Before I begin, I just wanted to explain that this website contains a host of blog entries and two of my books that can be downloaded for free, “Alert and Oriented x3” (memoir) and a short novel I titled, “Those Who Dare to Dream.” To get “Alert and Oriented x3” click on the photo of London’s Tower Bridge to the right and download totally free, no registration needed. For my book “Those Who Dare to Dream,” a story of a young man who lied about his age to fight in WWII, (a book of historical fiction) click the text above where the title of this blog entry appears. Also, if you wanted to look at previous blog entries, you can scroll past the end of the current blog (after the above review you will find my review of Susan Doherty’s “The Ghost Garden”) and if you find you would like to browse through some of my other writings, look at the list of archives below the photo of London’s Tower Bridge.
So, on to my review. This book is an incredible resource for family members, loved ones, and sufferers of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. The first 50 pages or so were written by Bethany Yeiser, who I have come to know well through online meetings she hosts and from her previous book, “Mind Estranged.” Bethany has an incredible story to tell, in both books. She was an incredibly successful violin player and student at USC when schizophrenia struck. After a huge ordeal where she disowned everyone who cared for her and lived on the streets for years, her mother (who wrote a book following the timeline of “Mind Estranged” titled “Flight from Reason”) and father got her the help she needed. Bethany had some problems with treatment but her co-author, Dr. Nasrallah, got her onto the medication clozapine which brought her all the way back. Bethany moved near her parents and experienced a full recovery, finishing her degree and eventually not only living independently, but founding CureSZ (www.curesz.org), an Ohio-based foundation for people with schizophrenia and their caregivers.
One of the things I noticed first when reading this book is the amazing correlations between what the authors had to say and the information I give when doing educational presentations for The Schizophrenia Society of Alberta. But then there is much more than that to this book. One of the more enjoyable parts of reading this book were chapters in which people with lived experience told their stories, or their stories were told (I assume by Bethany). I really enjoy reading stories of people who experience mental illness, especially when they have positive outcomes. So many times, reading these and other case histories, it seems the story begins with a person who had every chance in life, went to college and did well, then experimented with cannabis and became irreversibly mentally ill. I don’t want to knock cannabis, and there have been a number of stories where this element wasn’t a factor, but I do think that common thread is worth mentioning.
If you are interested in getting this book, it can be found at amazon.com for just $15 USD. Proceeds go to the CureSZ foundation. The book is totally worth it too, Bethany does and amazing job of research and provides many excellent bits of facts and information. One fact that really concerned me was that the prevalence of suicide among people with schizophrenia is 10,000% higher than for the healthy population. Schizophrenia kills. It kills because people are stigmatized, because there is so much false or misleading information out there that makes it harder for people to accept treatment, leaving them alone or isolated. Books like this address all of the ways this not only should change, but needs to change.
If you are a fan of the blog, I did have the honour of writing one of the chapters for this book, but mine was by far not the most interesting part. Bethany enlisted the aid of many people, a lot of them psychiatrists who discussed clozapine and its great advantages, and the facts as to why so few doctors are aware of it as an excellent medication for treatment resistant schizophrenia (a generic form of clozapine has been developed, and so it isn’t profitable to big Pharma to promote and advertise) clozapine, though one has to take frequent blood tests to guard against the tiny possibility that it will lower white blood cell count, is effective in 50% of the people with psychosis it is given to. It was also pointed out in the book that Long-acting injectable medications, like the one I take, offers a new freedom for people who suffer, and helps them to continue treatment whether they are prone to forgetting oral medication or not.
So, just to cap things off, I want to encourage anyone who seeks help for themselves or for a loved one who is suffering, “Awakenings” is an incredible, comprehensive resource that is not just full of dry facts and statistics, it tells incredible human stories and has chapters from some amazing doctors. I receive no compensation for the sales of this book other than the honour of having been a small part of writing it.
