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Support for Morgan
Many of you may have heard about an incident that happened in Wisconsin regarding two girls stabbing a third girl in the woods, due to a fear of a fictional character called “Slender Man”. What you may not know is that one of the children being prosecuted for this crime is Morgan Geyser, a 12-year…
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The Devil You Know
We’re learning the hard way that the old adage is true. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. To be fair, it was a bit broken. Tim went on Clozaril a month before his 15th birthday and last fall we decided it was time to try and get him on to another atypical antipsychotic…
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Anderson Cooper 360 – What It’s Like to Hear Voices
Anderson Cooper wore headphones for a day that had voices constantly bombarding him, to simulate what it is like to have auditory hallucinations. Watch his experiment, below:
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Relationships and Unwanted Guests
I have two relationships with my son. One is the “normal,” mother and son relationship. That’s the one where we discuss what happened at school, whether 10 cups of popcorn is an appropriate after school snack, and what he wants for his birthday. That’s the relationship where he hugs me goodnight and we giggle after…
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Kelly
Kelly has been described by the defense team with several labels. Homeless. Schizophrenic. Vagrant. Nuisance. Not once did they call him a man. Never did they refer to him as a human being. The verdict came back so quickly. I thought of the OJ Simpson trial but pushed the thought out of my head. A…
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Fear and Misinformation and Throwing Away 50%
DJ Jaffe and Dr. Fuller Torrey are two leading figures in the cause for forced treatment of persons with severe mental illness. Their argument is that persons with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and severe bipolar disorder lack the ability to contribute to their care. While in many cases, that is true, in equally as many cases…
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Mother of The Monster
My friend Marian said it best. “I feel like when that boy went into the theater, he jerked me in there with him. Like I’m able to imagine it as my own child doing what I fear the most. And that is just plain flat screwed up. It is impossible for me to look at…
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Childhood Onset Schizophrenia: Orphaned, or Overlooked?
A fellow mental health mom (a freaky term for us, but hey, it fits) asked me last week about a statistic that states 0.1% of the population of children have childhood onset schizophrenia. There are reports that this is the case, but statistics vary. I read one recent report that suggested two in every million…
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Dear Ron Thomas: You’re Living My Greatest Fear
Dear Mr. Thomas: Earlier this week, I read the news story about the murder of your son, Kelly, at the hands of the Fullerton Police. After reading the story, and viewing the video of the witnesses account of the incident, I was physically sick. If I close my eyes I can see your son, Kelly, sitting…
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What is Schizophrenia?
See the entire graphic novel chapter by Darryl Cunningham here or buy his book, Psychiatric Tales.