Just taking some notes. Kind of criticizing the author of this book. Making sure I get this point across to my students in the fall.

Is person first preferred by most people?

It’s typically the safest. Similar to using “they” for gender unless you know otherwise/ask the person what they prefer.

If a client wanted me to refer to them as “a schizophrenic,” I would of course oblige, but otherwise I’m coming out of the gate saying “an individual with schizophrenia.”

That goes for any mental health condition.

HEY! YOU!

please stop saying we should protect people with psychosis because they aren’t all violent or dangerous or harmful!

we need to protect psychotic people with violent tendencies too! those who may well hurt others or themselves are also worthy of protection and of access to the resources, help and support they need! people with violent tendencies and no form of psychosis also deserve protection!! maybe they have trouble controlling their emotions or impulses or maybe they have a personality disorder that leads to violent and harmful tendencies?? oh well, they’re still people, many of whom need and want help, and by demonising them, all you’re doing is making it harder for them to access support!

Stop throwing the extremes under the bus to get approval for yourself please!

Harvard Medical School clinics are integrating behavioral care with clinical social workers!

Hey there! Haven’t posted in a while so I thought I should post some information/statistics for you guys, provided by To Write Love On Here Arms. Reblog please!

Trauma has been found to correlate with a broad range of mental health disorders. Since the 2000s, a growing body of research has focused on the link between trauma and schizophrenia. Results have strongly indicated a high degree of comorbidity. However, there is much debate and discussion as...

types of grounding techniques for PTSD, anxiety, dissociation etc.

source

like if you claim to support disabled people you need to be standing up for all disabled people, not just the ones who are useful to a capitalist society, not just the white, cis, het, thin, rich or male ones, not just the ones who aren’t angry, not just those who are conventionally attractive

all fucking disabled people

and this includes addicts, this includes those with personality disorders and those with psychosis, this includes all the disabled folk painted as monsters in the media

this includes the self-diagnosed and the chronically ill, this includes all those who have never and will never work, who are dismissed as ‘low-functioning’ and ‘lazy’

this includes those with obvious physical differences, whose mobility devices you can’t ignore, who’s visible presence in society is frowned upon and seen as an inconvenience, as something to be ashamed of

every disabled life is worth supporting and I want to see more people fucking doing that

Ten Things Not to Say to a Person with Schizophrenia

I’ve seen a few of these types of blog post around, for various mental health problems, so I thought I’d do one for schizophrenia. These are ten things I’ve heard from people that, although sometimes said to try and help, have been extremely unhelpful.

1. That’s the one with multiple personalities, isn’t it?

I’ve heard this one twice I think, in hospital from other patients. Schizophrenia is NOT multiple personalities, despite the common myth. Multiple personalities is the disorder now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder, previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder. The myth stemmed from the translation of the word schizophrenia, which translates from Greek to mean ‘split mind’. This doesn’t mean that the mind is split into different personalities, it means that a mind is split from reality.

2. Have you ever been violent towards anyone because of your illness?

I’ve heard this one a few times and the answer is still no. Violence with schizophrenia is the exception rather than the rule, despite all the stories of schizophrenia and extreme violence in the news. Let me put it this way. About 1% of the population suffers with schizophrenia, which would mean that as there’s approximately 63 million people in the UK, there are around 630,000 sufferers. If we were all violent, or even if the majority of us were violent, do you not think that stories would be on the news more often? So don’t ask this question. Odds are, the answer is no.

3. Have you tried not listening to the voices?

This one is something that has been said in the nicest possible way but is still highly irritating to hear. If voices were as simple as just not listening to them, don’t you think I would have done it? Voices aren’t like people. You can’t walk away from voices, they follow you wherever you go. You can use music or television to try and drown them out but I’ve had voices that decided to get louder when I turned my music on. I do everything I can to try and drown out voices, but I can’t just not listen to them. It’s not that simple. By the way, this point only applies to those who actually hear voices, as not all people with schizophrenia hear voices.

4. Just take the meds, then you’ll be OK.

This one makes me want to tear my hair out. Some people seem to think that treating schizophrenia is as black and white as the meds will automatically help all people with the illness and they’ll be OK forever providing they just take them. Wrong. The usual type of medication for schizophrenia is the antipsychotic. I’ve been on nine different antipsychotics so far, of which seven have been used in the longer term. Of those seven, three had unbearable side effects and didn’t work, two had bearable side effects but didn’t work, one seemed to work but had side effects that both myself and the doctors were concerned about and the seventh one, the one I’m currently on, I’m still in the early stages of taking. I don’t know yet whether it’s going to work and although so far the side effects are bearable, I’m only on a low dose.

Medication with schizophrenia, as with many other mental illnesses, is trial and error. Overall, I’ve taken fourteen different psychotropic medications for various reasons, and so far, only four have helped. None of them ‘cured’ me, they just took away part of what I was going through. Schizophrenia is not as simple as just taking medication, and many people have actually been cured without using medication. The treatment for schizophrenia should be as unique as the person themselves.