Hello Dear Readers! Before I get started, I just wanted to remind you that if you click on the photo of London’s Tower Bridge to the right of this post, you will be taken to a page where you can download a free copy of my own latest book, “Alert and Oriented x3” you can also contact me at leif.n.gregersen@gmail.com if you would like paperback copies of any of my books, but I am assuming you would be most interested in my three “mental health memoirs” which are, “Alert and Oriented x3” “Inching Back to Sane” and “Through the Withering Storm” if you contact me for them, it may cost a little more than ordering them off of Amazon, but they will come with a signature, and if you ask, each will have a Haiku poem I compose just for that one book. I also ask if you get a copy of any of my books that you leave a fair review on Amazon for me, I had a serious problem with trying to market “Alert and Oriented x3” because an unscrupulous and anonymous jerk left a really bad review of my book and there is nothing I can do to get it taken down.
So, on to today’s topic, the book “The Ghost Garden” this is a book mainly about schizophrenia, and mainly about one woman’s lifelong struggle to live with it. It also speaks of other people, and as I am fascinated with hearing stories of people living with mental illness, I really enjoyed this book, but I will try and articulate the reasons why I liked the book here.
One of the first things about this book that I really liked was the author. She is a well-known journalist who has worked for some top publications and was married, yet she found it in her heart to volunteer to spend time with psychiatric patients and to not just volunteer, but to become a true friend to these people. By far, the largest part of the book was about a woman she called Caroline and her family. Caroline came from a good home, she had a father who was a respected doctor and hospital administrator, who had been a pilot during the war. His only real fault was that he was a drinker and not as present for his kids. Two of his older kids, of which there were 10, had substance use disorders and Caroline had schizophrenia.
As the story goes along, we learn about Caroline and how difficult it was for her family to love and care for her. Her brothers gave up on her but her sisters did their best to give her what comforts they could. The book opens with a tragic event, where Caroline has a delusion that her roommate is possessed and tries to “kill the devil” by pouring boiling water into her ear. I can’t imagine the pain and torment this caused, and I am reminded of an event from my own life. I was 13 years old and my older brother was 15 and heavily into weight lifting. He used to like to walk around with his shirt off to show his fit body and I was about to leave for Air Cadet Basic training and I was ironing my uniform. At some point that day, my brother was sitting shirtless on the telephone table watching TV and I took the hot iron I was using on my uniform and thought it would be funny to touch his back and startle him. Unfortunately the iron was at a temperature where it didn’t startle him, but it gave him a second-degree burn and he came after me screaming bloody murder. Only the fact that I held the iron out to protect myself kept me from getting a beating. My brother has a scar on his back to this day. I was grateful to leave home for 2 weeks and let him cool off, but Caroline wasn’t met with such a forgiving victim, she ended up being arrested.
It was hard to keep a mental image of Caroline through the course of reading this book. She had gone through so many changes in weight and demeanour, going from 135 pounds to 300. There were things about her that must have been very difficult to deal with, but they were things I understood. Caroline would tell lies to people, most of which were preposterous. One of them was that while she was in high school, she kept saying she had a relationship with the best looking guy in school and her sisters knew this wasn’t possible. it reminds me of having delusional thoughts that a few different females in my life were in love with me and were pursuing me. The miracle part of it in my life was that once I was medicated properly I could understand that this wasn’t the case. However, in my situation there were events that caused me to think these things. One young woman had sat next to me for 5 months and not only gave me her phone number, but admits we were friends and that she understood my dire mental health situation. Another young woman without a doubt was fawning over me at a local bar, talking to her friend about how handsome I was though she did meet her date at the bar later and I haven’t really spoken to her since grade nine. There were shadows of truth to some of my delusions, and I had a strong urge to share them with others. I found that I could tell my brother and he seemed to listen and empathize. I don’t think it would have done any good to confront me with the fact that these were false ideas but instead to communicate them with my treatment team. I do remember feeling horrible after the fact that I had invaded these young women’s lives, caused great distress and was rambling like a lunatic. For many years I sought forgiveness from these people, and it was given, but none of them wanted to even have a short conversation with me so I could explain myself.
