mental health

[mikearch]

 Help
 I am Michael .s a new member from Ethipia, age 45 and an architect by profession. I have a great interest in psychology and psychoanalisis. I read books on these and related topics just to raise my undestanding of the human mind and most of all my self.I have a problem with the mental health of  two nices of my wife. they are young  Identical twins of age 25 the first is now in a state of mental disorder of which he is sort of under treatment in a the only and poorly equiped  mental hospital we have in the capital. he has got a disorder of reoapsing type that makes him now depressed now sober and next moment violent. the problem is that in this mental hospital the dont practice any form of  psychoanalitical method or any form of treatment through consultation and  analizing his background and his present  situation. the only treatment they use  is the use of drags which in the course of the treatmen is  turniing  him nunresponsive, dull and depressed. from time to time his ccondition is getting worse instead of improving. what  i want from the forum is to meet some one (A Therapist ) or an experienced member to consult me if in any way i could help the patient as a member of the familly.
I welcom any one who is interested to give a helpin hand with gratitude.
Michael.s

[SWM]

hi mike i am  not sure what disorder you refer to here.

can you tell me some of the symptoms you nephew is having

[mikearch]

Dear Mr Karma
Thank you for your prompt response. As for the type of disorder my nephew is suffering, I may not be able to give you  a detailed professional explanations .But i can tell you as much as much as  my distant acquaintance with the topic allows me. As i already mentioned there is little or no professional consultation in our mental institutes which are very few and inadequately equipped.  To tell from the symptoms my nephew shows  you can categorize it in the schizophrenia of the paranoid type. he shows complete loss of interest and Trust to  people he lived with all his life, he  looks depressed and suspicious. at start he showed symptoms of persecution mania meaning an attitude of in wardness  and fear to people around. it seems that he lives with a constant state of fear and suffering . once he even  ran away to escape from his brothers who were chasing him out of fear lest he may hurt himself. and he ended up in a military camp to tell the guards that  his brothers are chasing him to kill him with a pistol which was actually his own imagination.
Now after a year or more of   repetitive drug treatment he is rather dull and  non responsive,  If you or any other professional is interested to know the details and about my observations how he developed such an attitude and  the consquent complete detachment from his surrounding, i am willing to give the details. do you mind to give me some details about your professional or related details  so that we know each other . I am also interested others to get involved in the issue so that i can get a vast  understanding of the situation and what to do about it
 thank you
Mike
mike

[SWM]

Thank you for your prompt response. As for the type of disorder my nephew is suffering, I may not be able to give you  a detailed professional explanations .But i can tell you as much as much as  my distant acquaintance with the topic allows me. As i already mentioned there is little or no professional consultation in our mental institutes which are very few and inadequately equipped.  To tell from the symptoms my nephew shows  you can categorize it in the schizophrenia of the paranoid type. he shows complete loss of interest and Trust to  people he lived with all his life, he  looks depressed and suspicious. at start he showed symptoms of persecution mania meaning an attitude of in wardness  and fear to people around. it seems that he lives with a constant state of fear and suffering .

would you be able to build a relationship with your nephew that allows him to talk to you about his fears. it is important that you do not try to dispute his beliefs but simply try to understand his experiences. again not to dispute or debate whether what he experiences is true or not but to facilitate a relationship that he trust he can talk to you. if you try to dispute what he is experiencing he will not trust you either.  what he beliefs is happening to him is true for him and if you are telling him that is not a real experience then he will thinl you do not beleif him and he will not trust you. does this make sense to you.

once he even  ran away to escape from his brothers who were chasing him out of fear lest he may hurt himself. and he ended up in a military camp to tell the guards that  his brothers are chasing him to kill him with a pistol which was actually his own imagination.

the mind makes real what it believes is true. this is why you try to understand his experience but not tell him it is his imagination. he does believes these things are true and for him they are true.

Now after a year or more of   repetitive drug treatment he is rather dull and  non responsive,

this is a common effect of anti-psychotic medication. however there are other side effect of the medication that are more damaging than this. unfortunately due to the predominant biomedical model of mental illness there is no other means of help for people having this experience.

