Finding Purpose After Living With Delusion

[groovedaddy]

ATHENS, Ohio — She was gone for good, and no amount of meditation could resolve the grief, even out here in the deep quiet of the woods.

Milt Greek pushed to his feet. It was Mother’s Day 2006, not long after his mother’s funeral, and he headed back home knowing that he needed help. A change in the medication for his schizophrenia, for sure. A change in focus, too; time with his family, to forget himself.

And, oh yes, he had to act on an urge expressed in his psychotic delusions: to save the world.

So after cleaning the yard around his house — a big job, a gift to his wife — in the coming days he sat down and wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper, supporting a noise-pollution ordinance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/health/man-uses-his-schizophrenia-to-gather-clues-for-daily-living.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha3

[BrendaBrick]

1. Interesting article

thanks for posting.

[elocs]

2. It's nice to read a story of success and hope about schizophrenia. However, most who suffer from it

and they do indeed suffer, would never say it is the best thing that ever happened to them.

My 20 year old goddaughter, who lives just 2 blocks from me but 275 miles from her mother, is a paranoid schizophrenic who is also bipolar. She suffered her first major psychotic breakdown while in high school and the disease is much worse the earlier it strikes. Although she has since finished high school she has never been able to keep a job an has not worked at all for the last 4 months. SSI is the only way she survives.

It was a much more simple matter to help her before she became an adult because now she makes her own choices and decisions and those are often not good. Although her schizophrenia is controlled by medication and can only hope that until the time comes when her brain matures that she does not do anything that hurts herself or lands her in jail or prison.

[snagglepuss]

3. Very interesting article. Thanks for posting. K & R. nt

[loudsue]

4. That is beautiful. What a wonderful breakthrough for some people who struggle

with the schizophrenic brain. There is help for everyone, just as there is a cure for most everything except death....if only we can find it and collectively put our resources to the tasks at hand.

Instead of bombing people and helping to create more chaos, our resources would be better spent on trying to make the world a better place to live for everyone.

[Chemisse]

5. This was really interesting.

I like the idea that the type of delusions schizophrenics experience are related to their own personal, underlying needs or issues.

It must be horrible to think crazy thoughts and have people dismiss you and everything you are experiencing as a delusion. To show a connection to real conflicts and to see some logic in the manifestation of the hallucinations must be a source of comfort and maybe validation for these people.