MOTHER OF A SCHIZOPHRENIC BOY KEEPS A DIARY of an HOLISTIC CURE
http://holisticschizophrenia.blogspot.com/My son hears voices, believes in impossible things. Today I took Chris to the Doctor.
Doctor's muscle testing revealed that Chris's dopamine levels were elevated in
his glands and in the central nervous system. As the dopamine system is
affected by the serotonin system she recommended an essential amino acid
30 to start moving to 60 in a week, an amino synthesizes serotonin and niacin.
The change in Chris after only a few days on the added supplements was
astonishing. He was able to sit with us at night and converse in a normal
way, not from two rooms away. His sense of humor and playfulness came back.This again reminded me again of the importance of getting the biochemistry
right. I had been focusing of late on Chris's problems as psycho/spiritual
in origin, and had been discounting the importance of the biochemistry
behind his actions. Once I began to appreciate that extra supplementation
could indeed help him regain normal, I felt better and more optimistic
about his immediate prospects than I had in a long time.The second thing I learned is exactly the opposite of the first, meaning
that if I thought that Chris's problems were just a matter of getting the
biochemistry right, then I would miss the importance of what I have earlier
in this blog called the X-factor in schizophrenia. This is a most
confounding, unpredictable condition. If you think you know it, you do not.
It is also a chicken and egg thing. Does the biochemical imbalance come
first, thereby causing mental trauma, or does the mental trauma come first,
thereby causing biochemical imbalance? The wisest course of healing action
is to keep an open mind and not place all your eggs in one basket.Cranial
osteopathy versus cranial sacral osteopathyPrior to the voice training workshop and his introduction to the Alexander
Technique, Chris underwent a series of cranial sacral massages. Cranial
sacral massage is related to cranial osteopathy. Cranial osteopathy was
developed by osteopath William Sutherland in the early 1900s. He observed
that the temporal bones of the head near the ears move very slightly,
rather like the gills of a fish. Cranial osteopaths and cranial sacral
osteopaths believe that there is something called a cranial rhythm, which
is present in all body tissues and results from the pulsing of the
cerebrospinal fluids surrounding the brain, spinal cord and sacrum.
Disturbances to this rhythm put pressure on the cranial bones and other
parts of the body, leading to bodily and nervous dysfunctions. The rhythm
can be disturbed by birth trauma, forceps delivery, accidents, etc. Both
cranial osteopathy and cranial sacral osteopathy detect and correct the
cranial rhythm through gentle massage.Stephanie Marohn devotes a chapter of her book, The Natural Medicine Guide
to Schizophrenia, to cranial osteopathy as of potential benefit for
schizophrenia. The finer distinctions between cranial sacral osteopathy and
cranial osteopathy were unclear to me and I booked cranial sacral massages
for Chris and me thinking they were one and the same. Chris reported
suddenly hearing new age music while undergoing his first massage, and he
knew there was no music playing in the room at the time. I, on the other
hand, experienced nothing so dramatic. My massage was pleasant and
relaxing. I had no reason to think that this particular massage could be
anything but beneficial.On returning from the vacation and college tour in late August (and missing
his flight), Chris began to become unfocused. In addition to not hearing
what Ian and I said to him, he soon failed to keep up with his course
assignments at the local university. At choir practice, he was out of sync
with the others. Chris and I talked about this at length. He confessed that
he felt his perceptions were changing. “Take that police siren we are
hearing right now off in the distance. Now it seems like it's just a siren,
but before I used to think about all the bad things that had happened to
someone or the crime that had been committed. I am still stuck halfway
between the old perception and the new one and it gets disorienting. I also
feel that my physical reality is changing and I don't know where to look or
put my feet.” Chris was not so sure that the new reality was going to be
better than the old one.I began to worry that I had inadvertently "killed" Chris by mixing up
cranial osteopathy and cranial sacral osteopathy.The Alexander Technique
Just before leaving on our family vacation, Chris took a week-long voice
training workshop under the tutelage of his choir director. Several hours
of the training involved the Alexander Technique, a technique familiar to
many musicians, dancers and actors and people wanting relief from back
pain. The Alexander Technique part of the workshop was taught by a highly
experienced AT teacher. (Note: The Alexander Technique is not a therapy.)F.M. Alexander was an Australian actor at the turn of the last century who
developed chronic laryngitis. Repeated visits to physicians yielded no
solution to his problem so he began to study what it was about his body
position that may have contributed to his condition. It took him nine
years. He started with the premise that it was the way he held his neck. He
needed to move his head forward and up, away from his body, to lengthen his
spine. When that did not make the problem go away, he realized that rather
than start by correcting specific movements, he needed to look at the
general misuse of body movements.He came to the remarkable insight that even though he felt he was moving
correctly, he often was not, and therefore he could not trust his own
feelings. Old body habits die hard and try as he did to correct, he would
revert to his old habits. He developed a method to execute the procedure
even though his body was telling him the procedure felt “wrong”.“I would stop and consciously reconsider my first decision, and ask myself
"Shall I after all go on to gain the end I have decided upon and speak the
sentence? Or shall I not? —and then and there make a fresh decision toa. not to gain my original end
b. to change my end and do something different, say, lift my hand
c. to go on after all and gain my original end“In each case I would continue to project the directions for maintaining
the new use.”The method forward in this statement by Alexander reminds me very much of
Hamlet's famous “to be or not to be” soliloquy (Act 3 Scene 1), which can
be interpreted as an action/no action oriented dilemma. The method could
lead to destabilizing behavior when executed by someone like Chris, who was
struggling with his perceptions of reality in the first place. Some people
can become very emotional because the technique can open up a flood of
suppressed feelings and emotions.