If you or any other professional is interested to know the details and about my observations how he developed such an attitude and  the consequent complete detachment from his surrounding, i am willing to give the details.

i would be interested to hear your observation of how your nephew developed these problems

do you mind to give me some details about your professional or related details  so that we know each other .

i am a registered counsellor in the uk, i work for the NHS in primary care mental health. care. i was diagnosed with schizophrenia about 10ish years ago but was discharged and have not taken any medication for 9 years.  i have worked in acute inpatient and community psychiatric services for 2 years. before starting my current job in primary care.

[mikearch]

Dear Mir  SWM
I will try to give my reply in the order you put your questions to me.
1. Yes i would. I have a good relationship in the family. what is difficult is the present state of Henok (the Patient) as i already told you he is completely detached. at times he changes his manners of complete detachment and try to address his immediate needs like food and drink cigarates and the like otherwise its not easy to get an access in to him. if you have a method through which such patients could be addressed i am interested to help him and even help the mother and others around to communicate what i learn gust to give them the guide how to address him.
thank you for your advise that i don't have to try to dispute. i have seen from experience how he behaves towards people who try to explain his situation to him. during such occasions  he turns more mistrustful and aloof .
2. the fact you said about his imagination being real is also true.he has the conviction that every body  around  is conspiring against him. what i have realized is that as a result of the hatred and mistrust he developed ,first towards his father ,next towards the mother ,and latter to the rest of the family and every one around, It seems that he thinks that, as much as the degree of despise and bitterness he feels for others ,others feel the same thing  towards him. i mean that its a sort of projecting his inner state outwards  on to every one else. At start his attitude was that that there is no one honest , clean and loving. what i guess is that  he developed this from witnessing his father abusing his mother. calling her  names, insulting degrading and at times even beating her after coming drank and enraged at mid night. The father also used to tell his sons (the twins of which Henok is one) that their mother was deceitful untrustworthy and she was  having affair with an other man in secret. in my observation this image of the mother is not a truthful and fair one. she is rather obsessed with her children to a degree of spoiling them completely. I suppose she was trying to use her sons as an object of love, a substitute for the love she missed from her husband and as a reason for life. what i feel is that  the father poisoned the feelings of his sons by way of self  justification for his unfair and brute treatment and this without being conscious. this  is at the background of his loss of faith in human goodness and in the existence of love. Before his complete detachment at the climax of his cirsis, what he used to say was that <all is false, that  every thing is pretension and deceit.
There is also a grain of truth in what he believes about the conspiracy around him. this is true as a patient he is detached from the world around. others have common medium through which they communicate. they do have common convictions and understandings about every thing. in his case he has lost all the medium he use to relate himself with others. what he knows about himself and others life and reality is completely different. despite the fact that he is not conscious of this fact but he knows that he is isolated from others.
its also true that others are discussing ,plotting ,and planning about him. he knows this, and this is what he developed in to conspiracy to kill or damage him.
what i want to know is that how could i let him know that we all love him that every one is sad about his situation,that every one is conspiring to get the cure for him. how can i make him trust me that i love him.

3.Tell me what are the damaging effects  of the medication you are mentioning? what can we do about it? when he stops the medication he becomes alive hostile and in a state of panic and restlessness, i can see that the drag is wearing him away its killing him. slowing him down and turning him in to a vegetative animal state where only his metabolism seems to operate this is cruel. this is painful for us who know him while he was alive and cheerful. what can  we do about it?

4.about the details i will tell you in due course. in my openion the problem of a neurotic like Henok is not rooted only in his mind . its the result of confused and unjust relationships around him in which context he found himself as he grew up. as for me the family of the neurotic should undergo the treatment and the counseling. how could you heal Henok while still the abusive relationship of the father and mother is growing worse every day. yet i will tell you more details if you are interested and if it helps you to help me.

5.Thank you for the details you gave me about yourself is that picture i see on the post yours? thank you again for your  considerate response. i hope you will teach me  techniques and other things important for me to help Henok.next time i will try to give you details.keep in touch.
Mike.s

[SWM]

hi, i want to appologise for not responding to you yet. i have a bit too much to do at the minute but i have been thinking about your situation and i will get back to you on this issue.

i hope everything is ok with you and your nephew.

