The article stated that there are many doctors up in arms over the UK’s decision, claiming this law basically says ‘quacks’ are okay.  A conflicting viewpoint was put across that really it ought to be the patient’s choice which sort of treatment they take, either herbal or pharmaceutical.  The article also noted that one such herbal remedy under contention is St John’s Wort, as used in the treatment of depression.

I think the key here is ‘choice’.  Last I checked, the US and UK supposedly invaded the Middle East under the pretense of bringing ‘democracy’, yes?  And I appreciate that a little government intervention is necessary from time to time, but when it comes to our health, shouldn’t it be up to us what we put in our bodies?

Example 1:

Many of my good friends have neurological conditions.  One such friend was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder a couple years ago.  He tried prescribed medications for a while, but they only seemed to make him worse, so he stopped, and started exploring his options.  He struck upon a vitamin regime that did not cure his symptoms, but it did improve things greatly for him.  Unfortunately, by that point so much damage had already been done at his job, due to his condition going undiagnosed for so long and due to his colleagues being small-minded and not accepting / understanding him once the diagnosis was made.  My friend has been severely bullied at work for a long time now, and the abuse built up to a point where he just couldn’t handle it anymore.  He felt so low, he went back to the doctor, and in his vulnerable state, he agreed to try a new prescription.

He went on a course of Sertroline (Zoloft in the States) – something I took myself, many years ago, and which had greatly detrimental affects on my mental health.  In my experience, I was a guinea pig for this ‘miracle drug’, and when things went wrong, the doctors were suddenly uncontactable.  In my friend’s case,  he sank lower and lower over a period of six weeks, until one morning his partner found him slicing open his own wrists.  Thank God my friend does not live alone, else he would have died.  Instead, though, he was rushed to hospital and saved.

One could argue he was depressed anyway, so how can you say this was caused by the drug?  Except my friend has never been suicidal before – and if you look around the internet, you will see there are several class action suits being filed in connection with this and other such drugs due to unprecedented violent acts on the part of patients taking these prescriptions – and when I was taking the drug myself, after sinking into a suicidal state unlike anything I’d ever experienced before (not to mention developing schizophrenic symptoms), I read in the list of side effects contained in the medication box that this ‘anti-depressant’ and ‘anti-anxiety’ tablet could, in fact, cause ‘anxiety’ and ‘suicidal ideation’.

The day before my friend started self-harming, he had gone to see his doctor again and told him how depressed he was feeling since taking the drug.  The doctor’s reply was to increase the dosage!  And might I add that never was there any suggestion to see a psychologist who could help him work through his pain, even alongside the medication.  This, too, has been my own experience: unless I begged for a psychologist and absolutely insisted upon it, it was not given to me.

I’m not saying the drugs don’t work for everyone.  But I have spoken to many fellow diagnosees (if there is such a word!), read many books on these subjects, and have tried a variety of medications myself.  The general consensus seems to be that for some people these medications work – for others, it is helpful to take the drugs on a short-term basis alongside some other form of psychological therapy, so that they feel a boost in spirits and clarity to enable them to focus on the therapy and learn the long-term techniques to help themselves.  For others still (myself included), the drugs do not have any affect on the actual condition, but they do induce a lot of nasty side effects.

Another point to mention is that I believe we focus so much on the diagnosis, we forget about the ‘little’ things, like sleep and diet.  For instance, I have started on a vitamin regime (similar to my friend’s) that has meant at long last, I sleep at night and I wake up refreshed.  This has in no way cured my symptoms – but just getting that sleep has de-stressed my body and mind so much, my symptoms have become much more bearable.  I also tried a year of talking therapy and discovered that much of the pain and volatility within me was due to experience, not the diagnosed conditions themselves.  Through this therapy, much of my frustration and unhappiness was healed.

The point is: it should be our choice.  I don’t know about you, but I do not want to live in a nation governed by people who decide what we’re allowed to put into our bodies in the name of health.  There is a reason these chemical compounds are called ‘drugs’ – they have the potential to be dangerous, depending on who takes them and for how long.

I think people often view doctors as all-knowing, but it’s so important that we step back and remember the human body is not a machine.  You can’t call up Tech Support when something goes wrong, have them run a few diagnostic checks and come out with a foolproof solution.

Example:

Just last year I developed some kind of infection that required antibiotics.  I was given a basic prescription, and within 15 minutes of taking the drug as prescribed, my temperature shot up to 105F, I lost feeling in the right side of my body and my chest started seizing up.  I was in absolute terror.  My husband threw warm wet flannels over me to bring down the temperature, and slowly I came back to health.  We spoke to a nurse who said it was a result of the drug, because apparently you shouldn’t take that particular pill if you have neurological conditions – which no one bothered to check when giving the prescription.  I spoke to a doctor who prescribed a new drug and his response was, ‘There’s nothing wrong with the antibiotic – that should not have happened to you.’  Yes, but it did happen.  But he just kept saying, ‘It shouldn’t have.’