Wishful thinking
Trying to be endlessly understanding of Chris, Ian and I grew frustrated
and tired of continuing to support him in “activities” that were keeping
him occupied but not leading to a job or education. We were getting panicky
about lost time. We wanted desperately to launch him into independent
living, away from us, preferably as a full time university student. We felt
we had micro-parented him far too long. Making Chris the focus of our
attention had alienated Taylor and Alex.Ian and I found a small college that offered environmental and music
courses and a work program in a tranquil mountain setting. We arranged to
visit the college with Chris when we took our vacation in August. We were
hoping he could possibly start as early as January 2009 if he could see
himself in that setting. We were also very concerned that Chris would be
feeling lonely and left behind now that his youngest brother Taylor was
leaving home soon to begin university. Alex was still away at university.
Of our three sons, there would be just Chris at home now.There were problems with our strategy, which the coming months would prove
to be a big mistake. Chris continued to have difficulties, even though he
could now "pass for normal", in social situations. Chris still had a great
capacity to intellectually complicate a simple thought. He seemed to know
where he was going with it and what the connection was, but it was obscure
to the rest of us. Five and a half years after his acute psychotic
breakdown, he was hesitant in his physical demeanor, lagging behind others
a bit, not sure how to enter a room and when and where to sit down in it.
All this signaled to me an unease with his environment, a body/mind
disconnect. He was so much better overall and looking so well, that many
mothers may have stopped there and thought this is it, this is the most I
can expect, given all that has happened and all that is predicted about the
chronic nature of schizophrenia. I wanted Chris to be even better because I
knew he could be. I also wanted him cured. I had been operating under the
assumption that the vitamin therapy would bring his biochemistry in line
and this in turn would clear up his convoluted thinking and odd physical
mannerisms, but not so.I was also very aware that if Chris was ever going to be able to live away
from home it was well worth taking the time to allow him to recover more,
to do more therapies, even if this precipitated a further crisis.The ride on the recovery roller coaster begins
There is an overwhelming urge, when a person seems well, to want to rush
back to “normal” life. This is almost always a mistake. Insight and healing
take time and effort. Probably years. I have deliberately used the words
“seems well,” and “acting well” when it comes to Chris's recovery. Recovery
is not just about getting off the medication. It's a fantastic start, of
course, but you are still faced with the original problem of you and how
you got to the predicament where you found yourself in the first place.In his book Nutrition and Mental Illness, Dr. Carl Pfeiffer states that
there are 29 medical causes of schizophrenia, ranging from pellagra to drug
intoxications, to heavy metal toxicity, to wheat-gluten insensitivity, to
chronic candidiasis, to a host of other rare and not so rare ailments. That
does not necessarily mean that your schizophrenia can be pinned down to one
of these 29 medical causes. What I find incredible is that no doctor in
Chris's hospitals bothered to ask me if there was a family history of any
of these ailments or called for tests to rule them out.It is worth noting that Dr. Pfeiffer is referring to 29 "medical" causes of
schizophrenia. Half the fun of schizophrenia is figuring out the
non-medical, i.e. psychological causes of schizophrenia. Understanding and
treating the emotional underpinnings of schizophrenia has been pushed aside
over the past few decades in favor of the biochemical model. I am getting
ahead of myself here. There will be plenty of time to delve into this
fascinating subject in later blogs.Using holistic therapies, he achieved social breakthrough after seventeen
months of vitamin supplements, eight months after the assemblage point
shift, six months after Family Constellation Therapy and after three months
of seeing Dr. Stern once a week.He began phoning up friends he hadn’t seen for years to suggest that they
get together. He wanted to be around people. This was huge. For Ian and me,
it was like a stone had been lifted from us.>From February 2007 on, Chris continued to improve. Dr. Stern and Chris's
holistic psychiatrist worked together over the next year to gradually
eliminate his medications while continuing his weekly psychotherapy. His
weight dropped as the medications were lowered. By March 2008, he was off
all his medications. To illustrate the extreme caution that needs to be
exercised when lowering medications, it took almost one whole year for
Chris to come off 25 mg of clozapine. By June 2008 his weight was normal
once again and he was able to exercise more.I mentally began adding up the alternative treatments Chris had undergone:
colonics; acupuncture; vitamins and supplements; energy medicine, including
the magnetic mattress and a magnetic bracelet; Emotional Freedom Technique;
and assemblage point shift. On a scale of 1 to 10, if Chris was a 10 when
he was first hospitalized, then I would have to say he was now about a 5, a
4 at the most. He just was not visibly normal, meaning that he seemed
somewhat nervous, was not comfortable around people in large or small
groups and was not able to motivate himself. I attributed a lot of this to
the effects of the medications, which I believed kept him in an anxious
state, but I didn’t attribute all of it to the medications.I felt that we were on the right track with all the interventions we had
done up until that point, but that there was still a missing X factor that
had not been addressed. The good that the vitamins had accomplished this
far were undermined by the still heavy doses of meds. I believed that the
benefits of the assemblage point shift would reveal themselves over the
next few months and hopefully lead to a complete cure. We weren’t there
yet. I still had not tried to approach Level 4 of the healing pyramid in a
formal way.As the shaman predicted, Chris gradually began to express his thoughts and
convictions more. It was subtle, but it became increasingly apparent in the
next few months. He more frequently expressed his preferences and sometimes
lingered to talk a bit more. What surprised me is that I also felt that I
was becoming more real. I became even more direct and focused.
