Diet changes: A cure for Schizophrenia?

I hung out with my sister a little bit today. Normally we don't talk about Susan but some how it came up.

She had said that Susan was GETTING BETTER! Not like, just for the past few months, but her symptoms are significantly and CONSISTENTLY improving!

I was really surprised to hear this and I asked my sister why things seemed to be better.

Apparently Susan is on one of those Blood Type Diets. I'm not sure if any of you have heard anything about the BTDs, But they are diets that are unique to your Blood Type. I have heard good things about them. I have even looked into myself before.

So apparently Susan is really sticking to this diet and new way of eating. Not only is she healthier and losing weight, she is actually mentally more focused and clear and her normally present signs of Schizophrenia are consistently diminishing.

Can a change in diet really be a source for curing Schizophrenia?

Of course, I had to look this up and find out for myself. I'm actually pretty excited by all of this, since besides medication and the usual psychotherapy treatments, I have not heard of any other way to treat Schizophrenia.

After browsing some different websites, these are some of the most consistent findings...

People with Schizophrenia generally have a diet high in Sugar, Carbohydrates, Fat and even Caffeine. Decreasing the amounts of Carbs, Sugars, Fats and Caffeine and replacing them with higher levels of Protein and Fiber has shown improvement in symptoms.

It is known that in general, people who suffer with Schizophrenia, as well as depression, show abnormally low levels of Omega 3 Fatty acids and other essential Fatty Acids.

Since the 1970s studies have shown that when Gluten is cut out of the diet, symptoms noticeably improve. Mental Illness consistently shows a sensitivity to Gluten and is believed to trigger psychotic symptoms.

Increasing intake of Antioxidants will decrease Oxidation that occurs in your body and brain.

"Take a daily multivitamin. Niacin deficiency can produce thought disorders, hallucinations and depression, so taking a megadose of niacin daily can help you reduce these symptoms associated with your schizophrenia. Your doctor will work with you on how much you should get daily. In addition, adequate intake of B vitamins and folic acid is responsible for maintaining the chemical balance in your brain. Increasing your intake can help you achieve this balance, thereby alleviating the severity of your schizophrenia symptoms. Finally, many mental illnesses result in a zinc deficiency, so your doctor may recommend taking a multivitamin containing zinc. In some cases, you may have to take these nutrients separately in supplement form because a traditional multivitamin might not have the high levels of the vitamins that you need "

Find more info at: http://www.livestrong.com/article/248779-how-to-use-diet-as-a-treatment-for-schizophrenia/

Pretty freakin' cool if you ask me. I'm digging this. I mean, EVERYONE, no matter who you are should be on a good diet anyways. Its easy and simple to do and it has shown to have great affects on all different kinds of Mental Illness!

Sigh... however... there is one downfall....

Many times, those who suffer with Schizophrenia are very wary of any recommendations made by Mental Health Care Professionals, even when its just a few simple diets changes. Often times, a delusional person may think that there is some kind of conspiracy being cooked up against them that somehow implements the recommended diets. Also, many delusions revolve around the belief of certain (if not all) foods being poisoned.

Even so, I am pretty happy to hear this news. To know first hand from my sister that there are noticeable improvements when some very simple changes are made.

Spread the word!

Parents... Just a vent.

I have some serious parental figure issues. I've known it for while but lately, since the beginning of our move into my MIL's house, its really been rearing its ugly head.

My husband and I are from two totally different worlds. He is an only child, came from a devout Catholic family who spent practically every minute of the day, out side of work, together. Their threesome was very tight knit and he enjoyed his time, activities and vacations with his parents. They were always there to help him whether it be with money or other things. They were just always there... like... all the time.

Me on the other hand, am the youngest of the 9 children in my family. My family's religious practices were barely existant and we hardly saw each other. We were all always on our own doing our own thing. Our family was estranged, even though we all lived under the same roof. I didn't know my older brothers well and never spent time with them. My dad was always gone for work, and during my teen years had pretty much no involvement in my life. I helped to take care of Susan as if she were my child, so she really was never viewed as a parent at all...

I think you get the point... the list goes on and on... my husband and I are just totally opposites...

But, OPPOSITES attract!

So that's good news. We really get along great. In fact, we are head-over-heels in love with each other!! We have all the same interests, same sense of humor, same hobbies, same hopes and dreams... Our personalities however, are largely based on how we were raised.

Let me cut to the chase, cause I really could go on forever about this...

His mom drives me NUTS! Oh yes, I said it, and I don't regret it either.

She is always in our business, telling us what to do, doing everything in her power to control how we live our lives. Constantly calling, wanting to know where we are and what we are doing. What our work schedules are, did we get our bills paid on time... etc etc...

I on the other hand have a mother that really couldn't care less what I do, where I go or where I work. While she made her opinions about her paranoid ideas very well known, she really minded her own business once I moved out on my own. When I did talk to her, it was brief, "how's the weather" kind of thing, and phone calls were only made when she needed help with something.

I think, and this is just my opinion, that my MIL will always see her son as a little child and my mom will always see me as an adult, or at the very least, her equal.

