Any player who willingly signs here should definitely be red flagged more potential mental issues.
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So no therapy, just prescriptions?
No, you are the one using the term incorrectly. Most Psychiatrists do not do therapy. Some, do but the majority do not. The term you are looking for is Psychotherapy. It is also called therapy, talk therapy and counseling. But it’s not referred to in the terms you are using. Sadly, it doesn’t make sense for a Psychiatrist to do psychotherapy when they can charge 200-300 dollars for a 15-20 minutes consult about meds compared to a 45 minute to hour session for psychotherapy. To be very clear, not saying schizophrenics don’t need medication at times or that it is wrong that they are on medication. But I am saying that they can learn to adjust live without medications if they like and ignore their symptoms. It is not that simple and it takes a long time and a lot of hard work but it is possible. And it is not a “neat trick”.
Long time, hard work, possible…so during this stretch are they on medication at all?
Long time is depending on what your expectation is. Look at John Nash, it took decades for him to get to a place where he was willing and able to ignore his delusions because his life he felt was better off the medications then on them. If you are dealing with someone who has been on medications their entire life and it has been engrained in them that this is just how it is and they really haven’t worked on discipline or self-awareness then it is going to take longer to build those things up. So medication is still in the txt plan and being slowly lowered over time. I’m sorry that your family has been so particularly hit by this, I really get it, it was not easy for my family and there were many scary situations. There is so much that goes into each person, environment, temperament, family background, traumas, level of awareness and commitment…its not a cookie cutter explanation for it all…but at the end of the day it is possible.
The reason why people struggle with the meds is because they suck and really impact the clients. So, okay, if you don’t want to be on the meds we have to learn to adapt and make choices to not listen to the voices etc. We can’t be running around listening to voices or seeing things that aren’t there and possibly putting ourselves or others in danger.
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Yes, the med’s themselves are a problem but the alternative is brutal. I really can not believe that simply telling people that they have to quit listening to voices and having hallucinations works.
Well, you are oversimplifying it. It isn’t “simply” telling them to ignore their voices and hallucinations, it is retraining your brain. And honestly, at the end of the day you can believe it doesn’t work, but I am sitting over here with this being my career with a specialty in addiction and trauma and it is something I see work on a daily basis.
It is anything but simple. It takes a tremendous amount of effort, discipline and patience to do what we are talking about for the client and the psychotherapist. It’s not easy at all…
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It helps if they set a reminder on their phone.
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That is an @iTopher level “too soon” joke. Completely inappropriate, but somehow just funny enough to work, and an excellent springboard to jump off a serious topic that has been adequately discussed.
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True story, nephew went to police and told them he saw Mohammed Atta at his place of work, a pizza joint in Cedar Rapids, IA. Well, he was dead by then and those interactions with police where he makes all sorts of claims of terrorism against these people and he gets committed. Two years later the owner of “Pizza Daddy” gets 342 months in federal prison for trying to export guns to Lebanon as part of a Red Cross/Crescent Cross shipment. The guy who was doing the shipping, Bill Aossey, was aware of and got paid to do the shipping thru his company Midamar Corporation. There was never enough evidence to convict Bill who went to federal prison on a separate charge of falsifying meat as Halal when it was not…https://halalfocus.net/usa-midamar-founder-sentenced-to-2-years-in-prison-in-halal-meat-case/
Bill runs the local Arab mafia and when you go into his office there are pictures of him with past presidents, governors, etc., a pillar of the community outwardly. I worked with him to import flooring from China and got the lowdown on who he was from oddly enough, his brothers. Sam and I golfed together, he was a scratch golfer and he played the course I lived on.
So crazy nephew, maybe not so crazy.
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