---The implication that human consciousness, like water molecules, can access
knowledge nonlocally, across space and time, opened a new world for Chris
and me. Through muscle testing we learned that Chris was allergic to wheat,
dairy and eggs.Energy medicine is one of the five sub-classifications of
complementary/alternative medicine (CAM), as defined by the National Center
for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a division of the National
Institutes of Health. Energy medicine proposes that many illnesses of the
human body can be rectified by rebalancing the out-of-balance energy fields
of the human body that have caused illness in the first place. Energy
medicine can be sub-divided into therapies using veritable (measurable)
energy fields, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), various kinds of
laser surgery and light and sound therapy, and therapies involving putative
energy fields (biofields), the subtle energy fields of the body that have
so far eluded scientific measurement. Therapies in this latter category
include but are not limited to Reiki, Chinese Traditional Medicine (TCM),
acupuncture, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), distance healing and
prayer.Applied kinesiology or "muscle testing" allows you to access all kinds of
useful and accurate information about your body by asking questions that
elicit a "true" or "false" (strong or weak) response by measuring your
body's resistance to applied physical pressure. For example, extend one arm
and hold it rigid while another person pushes down on it with two hands
while posing a question that can only elicit a true of false answer. You
can begin by repeating “two plus two equals four” while resisting the
downward pressure on your arm. Since this is a mathematically correct
statement then your muscle resistance should be strong. The statement “two
plus two equals five” is false and harder for our muscles to resist. The
arm will will not be able to resist the downward pressure as well as it
could for a true statement. This effect will be the same even if you are
asked questions in an unfamiliar language. Your body knows what is true and
what isn't true even if if your conscious will tries to override it.A person like your doctor can elicit information about you nonlocally by
muscle testing. You don't even have to be in the same room or on the same
continent. This can be done by making a closed circle with the thumb and
pointer fingers of the left hand. Insert the thumb and pointer finger of
the other hand into the circle, making sure it is a snug fit. While
concentrating on the test subject and asking a specific question regarding
that person’s state of health, try to force the fingers apart. A weak
response (the circle broken) indicates false, a strong (unbroken circle)
true. The key to doing this successfully and receiving true indicators as
to what is going on is to be very specific in the question asked (e.g., Is
this [name of particular substance] good or bad for the person's liver
function?) and to apply consistent pressure between the fingertips and
consistent force against the circled fingers while trying to force them
apart.Substances such as sugar will weaken the muscles whereas therapeutic
substances will strengthen them. This can be demonstrated by holding a
small bag of sugar against the body with one hand while trying to resist
downward pressure on the other arm, extended in front of you.Thoughts and emotional stimuli produce these same responses. For example,
the word “War” or “Love ” could be written without your knowlege on a piece
of paper and placed in a box that you hold against your body. Or you could
imagine something like your family pet. The person doing the muscle testing
will know by the reaction of your muscles whether this is a positive thing
for you or a negative thing.