[SWM]

Yes i would. I have a good relationship in the family. what is difficult is the present state of Henok (the Patient) as i already told you he is completely detached. at times he changes his manners of complete detachment and try to address his immediate needs like food and drink cigarates and the like otherwise its not easy to get an access in to him. if you have a method through which such patients could be addressed i am interested to help him and even help the mother and others around to communicate what i learn gust to give them the guide how to address him.
thank you for your advise that i don't have to try to dispute. i have seen from experience how he behaves towards people who try to explain his situation to him. during such occasions  he turns more mistrustful and aloof .

i wish it was so simple that i could give you an instruction of how to address him. this issue is more complexe than such a objective reuqires, confounded further by the fact that i am communicating with you via typing on this forum.

being consistent with your attitude to henok, having a compassionate deisre for his wellbeing, not disputing with him about his beliefs. repsonding attentively to him when he makes an effort to relate with you. these will eb the beginnings of him trusting you again. he has to be able to trust you and his family, trust that you are not wanting to hurt him and trust that you want the best for him. as long as this problem has taken to develop it may take as many years to untangle the network of paranoid ideas that he has accumulated.

the fact you said about his imagination being real is also true.he has the conviction that every body  around  is conspiring against him. what i have realized is that as a result of the hatred and mistrust he developed ,first towards his father ,next towards the mother ,and latter to the rest of the family and every one around, It seems that he thinks that, as much as the degree of despise and bitterness he feels for others ,others feel the same thing  towards him. i mean that its a sort of projecting his inner state outwards  on to every one else. At start his attitude was that that there is no one honest , clean and loving. what i guess is that  he developed this from witnessing his father abusing his mother. calling her  names, insulting degrading and at times even beating her after coming drank and enraged at mid night. The father also used to tell his sons (the twins of which Henok is one) that their mother was deceitful untrustworthy and she was  having affair with an other man in secret. in my observation this image of the mother is not a truthful and fair one. she is rather obsessed with her children to a degree of spoiling them completely. I suppose she was trying to use her sons as an object of love, a substitute for the love she missed from her husband and as a reason for life. what i feel is that  the father poisoned the feelings of his sons by way of self  justification for his unfair and brute treatment and this without being conscious. this  is at the background of his loss of faith in human goodness and in the existence of love. Before his complete detachment at the climax of his cirsis, what he used to say was that <all is false, that  every thing is pretension and deceit.
There is also a grain of truth in what he believes about the conspiracy around him. this is true as a patient he is detached from the world around. others have common medium through which they communicate. they do have common convictions and understandings about every thing. in his case he has lost all the medium he use to relate himself with others. what he knows about himself and others life and reality is completely different. despite the fact that he is not conscious of this fact but he knows that he is isolated from others.
its also true that others are discussing ,plotting ,and planning about him. he knows this, and this is what he developed in to conspiracy to kill or damage him.
what i want to know is that how could i let him know that we all love him that every one is sad about his situation,that every one is conspiring to get the cure for him. how can i make him trust me that i love him.

all that you say makes good sense to me. i can see how the situation and events in henoks life would condition him to be the way he is.

does henok have any insight into his illness? does he believe that he needs help?

Tell me what are the damaging effects  of the medication you are mentioning? what can we do about it? when he stops the medication he becomes alive hostile and in a state of panic and restlessness, i can see that the drag is wearing him away its killing him. slowing him down and turning him in to a vegetative animal state where only his metabolism seems to operate this is cruel. this is painful for us who know him while he was alive and cheerful. what can  we do about it?

unfortunately there is not much that can be done about the medication.  i am not sure which medication henok is taking, all the different types of medication have differernt side effects, common side effects among all the meds is weight gain and increased appetite. exercise and healthy eating would be ideal only people who take these medications do not want to execise and have cravings for high fat/carbs (unhealthy) foods.

the medications have various degrees of effectiveness. and some have real bad side effects. i cannot help you more than this. it would be wrong for me to advise you further.

Thank you for the details you gave me about yourself is that picture i see on the post yours?

this is a picture of the real me

[mikearch]

Dear Mir  SWM
thank you for your considerate  response. I suppose you are engaged with so many people, with all their cases and you have to respond accordingly for so many people. I feel i cant claim so much of your time any more. i will et you know if there is any further development about Henoks Mental condition.
I would like to know whether this massages we are exchanging are open for others. could others have their say i mean proffesionals or others who passec through the same experience.
thank you again.   

[Worsen]

Our brain works all the time .it needs rest.I have some tips for mental health.
1.Avoid depression.
2.Eat healthy food in time.
3.Sleep at time and try to sleep for 7 hours.
4.Try to do morning walk regularly.It makes our brain fresh.