. I suggest reading up on The Hearing Voices Network and perhaps checking out the book Rethinking Madness.

u/aryabhata · 1 pointr/OkCupid

> I...what?

Yeah, I know.

> trying to explain to a friend of mine that I will not have sex with him.

That really shouldn’t require an explanation, and I can’t imagine engaging would ever go well.

> different to that

Are you British?

> (I am intrigued by high functioning schizophrenics, in all honesty, since I am very close to one and all of my information is observed and guesswork and I want to understand better.)

I’m sure there’s something you could read (1, 2, 3).

u/cat_turd_burglar · 1 pointr/todayilearned

Yeah, I get that. I think one of the major successes in the 20th Century was the movement toward medicalizing mental health issues so that they were given the credit they deserve. We know these experiences are a problem, and people having them are subject to many layers of oppression and human rights violations, and psychiatry has made a lot of strides towards these issues being taken far more seriously. I do also believe that psychiatry and pharmaceuticals do help some people. It is one option, and many people find their life more manageable because they have taken that route, and that's a beautiful thing and I'm very happy for anyone who has found solace there. But it is not universally true, and one of the reasons for that is how imprecise the science actually is on what is going on with the mind, and what the drugs are actually doing. The most famous example is the notion that depression is the result of lower than usual seratonin levels in the brain, which was actually the result of an ad that was using a study that had found that more people with depression in the study had higher levels of seratonin. But they had a drug that dealt with lower seratonin levels, so that's the narrative that was created (links below). Point being, (and see The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton on this), there is no chemical test for depression because there are many potential causes, and remedies. Psychiatry and the DSM have categorized these experiences, which I agree is a necessary thing to research them, but then got fully entwined with pharma. Now policies and laws impose that one narrative onto people who are going through these experiences, even though they often get it very wrong.


There are alternatives, and the Soteria house project by Lorne Mosher was one of the most interesting, where they took people with severe schizophrenia and had a virtually drug free approach, and their results were better than the alternatives. The problem for scaling up was that it did not put people on a lifelong hook for medication. So, I guess it's not about wanting to tear it all down, but I think people should know what's up, they should be informed about all the studies done on the chemicals they are taking, what all the side affects might be, and, ideally, alternative approaches that may benefit them in the long run. I think people going through these experiences should be given the rights and power to make decisions, including whether or not they will self-identify with the DSM categories at all.


I cannot stress the following enough, the result of extensive studies by the World Health Organization, as articulated by Robert Whitaker: "Most Americans are unaware that the World Health Organization (WHO) has repeatedly found that long-term schizophrenia outcomes are much worse in the USA and other developed countries than in poor ones such as India and Nigeria, where relatively few patients are on anti-psychotic medications. In undeveloped countries, nearly two-thirds of schizophrenia patients are doing fairly well five years after initial diagnosis; about 40% have basically recovered. But in the USA and other developed countries, most patients become chronically ill. The outcome differences are so marked that WHO concluded that living in a developed country is a strong predictor that a patient will never fully recover."

Sources:

Lorne Mosher's resignation letter from the APA

The Icarus Project (theicarusproject.net): "We are a support network and media project by and for people who experience the world in ways that are often diagnosed as mental illness. We envision a new culture that allows the space and freedom for exploring different states of being, and recognizes that breakdown can be the entrance to breakthrough. We aim to create a language that is so vast and rich that it expresses the infinite diversity of human experiences."

Soteria: From Madness to Deliverance, by Lorne Mosher

Mad in America by Robert Whitaker

Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker

The Anti-Depressant Era by David Healy

The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching by Terence McKenna

The Archaic Revival: Speculations on Psychedelic Mushrooms, the Amazon, Virtual Reality, UFOs, Evolution, Shamanism, the Rebirth of the Goddess, and the End of History by Terence McKenna

The point is to try and empower people to improve their lives, and since we don't know how to do that universally, giving people the power and options to be able to choose methods that work for them is a vital part of maintaining their autonomy and preserving their fundamental human rights. I find this subject is very difficult to discuss without it getting heated. Please understand I have so much sympathy for your experiences. I have tried to take care of people while they were in the midst of full psychotic breaks, I have had to call the police, I have had to participate in the forced hospitalization of people I have known, I have lost too many people to suicide. I know these things and they still hurt and I am welling up thinking about all of them. And I care about you too, and you're not alone.

