Schizophrenia Is Normal: My Journey Through Diagnosis, Treatment, and Recovery

Helman, Daniel S.

doi:10.1093/schbul/sbu131

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…The disorganization of thoughts is a prominent experiential theme 66,84,108,163,165 (see Figure 3): "My head is 'swarming' with thoughts or 'flooding' . I become overwhelmed by all the thinking going on inside my head.…”

Section: Feeling Overwhelmed By Chaos or Noise Inside The Headmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The experience of dissolution of the self is more marked when the ego-world boundaries are compromised by passivity phenomena involving feeling under the influence of external forces 114,155 ; thoughts being read, inserted or broadcast 88,114,163 (see Figure 3); body boundaries being violated by entities or forces ("Someone cut open my head and inserted a bag", "Areas of the body where forces enter" 164 ) or parts of the body being displaced ("Mouth was where hair should be", "Arms sticking out of chest" 164 ). Some individuals may even feel that their body or parts of it are projected beyond their ego boundaries into outer space ("Arms disjointed from the body", "Legs and arms dropped off" 164 ).…”

Section: A Dramatic Dissolution Of the Sense Of Self And Devitalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The lived experience of psychosis: a bottom‐up review co‐written by experts by experience and academics

et al. 2022

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Psychosis is the most ineffable experience of mental disorder. We provide here the first co‐written bottom‐up review of the lived experience of psychosis, whereby experts by experience primarily selected the subjective themes, that were subsequently enriched by phenomenologically‐informed perspectives. First‐person accounts within and outside the medical field were screened and discussed in collaborative workshops involving numerous individuals with lived experience of psychosis as well as family members and carers, representing a global network of organizations. The material was complemented by semantic analyses and shared across all collaborators in a cloud‐based system. The early phases of psychosis (i.e., premorbid and prodromal stages) were found to be characterized by core existential themes including loss of common sense, perplexity and lack of immersion in the world with compromised vital contact with reality, heightened salience and a feeling that something important is about to happen, perturbation of the sense of self, and need to hide the tumultuous inner experiences. The first episode stage was found to be denoted by some transitory relief associated with the onset of delusions, intense self‐referentiality and permeated self‐world boundaries, tumultuous internal noise, and dissolution of the sense of self with social withdrawal. Core lived experiences of the later stages (i.e., relapsing and chronic) involved grieving personal losses, feeling split, and struggling to accept the constant inner chaos, the new self, the diagnosis and an uncertain future. The experience of receiving psychiatric treatments, such as inpatient and outpatient care, social interventions, psychological treatments and medications, included both positive and negative aspects, and was determined by the hope of achieving recovery, understood as an enduring journey of reconstructing the sense of personhood and re‐establishing the lost bonds with others towards meaningful goals. These findings can inform clinical practice, research and education. Psychosis is one of the most painful and upsetting existential experiences, so dizzyingly alien to our usual patterns of life and so unspeakably enigmatic and human.

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Section: Feeling Overwhelmed By Chaos or Noise Inside The Headmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Dramatic Dissolution Of the Sense Of Self And Devitalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The lived experience of psychosis: a bottom‐up review co‐written by experts by experience and academics

et al. 2022

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“…Traditionally, schizophrenia has been regarded as a disorder with an inevitably deteriorating course. This pessimistic view has been challenged by both, longitudinal studies which showed that heterogeneity of outcome rather than complete disability and long-term hospitalization is the signature feature of the disorder [1–5], and personal accounts of individuals with experience of severe mental disorders and mental health services who pointed out that recovery is indeed possible despite the presence of psychiatric symptoms [6–8]. This has led to a controversial debate about the nature of recovery from serious mental disorders.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recovery assessment scale: Examining the factor structure of the German version (RAS-G) in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders

et al. 2016

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“…This project is limited to a few relevant themes: to what helps with non-medical recovery-hypothesized: food, exercise and society-and to questions of medication and creativity. The selection criteria were related to personal experience in recovery from the disease (Helman, 2014;. These topics will be treated in order.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonmedical Interventions for Schizophrenia

Helman

2020

Holistic Nursing Practice

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Schizophrenia is a major mental illness with a disease course that is influenced by lifestyle. The riskbenefit ratio for alternative interventions is more favorable than for antipsychotics in long-term treatment. Dietary interventions may target autoimmune features, vitamin or mineral deficiencies, abnormal lipid metabolism, gluten sensitivity or others. Examples of interventions involving diet, physical activity or physical processes, or social interventions including talk therapy exist in the literature. Notwithstanding, the general utility of these types of interventions remains inconclusive, awaiting long-term randomized trials. A perspective that separates the cause of the disease from its symptoms may be helpful in treatment planning and is warranted to distinguish between short-term and long-term recovery goals.

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Schizophrenia Is Normal: My Journey Through Diagnosis, Treatment, and Recovery

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

The lived experience of psychosis: a bottom‐up review co‐written by experts by experience and academics

The lived experience of psychosis: a bottom‐up review co‐written by experts by experience and academics

Recovery assessment scale: Examining the factor structure of the German version (RAS-G) in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders

Nonmedical Interventions for Schizophrenia

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