Schizophrenia

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Tuesday, April 18. 2023

I don't know why The Atlantic presents this as "an American Problem": The Atlantic’s May Cover Story: “American Madness”. Jonathan Rosen writes about his childhood best friend’s schizophrenic break, and America’s ongoing failure to help the mentally ill.

The varieties of presentations under the umbrella of Schizophrenia worldwide is around 0.3 %. Not rare. There are no cures, but there are things than can help these people somewhat, if they want them. I do not know what % of the street people they represent.

In the old days, non-functional and irrational people were kept in the attic or basement, or situated in asylums and sanitariums. With modern medicines, people can do somewhat better if they accept treatment and reasonable support for a lifetime. In the US, that is voluntary.

Like the author of the article, a good pal in my freshman year in college descended into psychosis. I watched the darkness and dysfunction descend until his parents took him home. Tragic. I wonder what happened.

Posted by Bird Dog in Medical at 15:08 | Comments (15) | Trackbacks (0)

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Some of the medications help. The problem is that the afflicted person doesn't understand his condition and if given a choice will refuse help. Help usually is not a pleasant process for them. Another problem is that the medication often makes them feel worse than their unmedicated symptoms do. And to make things worse if the medication works the patient feels good and sees no reason to continue the medication which by the way makes them feel worse than they feel when they are not medicated. It is a vicious cycle.

This became an "American problem" when the ACLU intervened. It is impossible today to commit someone for more than a week or so and many of these people need life long help. So they wander the streets until they do something sufficiently wrong to cause an arrest and then they get committed for a week or so, given a prescription and released ad infinitum.

#1 OneGuy on 2023-04-18 16:22 (Reply)

The problem with psych meds is that they don't actually fix the underlying problem, and some of them come with significant side effects. This of course is driven by the even more fundamental problem that psychiatry is not a legitimate science. None of the diagnosed psych conditions are traceable to any underlying molecular biology of the brain. There is no etiology. In other word, psychiatry is essentially the medical equivalent to medieval alchemy.

#1.1 Abelard Lindsey on 2023-04-18 19:18 (Reply)

Yes, exactly. Some practitioners mean well, but none of them know what they are doing, and none of them can show evidence that what they do improves outcomes.

#1.1.1 Hairless Joe on 2023-04-19 08:43 (Reply)

I feel for people of all medical/mental conditions. But, I have watched as our young people have disintegrated over the past 30 years. No energy, no hope. For young men, it is even worse because of the position that the femnazis have taken regarding young boys in the classroom. Drug em or destroy em! A part, albeit a small part of today's problem with young people is an absentee father. Locked out by the courts in one way or another.

#2 faculty wife on 2023-04-18 17:25 (Reply)

What the Atlantic article leaves out is why deinstitutionalization was done in the first place. Prior to it, people were often institutionalized even when they were perfectly functional (e.g. could hold down a job and make money) simply because someone else might say they were crazy. People were also institutionalized for political reasons as well. It is worth considering that the percentage of the total population that was institutionalized in the 1950's is comparable to the incarcerated today. At least there is due process with criminal prosecution.

Given how the left is hellbent on crushing dissent against anything they favor, is it not likely they would try to institutionalize their opponents if they thought they could get away with it?

The current system may not be good. But it is still better than what we had in the 1950's.

#3 Abelard Lindsey on 2023-04-18 17:33 (Reply)

One other point left out by the Atlantic article. Deinstitutionalization took place during Reagan's first term in office 40 years ago. Homelessness in most places really did not become an issue until about 10, at most, 15 years ago. This deinstitutionalization cannot be blamed for the homeless problem.

#4 Abelard Lindsey on 2023-04-18 17:36 (Reply)

What would the late Thomas Szasz say?

#5 snopercod on 2023-04-18 18:19 (Reply)

You know perfectly well why they call it an American problem.

#6 Dave on 2023-04-18 19:12 (Reply)

Yes: Because the article is from The Atlantic. Once I followed the link and saw that, I knew exactly what to expect. I was not disappointed.

#6.1 Hairless Joe on 2023-04-19 08:40 (Reply)

Oh, we know why the Atlantic author presents this as "an American Problem."

#7 Erasmus on 2023-04-18 19:34 (Reply)

As long as the treatment is voluntary there will be no solution. The legal system ended the ability to keep patients in the system where they could be treated. I had an aunt that required institutional care for most of her life and would have never survived on the street and would never have self medicated on her own. I also lived in a mid-sized city that had a VA facility that specialized in mentally ill veterans. Some were let out during the day to function on their own but it was obvious that they had mental issues when you interacted with them. None of them could be legally held to contracts but you still gave them respect as human beings and those that would get day passes were not violent or troublemakers.
With the current political system of progressive marxists, it would be no surprise to see them weaponize the mental health institutions to rid themselves of political enemies just as they have weaponized the law to go after political enemies. The law is being used as a weapon and I will not agree to more law.

#8 indyjonesouthere on 2023-04-18 21:48 (Reply)

At least you are never alone with schizophrenia.
Just don't be sadistic and sale castles in the sky to them.
The nearby former scary mental asylum is now particle board apartments for the replacements.
The head shrinker threw me out years ago for crapping on the Big Pharm drugs like it was blasphemy and it didn't matter how miserable the pills would make you feel.

#9 Mental Health Outline on 2023-04-18 22:13 (Reply)

For street people the mnemonic is CATO
40% Crazy
30% Addicts
20% Tramps (like the lifestyle)
10% Out of luck

#10 rhhardin on 2023-04-19 06:46 (Reply)

This is very interesting to read. It is by the mother of a schizophrenic son. This is a family with intelligent, educated parents who understand their son's illness, a compliant schizophrenic prison, and the family can afford a lot of the options available to treat their son. It was still an incredibly difficult journey for them.

https://a.co/d/08Senxq
Joan Esterline Lafuze Ph.D.
Dad Named Me Robert: Let's Talk About Mental Illness

Related...

A long time ago, I read an newspaper or magazine article written by a woman whose schizophrenic brother had died, freezing to death on the streets of NYC. Her family had the money, the resources, and the love to do anything to help her brother, but they were not able to legally have him committed for any length of time. He was not considered a danger to himself (even though he froze to death) or to others. He'd be hospitalized, his medications would stabilize him, they're bring him home.... And he'd run away to live on the streets of Manhattan. The family had loads of money and could hire (and did) full time nursing care to help him.. But they couldn't lock him up in the house.

#11 Lee Also on 2023-04-19 17:31 (Reply)

This is available from Amazon for $1.49: My Brother Ron: A Personal and Social History of the Deinstitutionalization of the Mentally Ill , by Clayton Cramer.

QUOTE:

America started a grand experiment in the 1960s: deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill. The consequences were very destructive: homelessness; a degradation of urban life; increases in violent crime rates; increasing death rates for the mentally ill. My Brother Ron tells the story of deinstitutionalization from two points of view: what happened to the author's older brother, part of the first generation of those who became mentally ill after deinstitutionalization, and a detailed history of how and why America went down this path. My Brother Ron examines the multiple strands that came together to create the perfect storm that was deinstitutionalization: a well-meaning concern about the poor conditions of many state mental hospitals; a giddy optimism by the psychiatric profession in the ability of new drugs to cure the mentally ill; a rigid ideological approach to due process that ignored that the beneficiaries would end up starving to death or dying of exposure.

From Slate Star Codex:Review of My Brother Ron. As usual with SSC, it goes into great detail.

#12 Gringo on 2023-04-21 17:12 (Reply)

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Tuesday, April 18. 2023

Schizophrenia