Sorry re length.

u/MrDionysus · 1 pointr/politics

This. For those who are truly curious, you might give "Mad in America" a read. America has abused its mental health system horrifically in the past.
https://www.amazon.com/Mad-America-Medicine-Enduring-Mistreatment/dp/1501215469

u/twelveparsex · 1 pointr/InternetIsBeautiful

https://www.amazon.com/This-Your-Brain-Parasites-Manipulate-ebook/dp/B011H55MY0

I just finished this book that explains some of the theories on why this might be true. In a nutshell people from parts of the world where parasites are more prevalent tend to be more xenophobic

u/laurenshapiro · 1 pointr/mentalhealth

> And I don't think I'm being particularly rude but I just don't get why all the people disagreeing with me keep BOLDING EVERYTHING. I think that's pretty rude.

Because in a forum like /r/mentalhealth people tend to gloss over things and get a really bad impression. People are lazy and the stigma of mental illness is so high that they don't like to get into particulars but want the gist of something. Our bolding is to ensure that THESE folks get the right info. Reddit is a public community, there are legitimate mental health professionals answering, folks with some diagnoses, relatives of individuals with MI, laypersons, psychology fans, trolls, etc. Those of us who are passionate about our work/the field take it seriously enough that we need people to get the right/accurate info.

> Anyway, my view is that her guardians letting her run amok on the streets, letting her have access to the media, and generally all the destructive behaviour she is exhibiting (lighting animals on fire?) seem to suggest she is not getting the best possible care.

I don't necessarily agree with your view. It works both ways though. For example, I often have clients who are actively ruining their lives by showing up to work/school drunk/high, who have anger management problems and blow up at their friends and family for no reason, etc. Each MI and even those without have "symptoms" that can ruin their lives. It's unfortunate but it's their reality and that's what we work on in session. That being said, it's not my job, their family's job or their friend's job or whoever's job to prevent them from ruining their lives in this way. Ultimately, they have the right to freedom, which includes the right to be self-destructive to a point.

Laws have been put in place to draw a line. That line is homicide, suicide, child abuse and elder abuse. Everything else is pretty much fair game. Some here would argue that 3 strike laws for drugs is an effort to add that to the mix and prevent people from ruining their lives from drugs/alcohol but it's not worded as such, so I'll leave it out of this discussion.

If you're very interested in this subject, I highly recommend The Insanity Offense and Mad in America for some really insightful history, opinion, etc on the subject.

> If she is getting the best possible care and is not responding to it, then clearly more serious steps should be taken rather than letting her run about.

She has the right to run about though.

> I believe legally you aren't allowed to "deny treatment" when you have progressed to this stage.

Not true. You can deny treatment. But short of suicidal or homicidal ideation, you can't get a 5150 hold for "being crazy", "acting crazy", or "denying treatment". It all comes back to freedom.

> So just because the time limit on the hold runs up, that means she should be allowed to be free and cause harm to herself and others?

I am not sure if you're using the lay or professional definitions here but just to clarify, in most cases she can self-mutilate/harm but if she doesn't present as high suicidal risk (thoughts, intent, plan, means, etc) then that isn't "harming oneself" from a professional point of view. As far as homicidal ideation, in most cases, you need to know exactly who they are intending to hurt and it cannot be a by-product situation - it's a planned, methodical intention to injure or murder someone else.

I'm not sure if that changes your thoughts but I am happy to elaborate further if you want more clarification.

u/vwwvwwv · 1 pointr/schizophrenia

Since you are worried about the label but interested in learning more about psychology and mental health, I can highly recommend this book. It's an evidence-based work written by respected researchers and clinicians in the field who cut through so much of the BS surrounding schizophrenia. It has forever changed the way I view schizophrenia and the mental health industry.

http://www.amazon.com/Models-Madness-Psychological-Schizophrenia-International/dp/1583919066/ref=cm_rdp_product

u/aDildoAteMyBaby · 1 pointr/AskHistorians

Have you encountered the book Muses, Madmen, and Prophets? It's been years since I've touched it (so my memory could be pretty far off), but I remember it making the case that Socrates was guilty not of rejecting the gods of his city, but of having his own additional, personal god (by means of auditory hallucinations) that the city's aristocracy rejected. Do you have any take on that?

u/WalletPhoneKeysPump · 1 pointr/schizophrenia

Sure, I would love to share to give you some perspective.

Within the first month she told me she had schizophrenia. Now, I've noticed while we dated that she experiences highs of feeling elated/happy and lows of withdrawal/silence. The moment she told me she must have let her guard down and was feeling comfortable enough to share, which I greatly appreciated.

Granted, I did not have much knowledge (except from old myths and movie portrayals) of schizophrenia. As our relationship progressed, I didn't question much about her illness especially during times she was experiencing symptoms of hearing voices and delusions. When asked about them though, she would become defensive and respond back that things like "well you don't tell me anything about yourself, so why should I have to tell you about what I'm going through."

