In Elyn Saks’ memoir, “The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness”, she discusses her experience navigating life with schizophrenia. Her story provides an example of mental health recovery and resilience, illuminating the challenges of managing a serious mental illness while still accomplishing significant life goals. Saks proves that with the correct treatment and support, there is hope for everyone with a similar illness to be successful. Saks’ story is a true definition of mental health recovery and resilience. Saks is an example of mental health recovery because she receives ongoing treatment, gains self-understanding, and is building a fulfilling life. Saks is on an ongoing treatment plan, she’s on a medication regimen and in therapy. …show more content…
Another strength that Saks has is her high level of self-awareness. She was able to recognize the symptoms of her illness and understand the importance of treatment. An example of this can be seen when she has a severe episode while at Yale, she recognizes it and seeks help. Another example of her self-awareness is that she recognizes her need for a structured routine. Being a law professor provided the structure she needed to maintain focus and control over her thoughts, decreasing the impact of her illness. Saks’ strengths – her desire to learn, her perseverance, and her self-awareness — allowed her to navigate the challenges of her mental illness and be successful. Saks faced countless challenges and was able to overcome them. One of the challenges Saks encountered as a child was her relationship with her parents. Saks started showing symptoms when she was younger. She had little quirks and believed that there was someone outside of their house to kill them. I think this was a challenge because she was met with impatience and dismissiveness. When she had her quirks, her parents would tell her to hurry and when she expressed her thoughts about someone being outside the house, she was
Before reading the poem “Schizophrenia” this writer assumed that it would focus on one individual diagnosis with schizophrenia, but it also focused on a house. In the poem “Schizophrenia” by Jim Stevens, the poet describes a relationship between a husband and his wife. Stevens shows how the characters differences and aggression has changed the atmosphere of the house. The poet explained that not only is the couple affected by their hostile environment, it is the house that is suffering the most from the couple’s behaviors. Stevens has the house as a representation of how a brain of a person with schizophrenia person. Through the use of the characters actions and the house, Stevens exemplifies how schizophrenia can ruin a person’s life. After
By repeating this line, it shows that even though things in the house seemed to have settled down the trauma of Schizophrenia remained. I can relate this back to my life in a form of a car accident. A couple of years ago, I got into a bad car accident on the high way. During this car accident, I went across four lanes of traffic twice, spinning around in my car finally to stop in the median. The worst thing about it was it was a hit in and run. Even though this was several years ago, I still have a constant reminder of my accident every time I drive by the location of the accident. This just goes to show that trauma can make a lasting effect on a person especially a person with
Union between two quarrelsome objects can be the most amazing creation in certain situations, take for instance, water. Originally, water was just hydroxide and hydrogen ions, but together these two molecules formed a crucial source of survival for most walks of life. That is how marriage can feel, it is the start of a union that without this union the world would not be the same. A Hmong mother, Foua took it upon herself to perform a marriage ceremony for the author of “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down”, Anne Fadiman. In this miniscule event, two cultures with completely conflicting ideas came together to form a union. In this union, an American was celebrating an event in a Hmong way, truly a collision of two cultures.
Although Susanna Kaysen’s rebellious and self-harming actions of coping with her psychosis are viewed by some critics as pushing the boundary of sanity, many people have a form of a “borderline personality” that they must accept and individually work towards understanding in order to release themselves from the confines of their disorder. Kaysen commits to a journey of self-discovery, which ultimately allows her to accept and understand herself and her psychosis.
The ‘me’ becomes a haze, and the solid center from which one experiences reality breaks up like a bad radio signal. (Saks, p. 13)” These words are the description of schizophrenia, written by a woman who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, Elyn Saks. Her book, The Center Cannot Hold, is the memoir of Sak’s own life experience and her struggle with schizophrenia, or as she puts it, her journey through madness. Although her journey did not lead to a full recovery, as is the case with many individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, Saks was able to live and maintain a life, despite her very negative prognosis.
In Me, Myself and Them: A Firsthand Account of One Young Person’s Experience with Schizophrenia (2007), Kurt Snyder provides his personal narrative of living with Schizophrenia with Dr. Raquel Gur and Linda Andrews offering professional insight into the disease. This book gives remarkable insight into the terrifying world of acute psychosis, where reality cannot be distinguished from delusion and recovery is grueling. However, Snyder’s account does offer hope that one may live a content and functional life despite a debilitating, enduring disease.