Posted by Rossa Forbes
Labels: applied kinesiology, complementary/alternative medicine (CAM),
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) distance healing, energy medicine, muscle
testing, prayerThe secret life of water molecules
In Japan, Dr. Masaru Emoto photographed the molecular changes in untreated,
distilled water crystals when thoughts and words are directed at them. He
placed labels on glass jars of water, with phrases such as “Thank you” or
“You Fool” and left them overnight. The changes in the water crystals were
amazing. Positive words created pretty, healthy-looking crystals. Negative
words produced the opposite.Both spoken and written words convey vibrational energy that is picked up
by the water. In fact, everything in existence has a vibration. Dr. Emoto
found that intention and prayer can influence the water structure. Distance
didn’t seem to matter.As the adult human body is more than 70 percent water, and the level of
water content at birth is 90 percent, the effects of vibrational energy on
the human body and mind of both positive and negative thoughts, words, and
actions are staggering.This simple, yet profound discovery has major implications when looking at
illness.In his book Nutrition and Mental Illness, Dr. Carl Pfeiffer states that
there are 29 medical causes of schizophrenia, ranging from pellagra to drug
intoxications, to heavy metal toxicity, to wheat-gluten insensitivity, to
chronic candidiasis, to a host of other rare and not so rare ailments. That
does not necessarily mean that your schizophrenia can be pinned down to one
of these 29 medical causes. What I find incredible is that no doctor in
Chris's hospitals bothered to ask me if there was a family history of any
of these ailments or called for tests to rule them out.It is worth noting that Dr. Pfeiffer is referring to 29 "medical" causes of
schizophrenia. Half the fun of schizophrenia is figuring out the
non-medical, i.e. psychological causes of schizophrenia. Understanding and
treating the emotional underpinnings of schizophrenia has been pushed aside
over the past few decades in favor of the biochemical model. I am getting
ahead of myself here. There will be plenty of time to delve into this
fascinating subject in later blogs.
Using holistic therapies, he achieved social breakthrough after seventeen
months of vitamin supplements, eight months after the assemblage point
shift, six months after Family Constellation Therapy and after three months
of seeing Dr. Stern once a week.He began phoning up friends he hadn’t seen for years to suggest that they
get together. He wanted to be around people. This was huge. For Ian and me,
it was like a stone had been lifted from us.>From February 2007 on, Chris continued to improve. Dr. Stern and Chris's
holistic psychiatrist worked together over the next year to gradually
eliminate his medications while continuing his weekly psychotherapy. His
weight dropped as the medications were lowered. By March 2008, he was off
all his medications. To illustrate the extreme caution that needs to be
exercised when lowering medications, it took almost one whole year for
Chris to come off 25 mg of clozapine. By June 2008 his weight was normal
once again and he was able to exercise more.I mentally began adding up the alternative treatments Chris had undergone:
colonics; acupuncture; vitamins and supplements; energy medicine, including
the magnetic mattress and a magnetic bracelet; Emotional Freedom Technique;
and assemblage point shift. On a scale of 1 to 10, if Chris was a 10 when
he was first hospitalized, then I would have to say he was now about a 5, a
4 at the most. He just was not visibly normal, meaning that he seemed
somewhat nervous, was not comfortable around people in large or small
groups and was not able to motivate himself. I attributed a lot of this to
the effects of the medications, which I believed kept him in an anxious
state, but I didn’t attribute all of it to the medications.I felt that we were on the right track with all the interventions we had
done up until that point, but that there was still a missing X factor that
had not been addressed. The good that the vitamins had accomplished this
far were undermined by the still heavy doses of meds. I believed that the
benefits of the assemblage point shift would reveal themselves over the
next few months and hopefully lead to a complete cure. We weren’t there
yet. I still had not tried to approach Level 4 of the healing pyramid in a
formal way.As the shaman predicted, Chris gradually began to express his thoughts and
convictions more. It was subtle, but it became increasingly apparent in the
next few months. He more frequently expressed his preferences and sometimes
lingered to talk a bit more. What surprised me is that I also felt that I
was becoming more real. I became even more direct and focused.Why diet isn't everything
The state-of-the art research that I mentioned in my last post links many
disorders such as schizophrenia, depression, autism, etc. to wheat and
gluten intolerances. Chris's doctor determined that he suffers from
candidiasis, a systemic overgrowth of the yeastlike fungus Candida
albicans. This fungus is normally found in the intestines, but an
overpopulation can occur due to a number of factors, among them weakened
immunity, poor digestion, a diet high in foods that tend to foster yeast,
or the use of antibiotics, which kill off essential helpful bacteria that
aid in maintaining the proper balance of flora in the intestines.Candidiasis can be a lifelong problem. It interferes with digestion and
nutrient absorption, which in turn affects physical and mental health.
Nutritional deficiencies further contribute to intestinal dysfunction and
candidiasis. The two produce a negative feedback loop toward deteriorating
mental health. Eventually the brain itself becomes overwhelmed by yeast.
Various combinations of vitamins and minerals are prescribed in addition to
restricting or eliminating wheat, gluten and dairy products from the diet.
In addition to the wheat/gluten/dairy intolerance another widely implicated
factor in schizophrenia is excess copper.Some people have been known to recover quickly from schizophrenia by taking
just supplements and changing their diet. A lot of people do not. Dr.
