Complementary therapies for schizophrenia
I still maintain we need a complete overhaul in treatment strategies, but the fact that some psychiatrists are opening up to these ideas is good…
Some of them may leave their toxic ways behind. Baby steps as they say.
Soteria House no longer exists though they’re creating a new one in Alaska, Jim Gottstein at the helm, I believe…they don’t embrace it because it’s too expensive and there is no pharma or insurance backing it up…it’s all about money…
That cure for schizophrenia I was refering to is called the Soteria Project. You linked to it in a later post. The project has achieved amazing results–far better than drug therapy. One wonders why medicine does not embrace it with open arms.
Jim S
Thank you for getting this interesting article to us. We need to see information like this that shows that there are other approaches then just drugging us into zombies so that the drug companies can haul in lots of money.
I’ve functioned quite well with many alternative therapies: cognitive therapy, omega-3, exercise, yoga, judo, tai chi, zen, reading the bible, writing in a journal, volunteer work. All of them have helped me. The doctors all said I needed heavy medication all of my life–that was over 30 years ago.
I have heard of a person who runs a sort of camp where he cures schzophrenia with what sounds like a lot of tender loving care.
Jim S
note: schizophrenia and bi-polar disorders listed…. we really have to address these issues from the gut and as parasitic/bacteria…. a clean diet is key… raw vegan floods the body with super-nutrition and all that it needs to heal from ‘everything’… all of these man-made, toxic, processed, full of hormones and pesticides ‘foods’ are making us ‘insane’… We need to go back to our roots and eat food as God made it rather than how Monsanto has poisoned and “GMO’d” it…
Lyme Disease Symptoms
http://www.chroniclymedisease.com/
Early-Stage Lyme Disease Symptoms:
Circular rash known as erythema migrans (EM)
Fatigue
Chills, Fever
Headache
Muscle Soreness
Joint Aches
Swollen Lymph Nodes
Late-Stage (Chronic) Lyme Disease Symptoms:
Severe Headaches, brain fog, and confusion
Neck Stiffness
Meningitis
Encephalitis
Neuropathy
Dizziness
Cardiac Irregularities, arrhythmia, and pain
Depression and seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
Anxiety, panic attacks, and social withdrawal
Memory Loss, poor concentration
Schizophrenia, paranoia
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Bipolar Disorder, manic depression
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & Fibromyalgia
Numbness and Tingling
arthritis and arthritic symptoms
I’m glad you’re all adding the commentary I was too tired to do…yes there are lots of other things that help…
And Susan,
I think there are quite a few nutrients that help bipolar…I’m in various alternative mental health groups and people respond really well to an assortment of dietary and nutritional regimens…
Since I’ve changed my diet and added nutrients I’ve not had anything even remotely resembling mania…the rest of my symptoms are withdrawal related so I can’t speak for the success of my particular regimen just yet…
Not any one thing helps everyone who has been labeled bipolar…and that is because I don’t believe there is any one such thing…same goes for so called schizophrenia…
Lots of options out there…for all mental health issues…
Reading this article, one gets the impression that the only choices available to the mental health system are either medications or the choices listed in the article, which have some but apparently quite limited effectiveness. The article completely fails to mention other possibilities which are still not offered to most people diagnosed with “schizophrenia.” One is cognitive therapy, which has been shown in something like 23 randomized studies to have strong effects, and has been successfully used without medication for people who are just starting to become psychotic. (There are no randomized studies of its use on people who already are quite psychotic, though there are many anecdotal studies of it being used successfully in those cases as well.) And there is the Open Dialogue approach, developed in Finland, that has been shown effective in keeping 2/3 off any antipsychotic medication over a 5 year period, with only 14% on disability at the end of that period.
If they could leave out major stuff like that, I wonder what else they left out of this article – still, I did learn some things from it.
Interesting that they’re finally doing something. Once again, you could go online and survey people to find out what type of complementary stuff is working for them, but I guess it’s too easy. As far as I know, at least for bipolar mood disorder, the only thing that works is exercise and yoga (there have been a lot of studies done on the later). Although a few people have written on my blog about a few other options that have worked for them–my memory’s shot, and I haven’t a clue.
And while acupuncture didn’t make a dent in my depressions, it did help me with the musculoskeletal problems caused by medication (my skull actually used to hurt as if my brain was swelling).
As always, thanks for the info. Hope you’re feeling better!
Susan