I tried using logic and factual evident to refute her delusions (mainly accusations that I was falling for other girls when we're out in public). But this grew tiresome because she claims things like "I know what I saw, and it's my feeling that you're checking out these other girls."

I'm still in the relationship at the moment, but I'm not positive if I can continue it much longer. My relationship with my own family is becoming strained because of their lack of understanding of the illness, and no matter what I do to portray a good picture of her, her actions don't seem to help the cause of us being together.

I'm sorry to go on a rant here. What really did help recently was going to a bookstore and picking up a book about schizophrenia. We sit down and read this together. There's nothing more valuable than educating yourselves and it can open a bridge to learning how the illness can affect you and the partner and different methods of treatment.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

u/Nodnerb_nz · 1 pointr/schizophrenia

If you do reduce your meds, inform your doctor or they get pissed and put you on depot injections from my experience :( .

How well you'll do without medication really depends how fequently you have been psychotic.

There's this book, http://www.amazon.com/Living-Voices-50-Stories-Recovery/dp/1906254222 more about living with the voices without / low medication. Look up hearing voices movement aswell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_Voices_Movement which is part of it.

u/schrowa · 1 pointr/mentalhealth

I am a therapist and I have worked with schizophrenia in my practice and so has my wife in her clinical experience. The thing I will say is that schizophrenia definitely varies by the individual and the case. Medication can be a frustrating part for of treatment due to all of the side effects. It isn't to say that it doesn't help, but it can be frustrating to a person who is used to having a normal life and then all the sudden a medication causes all sorts of other symptoms. I would suggest for you to read both of the following books and look for a support group. Also, it will be important for your sister to have regular social interaction. In Austin we have something called Austin Clubhouse that helps with all of this and is a free service. I would look for services similar to this. The regular interaction will help her to have meaning and to move towards her goals -- even if they have shifted a bit. I hope that helps. This is a life altering shift for you, her, and your family. It takes time.

https://www.amazon.com/Myself-Them-Experience-Schizophrenia-Adolescent-ebook/dp/B00VQVNUKY/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1483668017&sr=8-4&keywords=schizophrenia+books

https://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Schizophrenia-6th-Family-Manual/dp/0062268856/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483668017&sr=8-1&keywords=schizophrenia+books

u/websurfer83 · 1 pointr/nationalgeographic

There's a statistical correlation between DDT and Malaria. That Pandoras Lab article if I remember correctly was an excerpt from a book

https://www.amazon.ca/Pandoras-Lab-Seven-Stories-Science/dp/1426217986/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499114916&sr=8-1&keywords=pandoras+lab

u/NoumenalZane · 1 pointr/INTP

Jung's Seminar on Nietzsche's Zarathustra https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691017387/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_wVQOBbQYJ7MFC

It’s about $20 used. You may be able to find it cheaper elsewhere. Maybe search Abe.

u/tazias04 · 0 pointsr/todayilearned

>If you dont have a comeback attack the language

hurts your feelings?

Before pulling out of your ass that you believe I know nothing about the subject, do a little search and get informed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hUltqHaGTA

I found another source that claims 2/3.

http://www.nature.com/news/over-half-of-psychology-studies-fail-reproducibility-test-1.18248

Another good thing to read about this subject is: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0465020143/?tag=freedradio-20

Oh and hey look from the American Psychological association.

http://www.apa.org/monitor/2015/10/share-reproducibility.aspx

I'm so full of shit. I am sorry for spewing bs. I will leave your voodoo doctor's alone.

u/symmplicity · 0 pointsr/Stoicism

Diet is the primary factor in depression, though I'm not sure going vegan is the right way

to go esp. if you're dealing with a B-12 or certain amino acids.

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https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/7-nutrients-you-cant-get-from-plants

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Also, stress can mess with your assimilation of what you eat, leading to nutritional

imbalances that can cause depression.

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And as for meds, you might want to read a book called 'Mad in America' before you take

anything from the medical mafia.

https://www.madinamerica.com/

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https://www.amazon.com/Mad-America-Medicine-Enduring-Mistreatment/dp/1501215469

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https://www.amazon.com/medical-Mafia-alive-health-wealth/dp/0964412608

u/mikemaca · -1 pointsr/AskReddit

Western mental health services are far more pseudoscience than psychics. Western mental health has little scientific basis. It is also used as a tool of both church and state to punish dissidents.

Read the following before commenting further.

http://www.amazon.com/Mad-America-Medicine-Enduring-Mistreatment/dp/0465020143

http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Epidemic-Bullets-Psychiatric-Astonishing/dp/0307452425