5. Why did you come off medication?

This question is usually accompanied by a look that says, “Are you stupid?” Like I said in the previous point, schizophrenia treatment is not as black and white as taking medication and being miraculously cured. The reason I’ve had for coming off medication was because of the side effects. Some side effects truly are unbearable and no person would want to suffer them. I wrote about this in more detail here.

6. How can you believe something so stupid?

I’ve had this one a few times, once from a psychiatric nurse. Delusions are another common symptom of schizophrenia and to most people, the deluded belief may sound extremely farfetched. To you, it may be clear as day that the CIA is not tracking Joe Bloggs but to Joe, he is terrified that his every move is being watched by the CIA. Telling Joe that his belief is stupid is not going to help and it will just make him think that you’re not going to help him. Instead, just provide a place for Joe to talk about his beliefs if that’s what he wants. Don’t push him into talking about his beliefs though, as this can upset a person even more. Again, this point only applies to those who suffer with delusions as not all people with schizophrenia have delusions.

7. Why won’t you talk about [insert symptom]?

This one has been said to me both in annoyance and in kindness. The answer is always going to be the same: “Because I don’t want to.” I’ve always hated talking about things the voices said to me. Once when I was in hospital, a nurse asked me what one of my voices thought of her. Immediately, the voice told me what he thought of her, something that I will never, ever repeat. She could tell by my face that the voice had told me something, and she tried a few times to get me to tell her what he’d said. She only let the issue go when I burst into tears and begged her not to make me tell her. I HATE talking about things the voices say. Sometimes I hear commands telling me to harm other people, things that make me feel ashamed to hear. I definitely don’t want to talk about stuff like this so please don’t make me. You WILL upset me.

8. You just need to get out more/get more exercise.

If I had a pound for every time I’d heard one of these, well, I’d have very heavy pockets. I KNOW that it’s not good to sit in the house all day everyday and not go out. I KNOW that everyone needs exercise. Please stop telling me. Forcing me to leave the house when I feel anxious is only going to make me feel worse. I’ll get out when I feel ready to leave the house, not before. And as for exercise, it’s not a cure-all. For some reason, anything more than a brisk walk provokes strong suicidal thoughts in me. I used to go to a gym a few times a week and every time I came out, I’d feel absolutely awful. I would usually self-harm as a result of the thoughts I had and a few times I made plans to end my life because of the thoughts. I’ve no idea why this happens to me, but it’s something that’s out of my control. And don’t just tell me to take a brisk walk. Like I say, if I don’t feel up to doing something, forcing me to do it will make me feel worse. I do things when I feel ready to do them.

9. Can’t you see that you’re unwell?

I’ve had a few variables of this one, the most annoying being “But you’re intelligent! Surely you can see that you’re not well!” If I could have seen that I wasn’t well, I would have said so. Schizophrenia has a nasty habit of preventing a person from realising that they’re unwell. Around 30 to 50% of people with schizophrenia fail to realise that they are unwell and trying to force them to see it will often upset or anger them. Don’t try and force a person to see that they’re unwell, let them reach their own conclusions in their own time.

10. You can’t be schizophrenic, you look so normal!

Again, this one has a blanket response from me: “What’s normal?” You can’t always tell if a person has a mental illness just by looking at them. These sort of comments always had a negative impact on me as it invoked one of two feelings. One feeling I got was making me feel like I was wasting NHS resources because if I looked OK, then I must have been OK. The other feeling I got was making me believe that I wasn’t unwell. Like I said in the previous point, not everyone with schizophrenia realises they’re unwell. I am one such person. Telling me I look normal when I’m unwell and not realising it is a surefire way of making me believe even more that I’m fine. So less of the, “You look so normal!” It’s not always a compliment!

So that’s ten things not to say to a person with schizophrenia. If you want to help, just let a person know that you’re there for them and that they can talk if they want. But never force a person to talk when they don’t want to. More ways to help people can be found at this blog post here.

Reblogged with permission from

http://schizophreniasucks.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ten-things-not-to-say-to-person-with.html?m=1

This is worth the minute it takes to read. Interesting and enlightening.

And please do not refer to someone with schizophrenia as a schizophrenic. Their illness does not define them.

Uncovering Clues to the Genetic Cause of Schizophrenia

The overall number and nature of mutations—rather than the presence of any single mutation—influences an individual’s risk of developing schizophrenia, as well as its severity, according to a discovery by Columbia University Medical Center researchers published in the latest issue of Neuron. The findings could have important implications for the early detection and treatment of schizophrenia.

Maria Karayiorgou, MD, professor of psychiatry and Joseph Gogos, MD, PhD, professor of physiology and cellular biophysics and of neuroscience, and their team sequenced the “exome”—the region of the human genome that codes for proteins—of 231 schizophrenia patients and their unaffected parents. Using this data, they demonstrated that schizophrenia arises from collective damage across several genes.