Caroline’s life went on with heavy drinking and smoking, and I think some pot use. Again there were things I identified with as I used to be a heavy smoker and for a while had problems not drinking, and I still occasionally take low-dose THC pills. But when I was in the hospital in 2001, I had been clearly told that people who go on psychiatric meds should never again drink alcohol, and another psychiatrist had said that pot/THC can cause a type of psychosis that is very hard to distinguish from schizophrenia. Caroline met people who became partners in bars, something that kind of amazes me because in my adult life I have had very few girlfriends, and less actual life partners. Caroline, before going through the hell of being in and out of psychiatric facilities, living in poverty and needing her sisters to help her even with the most basic of housekeeping tasks, had two boys who she credits with keeping her alive. It was sad that she lost custody of the boys, but they still were a part of her life.
So, this book told some of the tragic stories of schizophrenia from the viewpoint of a person who simply became friends with people who didn’t have friends. One of the things I really liked which I think I mentioned above was the wellsprings of compassion the author had for the people she wrote about. She not only tried to explain and give reasons for the bizarre activities of the people with schizophrenia, but she also helped the reader (me) to better understand why families can be so damaged by the behaviour of their loved one that they end up cutting them off. In my own life, there was a time when I was very ill and living in a homeless shelter while my sister, my brother, and my parents all had plenty of space to take me in but refused. Only my parents came to see me, my sister wouldn’t even take my calls. At one point my sister’s boyfriend confronted me and said that my sister could walk away with either me or him at the end of the conversation. Of course, he was a complete asshole who cheated on my sister and beat her up, but the way he made things seem, I had committed some kind of sin of omission by having a mental illness and he was my judge, jury, and executioner. These things are difficult to accept, but I think the big takeaway is that if a person with a mental illness doesn’t accept proper treatment and doesn’t keep working with their treatment team, people are going to drop out of their lives until they do.
One of the things this book made me think about is, when I was diagnosed with diabetes, I was put on medications and right away signed up for a course on how to manage food and my illness. When I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and anxiety, no such information session was given. Some of the hospitals I found myself in offered courses in things like self esteem and diet, but all of them were directed at a random mix of people with different illnesses. I think if I knew more about my illness at my first diagnosis (and when I was diagnosed it was years before I was even told what the diagnosis was) I could have ended up with better outcomes.
So, I apologize dear readers, I wanted to write about this amazing book and here I have rambled on for hundreds of words. I hope some of you got something out of all this. It would be great if you could leave a comment. The Ghost Garden by Susan Doherty was really a wonderful book. I think the power of reading about other people’s lives battling mental illness is a great way to strengthen one’s resolve as to living with and dealing with an illness like schizophrenia. I also feel it gives a lot of important information that a person can share with others. I should mention, and I will mention this again in my next blog that I have found a wonderful resource in a foundation in Ohio called CureSZ, which has a website and regular peer support meetings. I have been named an “Advisory Panel Member” and greatly enjoy sharing my experience with others who are either suffering themselves or have a loved one who is suffering. I think I should close off by stating one of the most important takeaways I got from “The Ghost Garden” and that I also get from the CureSZ meetings. If a person has a loved one who is ready to go to the wall for them, to really help and support them, they have so much more of a chance of overcoming mental illness. If you Google “CureSZ” and check out their website, you may learn that the president of the foundation, Bethany Yeiser, just put out a book called “Awakenings” which I wrote a chapter for and is selling on amazon for $15 USD, the funds going to the foundation. Bethany has had a unique experience with mental illness, she was a gifted and accomplished violin player and student and ended up homeless for years despite her parents interventions and wrote a book about her experiences. Her mother also wrote a book following the same timeline and I would recommend them as an incredible resource. Expect a book review of “Awakenings” Soon.