Dietrich Klinghart, a German physician who with practices in Germany and in
the United States, maintains that if schizophrenia is not cured at the
physical level (level I - vitamins, herbs, nutrition, etc.) the problem
most likely resides at level IV of the healing pyramid. Level IV is the
intuitive level of dreams, trance, meditative states, out-of-body
experiences, and the collective unconscious. Dr. Klinghardt’s five levels
of healing form a healing pyramid, with the upper levels exerting a
trickle-down effect on your state of physical and mental health. Healing
cannot take place at a lower level if there is an unresolved issue at a
higher level.I lined up all his supplements for the week ahead and taped them into
little paper packets, twenty one packets in all. I labeled them "1" "2" and
"3" for swallowing at morning, lunch and dinner. He was now taking
sublingual lithium drops and sulfur drops twice a day in addition to the
mood stabilizer and the other supplements. I measured out the drops and
stood over Chris twice a day to make sure he kept them under his tongue. I
poured two liters of water in containers for him every evening and in the
morning I mixed the powdered and liquid supplements in the distilled water
for him to drink throughout the day. I slathered a detoxifying cream over
his liver twice a day, and dabbed a special niacin cream that is supposed
to work wonders with psychosis on both temples, wrists and the back of his
knees. I supervised his detoxifying epsom salt baths which he did every
second day. I watched while he put his detox footpads on every second night
before bed.In short, I was becoming a bloody psychiatric nurse. Actually, I was doing
more than a psychiatric nurse would do. A nurse at least gets to go home
and isn't concerned with administering supplements. I entertained fantasies
of putting Chris in the mental hospital to relieve me of my round the clock
caregiver duties. The only thing that prevented me from doing so is that he
would have been immediately put on an antipsychotic as the price of
admission.A slight change in his supplements, the addition of the mood stabilizer and
my spending a lot of time talking to him about his feelings and his
responsibilities over his actions enabled Chris's condition to stabilize a
bit over the Christmas period. This intense experience convinced me that
Soteria and Kingsley Hall and the Jacqui Schiff home based approach worked
better than what the critics reported. However, their approach needs a
staff. I was simply exhausted and doubted whether I was up to the job.How many supplements can a human being take?
Throughout the rest of January, Chris fluctuated between semi okay and not
okay, but the clear trend was down. I grew weary from lack of sleep. Chris
was still able to sleep through the night, so that was not a problem, but
it was my worrying that prevented me from getting a good night's sleep.I was beginning to hate the supplements almost as much as I hated the
medications. Part of the reason is that every supplement (thirty-five in
all) seemed absolutely essential. I was terrified of running out of one or
of forgetting one. This becomes a tyranny. And, conversely, when one
supplement becomes especially critical, as the holistic psychiatrist now
claimed the niacin blend cream had become, then one begins to question its
value when all thirty-five of them were supposed to be so critical and the
patient is still doing poorly.Towards the end of January we ran out of his crucial niacin mixture cream
and had to wait until it arrived by mail. It was getting tou~^~^~^~^~
While we waited for the niacin cream to arrive, I had a rather amazing
stroke of insight. I asked for guidance from God/the knowledge field and I
got the answer the next morning. It is rather simple. I remembered that Dr.
Hoffer wrote of a young man and his worried parents who came to see him. Dr
Hoffer prescribed his standard niacin/vitamin C/zinc, etc. mixture and the
young man went away. He came back from time to time for a check-up. Dr
Hoffer asked him how he was managing and the young man replied that he
still enjoyed his fantasies but when he felt he was going too far over the
edge, he simply downed a bottle of niacinamide. Dr Hoffer was taken aback
that the young man would take so many in one go, but reasoned that it
worked for him so why criticize the unorthodox method? This young man was
on the brink of psychosis or perhaps was even swimming in it and yet he
managed to pull himself back by taking large amounts of niacin.I looked at how much niacinamide Chris was prescribed and it was only one
gram a day, although his doctor had told me to raise it to two while we
waited for the niacin cream to arrive. So, Chris was taking two grams a
day. Would doubling it to four grams or even five grams a day keep Chris
from losing total contact with reality? Dr Hoffer recommended anywhere up
to six grams a day for his patients with an equal amount of vitamin C (to
prevent possible liver damage) and a B complex to make the niacinamide work
efficiently. So, without consulting with his doctor, I simply upped Chris's
dose and added the requisite amounts of vitamin C and B complex.
Previously, I would have been concerned about doing anything without first
checking with his doctor, but now I felt free to do what I felt was
right.ch and go that the cream would arrive before Chris went completely
bonkers. There were many people who knew Chris who were beginning to urge
us to put Chris on medications. With much regret, we asked the holistic
psychiatrist to prescribe an antipsychotic for Chris in addition to the
mood stabilizer he was on.Having worked with many of the therapies discussed in Dr. Klinghardt's
healing pyramid I am mindful that all the good work that vitamin and diet
support can accomplish can be overruled by the mind. Until the mind is
ready, the body will not follow. I have seen this recently in Chris. He was
doing really well, he was no longer on medications, he was taking vitamin
supplements and he was adhering to a recommended diet. We were all in shock
when he started to become unravelled. His mind, I am convinced, put the
brakes on further progress. He was becoming a victim of his own success.
