| nospam@nospam.org 2005-04-29, 10:53 pm |
| Note: the following is intended to provide general medical information only. If
you need medical advice, you should speak with your doctor or other health
professionals.
‘Mental illness’ is still seen as a lifelong disease that has no cure. But over
the last three decades, more and more studies confirm that people who experience
serious and chronic problems with depression, anxiety, mood swings, and
hallucinations can fully recover from such problems with the help of supportive
people. Recovery is generally defined as the ability to work or study, to live
independently, and to keep social contacts without experiencing ‘symptoms’.
Dr. Courtenay Harding, psychiatrist and professor, shows in numerous studies
with other researchers that up to 68% of people get much better or fully recover
from ‘chronic schizophrenia’, the most serious mental illness. In 1980, the
World Health Organization concluded that people in "developing" countries
recover more quickly than people in countries that have hospitals and
medications.7 People can recover over time with the right social supports, even
without any psychiatric treatment. Dr. Harding says, "systems of treatment are
not as yet able to cure, but they should be able to remove the obstacles that
stand in the way of natural self-healing processes."3
Links to Alternative Strategies and Health Systems
Further Reading and Research on Recovery
In the last few years, people who have experienced the mental health system have
started operating peer-run services. Professionals are also developing
"client-centred care" to "empower consumers". William Anthony, PhD, says that
"recovery" is a new way of working in mental health, and that it may
revolutionize the field.1 Still, diagnostic manuals predict that natural
recovery from ‘mental illness,’ especially schizophrenia, is near impossible.
Drug treatment is used to control some symptoms, but patients are often told to
expect less in life, and that they might not be able to work or hold meaningful
relationships. Added to this, the isolation and the stigma of a psychiatric
diagnosis can leave people open to discrimination and many forms of abuse.
Recovery Without Treatment: NY Times
Though recovery is possible, most people believe schizophrenia is an incurable
genetic disease. No physical markers for schizophrenia, let alone the genes
responsible, have yet been found. Researchers estimate that identical twins, who
have the exact same genetic make-up, only both get schizophrenia in less than
50% of cases.
It’s also said that the mentally ill have a high risk of passing on the illness
to their children. Karl-Erik Wahlberg, a researcher in Finland, found in a
nation-wide study that children of people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia do
not develop mental illness when adopted by nurturing families.9 Genetics may be
important, but environment seems to play a bigger role than was once believed.
Recovery in the Mainstream: US News
If environment is key, what helps a person recover? A supportive friend or
helper who listens without judgement, who believes in you during hard times, can
be more helpful than professionally trained staff. According to studies done by
Dr. Loren Mosher, people in small, inexpensive "safe houses", with no trained
staff or medication, are able to reduce psychotic symptoms within six weeks6
(his work is now being repeated in Switzerland, Sweden and Germany). After 2
years in a "safe house", 58% of people were living independently (as opposed to
33% of people from hospital wards), and 32% were working full-time (in
higher-status occupations compared to those from hospital).
A diagnosis of severe and persistent mental illness doesn’t have to mean
"forever". If a person believes they can recover, and someone is willing to
assist and nurture that belief, the odds of recovery are very strong. Recovery
is not only possible– it’s becoming popular.
Some Further Reading and Sources
1. Anthony, W. A. (2000). A recovery-oriented service system: Setting some
system level standards. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal. 24 (2): 159-168.
2. Bassman, R. (2001). Overcoming the impossible: My journey through
schizophrenia. Psychology Today. 34 (1): 34-40.
3. Harding, C. M., Brooks, G. W., Takamaru, A., Strauss, J. S., & Breier, A.
(1987b). The Vermont longitudinal study of Persons with severe mental illness,
I: Methodology, study sample, and overall status 32 years later. Am. J.
Psychiatry, 144 (6): 718-726.
4. Harding, C. M., Zubin, J., & Strauss, J. S. (1987a). Chronicity in
schizophrenia: Fact, partial fact, or artifact? Hospital and Community
Psychiatry. 38 (5): 477-486.
5. Mental Health Weekly. (1999). New York moves toward recovery model with RFP
release for special-needs plans. July 26. Manisses Communications Group.
6. Mosher, L. R., Vallone, R., & Menn, A. (1995). The treatment of acute
psychosis without neuroleptics: Six weeks psychopathology outcome data from the
Soteria Project. International Journal of Social Psychiatry. 41 (3): 157-173.
7. World Health Organization, (1979) Schizophrenia: An international follow-up
study. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
8. De Girolamo, D. (1995). World Health Organization Studies on Schizophrenia:
An overview of their results and their implications for an understanding of the
disorder. The Psychotherapy Patient. 9: 213-31.
9. Wahlberg, K. E., Wynne, L. C., Oja, H., Keskitalo, P., et al,. (1997).
Gene-environment interaction in vulnerability to schizophrenia: Findings from
the Finnish Family Study of Schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry. Vol.
154 (3): 355-362.
See our links.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
home / recovery / rights / readings
/ links / feedback / QSOS
/ QSPC archive
|