Just as a quick note, I published an article in Alberta Views Magazine with Dr. Holly Symonds-Brown of the University of Alberta. If you would like to read it, click here and let me know what you think in the comments. Don’t forget to come back to this page after to read my book review of this fascinating, comprehensive overview of schizophrenia by one of the former leading psychiatrists in the USA
Hello good readers. I wanted to write today about a book that took me a great deal of effort and reading stamina to get through, but one that was well worth it. I have to say right at the top that some who read this may have heard negative things about the author. I was about 1/5 of the way through this book when I decided it might be good to contact the author and see if we could somehow communicate as fellow writers. After a google search, the first thing that popped up really surprised me. Dr. Leiberman, likely one of the top psychiatrists of modern times in the field of schizophrenia research and treatment, had recently made a racist remark that got him into a great deal of trouble. I want to say that it was a difficult decision to keep investing time and effort into finishing this book, but it was well worth it. Though the Doctor did make a comment and it was inappropriate, I don’t think that in any way diminishes his lifetime of work in helping people with schizophrenia or his incredible knowledge on the subject. It also doesn’t diminish the hard work put in by his research team and editors to make a book that I hope will be widely read by influencers in the field of mental health care.
So I’m going to just jump right in. One of the interesting parts of this book is that the author lived in the 1960s during the age of free love and experimenting with drugs. He relates his experiences with LSD and other psychedelics and explains with a scientific mind what the experiences were like and how they relate to psychosis. Although I strongly don’t want to try any psychedelics, even with the supervision of a professional, I did want to understand them better. I have a friend who is being treated with ketamine and it seems to be really helping them.
So the book is divided into sections, some are harder to get through than others. There is a section on history of schizophrenia and its treatments, which seemed barbaric even in the 20th century. At times there were treatments such as wrapping patients in wet blankets, putting them in scalding hot water, insulin-coma therapy, and even the dreaded lobotomy. It made me think of when I had my first hospitalization, after I went ballistic in high school and picked a fight and was arrested in my school and resisted arrest. I came from a medium-sized, closely knit town and I am sure the news of my breakdown had reached many an ear before my first dose of Thorazine wore off. When I called a friend from the hospital after a while on the ward, his mom kept asking me if I was okay and I was really sick of trying to explain myself so I told her I had a lobotomy and didn’t admit the falsehood or even say anything further or tell her I was kidding. When I was first hospitalized in 1990, 34 long years ago, there were still some pretty barbaric treatments going around. The lucky thing was that there were some really good medications that helped me come back to sanity in a relatively short time.
What I liked most about “Malady of the Mind” was that there were a lot of case histories in the book. I found it incredibly interesting to read stories of young people who developed schizophrenia and went through things that seemed to almost repeat themselves word for word. Often a person would be doing well academically, have a great social life and excellent prospects ahead of them, and then they would experiment with cannabis (and actually just as often not experiment with cannabis) then the early phases would occur. Having good families and strong friendships, after some bizarre behaviour they would be taken to a doctor or a psychiatrist and medications would be prescribed. They would, for the most part work well, but soon after the patient would discontinue them (as I did) then go through a long course of stopping medications, getting ill, then going back on. One of the more notable passages in the book was when the Doctor/author consulted with a colleague about his concern over a patient continually stopping their medications, and the colleague told him that some people just have to keep failing until they learn. The Doctor drew a great analogy, writing: “what if someone had cancer. would you just passively allow them to keep stopping treatment until they learned they needed chemotherapy and radiation?”
There really was a lot of great information in this book. Some of the chapters got into talk of MRIs and genetics, even stuff about gene therapy, creating brain tissue in a petrie dish with stem cells. Fascinating stuff, but I found it hard to remember. One of the more memorable parts of this book was when the Doctor showed with research data (Dr. Liberman wrote 700 research papers and some 17 books for medical professionals) the importance of having a caregiver, especially if they are a family member.
I was really surprised to learn more about the US mental health system. Before 1950, it was based on the asylum model, where people would go for years, even for the rest of their lives to “mental hospitals” and be treated very poorly, fed slop, get forced to work on farms for no pay and endure things like beatings and unsanitary conditions. When I was first in the psychiatric hospital, I did work but I was paid I think $1.50 an hour (they considered this generous despite that the minimum wage was $4) and the food was pretty bad, but passable. That of course, was after I earned the privilege of leaving the lockup ward.
So anyhow, in 1950 (or thereabouts) they developed chlorpromazine which is also called Thorazine, which was the first effective medication for psychosis. A lot of patients got better and at the same time there were a lot of people wanting more humane treatments in asylums. The solution seemed to be to let people out of the hospitals and put them in the community. The funding for hospitals came from each state, and they were supposed to channel the funding to community treatment but didn’t. They started letting people out of the hospitals en masse and as the community care systems broke down, the former patients ended up homeless, in jail, in nursing homes, or simply died.