Doctors do not have all the answers, despite how advanced they are.  They particularly do not have all the answers when it comes to the brain.  I would also argue there is a huge issue of spirit involved, when delving into matters of the psyche, i.e. some scientists believe everything is down to chemical reactions, and others believe there’s something more to it, something beyond the body.  There’s no way to prove it either way.

So do I think the UK government has just said it’s okay for ‘quacks’ to practise in our nation?  No.  I believe they just reaffirmed our right to choose – which is just how things should be in a so-called democracy.

I just pray we keep it that way.

Vrinda Pendred

Editor & Founder

]]> http://conditionalpublications.com/2011/02/23/herbal-or-pharmaceutical-your-choice/feed/ 1 http://conditionalpublications.com/2011/02/14/schizophrenia-missing-reality-a-personal-account/ http://conditionalpublications.com/2011/02/14/schizophrenia-missing-reality-a-personal-account/#respond Mon, 14 Feb 2011 13:59:57 +0000 http://conditionalpublications.com/?p=678 Schizophrenia: Missing Reality

By Katherine Walters

NOTE: This story contains brief sexual and violent references that some people might find upsetting – though the outcome is inspiring.  We aim to be honest here, so we have included the story in full.  Please only read if you feel comfortable with this sort of material.

People want to kill you.  There is a person right on the other side of the door waiting to shoot you.  If you go outside, you will get kidnapped.  In your bedroom is a man who wants to rape you.

I was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia when I was 20 years old, but really, it started when I was 17.  I would hear voices mumbling, as if they were right on the other side of the wall.  I had terrifying hallucinations, once seeing a man with an axe attempting to chop down the canopy around my bed so he could get to me.  But I kept it secret.  Not only was I afraid of my hallucinations, but I was afraid of admitting that I had them.  I also became increasingly paranoid that people were out to get me; people wanted to hurt or kill me.

When I was 20, I finally saw a psychiatrist about these symptoms.  I was withdrawing from people and having trouble functioning.  My performance in school and at work was declining.  At the end of my first appointment with the psychiatrist, I asked her what she thought was wrong with me.  She could only tell me that she had a few ideas but needed to understand more of what I was going through.  A couple weeks later, I showed up at the local psychiatric hospital to be evaluated because I was suicidal and very paranoid that absolutely everyone was out to get me.  I was admitted to the hospital for an 11-day stay.  I was in the midst of my first psychotic episode and my psychiatrist was struggling to find a medicine that could help me without producing too many side effects.

I spent my 21st birthday in that hospital.  Then I spent St. Patrick’s Day in the hospital, followed by Easter, Memorial Day, and Independence Day.  That year, 2009, I was hospitalized 11 times in three different hospitals.  I was constantly suicidal and constantly hallucinating.  I had, as I was later told by my second psychiatrist, a string of psychotic episodes that summer.  I was also told that at the time, the doctors in the hospital treating me weren’t sure that I would ever be able to function independently again.  They thought I would eventually need to be placed in a long-term treatment center.

With the start of the fall semester in college, my junior year, I finally began to come back to reality.  Slowly my grades began increasing, my relationships with people (including my fiancé) improved, and overall I began to accept my diagnosis and educate myself about it.  I had (and still do) a stubborn streak that allowed me to become more involved in treatment decisions because I didn’t want to blindly accept what my doctors and therapists told me.  I wanted to know what I could expect from my illness and how to overcome it.

In contrast to when I was 17, I was no longer embarrassed by my diagnosis.  I told all of my friends because I knew the real ones would stick with me regardless.  I was surprised to find  that none of them had any qualms about being friends with a schizophrenic.  Instead, they were all very supportive.

In 2010, I was functioning much better.  I hadn’t been hospitalized since September 2009 and my grades were returning to what was typical of me, As and Bs.  I realized  I had learned so much about schizophrenia that I might be able to help others.  On an online support forum, I wrote an article to the parents of schizophrenics entitled “How to Help: For Parents and Caregivers”.  It was received with gratefulness as parents learned to understand what their schizophrenic child was going through, and ways they could help.  I also started my own website called “A Schizophrenic and A Dog” and published that same article on the website, where again I was told how thankful parents were for the insight I could provide.

At the same time that I was helping others, I was learning to help myself.  I developed coping skills to deal with anxiety, hopelessness, and paranoia.  I learned how to ignore hallucinations.  I learned how to “reality-check” delusions; how to test them and prove them to be illogical so that they could also be ignored.  I used a service dog to help me get back into public without such a strong fear of the world around me.

Early in 2010, my fiancé broke up with me for a variety of reasons, my diagnosis included in those reasons.  However, this didn’t cause as much of a setback as I expected.  I got through the grief and moved on.  In time I accepted the breakup and learned that it gave me a chance to continue to grow more independent.

