SERIOUS MENTAL ILLNESS
A diagnosis of a serious mental illness (e.g. bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, schizo-affective disorder, etc.) can be devastating for everyone involved. Symptoms such as delusions, paranoia and hallucinations often feel bizarre, even terrifying; in their presence, life can become stopped in its tracks. I have found the most important task in helping families in these circumstances is to realize with them what is still possible; diagnoses are not life sentences.
With the aid of various resources, I help families determine the most appropriate setting for their loved one’s treatment; ideally, people can remain at home and embed treatment into their daily lives. This scenario allows people to be safe and to do the work of understanding themselves as they actually further their lives. This work includes accepting the existential reality of a mind that can feel untrustworthy and frightening (see the movies A Beautiful Mind or Shutter Island as extreme examples); it also includes the brass tacks diligence of building a life. Can he/she live alone? Can they work, and to what capacity? What is the fullest life available to them? This work is most effective when intensive (multiple times per week) and long term. Additionally, I find working within a systemic approach to be advantageous as there are times when one family member’s frailties can represent trauma for the entire family.
"Doubt is to certainty as neurosis is to psychosis. The neurotic is in doubt and has fears about persons and things; the psychotic has convictions and makes claims about them. In short, the neurotic has problems, the psychotic has solutions. Mental illness, of course, is not literally a 'thing' - or physical object - and hence it can 'exist' only in the same sort of way in which other theoretical concepts exist."
– Szasz
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"We are wiser than we know."
– Ralph Waldo Emerson