It was fascinating to read all of this about schizophrenia. I would strongly recommend any family members or loved ones of a person with schizophrenia read this, and for anyone with the illness who is stable also read it.
One thing I wanted to add to this blog post is, I have met many people who have children (mostly adult children) who suffer from schizophrenia and are refusing to take medications, avoiding hospitals, and even refusing to let their families talk to their treatment team. I ran across a passage in this book that had some information that I think could be really helpful. There is a new legal term, PAD which stands for psychiatric advance directive. It has the power of a living will. What happens is, if you have a loved one with schizophrenia or other psychosis-related disorders, you can approach them when they are well and set up a psychiatric advance directive which gives you permission to contact their doctors and be a part of the person’s treatment should they become ill. I think you need a Lawyer to draw up the agreement, and it will cost you, but it could save the life of your loved one, or at least save them from having to spend a chunk of their lives in and out of hospitals, in and out of jails, and on and off the streets.
Well Dear Readers, there you have it! I hope you pick up the book and take a look. Like I said, there are some pretty complicated parts of it, but I loved reading case histories. I took out another library book that is going to tell stories of street people and I think it will be fascinating, though I don’t yet know how much of it is about mental health.
Hello good readers. I have been having an interesting time. Not too much going on in the mental health field at the moment. I have a number of speaking engagements coming this week, but nothing substantial to keep me very busy. So, I decided to take on a new topic, one that hits home for me, sleep. For many years, since I was a young child, I have had problems with sleep. I have tried so many things I won’t even begin to name them here. Some of the early ones were guided meditation sessions to relax each part of my body hoping to eventually drift off. Only the real insomniacs who read this will understand what it is like to lay for hours in bed not knowing if you should throw in the towel and pull an all-nighter or keep trying.
As an adult, my options for sleeping were increased. As you all may know, I have schizoaffective disorder with anxiety. Some of the symptoms of this illness include staying up late worrying about things, or being in a manic state and just having too much energy to fall asleep. At 20 when I had my first apartment that I wasn’t sharing, I was put on medications that sometimes made me sleep for days. There is much more to the story than that, but basically the way the story begins is I found some resources for learning about the science of sleep and watched a number of lectures (I just love having a library that has “The Great Courses” CD and DVD courses available) then read a bunch about sleep.
The first thing I learned that I think might be useful to you, my dear readers, is that most of us should get 7-8 hours a night of sleep, and if we get less than what our body needs, we build up something called a sleep debt. Wake up an hour early for all 5 of the weekdays? It is very likely that you will have to sleep 2 1/2 hours extra on both Saturday and Sunday to catch up. This was a revolutionary concept to me because for a long period of my adult years, I worked the night shift as a security guard. Sometimes I would go days without sleeping, feeling my manic high with coffee and sugary foods. When I first moved out and sometimes slept for 20+ hours, I had the feeling I was making up for my teen years when I often worked one or more jobs in addition to going to school all day and socializing on weekends. I don’t know if my long voyages into the unknown world of dreams were actually due to my sleep debt, but I do know it would serve to further isolate me which is never good for a person with schizophrenia (or symptoms of it). In fact, isolation is so serious that some feel it is the reason why 1 in 10 people with schizophrenia die by suicide. The lecturer of the course I was watching cited many examples of how sleep deprivation and sleep debt cause thousands of accidents, deaths, and high rates of general mortality every year.