However, despite my progress, my delusion that people are out to get me has persisted.  I spend every single day afraid I will be murdered, raped, or kidnapped.  When I go to class, even with my service dog present, there is a nagging fear in the back of my mind telling me that my classmates are going to kill me.  When I go grocery shopping or to the mall, I suspect every person I see would like to harm me in some manner.  I hear voices that tell me to kill myself every time I take my medicine.

I feel like sometimes I am missing reality.  In reality, no one wants to harm me and no one is telling me to harm myself.  In reality, my classmates are just trying to make it through the same class as I am.  In reality, the people in the mall are just wondering what store they want to go to next or which shirt they like best.  I often feel I am straddling the line between sane and insane.  Luckily, most days I stand even on that line and make my way through the world just like every other person.

Click here to read more of Katherine’s inspiring words at her regularly updated website

]]> http://conditionalpublications.com/2011/02/14/schizophrenia-missing-reality-a-personal-account/feed/ 0 http://conditionalpublications.com/2011/01/24/neuro-atypical-we-are-all-x-men/ http://conditionalpublications.com/2011/01/24/neuro-atypical-we-are-all-x-men/#comments Mon, 24 Jan 2011 20:24:37 +0000 http://conditionalpublications.com/?p=444 Okay, who watched X-Men 3: The Last Stand and felt like, in many ways, it was the story of their life?  Not with me?  Let me explain.

In a nutshell: the authorities have discovered a new drug to ‘cure’ the mutants of their ‘abnormalities’.  Mutants queue up in the thousands to receive this ‘cure’, but Magneto does everything in his power to sabotage it.  Magneto believes the mutants are special for their ‘unnatural’ abilities.  He thinks they should revel in their differences.  He takes this view to the extremes, sadly…but each time I’ve watched the film, I couldn’t help thinking how much it was like the struggle of living with a neurological condition.

There are ‘cures’ out there, and they are unarguably a godsend for people who can’t function in life without them…but for those of us who – if properly motivated – could find alternative means of dealing with these conditions…do we need a ‘cure’?  Are we that damaged, or do we just have different types of brains that lead to different thinking styles, different ways of feeling and responding, different abilities (just like everyone in the world, really)?

They called it ‘The Last Stand’ – I know where I stand on these issues, but where do you?

I suppose I’m a bit more like Professor Xavier: I believe in allowing the ‘mutants’ to make up their own minds on this subject, rather than tricking and bludgeoning them into agreeing with my perspective, as Magneto did.  But for what it’s worth, I like to think that there are darker sides to these conditions that we should fight.  It’s wrong to sink into them until they consume us and we lose ourselves.  That is illness.  Some people can’t help falling prey to this illness, because their brains won’t allow it, and I appreciate they need the drugs.

But for the rest of us, perhaps we’re overmedicating – and not just with prescriptions.  Perhaps we spend too much time feeling shameful about our brains being a little bit different, and we forget that all brains are different, that there is no such thing as a normal brain.  Perhaps we forget that our brains have made us who we are, through chemicals, neurons and the life experience they have given to us.  Do we really hate ourselves so much that we’d risk losing our personalities (those drugs are definitely mind-altering – I speak from experience) just to remove symptoms that are often only so bad because others around us don’t accept them?

I have said for years that if the world accepted our differences, we could find a way to live comfortably enough with a vast proportion of our symptoms.  This was the inspiration behind my story The Royal Bank of Scotland.  To add to that story, perhaps in such an acceptant world, we would also feel less afraid to seek help for the symptoms that aren’t so easy to manage, because there would be less stigma involved.

What do you think? Vrinda Pendred Editor & Founder

The Royal Bank of Scotland can be found in Check Mates: A Collection of Fiction, Poetry & Artwork about Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, by People with OCD, available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.

Click below to order Check Mates now

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The best day of my life was the morning I woke up, having taken medication for my symptoms for the first time the night before.  For the past year, I had awakened and instantly burst into tears upon recognizing I hadn’t died in my sleep.  That morning, I woke up, shut off my alarm clock, and made it all the way downstairs before I realized I didn’t mind being alive.  For the first time, I wondered if things just might get a little better.

I have been on 7 medications in various combinations and doses.  I have contamination fears and cleansing rituals, compulsive checking, intrusive images that appear in front of me, and voices in my head.  Medication doesn’t cure a mental health patient, but it helps clear my head, so I can focus on working to make myself better.  It’s exhausting and terrifying work, but I know someday I’ll leave my house and show myself as me, and not through the lens of a diagnosis.

When I work through therapy, I have a mantra that helps me through it.  I repeat to myself, “I will not die under a diagnosis.”  When I’m finally done living, hopefully to a ripe old age, I want to die having lived at least one day in perfect freedom.  I can’t wait for that day when OCD will be a distant memory, and I know if I keep working, I’ll get there.  But for now, there are exactly 300 words in this text.

‘Kristen’

Click below to order Check Mates, the first ever collection of fiction poetry and artwork about OCD

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