Schizophrenia is a deteriorating progressive disease, consequently, it is resistant to treatment for the individual suffering schizophrenia. (Catts & O’Toole, 2016). In most cases the individuals suffering from schizophrenia, are resistive to treatment, in most cases, individuals suffering from schizophrenia, and are resistive in taking antipsychotics. (Catts & O’Toole, 2016). Jeremy doesn’t see himself as a “schizophrenic”, he states that “he’s happy naturally”, and often he’s observed playing the guitar and doing painting in his room. Weekly, he has an intramuscular medication to treat his disorder, crediting the support of his wife. It is indicated that the morality rate, in patients suffering from schizophrenia is higher, despite the considerable resources available, in Australia. New data show that in 20 countries, including Australia, only 13.5% meet the recovery criteria, which means that 1or 2 patients in every 100, will meet this criteria per year. (Catts & O’Toole, 2016). This means that there’s a decline in providing support and services to individuals like Jeremy suffering from a mental illness such as Schizophrenia. Many individuals become severely ill before they realise they need medical treatment, and when receiving treatment it is usually short-term. (Nielssen, McGorry, Castle & Galletly, 2017). The RANZCP guidelines highlights that
“The Sweet Hereafter” portrays the grief stricken citizens of a remote Canadian town traumatized by a terrible accident, and the impact of an ambulance-chasing lawyer who is attempting to deal with the grief in his own life. The film also depicts the grieving subjects susceptibility to convert grief and guilt into both blame and monetary gain and the transformation this small community faces after such a devastating event.
Families with a member suffering from any illness may be stressful enough but families with members diagnosed with schizophrenia are often faced with additional challenges such as the “external stressors of social stigma, isolation, and emotional frustration”. Many times, family conflicts arise as members attempt to provide care on an everyday basis (Chien, 2010, pg. xi). “A Beautiful Mind” is a brilliant motion picture directed by Ron Howard that chronicles the life of one John Nash, a prominent mathematician and the challenges he endures throughout his adult life afflicted with a chronic mental illness. “A Beautiful Mind” allows us to gain insight into the stressors that many families undergo when faced with living with a person with schizophrenia. This paper will explore the impact of schizophrenia on the lives of the Nash family as depicted in the aforementioned movie. Exploring the impact of the disease on the Nash family’s life will be followed with a discussion regarding an assessment conducted of the family, through the use of the Calgary Family Assessment model. Conducting the assessment allowed us to determine two nursing priorities, and nursing interventions in relation to them through the use of the Calgary intervention model. Essentially it becomes evident that the challenges faced by the Nash family are in the functional domain. The families inability to effectively communicate and problem solve becomes evident, which is negatively impacting the families ability to function effectively. Our nursing interventions guided by the Calgary Nursing Intervention Model will focus on providing the Nash family with the support needed to bring about change in the affective domain in foster effective communication with the famil...
Weick, A., Rapp, C., Sullivan, W.P. and Kisthardt, W. (1989). A strengths perspective for social work practice. Social Work, 34(4), 350-354.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Arasse, Daniel. Complete Guide to Mental Health. Allen Lane Press,New York, 1989. Gingerich, Susan. Coping With Schizophrenia. New Harbinger Publications, Inc. Oakland, 1994. Kass, Stephen. Schizophrenia: The Facts. Oxford University Press. New York, 1997. Muesen, Kim. “Schizophrenia”. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia. Microsoft Corporation, 1998. Young, Patrick. The Encyclopedia od Health, Psychological Disorders and Their Treatment. Herrington Publications. New York, 1991.
.... This may push people out of the recovery process before they are ready and it challenges empowerment aspects and structural problems. It has also been argued that the recovery model attempts to hide the dominance of the medical model. This marginalizes those who do not fit into a recovery narrative. Professionals have said that majority of the people who a serious illness, such as schizophrenia, require both psychotropic and psychosocial interventions to help cure their symptoms during a crisis (Rosenson, 1993). Therefore, the recovery model has been criticized for its emphasis away from medicalization. In addition, it can be argued that that while the approach may be a useful for corrective measures, institutional and personal difficulties make it essential that there be sufficient ongoing effective support with stress management and coping in daily life.
The novella, The Body, written by Stephen King is quintessential for portraying the overarching coming of age theme, however within this theme a more specific theme of innocence vs. experience is present. This theme can be seen within the book’s plot, symbols, and Chris Chamber’s character. Taking a look at the historical time period of when this novella was written, and taking a look at the biographical history of Stephen King himself helps the reader to understand why this particular approach to the theme was chosen. The novella itself travels with four young boys as they begin their journey in search of a dead body, and along the way they not only discover the cruelty of the real world, but they also face the cruelty that can be see within
Through this quote, Shusterman emphasizes the importance of empathy and open-mindedness in understanding the experiences of those with mental illness, acknowledging that truth may vary depending on one's perspective. Additionally, "Sometimes, the only way to truly be lost... is to realize you're not," addresses self-awareness and acceptance amidst mental illness, underscoring the journey towards self-acceptance and understanding. Moreover, "It's okay not to be okay. " When you're not okay, you're still alive," emphasizes self-compassion and resilience in the face of struggles. This quote serves as a reminder that experiencing difficulties is a part of the human experience, and it is okay to seek help and support when needed.
Weick, A., Rapp, C., Sullivan, W., & Kisthardt, W. (1989). A Strengths Perspective for Social Work Practice. Social Work, 34(4), 350-354.