So, I think I will get back on that topic, but first I wanted to explain something I saw on a TED talk about sleep that I want my readers to be exposed to. It is a method, discovered seemingly by accident by a musician (drummer) to help himself fall asleep. He had been warned by his doctor that he needed to stop drinking so much caffeine and get proper rest or he would have a heart attack or other deadly incident. This young man learned that by tapping out a rhythm and breathing according to a pattern, we can slow our heartbeat and help induce a relaxation response that can help us sleep. He said to first tap two beats per second (like a stopwatch) on your thighs while sitting on the edge of your bed. While you do this, you breathe in and out deeply and slowly. Try to make a rhythm with your breath and your tapping. Then, as you feel yourself coming into synch with this rhythm (as many of us do when listening to a song we really like) start to slow it down a bit. Remember to breathe deeply, and to hold your breath for a few seconds before slowly releasing the air. Over the course of 3-5 minutes, try to focus on the tapping and breathing, slowing them to a crawl. This is where sleep toys can help. I personally have a blackout mask I like to wear, and I have two special blankets I use at intervals over the course of a couple of weeks. One is a heated blanket, and the other is a weighted blanket. Once you have completed your pattern, and feel like you have slowed down, duck under the sheets, be mindful of slow, deliberate breathing and try and relax your whole body. This won’t always work perfectly the first night you try it, so try doing it a few times. I have found it greatly improves my sleep and lessens the time it takes me to fall asleep.
So, I did want to get into a few things about sleeping that I feel are important. The first is that sleeping pills are a temporary fix and not always the best one. You should be mindful though, that if a person takes sleeping pills every night they may need to be supervised to go off them. Of course, it is best to sleep without any aids (other than benign ones like a weighted blanket or sleep mask) but some people just can’t. If you are having problems with your sleep, I strongly urge you to get your psychiatrist or family doctor to get you into a sleep study. The wait list can be long, but it is one of the best ways to find out if you have a condition like sleep apnea where you would need to wear a CPAP device. Sleep apnea (forgive me if I am mistaking facts) is when you stop breathing while asleep for various reasons and you wake yourself up without knowing you have done so to breathe again. A CPAP device, though expensive, can give you an experience of resting better than you perhaps have ever done.
Another thing I wanted to mention was, for better sleep, it is good to get some exercise during the day, especially in a brightly lit environment (like the outdoors) it doesn’t have to be the Sylvester Stallone body-blasting workout, it can be as simple as going for a walk swinging your arms and keeping a good pace, possibly even carrying weights. In the winter if you find you really like walking but live in a place like I do, mall-walking can be a good substitute. We all need good food, good nutrition, and good sleep. Care about yourself enough to maintain these, even if you have to start from what seems like a poor state. I haven’t been exercising as much as I would like to, so earlier today I rode my stationary bike for a few minutes, and after I finished I felt a glow of happiness settle over me.
The next thing I wanted to talk about regarding sleep is actually also another situation where if you take care of yourself, your energy and mood can be improved. Technology in recent years has advanced, and what once cost $200 and was less powerful and less effective is now $50 (got mine on amazon). I am talking about a SAD (seasonal affective disorder) light. Mine is the size of an iPad and sits at my desk. When I wake up, I make a point of turning it on and trying to work at my desk for at least an hour while I am exposed to the light. The light wakes me up and energizes me, and seems to improve my mood. I also find I no longer need to nap during the day and hence sleep better at night. Don’t take my advice on this though, look at some Youtube videos or search the web for more evidence and information before you invest anything in this.
I think what I should also say here is that you have to be very careful with caffeinated beverages if you want to improve your sleep. At the top of the chain is energy drinks, which have a ton of sugar and caffeine in them. I knew a young man who drank a lot of them and developed an allergy to caffeine. He is lucky if he doesn’t develop type two diabetes as well. next are the fancy coffees like espresso and other speciality drinks. Then we have coffee and tea, and I am not sure where to put them, but pop for the most part has a lot of caffeine as well. The studies I looked at say you should stop caffeine intake about 10 hours before sleep. I understand this can be next to impossible at times, but if you plan it out and stick with the plan to regulate caffeine, it may well change your life, and you still have the morning to get your favourite kickstart. If you are like me and have to have a beverage by you at all times, there is the option of decaffeinated teas and coffees (heck, there are a million delicious teas that are herbal and very good for you). What I often drink close to bed is water I have chilled in the fridge (you can also filter it if you are really health conscious) I fill a glass with the water, then squirt in a couple of tablespoons of pure lemon juice. I absolutely love it, I have been able to use it to cut half of my caffeine intake over the past months and it also has the wonderful effect of lowering my appetite, which has helped me to lower my weight from my highest (265) to 208 pounds.