I really could go on pages and pages about the differences between my upbringing and his upbringing, my mom and his mom, my ideas of what parenting should be and his ideas of what it should be, etc... But I won't...

I've always wondered what having a "normal" mother would be like. Then I take a look at my MIL and the way she is with me and my husband and I am just in shock! Are we ALL nuts?! What is normal anyways? Neither Susan or my MIL is normal by any standards. They are both one extreme to another. One way too involved and the other not ever really involved at all.

Being a mother myself, I often wonder what a "normal" mother would be... I often wonder what I can do to be in the happy medium of where my Mom and my MIL currently are.

So what is right and what is normal? Are us parents just destined to screw up and be crazy no matter what we do?!

Schizophrenia: Science Vs. Religion

Through out my years of discussing Susan's condition, and the matter of Schizophrenia, I have repeatedly been asked the same question... Could Schizophrenia be linked to spiritual possession?

My automatic answer would be no, that Schizophrenia is a mental illness and nothing more. But when I really think about it, and look back at my own personal experiences with Susan, I can't help but wonder if there is any truth to the possibility of possession by an evil spirit.

I am a religious person, but I am not fanatical. While I have a basic belief in Christianity, the majority of my beliefs are based on my own thoughts, feelings, and experiences. I am very interested in people's beliefs of things (or lack thereof) and befriend those with many different religious backgrounds. Religion has always fascinated me, especially because it seems that no one person has the exact same beliefs as any other person on the planet.

I personally, do believe that Possession is possible. I suppose that I believe this based on some of my personal experiences growing up. During my teen years, while moving between different houses and apartments, there always seemed to be a creepy and evil feeling that followed us around. I was not the only one who noticed it. My brother and sister noticed as much as I did and we talked about it on a regular basis. We all had our strange encounters and experiences with the evil feeling, but there are far too many to discuss. We would talk about the "haunting" like it was just another thing that happened that day. We were very frank and matter of fact about it.

There was one house in particular that we believed to be "haunted". Haunted by what, I do not know. I am not saying that there were ghosts in my house, but I am not saying that there weren't. Without going into detail (I could write a full Blog just about the things that happened in that house) I can at least say that a very evil feeling permeated every square inch of that house.

Strange and unnatural noises came from other rooms, the ceilings, walls, etc. We all heard them, and they were bone-chilling. While me and my siblings believed that they were supernatural, Susan did not. It was Susan's belief that the strange noises, especially the ones that came from the ceilings, were due to the "Mexicans who danced on our roof and laughed at her". Whenever there was a lot of noise going on through out the house she would run out in to the front and back yards and examined the roof. She would yell up at the "Dancing Mexicans" or whoever she believed was up there at the time, and ask them why they were bothering us and yell at them to go away and leave her alone. On some occasions she would see the Mexicans on our roof, other times she only heard them.

I only bring up the house because of the "evil" feeling, since possession and evil go hand in hand. It also illustrates some of the reasons I believe that Possession is possible. If evil can come into a house, then why not a person?

After growing tired of the awful feeling in our house, my brother took it upon himself to have a man from our church come and give our house a blessing. I was present, yet skeptical, and to my surprise the energy and feeling in the house vastly improved immediately after the blessing. Susan later revealed something strange to my sister, that during the blessing she felt something inside her stir, as if it were disturbed by what had just taken place. She physically felt something move inside of her. When asked about what she had said later, she refused to have ever made such a comment.

I often wondered through out the years if my mom was possessed. I mentioned in an earlier Blog that during her Psychotic Episodes, her eyes would dramatically change. When Susan was experiencing Psychosis, her eyes looked like they did not belong to her, they were, in a word, Demonic. We have all heard the saying that "The eyes are the window to the soul". If this saying holds any truth, then I can't help but wonder what was in Mom's soul, for her eyes were nothing short of frightening.

I heard a story from an older brother of mine. When he was a teenager, he had a strange confrontation with Susan. Susan is a large woman and possesses little strength. Moving something heavier than 10 lbs was difficult for her. My brother, even as a teenager, is a very tall man. He weighed a nice healthy weight for his height so he had a pretty solid build.

During this confrontation, it is said that Susan picked my brother up off the floor by his throat and pinned him up against the wall, feet off of the floor. Unable to pry her fingers from around his throat, and unable to run away since he had no contact with the ground, he was at Mom's mercy and looked down into her eyes. To his dismay, he found a blank face, mouth hanging open, and eyes that flickered back and forth in her sockets at an unnatural speed. To this day he remains convinced that Susan is possessed by an evil spirit, based on this and other experiences.

The description is strange and since I was not there, I cannot describe any of the story in great accuracy or detail. However, knowing Susan, it is not surprising or unbelievable. During the times that she was experiencing Psychosis, I often felt a very frightening and unsettling feeling as I watched her shout and throw things around.

It is a controversial subject, especially for those who do not have religious beliefs or do not believe in the possibility of spiritual possession. In the online support forums that I follow, religion is NOT a good subject to ever bring up, especially among the Schizophrenics. Religion is met with much resistance and anger and any chance of open mindedness on the topic simply does not exist. However, as I said, based on my experiences, I would not rule Possession out as a possibility.

