Tag / mental illness

by karentwinem

A Dozen Ways to Love Someone With Mental Illness

It takes enormous courage and determination to live positively with a serious mental illness. But it can happen.  And we can help.  We can respect and protect our loved one’s deep vulnerability.

Here are a dozen ways to offer that support, based on material from NAMI’s Family-to-Family program.

  1. Don’t nag or criticize.  People who have a mental illness are unable to defend themselves against a direct personal attack.  Despite irritation, try to be supportive. Keep negative and nagging remarks to a minimum.
  2. Don’t push or punish.  It doesn’t work.  It will be hard on both of you.  And it is highly correlated to decompensation and relapse.
  3. Praise positive behavior and ignore negative behavior. This is the best way to influence your loved one’s behavior is to praise the positive.  Studies show your loved one will want to perform the behaviors that earn them recognition and approval.
  4. Learn to recognize and accept symptoms.  We wouldn’t get furious if a person with epilepsy had a seizure.  So we need to accept that some behaviors are the direct result of the illness.  Don’t argue with delusions.  Don’t try to talk someone out of a clinic depression.  Also, help your loved one understand that symptoms are not their fault, but part of the illness.  Some symptoms can be controlled with treatment, including medications.
  5. Stand up to the stigma.  People with mental illness are not bad people.  They are people with a bad disease.  They are not trying to embarrass or anger us.
  6. Lower your expectations for your relationship.  Then lower them again. People with mental illness do not have the capacity to provide emotional support to us. Get help from other places.
  7. Treat them like other people.  At the same time, set basic rules and limits for the whole family.  Structure is almost always helpful.
  8. Encourage steps toward independence.  When your loved one is ready, encourage them to take small steps toward being more independent.  But keep your expectations reasonable.
  9. Don’t dwell on “what might have been.”  Accept the illness.  Still, don’t give up hope.  We need to tell our loved ones that the illness can make things difficult.  But a happy life is still possible.  People do adapt.  Some people actually get much better.
  10. Be patient in health, as well as in sickness. When our loved ones improve, stay patient and loving. It takes time to develop a lifestyle that protects them from becoming ill again.
  11. Be gentle with yourself and others in the family.  This is a marathon, not a sprint. Mental illness is often cyclical, so things will get better, then worse and then better again.
  12. Pray for grace.  Ask for tolerance, compassion, endurance and self-control.  Sometimes only God can give you the attitude you need.
by karentwinem

Understand the Inner Life of a Loved One With Mental Illness

Have you ever gone 24 hours without sleep? 48 hours? How did you feel?  How did you look?

Dozed off for a second, awakened with a start and didn’t know where you were?  Lost your sunglasses or car keys and no matter what you did, you couldn’t find them?   Gone driving down a road when your sense of direction got mixed up? Had a song stuck in your head that would not go away? How would you feel if that song stayed for a month or more?

Now let’s put three or more of these items together.  Say you’d hadn’t slept for three days, you heard the same music going on and on in your head, and you couldn‘t find your keys.  How would you feel?

That thought experiment gives you just a hint of the inner life of a person with mental illness. Even in remission and even when properly medicated, chronic mental illness leaves its sufferers in a devastating limbo.

Many people with mental illness are effectively cut off from the predictable, rewarding, self-fulfilling live involvements that make existence meaningful.  They suffer deeply from their inability to be competent and successful in their daily lives.

This threatens our loved ones’ psychological integrity.  It sets up a process where they feel they must protect their “core self” at all cost.

Many behaviors that result – refusing medication, rejecting family support and community programs and disrupting family life, for example – don’t make sense to us. Yet they are directly related to their struggle to maintain some dignity and self-respect in the face of stigma, failure and shame.

Psychological traumas are associated with any serious chronic illness.

 Whenever a person has a serious chronic illness …. COPD, emphysema, chronic heart disease, or a mental illness … two things happen to the sense of self.

First, they lose their protective belief that they are exempt from harm. Much of our sense of safety and willingness to take risks rests on a belief that serious harm or real trouble will never happen to us.  Young people especially still have this sense. Second, they lose their sense of a predictable, dependable future.