I hope all this is useful dear readers. Please do get in touch if you have any questions or even just want to say hi. Until then, sweet dreams!
Well, dear readers, I am at a bit of a loss on what to say here. The past few weeks have been amazing for me. One of the big reasons for that is, three times I went to universities to give talks to medical professional students about my lived experience with mental illness. Two classes were nursing students, and the third was actually for a small group of student psychiatrists. I feel so privileged to be asked for my attendance in such places. The truth remains that I never finished high school and wanted desperately to attend university but my illness was a huge barrier to that.
One of the other things that is funny about speaking to medical professionals is, I am starting to notice my age (52 years) and my cognitive abilities are on the decline. At one time I had a near photographic memory, now I am happy if I can figure out why I got up to enter the kitchen. This half-assed joke comes with a warning. Each time a person with psychosis goes off their medication, it can cause brain damage and it can also cause you to need a higher dose of anti-psychotic medication. I don’t want to rant and rave about it, but at one point I was in the hospital for six months and wasn’t given effective anti-psychotic medication. Along with other problems of being in the hospital for that long, I was ill-equipped to take care of myself upon my release.
All that aside, one of the best doctors I knew once blindsided me during an appointment. Out of nowhere he asked, “What do you do… for fun?” At the time, I didn’t do much, but I realized an important truth. People with mental illnesses need to have fun in their lives just as much as anyone. When I was a teen, there were so many things I did for fun, one of them being buying stink bombs and setting them off at the mall. It was the biggest laugh-riot ever to watch people react to the stink. There was this other time during 1986 that the Olympic Flame went through my home town and they lit up a torch with the flame. One night I was a little drunk and decided to climb the tower and lit a cigarette from the Olympic Flame. One of the funniest parts of it was getting caught and trying to explain myself. “Sorry! I needed a light!” I said.
I think one of the key things a person with a mental illness can do is to connect with a friend and do something fun. I often go to movies with my cousin, and I once had a neighbour who would come up to my apartment for a coffee almost every night. Granted, it can be really hard to meet people who don’t judge you for having an illness, which is why there are organizations like The Schizophrenia Society and many others. One suggestion I have that would be a lot of fun (at least to nerdy people like me) is to go to your local library and post a meet-up for people who want to play chess. You can buy a few simple boards at a dollar store and enjoy the world’s greatest game while you interact with others.
One thing I should emphasize is that I don’t consider alcohol and drugs to be fun, especially if you have a mental health disability. I once tried a hit off a joint, and even though I was medicated, I experienced severe paranoia and basically acted like a complete ass. Fiddling around with alcohol made things even worse. If you have problems with things like this and can’t quit, I strongly suggest you go to a few Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings, they can be really helpful and supportive.
When I think of fun, I also think of sports. I love to play badminton, though I get so few chances, and memberships to the local gym and swimming pool are free for people with disabilities. I also have a lot of fun learning about photography and taking pictures. I suggest once again going to the library and reading magazines about photography. Actually, why not go there and read all the magazines you have an interest in? They are free and can be great fun to learn from.
And finally I will talk about something I consider to be the ultimate fun, a road trip! You may not have a car, but there is a good chance you know someone with a driver’s license. If no one has a car, you can get 4 or more people to chip in for a rental for 2 days. Load up on snacks, pick a destination and head out! I haven’t gotten access to the guide, but there are books that will tell you where you can trade a few hours of cleaning for a free stay at a Hostel or Hotel. Make an adventure out of it. Stop at all the historical landmark sites, take a long hike in a national park–take photos while you are there. Bring your own sandwiches and snacks to save on roadside diners, and dive in!
I hope this post helps some people to push their boundaries and try new things to enrich their lives. If you are not at that stage yet, I totally understand. If this is the case, I suggest you just try to do one thing a day. Visit the museum, take a day and do your laundry, take a day and clean your apartment. These last two will definitely make you feel better. And please, write to me and tell me how you did!
Mental Health coping skills blog by leif gregersen 