So which is it? Mental Illness or Spiritual Possession? I personally believe, that they both can exist separately, and can also exist simultaneously in a person. I believe that Susan was both a victim of Mental Illness as well as Possession, based on my experiences of her.

I have been taught, as I'm sure others who have been raised with a religious background, that Satan preys on a person during times of darkness or vulnerability. If a Mentally Ill person is not vulnerable, then I don't know what is! Could it be possible that because of Susan's Illness she was susceptible to being Possessed? I suppose that I will never know.

I know that the question will be asked again and again as I continue to share my story through out my life, and my answer will always be, "I have considered that, but its hard to say". Mental Illness is a very real thing, and Possession? To many, not so much. I guess it just depends on your take of it. While Mental Illness seems a more believable cause, since it is backed up by medical and scientific facts, I would choose not to rule out other possibilities.

Statistics: Poverty, Crime, and Violence

Today I was checking out one of my favorite websites, www.Schizophrenia.com I've learned most of what I have learned about Schizophrenia, and other Mental Illnesses, from this one site. There is information about everything from the symptoms, to laws and Statistics about Schizophrenia. If you ever have some time on your hands, and would like to learn more about Schizophrenia, its a great resource.

While checking out the site, I found some pretty interesting information. Information that I think will help show how serious and negative the effects of Schizophrenia are. Here are some brief facts surrounding poverty, crime, and violence linked to Schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia and Poverty

Approximately 200,000 individuals with schizophrenia or manic-depressive (bipolar disorder) illness are homeless, constituting one-third of the approximately 600,000 homeless population (total homeless population statistic based on data from Department of Health and Human Services). These 200,000 individuals comprise more than the entire population of many U.S. cities, such as Hartford, Connecticut; Charleston, South Carolina; Reno, Nevada; Boise, Idaho; Scottsdale, Arizona; Orlando, Florida; Winston Salem, North Carolina; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Abilene, Texas or Topeka, Kansas. At any given time, there are more people with untreated severe psychiatric illnesses living on America’s streets than are receiving care in hospitals. Approximately 90,000 individuals with schizophrenia or manic-depressive illness are in hospitals receiving treatment for their disease.

Schizophrenia and Violence

People with schizophrenia are far more likely to harm themselves than be violent toward the public. Violence is not a symptom of schizophrenia.

News and entertainment media tend to link mental illnesses including schizophrenia to criminal violence. Most people with schizophrenia, however, are not violent toward others but are withdrawn and prefer to be left alone. Drug or alcohol abuse raises the risk of violence in people with schizophrenia, particularly if the illness is untreated, but also in people who have no mental illness. When violence does occur, it is most frequently targeted at family members and friends, and more often takes place at home.

Substance abuse (i.e. street drugs and alcohol) significantly raises the rate of violence in people with schizophrenia, as is also the case with people who do not have any mental illness. People with paranoid and psychotic symptoms, which can become worse if medications are discontinued, may also be at higher risk for violent behavior.

Schizophrenia and Homicide

In Out of the Shadows, published by John Wiley & Sons earlier this year, I estimated that there are now approximately 1000 homicides a year committed by individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, almost all of whom were not taking medication at the time of the homicide. My estimate was based on all cases in a metropolitan area of 4 million people for 1 year, then extrapolated to the whole country. Anecdotal evidence suggests that such cases are not unique to urban areas so I think such extrapolation is reasonable. To date, nobody has challenged this 1000/year estimate. Altogether in the US there are approximately 24,000 homicides a year.

Schizophrenia and Jail

The vast majority of people with schizophrenia who are in jail have been charged with misdemeanors such as trespassing.

As many as one in five (20%) of the 2.1 million Americans in jail and prison are seriously mentally ill, far outnumbering the number of mentally ill who are in mental hospitals, according to a comprehensive study. Source: Human Rights Watch

The American Psychiatric Association estimated in 2000 that one in five prisoners were seriously mentally ill, with up to 5 percent actively psychotic at any given moment.

In 1999, the statistical arm of the Justice Department estimated that 16 percent of state and federal prisoners and inmates in jails were suffering from mental illness. These illnesses included schizophrenia, manic depression (or bipolar disorder) and major depression.

The figures are higher for female inmates, the report says. The Justice Department study found that 29 percent of white female inmates, 22 percent of Hispanic female inmates and 20 percent of black female inmates were identified as mentally ill.

Many individuals with schizophrenia revolve between hospitals, jails and shelters. In Illinois 30% of patients discharged from state psychiatric hospitals are re-hospitalized within 30 days. In New York 60% of discharged patients are re-hospitalized within a year.

As you can see, the numbers are alarming. And many of these issues are a direct result of non-treatment, or improper treatment, of Mental Illnesses.

Keeping in mind that the majority of these types of issues are committed by those who are NOT mentally ill is important. Not all people who suffer with Schizophrenia fit into this category. However, I find it sad that any person with a serious Mental Illness, fits into this category at all. I wonder what the numbers would look like if there were better treatments and courses of action to aide those in need?