Daily Quote: and Reflection: Insights and Social Advocacy from Consumer Perspective

Daily Quote: “For a person with mental illness, the challenge is to find the life that’s right for you. But in truth, isn’t that the challenge for all of us, mentally ill or not?”Dr. Elyn Saks, from her book, The Center Cannot Hold.

Reflection:Very moving speech detailing,one highly functioning person’s, long difficult struggle with Schizophrenia and Mental Illness. Dr. Saks, insightful, sad and realistic story makes me want to help more with this devastating disease.  Here is her heart felt and insightful speech at the University of Virginia Law School http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2009_spr/saks.htm

What are your reactions?  

Note: Dr. Elyn Saks is the Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at USC’s Gould School of Law, an adjunct professor of Psychiatry at the UCSD School of Medicine, and assistant faculty at the New Center for Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles. In 2009, she received the MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant.” Despite battling schizophrenia and acute psychosis since she was a teenager, Saks is a nationally recognized scholar in mental health law, criminal law and the ethical dimensions of medical research.

After decades of hiding her illness, Saks published a memoir about her struggles and successes in The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness (Hyperion, 2007). The book won far-reaching acclaim from literary critics and advocacy groups.

Mental Health Breakthroughs: Taking Risks to create a positive and fulfilling life

Researchers have long wondered how some people with severe Mental Health  problems can manage their issues and symptoms well enough to build meaningful and  successful lives.  A great example is the work that Dr.Elyn Saks is doing at Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy and Ethics to study mental health and society. The Institute was funded by a $ 500,000 MacArthur Genius Grant.

I have blogged about Dr.Saks before on thewick and now her new work is adding to our hope that people living with severe Mental Illness know how to survive and prosper in creating meaningful lives that celebrate mental courage and personal perseverance. Despite battling schizophrenia and acute psychosis since she was a teenager, Saks is a nationally recognized scholar in mental health law, criminal law and the ethical dimensions of medical research.

WOW–Psychiatrist admits–Our approach for helping people with Mental Illness has been wrong

 

The article that appeared on the front page of the NY Times Sunday edition about  how to cope and survive with a broken brain was remarkable and I hope powerful enough to atart to remove some of the stigma against people who are fighting the battle to have fulfilling lives. The article highlights one person’s” Struggle to Fit In”. This was the third in a series of profiles about people who are functioning normally despite severe mental illness and have chosen to speak out about their struggles. Don’t miss this moving article it is outstanding and informative piece of writing.

What got my attention beyond the moving story of a “top executive battling her demons and finding a way through them”  was this snip on how wrong the field of Psychiatry has been in their approach to crafting an empowering recovery program for those people who battle these illnesses. Here is what got my attention” Researchers have conducted more than 100,000 studies on schizophrenia since its symptoms were first characterized. They have tested patients’ blood. They have analyzed their genes. They have measured perceptual skills, I.Q. and memory, and have tried perhaps thousands of drug treatments. Now, a group of people with the diagnosis of severe mental illness like schizophrenia are  showing researchers a previously hidden dimension of the story: how the disorder can be managed while people build full, successful lives. The continuing study — a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles; the; and the Department of Veterans Affairs and University of Southern California  — follows a group of 20 people with the diagnosis, including two doctors, a lawyer and a chief executive, Ms. Myrick. The study has already forced its authors to discard some of their assumptions about living with schizophrenia. “It’s just embarrassing,” said Dr. Stephen R. Marder, director of the psychosis section at U.C.L.A.’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, a psychiatrist with the V.A. Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and one of the authors of the study. “For years, we as psychiatrists have been telling people with a diagnosis what to expect; we’ve been telling them who they are, how to change their lives — and it was bad information” for many people.

So where do we go from here? The study is group  putting together the picture and elements that delienate how consumers can make their lives more fulfilling– here are some tips about how to make a better life from the consumers feedback : “ Broadly speaking, here are some strategies that consumers and patients  in the study use to cope with their disease and situations. ” The principal investigators — Elyn R. Saks of U.S.C., Alison B. Hamilton of U.C.L.A. and Amy N. Cohen of Veterans Affairs, along with Dr. Marder and others — have found that the participants typically adhere to a medication regimen, often check their thoughts and perceptions with a trusted friend or family member, and actively organize and control their environment, sometimes with the help of a therapist. Some avoid travel, or crowded, noisy places; others prefer not to be alone. Most stay away from illicit drugs and alcohol.” Let me end with an uplifting  quote from  Mahatma Ghandi  on the power of  caring and interdependence of all of us.  ”The pursuing of the inner journey, should not be separated from the pursuing of the outer and social journey, because we are not isolated beings but interdependent sources of support and encouragement that fuel the success of any human or socially significant change.”

 

Daily Quote and Reflection: 5 minutes a Day can save your life. Learn the lessons of Mindfulness

 

 Daily Quote: “If you think five minutes isn’t enough time to make a difference in your life, think again”.Jeffrey Brantley, M.D.  