This results in some common defensive coping strategies.

These are self-management techniques that are basically maladaptive.  They don’t help people get what they really want, but they do provide temporary psychological refuge when confidence and self-image are taking a nose-dive.

  • Abusive criticism of others
  • Anger and attack
  • Apathy
  • Bargaining
  • Blaming others
  • Controlling or manipulative behavior
  • Defensiveness
  • Denial
  • Dependency
  • Doing nothing
  • Drug and alcohol abuse
  • Envy
  • Excessive sleeping
  • Haughtiness
  • Irritability
  • Quitting a job
  • Refusing help or services
  • Refusing medication
  • Rejection of family and friends
  • Resistance to change
  • Running away
  • Self-absorption
  • Suspicion
  • Withdrawal

From time to time in daily life, all of us will use one or more of these behaviors.  If we are criticized at work … snubbed by someone we thought was a friend … having a fight at home … we may use one of these behaviors if we feel momentarily crushed.  We complain or attack.  We “need a drink.” We get fed up and call in sick.

For us, these responses happen when we feel temporarily defeated.  We normally pull out of them quickly.  We turn to our social and personal life structure, finding comfort and reassurance.

The situation for people with mental illness is drastically different. Their social and personal life is vastly diminished. They often face poverty, stigma, disability, joblessness and social rejection. They are trapped in a runaway train going the wrong way.

The negative coping strategies become a familiar and reliable way to protect themselves from becoming even more diminished.

 

by karentwinem

Mental Illness: Chronic Illness Has Predictable Reactions

Mental illness is a chronic illness with life changing impact. Even when a person is properly medicated, in treatment and in remission, mental illness puts its sufferers in a devastating limbo.  Let’s consider what it could be like:

  • Have you ever gone without sleep for one night? 48 hours? Longer?
  • Have you ever woken up, startled and not sure where you were?
  • Have you lost your keys or your glasses and couldn’t find them?
  • Has a song been running through your head for a couple of hours?  A day? A week?

Remember how you felt in these circumstances.  Irritable, frantic or close to screaming? What if it all happened at once?

Thinking about this can give us some empathy for people with mental illness.  Furthermore, many people who have brain-based mental illness are effectively cut off from predictable and rewarding life experiences.  They suffer from their inability to competently do things that they could do before.

This life-constriction threatens our loved ones’ psychological integrity.  This sets up a process where people with mental illnesses feel they must protect themselves at all costs.  They struggle to maintain some dignity and self-respect in the face of stigma, failure and shame. Still, the behaviors that result — refusing medication, rejecting family and community support, and disrupting family life — do not make sense to us.

Whenever a person has a serious chronic illness, such as COPD, emphysema, chronic heart disease or mental illness, two things happen to their sense of self:

  1. They lose their protective belief that they are exempt from harm.  Much of our sense of safety and our willingness to take risks rests on this belief, especially among younger people.
  2. They lose their sense of a predictable, dependable future.  This results in the use of defensive coping strategies.  These self-management techniques are basically maladaptive.  They don’t help people get what they really want, but they do provide temporary psychological refuge when confidence and self-image take a nose-dive.

In the next post, we will look at typical defensive coping strategies and the empathetic guidelines to help families deal with loved ones who exhibit them.

 

 

 

by karentwinem

Tips to Reduce Anxiety About the Coronavirus

Scary dreams and worries can kick off an overwhelming level of anxiety during this pandemic.  While it’s bad for everyone, it’s worse for people who have mental illness.

Those who have existing issues with panic disorder, depression and generalized anxiety are almost certain to have more intense symptoms unless we take preventive measures. The symptoms can include digestive problems, dizziness, elevated heart rate, fatigue and insomnia, among other things.

I got the idea for this list from an article by Noma Nazish in ForbesLifeand have adapted for my website mindfulchristianyear.com

Control what you can control. And that means you. Wash your hands. Stay six-feet away from people. Still, it helps to smile and be friendly when you pass people from this distance. We also can pray for each person we pass on the street or in the park.