“This study helps define a specific genetic mechanism that explains some of schizophrenia’s heritability and clinical manifestation,” said Dr. Karayiorgou, who is acting chief of the Division of Psychiatric and Medical Genetics at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. “Accumulation of damaged genes inherited from healthy parents leads to higher risk not only to develop schizophrenia but also to develop more severe forms of the disease.”

Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder in which patients experience hallucination, delusion, apathy and cognitive difficulties. The disorder is relatively common, affecting around 1 in every 100 people, and the risk of developing schizophrenia is strongly increased if a family member has the disease. Previous research has focused on the search for individual genes that might trigger schizophrenia. The availability of new high-throughput DNA sequencing technology has contributed to a more holistic approach to the disease.

The researchers compared sequencing data to look for genetic differences and identify new loss-of-function mutations—which are rarer, but have a more severe effect on ordinary gene function—in cases of schizophrenia that had not been inherited from the patients’ parents. They found an excess of such mutations in a variety of genes across different chromosomes.

Using the same sequencing data, the researchers also looked at what types of mutations are commonly passed on to schizophrenia patients from their parents. It turns out that many of these are “loss-of-function” types. These mutations were also found to occur more frequently in genes with a low tolerance for genetic variation.

“These mutations are important signposts toward identifying the genes involved in schizophrenia,” said Dr. Karayiorgou.

The researchers then looked more deeply into the sequencing data to try to determine the biological functions of the disrupted genes involved in schizophrenia. They were able to verify two key damaging mutations in a gene called SETD1A, suggesting that this gene contributes significantly to the disease.

SETD1A is involved in a process called chromatin modification. Chromatin is the molecular apparatus that packages DNA into a smaller volume so it can fit into the cell and physically regulates how genes are expressed. Chromatin modification is therefore a crucial cellular activity.

The finding fits with accumulating evidence that damage to chromatin regulatory genes is a common feature of various psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. By combining the mutational data from this and related studies on schizophrenia, the authors found that “chromatin regulation” was the most common description for genes that had damaging mutations.

“A clinical implication of this finding is the possibility of using the number and severity of mutations involved in chromatin regulation as a way to identify children at risk of developing schizophrenia and other neurodevelopmental disorders,” said Dr. Gogos. “Exploring ways to reverse alterations in chromatic modification and restore gene expression may be an effective path toward treatment.”

In further sequencing studies, the researchers hope to identify and characterize more genes that might play a role in schizophrenia and to elucidate common biological functions of the genes.

ABUSE

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Coping

Chat Rooms 

ADD/ADHD

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ADDICTION

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Coping and Recovery

ANGER

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ANXIETY

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Panic Attacks

Interactives

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BIPOLAR DISORDER

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DEPRESSION

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EATING DISORDERS

Recovery

FRIENDS WITH ILLNESS

GENERAL RESOURCES

GRIEF AND LOSS

HOTLINES

MEDITATION

OCD

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Coping and Treatment

Chat Rooms

PERFECTIONISM

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PTSD

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SCHIZOPHRENIA

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SELF-HARM

SELF-LOVE

SUICIDE

THERAPY

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Reblogging in honor of the last day of Social Work Month.  These arent ranked in any particular order so check them all out.  If I missed you just let me know!

yo I’m reblogging this because it can seriously help folks out, definitely a list worth keeping.

Here it is! Please remember that I am not in any way a professional, to be honest I struggled with the spelling of this. Just, be nice, you know?:-)

Part one here (X) 

This doge speaks to me

Listening to bipolar disorder: Smartphone app detects mood swings via voice analysis

A smartphone app that monitors subtle qualities of a person’s voice during everyday phone conversations shows promise for detecting early signs of mood changes in people with bipolar disorder, a University of Michigan team reports.

While the app still needs much testing before widespread use, early results from a small group of patients show its potential to monitor moods while protecting privacy.

The researchers hope the app will eventually give people with bipolar disorder and their health care teams an early warning of the changing moods that give the condition its name. The technology could also help people with other conditions.

"We only ask that an individual use his or her smart phone as he or she normally would," said Emily Mower Provost, assistant professor of computer science and engineering who co-led the project. "We collect speech data from the smart phone and process the data in a privacy preserving manner to learn the acoustic patterns associated with harmful mood variations."

Read more

I need to remember that going outside always makes me feel better

Fresh air is so nice and in this gloomy apartment it’s so easy to get stuck

especially when I’m in a crisis, I get trapped in my head and all the negativity snowballs until I kind of forget that the rest of the world exists, y’know? And going out and just seeing other people walking around and dogs and little kids reminds me that things are going to get better and it’s not the end of the world because my bedroom is not the whole universe and I deserve to see so much more

I’m going to try to take a walk every day, even when it feels impossible to leave the house

Help Inform Yourself on Various Psychological Disorders

Anxiety:

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder:

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder:

Psychosis:

Depression:

Bipolar Disorder:

Borderline Personality Disorder:

Mania and Hypomania:

Body Dysmorphic Disorder:

Schizophrenia:

Schizoaffective Disorder:

Add more links if you have them :)