Reflection:  Recently, I blogged about the power of Mental Toghness and Stress in regards to how to face and overcome stressful situations. A friend recently reminded me Mental Toughness, Recover and  Mindfulness all must be the same thing. I assured him there were probably some differences but I wasn’t sure what the were.  So I went in search of finding out more about Mindfulness.  And I found Dr. Jeffrey Brantley who has some wonderful insights into the field of medicine and mindfulness and how to confront anxiety in positive ways. He defines mindfulness as a technique or tool in which a person is attentive in a non-judgmental way to his or her thoughts and actions in the present moment. This approach, practiced in Buddhism and other religions, has been shown recently to be effective in treating psychological problems including anxiety, fear, and panic. In essence it is all about being more self-aware about the moment you are living in. Oh by the way don’t miss Dr.Brantley’s  series on how to start an experiment in mindfulness  by reading his five little book series published by New Harbinger publications, Inc. Remember these books and activities could change your life by getting you back on purpose and meaning. Try one of the Five Good minutes exercise I guarantee they are painless and you will feel instant relaxation. 

Reviewing the 4 core Elements for Living a Meaningful Constructive Life.

 

Key elements of the Meaningful Constructive Living Process

1. Learning about Yourself – Self-Awareness

2. Think clearer and act better –Inner Reflection and Thinking (Self 1, 2 & 3)

3. Learning and Influencing others—Outer- directed learning

4. Learning to live a more Reflective Life through Recover and Renewing your dreams.

 

Learn Recovery Techniques: For Coping with Life’s Difficult Challenges

Have you ever thought that your life was out of control and you wanted to live it with more energy, less stress and at your own pace?

Difficulties and challenges are part of life, so when bad things happen it is best if you are armed with skills, a mental set and positive emotions to help you get passed and through these problems. I recently, was introduced to a Mental Health process that I think could be good for anyone any time for any of life’s challenges. This process is called WRAP® -Wellness Recovery Action Plan. It was developed by Mary Ellen Copeland as  a structured plan developed by her to help face and recover from life’s challenges.  It is a system that you devise for yourself that helps you work through stress, anxiety and other mental health challenges or life issues. It is flexible and adaptable to any situation. Through awareness and observation, you identify those things you do to help yourself feel better when you are not feeling well, and those things you do to stay well and enjoy your life. The system demonstrates how to use these tools to develop personal action plans when facing difficult challenges. This a proven system being use by many people all over the world to create more meaningful and happy life’s. Check it out and start gaining control of your life through understanding negative and positive emotions and taking action to put your daily life back on track.

“Cry for help”–Wake-up America the Mental Health System is Broken

Reflections on Being Mentally Ill in America by M.W. Hardwick, Ph.D

Being Mentally ill in America means trying to smile when you want to scream.

It means trying to hold on to life amid psychological turmoil.

It means running from voices telling you to do bad things.

It means not knowing how to get help.

It means watching everyone moving forward in life as you remain stuck.

It means having your mind clouded with confusing thoughts and delusions.

It means being stigmatized for being labelled for being different.

It means being ignored, shunned and feared.

It means living a lonely and mostly solitude life with a brain disease.

It means overcoming fear and daily rejection

It means being feared and not getting help unless you show that you are a “danger to self and others.”

It means never being understood or getting the support you need for Recovery.

It means working with overloaded and caring people in a broken and underfunded system,

It means not having the possibility of living a fully functioning life.

Wake up America and listen to our cry for help!!!!

 

How can Positive Psychology increase Happiness?

I am exploring the whole question of meaning in life and happiness. I think the following talk by Martin Seligman, the father of Positive Psychology– as a field of study is compelling and very insightful. As it moves beyond a focus on disease, to ask how can modern psychology help us become happier?  What interventions can teach us to build more happiness? “How can happiness be reliably increased?”

According to researchers happy people are healthier, more successful, and more socially engaged. Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky and Ken Sheldon in their recent and exciting  research on cognitive and emotional strategies of happy people shows that happy individuals experience and react to events and circumstances in relatively more positive and more adaptive ways than unhappy people.  The causal efficacy of happiness has focused our research group on one practical matter: interventions that build happiness

Checkout the following at TED to get a feel for this exciting development in personal growth and happiness research.

Success in spite of being diagnosed as Mentally Ill

A remarkable story of overcoming barriers of mental illness. Ms. Saks managed to achieve both professional and personal success in spite of being diagnosed as suffering from the brain disorder of schizophrenia. By some people this would be considered a death sentence. How she overcame these barriers provides hope for consumers and families struggling with this chronic and devastating brain disorder is capture in the following video:  and her inspiring new book The Center cannot hold: My journey through madness. In this memoir, she frankly and movingly discusses the disease, and the treatments that helped her to cope and thrive. She is very insightful about stigma and coping with this debilitating and chronic illness. This is a must read for anyone suffering with this disease and family members trying to understand their loved one. She provides a ray of hope for recovery. Thank you Ms. Saks I now have the courage to keep supporting  my son in his recovery efforts.