Schedule times for prayer and quiet. If you don’t already have a routine for regular prayer during the day, it’s a great time to start. An alarm on my phone reminds me to stop about every three hours to pray or read Christian materials. Sarah Young’s books, starting with Jesus Calling, are excellent. Her app is very good as well. I also use materials in apps like Pray-As-You-Go, the NIV Bible, Ending Your Day Right, Centering Prayer and the Divine Office.

Make this a good time for your children or grandchildren. Our attitudes will decide how the kids remember this time. Model faith, calm and self-care. Let your kids talk through their fears and concerns. Listen for increases in symptoms.  Determine whether you need to make a call to your child’s psychiatrist to provide information. Make sure you also find some ways to have fun together.

Use block scheduling to set up a routine. Setting up a routine will help to keep you and your family focused on the good. Block scheduling – setting aside an hour or two for each major kind of activity – has been very useful. Activities can include: reading, homeschooling, housework, paperwork, making things, exercise, shopping online, etc.

Reduce your exposure to news and social media. I look at my social media channels once a day. I also read the COVID-19 round-up on my Associated Press app and one local news app in the morning and at night. We do watch the PBS NewsHour as well. Other than that, I try to concentrate on my own life. I think the most reliable sources of information are the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), WebMD, the Weather Channel’s COVID-19 section, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the John Hopkins’ Coronavirus Resource Center.

Stay connected to family and friends. This is the era of FaceTime calls and Zoom/Skype meetings. There’s also the good old-fashioned phone call and new-fashioned texting. Check in with your loved one with mental illness on a regular basis without seeming too anxious yourself. Make an effort to cheer your friends and family up. It will cheer you up, too.

Do a daily stress-reduction exercise. My isolation gift to myself was a subscription to the Breethe app, which is offering specific relaxation exercises regarding coronavirus anxieties. I also use Calm, Meditation Oasis and the Cleveland Clinic’s Stress Meditation. The relaxation exercise is on my block schedule for a specific time in the afternoon.

Eat well. Stress eating is one of my problems, but I do know that mindfully choosing to eat a nutritious meal before I can have my salty/sweet treat is cutting down on the overeating.

Get out in the fresh air and sunshine. Take a daily walk. Set up your patio furniture early or sit out on your porch to read.

Be the hands and feet of Christ. Get involved in helping other people during this time. Your church may have ideas. You also can call a humanitarian organization to see if you can help. Many people are helping from home by calling others to see how they are doing.

Like everything in life, this crisis is offering opportunities to grow as Christians.

by karentwinem

Know Your Meds: Long-Acting Injectables

NOTE:  This information came from NAMI and other sources, as well as my own experiences.

Long-acting injectables (LAIs) can be helpful when an individual with mental illness either refuses or is not compliant with medication, often with very unfortunate results.  Most of the people I’ve met who are using LAIs got started in a hospitalization or a situation in which they had regularly become a danger to themselves.

LAIs slowly release medicine into the blood. Injectable medications used for individuals living with mental illness include: Abilify Maintena®, Aristada®, Haldol decanoate®, Invega Sustenna®, Invega Trinza®, fluphenazine decanoate, Risperdal Consta®, and Zyprexa Relprevv®. The LAIs can last anywhere from 2-12 weeks with just one dose, which helps to control symptoms of mental illness.

What do LAIs do?

LAIs treat psychosis (hallucinations or delusions) in individuals with schizophrenia. Some LAIs may be used as mood stabilizers in individuals with bipolar disorder.

How can an LAI help?

Living with active psychosis causes many people to make very bad decisions, which can result in arrests and involuntary commitments.  LAIs can help individuals stick to a medication plan.

When comparing LAIs to pill medications, LAIs may lower the chances of someone going to the hospital. LAIs allow for a steady level of medicine in the blood. These steady levels help lower the chance of side effects. The LAIs may also help improve quality of life and satisfaction with medicine.

How are LAIs given?

