My brother has schizophrenia and last fall when I visited my mom and him, he had been to a psychologist that prescribed a better medication for controlling his symptoms. In addition, the psychologist sent him to a class to teach him how to manage his illness. This capability came about via ObamaCare, since before this, he could not afford health insurance and so he often ended up using the Emergency Room at the Hospital to obtain care.
I was offered a copy of his book, and read it with great interest. The book is titled "Pebbles in the Pond: Achieving Resilience in Mental Health" by Larry S. Baker, MDiv & Karen A. Landwehr, MC, published by Directions in Education, Training and Consultation, PO Box 2478, Gig Harbor, WA 98335
How does this book help people with mental illness understand how to take care of their illness?
It's a twelve week training system that discusses how mentally ill people are diagnosed and everything about the diagnosis, including how the brain functions especially the chemicals related to the body's function, how alcohol and drugs (illegal and prescription) affect the brain, the various symptoms that show up with mental illness including hallucinations, delusion, psychosis, anxiety, depression, mania. The program then discusses mental health prescriptions and how they target the various symptoms, then teaches the individual about how to identify when their prescription isn't working effectively and what to do about it.
I haven't checked into their list of resources the authors used to create this training system. I found it valuable to read and my brother said he was tested on the content. The workbook has mentally ill people test what they know about mental health and whether or not it is true or not or helpful or not.
Before this, my brother often had troubles any time he quit taking his medication to drink, or found the medication didn't work so took to drink but the bad news was he typically either became violent, was arrested for some other reason, or ended up at the Emergency Room at the hospital, sometimes with the need to be checked into the mental hospital.
I'm hoping for his sake that this program aids his long term lifestyle. Certainly he was much able to hold conversations, be active about his life and had fewer symptoms. This made our visit quite peaceful and we enjoyed visits to the car museum, Tacoma waterfront (see photo below) and Pt. Defiance Zoo.
I was offered a copy of his book, and read it with great interest. The book is titled "Pebbles in the Pond: Achieving Resilience in Mental Health" by Larry S. Baker, MDiv & Karen A. Landwehr, MC, published by Directions in Education, Training and Consultation, PO Box 2478, Gig Harbor, WA 98335
How does this book help people with mental illness understand how to take care of their illness?
It's a twelve week training system that discusses how mentally ill people are diagnosed and everything about the diagnosis, including how the brain functions especially the chemicals related to the body's function, how alcohol and drugs (illegal and prescription) affect the brain, the various symptoms that show up with mental illness including hallucinations, delusion, psychosis, anxiety, depression, mania. The program then discusses mental health prescriptions and how they target the various symptoms, then teaches the individual about how to identify when their prescription isn't working effectively and what to do about it.
I haven't checked into their list of resources the authors used to create this training system. I found it valuable to read and my brother said he was tested on the content. The workbook has mentally ill people test what they know about mental health and whether or not it is true or not or helpful or not.
Before this, my brother often had troubles any time he quit taking his medication to drink, or found the medication didn't work so took to drink but the bad news was he typically either became violent, was arrested for some other reason, or ended up at the Emergency Room at the hospital, sometimes with the need to be checked into the mental hospital.
I'm hoping for his sake that this program aids his long term lifestyle. Certainly he was much able to hold conversations, be active about his life and had fewer symptoms. This made our visit quite peaceful and we enjoyed visits to the car museum, Tacoma waterfront (see photo below) and Pt. Defiance Zoo.
I haven't checked into their list of resources the authors used to create this training system. I found it valuable to read and my brother said he was tested on the content. The workbook has mentally ill people test what they know about mental health and whether or not it is true or not or helpful or not.
Before this, my brother often had troubles any time he quit taking his medication to drink, or found the medication didn't work so took to drink but the bad news was he typically either became violent, was arrested for some other reason, or ended up at the Emergency Room at the hospital, sometimes with the need to be checked into the mental hospital.
I'm hoping for his sake that this program aids his long term lifestyle. Certainly he was much able to hold conversations, be active about his life and had fewer symptoms.
If a family member has mental illness, this program or a similar program might be very helpful to the entire family.
Before this, my brother often had troubles any time he quit taking his medication to drink, or found the medication didn't work so took to drink but the bad news was he typically either became violent, was arrested for some other reason, or ended up at the Emergency Room at the hospital, sometimes with the need to be checked into the mental hospital.
I'm hoping for his sake that this program aids his long term lifestyle. Certainly he was much able to hold conversations, be active about his life and had fewer symptoms.
If a family member has mental illness, this program or a similar program might be very helpful to the entire family.
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