Complementary therapies I take in addition to my
medication:
GNC Triple
Strength Fish Oil
$19.99
Serving Size: 1 Softgel Servings Per Container: 60
Calories: 15 Total Fat: 1.5g
EPA: 647mg DHA: 253mg
GNC Mega Men Sport Multi-Vitamins
(Bonus Size)
$34.99
Other Cool Stuff:
Tablet/Pill Splitter
$5.99
GoFit Yoga Mat
$24.99
Homedics LCD Digital Scale $39.99
Attention:
This
website is probably more suitable for people whom are 18
years of age or older. I use vulgarity from time to time,
and I sometimes talk about things that are generally
inappropriate. Sorry you 1st graders. Beat it.
In the 1800s, a German psychiatrist
named Emil Kraepelin recognized schizophrenia as a disease that was
different from other mental disorders. He called it
dementia praecox, which is Latin for "premature loss of brain
function." In 1911, Eugene Bleuler, a Swiss psychiatrist, gave
the name schizophrenia to the same group of symptoms.
Recognizing the disease was easy; treating it seemed impossible.
Years ago, before modern
medications, some schizophrenic patients spent decades in
psychiatric hospitals. There was simply no known way to
control patients' symptoms. Through the centuries, many cures
for schizophrenia have been tried. The treatments had dubious
theories behind them and were often as horrific as the disease
itself. Following is a description of some of these attempted
cures.
Snake Pits The best-selling 1946 novel, The Snake Pit, and the famous movie
of the same name depicted a crowded mental hospital where the
treatment for schizophrenia was to be wrapped in cold, wet sheets or
submerged in a tub of very hot water. The "snake pit" of the
title was a reference to the practice, centuries ago, of lowering
mentally ill people into a hole filled with snakes. The theory
was that extreme fright would shock the ill person back to normalcy.
Chair Rides Centuries ago, according to prominent researcher Nancy Andreasen,
a respected physician devised a rapidly whirling chair to treat the
disease. The patient was strapped in and was not released
until blood came out of his ears. This procedure was supposed
to take away his irrational thoughts and behaviors.
Fevers, Chills, and Horses' Blood
In the first half of the twentieth century, doctors thought that
high fevers might help patients feel better. To produce the
fever, patients were given typhoid vaccines three days a week for
several months. Soon after that, ice packs and chill therapy
were in vogue. Then there was the injection of horses' blood.
Each treatment based on the idea that the body could be shocked into
health was enthusiastically endorsed and eventually discredited.
Brain Surgery In the mid-1900s, a surgery called a lobotomy was advocated.
This is a procedure where surgeons remove part of the brain.
Walter Freeman and James Watts at George Washington University's
Department of Neurology and Neurological Surgery were pioneers in
this procedure. They were treated as national heroes for their
work with mental illness. In 1942, Time magazine proudly
reported, "Some three hundred people in the United States have had
their psychoses surgically removed...a score of surgeons are now
using the revolutionary new technique." In 1949, the Nobel
Prize in Medicine was awarded to Egas Miniz, a Portugese physician
who originated lobotomy in his country. While lobotomy gave
the patients some relief from symptoms, it also interfered with
day-to-day functioning, because some brain function was lost.
The procedure's popularity grew, and between 1949 and 1952, 20,000
lobotomies were carried out. The only reason the surgeries
stopped was the discovery of the drug Thorazine.
Unconsciousness
Around the same time as the lobotomy, inhalation therapy was used as
a "cure." This was the administration of a gas of 30 percent
carbon dioxide and 70 percent oxygen. The desired effect was
unconsciousness, with the hope that the brain would somehow take a
rest and return to consciousness restored to health. Some of
the inhalation patients died from the treatment.
Next, insulin coma therapy was tried. It was a treatment
reserved for wealthy patients. Manfred Sakel, a physician
working in Vienna, claimed a great success rate and had many
followers. His patients were injected with so much insulin
that their blood sugar dropped way down. They became drowsy,
then somewhat delirious, and many actually went into a coma.
Some patients endured dozens of comas during several months.
Again, the aim was for the brain to be cured when the patient
awakened from unconsciousness.
Vitamins
Insulin therapy was not phased out until about 1960--just in time
for the rise of megadose vitamin therapy. Advocates
believed--and some still do--that taking huge amounts of particular
vitamins and minerals could eliminate symptoms of schizophrenia.
Psychoanalysis
The 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s were the heyday of psychoanalysis in
America. The trend was to believe that all mental and
emotional problems and symptoms could be eradicated by talking.
Building a trusting, honest relationship with the psychoanalyst
would cure the illness. Supposedly, the right words spoken at
the right time by the right doctor would get rid of the symptoms of
schizophrenia. As with many of the other "cures," patients
were desperate to feel better and they did what they were told--to
no avail.
Blaming Mom As if treatments up to this point were not bad enough, in the
middle of the twentieth century doctors thought that parents,
particularly mothers, were responsible for creating schizophrenic
symptoms in their children. Family therapy and psychoanalysis
were prescribed for both patient and mother. But according to
the psychoanalysts, these therapies would eliminate schizophrenic
symptoms in the patients only if the others admitted they they were
bad parents and changed their ways.
All of this is from the book Getting Your Life Back Together When
You Have Schizophrenia, by Roberta Temes.
ZacharyOdette.com
Name:Zachary Adam Odette Birthdate:06-06-1985 Location:Swartz Creek, Michigan USA Diagnosis: schizoaffective Medications Taken Daily: 40mg of
Abilify at night, 300mg of Wellbutrin in the morning, 600mg of Trileptal at
night, 50mg of Revia at night Complementary Therapies: talk-therapy
once every two weeks, 4g of omega-3 EPA fish oils taken daily, 1000 I.U. vitamin E taken daily,
1000mg of VItamin C taken daily, Mega Men Sport multi-vitamins taken daily,
Magma Plus Green Foods supplement taken daily, animal-assisted therapy (dogs), go running and
exercise daily,
taking two classes at local college, no street drugs taken since year 2005, and
I'm tryin' to give up cheap booze...