Heartened by his progress up up until then, my husband and I had begun to
encourage him to go back to university full time, to develop himself
further as a musician, to think in terms of possibilities. He panicked.
Psychosis was his escape hatch.Why he panicked is goes to the heart of the matter. Getting to the essence
of cause is where schizophrenia begins to get really, really interesting.
The trip is a long one.
--
In the 1950s, Dr. Abram Hoffer, together with Dr. Humphrey Osmond,
successfully treated hundreds of schizophrenic patients at the Saskatchewan
Hospital, with supplements aimed at correcting the body’s biochemical
imbalances, a treatment approach later termed “orthomolecular medicine.”Dr. Osmond and his student Dr. John Smythies noticed that schizophrenic
hallucinations are like hallucinations suffered by otherwise normal people
who have taken a bad mescaline trip. Mescaline belongs to a family of
psychedelic compounds known as phenethylamines. It is present in several
cactus species of the American Southwest and the Andes mountain range of
South America and used by native American tribes in certain religious and
mystical practices. Adrenaline, which is naturally produced in the body, is
similar in its properties to mescaline.Drs. Hoffer and Osmond hypothesized that schizophrenics produce an excess
amount of an amino acid similar to adrenaline (which they called
“adrenochrome”); this amino acid is also produced naturally in the body.
Dr. Hoffer determined that adrenochrome belongs to a different family of
psychedelic compounds known as “indoles.” (LSD is an indole.) Dr Hoffer
prescribed niacin in high doses to reduce adrenochrome levels. It works.Dr. Hoffer defines recovery from schizophrenia as threefold: The person is
able to function well with friends and family, is free of signs and
symptoms, and is able to hold down a job, drive, work & pay income tax.Dr Hoffer is still in the minority of doctors and institutions who think so
optimistically about schizophrenia. The standard medical opinion is that
the most one can expect is managed recovery, quality of life, and part time
work if any. Dr Hoffer expects more. Why are most so-called experts setting
the bar so low? It surely has something to do with the word "cure". Many
people shudder at the use of the word cure” in the context of
schizophrenia. A cure simply means that someone with an illness has become
healthy again or it can be the solution to a problem. If you rely solely on
pharmaceutical solutions, curing schizophrenia is difficult, if not
impossible.Be wary of institutions that talk about ending discrimination of the
mentally ill, e.g. the problem with mental illness is "stigma". No, the
problem with mental illness is that people are not getting well in
sufficiently large numbers. The mentally ill have been discriminated
against because they haven't been seriously helped to get well. Most
institutions promote mental illness as chronic and hopeless. Let's not set
the bar so low. Why, for heaven’s sake, instead of celebrating people whom
they seem to regard as chronically disabled, don’t these organizations say
that they are dedicated to helping people with serious mental illness get
over it and get on with their lives? Why not, indeed?
I am still trying to figure out how Dr Hoffer got such great results using
a small amount of supplements with no recommended changes in diet (e.g.
elimination of additives, gluten and sugar) and no talk of psychotherapy. I believe he
got these results because his patients didn't get side tracked by competing
claims. A reader has pointed out to me that Dr Hoffer does indeed recommend
eliminating or restricting dairy, gluten, sugar and junk food in the diet.
That is absolutely correct. However, for many years before the importance
of diet became recognized in treating mental health disorders, Dr. Hoffer
just carried on with his basic vitamin recommendations (and medications
when necessary) and got good results.For the past thirty years or more we have been told that the newer
(atypical) antipsychotics are better than the older (typical)
antipsychotics. We have gotten further and further away from challenging
whether antipsychotics are really needed in the first place. We have
allowed ourselves to become managed by pharmaceuticals, but never cured. Is
it possible that this same thing is happening with vitamins?Today, vitamins are big business. They are state-of-the-art. They are
well-researched, very good and adaptive. Alas, I have become immobilized
through too much specialization and choice. I'm afraid of getting it wrong.
For vitamin C you have a wide choice of delivery and added benefits, e.g.
powder, liquid, capsule, with varying combinations of other vitamins and
minerals. Buying vitamins is like ordering a coffee at Starbucks. I'd just
like a regular coffee, thanks.Chris is taking way more vitamins than Dr. Hoffer ever recommended, and he
still isn't in a position to work 40 hours & pay income tax. Here's what taking 35
supplements a day entails. The pills, powders and liquids have to be
carefully measured, the pills put in packages and labeled. There is no
plastic thingy big enough to hold all the pills so I put them all in paper
packs, which I cut, fold, tape and label. Enough to last seven days or 21
paper packs in all. This goes on week in, week out. All the vitamins have
to be shipped to our home. There is always the danger of running out. All
of these vitamins, Chris's doctor has told me, are crucial to his some
aspect of his functioning.I would love to scale the vitamins back to just the Dr Hoffer basics. My
husband and Chris don't seem inclined to rotate the position of chief pill
dispenser. They are not as methodical as I am about the procedures
involved. This is why women are entrusted with childcare, I remind them.