LAIs are given as an injection in the muscles of the arm or bottom. When starting a LAI for the first time, individuals may also have to take pill medication for a few weeks. The pill allows the injection to have time to start working. Injections are given every two to 12 weeks depending on the medication.

What if I’m interested in an LAI?

If interested in a LAI, talk to a doctor. A LAI may not be right for every person with a mental illness. The main side effect of a LAI is pain at the injection site.

When talking to a doctor, ask:

  • How will a LAI help?
  • What symptoms will a LAI control?
  • What side effects may occur?
  • What blood work will need to be done?

How can I pay for an LAI?

LAIs are usually expensive.  Many insurance plans should help cover the cost of one of the LAIs. The drug company for each medicine may also be able to help.

by karentwinem

Know Your Meds: Mood Stabilizers

Mood stabilizers are typically used to treat intense, repeated shifts in a person’s mood, which may be common for those experiencing bipolar, schizophrenia, or borderline personality.

Many mood stabilizer drugs are also commonly categorized as anticonvulsant medications.

The oldest of them, lithium, has been in use for over 50 years and has proven very effective, particularly for bipolar disorder, type I. However, regular blood tests are required when taking lithium because of potential serious side effects to the kidneys and thyroid.

Newer mood stabilizers, many of which were originally used to treat seizure disorders, may work better than lithium for some people. Mood stabilizers can prevent manic or hypomanic episodes and depressive episodes. but also have side effects to know about and monitor.

Common mood stabilizers include:

by karentwinem

Know Your Meds: Anti-Anxiety Medications

The next class of medication are anti-anxiety medicines, which reduce the emotional and physical symptoms of anxiety.  Benzodiazepines such as alprazolam (Xanax) can treat social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder. This information comes from NAMI and goodtherapy.org

These medicines work quickly and are very effective in the short-term. However, people prone to substance abuse may become dependent on them.

Because the body can become used to the meds, doctors may need to increase the dosage over time to get the same therapeutic effect. People who stop taking benzodiazepines suddenly may experience unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. Other potential side effects include:

  • Low blood pressure
  • Decreased sex drive
  • Nausea
  • Lack of coordination
  • Depression
  • Unusual emotional dysfunction, including anger and violence
  • Memory loss
  • Difficulty thinking

Antianxiety and antipanic medications on the market include:

by karentwinem

Know Your Meds: Antidepressants 101

Antidepressants improve symptoms of depression by affecting the brain chemicals associated with emotion, such as serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine. The following information comes from NAMI, goodtherapy.org and other sources.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) are newer antidepressants with fewer side effects than older drugs, but no medication is entirely free of side effects. Potential side effects of SSRIs and SNRIs include:

  • Nausea
  • Nervousness, agitation or restlessness
  • Dizziness
  • Reduced sexual desire/difficulty reaching orgasm/inability to maintain an erection
  • Insomnia, drowsiness
  • Weight gain or loss
  • Headache
  • Dry mouth
  • Vomiting
  • Diarrhea

One antidepressant (Bupropion) affects mostly the brain chemical dopamine and is in a category of its own.

Meanwhile, older types of antidepressants, including tricyclics and monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), may be prescribed by a mental health professional if newer medications do not seem to be effective. Common side effects of tricyclics include:

  • Dry mouth
  • Blurred vision
  • Constipation
  • Urine retention
  • Drowsiness
  • Increased appetite, leading to weight gain
  • Drop in blood pressure when moving from sitting to standing, which can cause lightheadedness
  • Increased sweating

MAOIs are the least-prescribed of all antidepressants because they can cause dangerously high blood pressure when combined with certain foods or medications. People taking MAOIs must watch their diets carefully to avoid potentially life-threatening complications. Off-limits foods typically include aged cheese, sauerkraut, cured meats, draft beer and fermented soy products such as miso, tofu or soy sauce. Some people may have to avoid wine and all forms of beer.

Some antidepressants may be useful for post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder but may require higher doses. Symptoms of depression that are part of a bipolar disorder need more careful assessment because antidepressants may worsen the risk of mania and provide little relief from depressive symptoms. As always, ask your doctor about what treatment options are right for you.

