The Mindstorm

Category: schizophrenia

  • Parents of Children with Bipolar Disorder and Childhood Onset Schizophrenia Tell Common Stories

    I’ll never forget the day my son’s therapist told me he needed to be hospitalized.  He was 11 years old and had spent his entire life vacillating between extreme happiness and extreme rage.  He heard voices and saw things no one else could.  Pediatricians and neurologists and developmental specialists had told us he was autistic. …

  • Really Nice Weekend

    Tim was struggling with his voices last week.  Last Monday he got agitated over something seemingly small, and put his hands around a therapist’s neck as if to strangle them.  He was about to grip when they said he crumpled to the floor, sobbing, hands on his head, complaining that they won’t go away.  His…

  • Paranoia

    Tim’s caseworker emailed today and wants to schedule a time next week when we can have a family therapy session via telephone.  It’s a four hour drive round trip to ODTC, so by phone is easier to schedule, but a family therapy session rarely goes well, by phone or in person.  Tim hates it when…

  • Thank You FX Networks, Thank You Ted Griffin

    Have you seen Terriers, a new series on FX this season?  It’s about two private detectives in Ocean Beach, California, down near San Diego.  They’re…unconventional.  One’s a recovering alcoholic, ex-cop, and one’s a cheeky ex-thief.  It’s witty, funny, and absolutely unpredictable. Hank, the ex-cop character, has a sister, Steph.  Steph has schizophrenia.  And she’s the…

  • 30 Things About My Son’s Invisible Illness

    I read this on Melissa’s blog, and thought it was great – so here’s our 30 things, modified a bit to be from a mom’s point of view. 1. The illness my son lives with is: Schizoaffective Disorder, Bipolar Type 2. He  was diagnosed with it in the year: 2008, but some mood disorder since…

  • An Open Letter to Judith Warner

    Good Morning: I’m reading your book right now, “We’ve Got Issues“. It was recommended to me by my friends Susan Resko and Nanci Schiman who run the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation (I’m one of the volunteers who helps moderate their twitter account and writes a weekly post for the bpkids.org blog). I’m only about…

  • 16

    Tim turns 16 years old today. There were times when I doubted he’d make it to his 16th. I know, I’m woefully behind on blog posts, and I want to spend some time this weekend writing a new one. But I didn’t want today to pass without a short note to all you other parents…

  • “Just” Eve

    In 1977, a Northern California mother named Eve decided she’d had enough. Eve had raised a child diagnosed schizophrenic and had endured the prevailing thinking by the medical community and society at-large at the time; that her son’s condition was her fault. That something in how she raised him caused his psychotic break with reality…

  • One Level At a Time

    In 1943, a psychologist named Abraham Maslow published a paper on his theory of human motivations. My wildly over-simplistic explanation of his theory is that people will pursue meeting the most basic human needs before moving on to fulfilling more complex needs. We hunt and gather before we desire interpersonal relationships and professional respect. I…

  • A Strange Sigh of Relief

    I remember the day my mom saw Jani Schofield and her parents Michael and Susan on Oprah. Jani is a beautiful young girl who suffers from childhood onset schizophrenia. Mom called me the next day, after watching the show off her DVR. I expected my mom’s tone of voice to be one of sorrow, or…