Dr Abram Hoffer is the dean of orthomolecular psychiatry. He is the first,
the starting point, the base, for anyone who wants to learn more about what
schizophrenia is and how best to treat it using vitamin support.
Orthomolecular is a term coined by Nobel laureate Dr Linus Pauling. It
means "the right molecule". It is using supplemements to correct
biochemical imbalances.Dr Hoffer is still going strong at over 90 years old. I like Dr. Hoffer. I
wrote him a fan letter in 2005 after Chris had been on his recommended
combination of niacinimide (vitamin B3), vitamin C, B-complex, omega 3 and
zinc for only a few weeks. The changes in Chris after such a short time
were noticeable, despite the fact he had been on meds for over a year. He
was more focused and engaged. His skin became clearer. His hair, which was
becoming alarmingly thin for someone his age, became thicker.Dr Hoffer's book, How to Live with Schizophrenia, is a must read. It is
positive and upbeat, unlike some other well-known and widely quoted
authorities on schizophrenia. It is loaded with good tips and really
interesting observations. He respects his patients and learns from them.I also have been faithfully using his recommended combination of vitamins
since 2005. Interestingly, what works for schizophrenia also works to
prevent alzheimers/dementia, according to Dr Hoffer. Here, there are a
couple of things to keep in mind. The first is the word "prevent". Once
dementia begins, vitamins are ineffective. The closer in age you are to
dementia (for all practical purposes in your sixties) you should substitute
niacin for niacinimide. If you are in your fifties, you should begin with 3
grams of niacinimide per day and an equal amount of vitamin C (to prevent
liver damage), a B complex (to make the other vitamins work more
efficiently), and throw in an omega 3 and a zinc or another B vitamin (B-6,
B-12). Niacin produces a burning sensation in your body. It is harmless,
but nonetheless rather scary if you don't know what to expect.I never plan to be without Dr Hoffer's recommended schizophrenia/dementia
vitamins. People laughingly refer to "senior moments", but in my early
fifties I was having trouble focusing. At the time I attributed it to the
stress of juggling family and work responsibilities, but I feel now that my
brain was tired. After only a few days on the niacinimide formula, I felt
on top of my game intellectually. I could push through to complete a
complex series of thoughts. I now had intellectual energy whereas before I
had little. I began reading more complex books. I began to write my own
book. Like Chris, my skin became amazingly clear. My hair grew back its
former thickness. I was much calmer.If you think of holistic health as a pyramid, orthomolecular medicine is
the broad base of the pyramid. Proper foods, vitamins and minerals are the
building blocks of good health.Here is Dr Hoffer's vitamin package, courtesy of the Canadian Schizophrenia
Foundation.SUPPLEMENTS: Vitamin B3 (niacin or niacinamide) 0.5 – 2 grams 3 times
daily. Vitamin B6 (for many) 250-500 mg daily. A general B vitamin formula.
Vitamin C, 3 or more grams daily. Zinc (gluconate or citrate) 50 mg daily.
Manganese 15-30 mg daily (if there is danger of tardive dyskinesia).
CURE THEM AT HOME: ASYLUMS/ HOSPITALS are dangerous places:
https://calcoastnews.com/2017/02/parents-say-mentally-ill-son-tortured-killed-county-jail/
READ "THE GREAT PRETENDER" AND FIRE IN THE BRAIN, about a brilliant woman who got
organically caused Schizophrenia from a germ. SHRINKS thot her a real nutjob but a doctor realized it was
a brain infection and she got out of crazy house. IN PRETENDER. Sushanna Cahalan writes about Dr. David Rosenham
who believed many crazies were DRIVEN even crazier by sadistic, tweaked workers at insane asylums. He had a team
of PSEUDOPATIENTS be signed in to check out the staff. SOME had a hard time getting OUT.
PBS SHOW I watched on all this mentioned DR ROBERT SPITZER who wrote THE DIAGNOSIS
MANUAL, the DIAGNOSTIC BIBLE of symptoms of mental illness.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Spitzer_(psychiatrist)
and BRAIN ON FIRE authoress:
https://www.grandcentralpublishing.com/titles/susannah-cahalan/the-great-pretender/9781538715260/
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *<=== BACK TO THE FRUGAL TIPS and CHEAPO LIFESTYLE WEBPAGE
THE ACTIVIST should utilize the internet and become a POSTER which is what ANITA SANDS HERNANDEZ, Los Angeles Writer, mother of 4 and Career Astrologer does. She finds 'telling' articles, posts them and POSTS them at her website then sends the URL out to her TWITTER friends, her FACEBOOK readers and to her extensive EMAIL lists, --to people who she's noted are thinkers, do-ers and are likely to pass the information on. The themes? HOLISTIC HEALING without doctors, but also for CATS AND DOGS , TRUTHS the GOV WILL HIDE & NEVER TELL YOU, The FUTURE, WHAT'S COMIN' AT YA! FRUGAL LIFE STYLE TIPS, and ALL the things you'll need to do to SURVIVE the COMING GREAT DEPRESSION, Also cottage industries galore, like ARTISANRY FOR EXPORT, EARN EUROS... (and more.. see the dozen themes below) Anita is at astrology@earthlink.net ). Get a 35$ natal horoscope "my money/future life" reading now + copy horoscope as a Gif file graphic! No smarter, more accurate career reading out there!