When will the medication work?

In the first few days, the person may have better sleeping and eating habits. In the first 1-3 weeks, the person may have better memory, sex drive, and self-care habits. They may also feel like they have more energy and start to have less anxiety.

After 2-4 weeks, the person may start to have a better mood, less feelings of hopelessness, and less suicidal thoughts. They may also start to feel interested in hobbies again. It may take 6-8 weeks for the medication to fully work.

What are the common side effects?
These are most common in the beginning, and usually get better within 1-2 weeks.

  • Headache
  • Upset stomach, diarrhea
  • Sleepiness or feeling more awake

Some antidepressants can cause sexual problems, such as a decrease in sex drive or problems with ejaculation.

How long do people need to take this medication?
Some people need to take medicine for up to 1 year after they feel better. Others need to take medicine long-term to prevent their symptoms of depression or anxiety from coming back. The length of time depends on how bad the depression or anxiety was, how long they had it, and how many times they have had depression or anxiety in the past.

Here are some of the medication names and their types, with some links to their descriptions in goodtherapy.org

by karentwinem

Know the Meds: Antipsychotics 101

Note: This information came from the websites of NAMI, goodtherapy.org and other sources, as well as my own experience. 

Antipsychotics come in two major categories: typical and atypical. Occasionally they are called first and second generation.

The antipsychotics developed in the mid-20th century are the typical and first generation class.  Atypical or second generation were developed more recently. These medications reduce or eliminate the symptoms of psychosis, such as delusions and hallucinations, by affecting the brain chemical dopamine.

Both types of antipsychotics are used to treat schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.  The atypical also are used to treat acute mania, bipolar disorder and treatment-resistant depression.  Both kinds work, but they have different side effects.

What are the names of these medications? 

What are the side effects?

Side effects are most common at the beginning, and most get better over time.  The most common are:

  • Sleepiness
  • Dizziness
  • Upset stomach
  • Increased appetite

First generation antipsychotics are more likely to cause movement issues, such as tardive dyskinesia (a condition in which the brain misfires resulting in random, uncontrollable muscle movements and tics.)

The second generation can cause weight gain.

How long does it take to produce results? 

It often takes four to six weeks for the medication to fully work.  However, in the first three days, the person may feel less upset and angry.

After one or two weeks, the person may have a better mood and improved self care habits.  You may see clearer thinking, with fewer hallucinations and delusions.

How long do people take this medication? 

It depends on the situation: how bad the problems were, how long the illness lasted before treatment, and how many times they have had episodes.  Some people only need it for one or two years, while others need it for a lifetime.

 

 

by karentwinem

Know the Meds, Part 1

The treatments for mental illness conditions vary from person to person, which doesn’t make things any easier.  People with the same diagnosis can have vastly different experiences with treatments and medications.

Of course, your loved one’s mental health provider is the best source for information about treatment.  Getting a HIPPA release so you can discuss the situation with them is very useful.  The articles in this series, based on information from NAMI and my experience, are general information to help you understand the treatment options when they are discussed.

Psychotropic, or psychiatric, medications influence the chemicals in the brain that regulate thinking and emotions.  While they can be more effective when combined with therapy, often a person needs the medication first to reduce symptoms to allow them to participate in the therapy.

Predicting what works is a challenge.  One field of research called pharmacogenetics does genetic testing to help determine how medications will interact with a person’s genes.  Some people I know have taken these tests, so it’s worth discussing it with the doctor. It’s also helpful to tell the doctor if a medication has worked well for someone else in the immediate family.

Another major challenge is that the medications rarely work instantly.  A person may need to take medication for as long as a few months to see a difference, which becomes even more irritating if side effects are causing issues.

To try to stop that, physicians usually start with small doses and build up to get to the point where the symptoms are better.  It’s important that your loved one does not stop medicine at once.  Usually, it’s better to taper off to avoid unpleasant effects.

The main categories of psychotropic medicine are:

  • Antipsychotics
  • Antidepressants
  • Anti-anxiety medicine
  • Mood stabilizers

We will look at each in this series.