<=== BACK TO THE HOLISTIC INDEX PAGE, HOW TO LIVE 150 YEARS
<=== BACK TO TRACKING THE ECONOMY, an INDEX PAGE
<===BACK TO MONEY SECRETS ONLY STREET SMART EXPERTS KNOW
<=== BACK TO DIRTY SECRETS which the GOV DOES NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW
<===BACK TO THE SECRETS OF THE OLIGARCHS, THE EMPIRE INDEX PAGE
<=== SHOW ME THE FIX INDEX PAGE.
<== SHOW ME THE HAPPY R)EVOLUTION PAGE
<=== BACK TO "GUERILLA CAPITALISM" -- THE SOLUTION!
<==== BACK TO THE "VITAL SIGNS OF A DYING ECONOMY" the "FUTURE" WEBPAGE
<==== BACK TO THE WALL STREET MELTDOWN WEBSITE, with "WHAT TO DO TO SURVIVE" TIPS
<=== BACK TO ENRON PLANET, the DOOMSDAY SCENARIO!
<====BACK TO THE HOLISTIC GOURMET, BON MARCHE
<=== BACK TO THE FRUGAL ARTISAN IMPORT/ EXPORT TYCOON AND HIS "STUFF"
<=== BACK TO THE GLEENERS PAGE
<== BACK TO THE FUTURE INDEX PAGE
<=== BACK TO THE GENTLEMAN FARMER'S GARDEN INDEX
<=== INVESTIGATE DOING DRIP IRRIGATE- LINES in DROUGHT AREAS for $. Learn in ONE DAY FLAT at HOME DEPOT
<=== BACK TO "DONE WELL, ACTIVISM IS A DELIGHT and IT CREATES CAREERS for YOU as well as PLANETARY EVOLUTION"
<=== BACK TO THE MALTHUSIAN INDEX PAGE
<===BACK TO THE PHILOSOPHY INDEX PAGE
<=== BACK TO THE LUCK IN LOVE WEBSITE
<== BACK TO THE PROPAGANDA STUDIES WEBSITE, HOW GOV LIES TO YOU
<=== BACK TO ALL POINTS OF THE COMPASS POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY TUTORIAL
<=== BACK TO JERRY'S REFRIGERATOR & the Tin Foil Hat Collection of CONSPIRACY THEORIES!
<====BACK TO THE FREE MONEY WEBSITE
<==== BACK TO THE HARD TIMES WEBSITE
<===== BACK TO THE POVERTY INDEX PAGE
<==== BACK TO THE "TIPS to SURVIVE THE FUTURE" INDEX PAGE
BACK TO THE "FIX YOUR FLAGGING AMBITION" SEMINAR
<== BACK TO THE SNOOKERED INDEX PAGE
<===BACK TO THE REALITY 101 SEMINAR FOR TEENS
<==== BACK TO THE SHOW BUSINESS ARCHIVE for Writers, Producers, Directors and VIDEO DOCUMENTARIANS
<====HOW TO TINKER WITH OTHER PEOPLE's BRAINS
<====BACK TO THE NEW AGE EMPOWERING INDEX
<===BACK TO "HOW TO MERCHANDISE YOURSELF" INDEX
<===BACK TO THE ALL ABOUT TAXES INDEX PAGE
<=== MEET ANITA SANDS WHO WRITES ALL THESE ARTICLES
<=== TAKE ME TO THE HOLISTIC PET, HOW NEVER TO NEED a VET
<=== BACK TO THE TRUTHS ABOUT DENTISTRY THAT WILL SAVE YOU 100 THOUSAND!
<=== BACK TO THE SNOOKERED WEBPAGE, HOAXES WE HAVE ALL KNOWN
<===BACK TO EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WEB STUFF (for dummies) so you can make your own website.
<=== BACK TO THE CONVERSATION INDEX
<=== BACK TO REAL ESTATE BUYING FOR THE POOR PERSON. IT CAN BE DONE!
<===== BACK TO THE PHILOSOPHIC DIFFERENCES INTERPRETED WEBSITE.
<=== BACK TO "HOW TO MARRY A BILLIONAIRE" SEMINAR that teaches THE SUPER BEAUTY how to GIVE UP JOCKS, SACRIFICE HERSELF AND SAVE THE WORLD<===BACK TO THE NUKE ME, I'M IMPERISHABLE! WEBSITE
<=== BACK TO THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES WEBPAGE
<==== BACK TO THE HOLISTIC HEALING INDEX PAGE