Monthly Archives: June 2012

Don’t feed your Dog any Human food

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I was browsing the internet today on the subject of tomatoes and allergies to tomatoes as well as epileptic type seizures (caused by tomatoes) when I stumbled upon a very important article/blog that all dog owners should read before allowing their pet dog to eat something ‘exotic’ or human type food.

Just taking a look at it and you can see it is a long list of things you should never feed your dog or let your dog eat or ingest.

It is titled ‘COMMON FOODS THAT ARE HARMFUL
OR EVEN FATAL TO DOGS’:http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/health/dietno.htm

In fact, don’t even feed your dog catfood, while many people think they are the same they are not. As the above article states catfood can contain too much protein or fat which would be harmful to a dog.

Ever think of feeding your dog a handful of raisins? DON’T IT COULD KILL HIM/HER!

Everybody knows feeding your dog chocolate is a death sentence but there is a large list of things that can make your dog sick or even cause coma or death, so please get acquainted with the facts before you do something careless, and don’t trust just because I said it, have a conversation with your veterinarian and confirm each thing on the list if you have to.

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Some people think it would be funny to put beer in your dogs drinking bowl or force exhaled marijuana smoke into your pets mouth. Well think again, Alcohol is the first on the list of things that could put your pet into a coma or kill him/her. As well marijuana can make your pet very sick. (Beer also contains HOPS which could cause your pet dog to have a seizure. So even non-alcoholic beer is dangerous for dogs).

So if you feel the need to feed your pet something special for him or her make sure that food or treat is made for a dog (to be given to a dog) or cat (to be given to a cat), and if in doubt ask a professional/veterinarian!

Memoirs of a Schizophrenic Part 3: Sleep Hygiene

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Sometime mid-early 2009 I was getting Risperidone Intramuscular Injection twice a month as part of my Review Board.

Sometime mid-later 2009, I started asking my Doctor for PRN doses of something that would deal with my anxiety and my social phobia. She offered me a drug called Oxazepam. And I asked for a small dose of Olanzapine to help me sleep.

For the most part it was helping with what it was supposed to.

But later on closer to winter and 2010 I had added over the counter melatonin to the mix as well.

I quickly discovered with these 3 pills I could manipulate my sleep depending on how and when I was taking the doses. At one point I could use the drugs to have me asleep as much as 20 hours of the day.

Sleeping was a cop out on life, when I was asleep my problems didn’t exist; when I was asleep I didn’t exist, there were no worries.

I would see my forensics case manager in the morning some days and he could notice that I was very much half asleep when I went with him for coffee in the mornings.

I still don’t know how I managed to finish my probation and community service to Feb. 25 2010. (Which was not related to my Review Board). But I did.

In 2010 they decided they were going to have my case prepared so that if I got off the Review Board that my case could be transferred to Mental Health instead.

After I had seen the Mental Health manager a few times it was clear to them I had a ‘sleep hygiene’ issue and they informed my doctor. My doctor had no choice but to stop my Olanzapine dose as well as my Oxazepam would be whittled down to 0 after 30 days so they could ween me off it.

Oxazepam is like a benzodiazepine and can be addictive. It works on GABA which I believe helped me (REM) sleep but also opened my mind and my senses.

Even now in 2012, 2 years that I have been off Oxazepam I still have cravings for it.

I was quite upset that they cut off those drugs because they were the few drugs I actually liked.

When I saw my Doctor next I explained to her that my insomnia has always been pretty bad and that I relied on the drugs to get me to sleep; specifically the two drugs they had taken away from me.

My Doctor in turn asked me if I wanted to try Seroquel/Quetiapine for my sleep and I accepted.

For quite a while i used Quetiapine 25-50mg to get me to sleep at night. And for the most part it worked.

In early 2011 I had my second Review Board hearing and i was acquitted. I no longer had a Forensics case manager but now just a Mental Health case manager (if I so choose anyway).

Eventually I decided to off the Intramuscular Injection of ‘consta’ or Risperidone 37.5mg (2 weeks).

Today I take a full antipsychotic dose of Olanzapine and a small dose of Quetiapine for sleep.

And you would be hard pressed to find me sleeping more than 10-12 hours at night or even in the day time.

Many days I am awake at 5am or 6am, and I usually got to bed between 11pm and 12:30 midnight.

I have been off my Review Board Order well over a year now and off probation well over 2 years now and have been taking my medications as prescribed and have not had an incident or episode during that time.

I wouldn’t say I am cured of Schizophrenia, but when you take the meds for many patients it is like they are cured. I still have some of the negative symptoms of Schizophrenia including paranoia, but I am honest with my rehab workers and case managers when I catch myself having a symptom such as paranoia.

The key to wellness with any mental illness is to be honest with your case manager/councillor about the symptoms you are having. For some this is not possible. Also be honest to your assigned workers (mental health) with your medications. For instance if stopped taking your meds you should let a mental health authority know, even tell them why.

I don’t know if this post will help anyone with a mental illness but I feel it will. When you can talk about your symptoms you are coming closer to being cured of them. (although there is no known cure for any/most mental illness).

Memoirs of a Schizophrenic Part 2

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Many times after I had been diagnosed and even before I was diagnosed I attempted what may be referred to as ‘self medicate’.

This is in many cases also self harming.

For instance many addicts will self medicate with non-pharmaceutical drugs, like heroin, cocaine, even marijuana and/or alcohol.

And some will even self medicate with prescription drugs whether prescribed to them or not.

Around the time I was diagnosed I was self medicating with things like brewers yeast (herbal supplement) and Ginko Biloba, and several other vitamins and herbal pills. I can’t remember exactly all I was using at the time it was many years ago actualy but I do remember I chose things that would enhance my psyche/mind/IQ.

When I explained all the things I was taking aside from my prescribed medication to my psychiatrist and psychologist/case manager, they wanted me to not take any of them any more and just take the antipsychotics I was prescribed.

This is because they want only their approved drugs affecting my psyche so they can more easily treat my specific mental illness.

Many drugs over the counter and pharmaceuticals even herbal remedies and narcotics fall under the category of psychotropics. The thing they have in common is they play on how the psyche/mind behaves and thinks, however they all do very different things specifically.

When I was in FPH later 2008 I was not allowed caffeine or anything that might have a psychotropic action on my mind with the exception of what had been prescribed by a qualified physician.

I was not allowed cigarettes in FPH however I had a doctor prescribe me a nicotine patch to deal with my withdrawal and cravings for nicotine/cigarettes.

I was in FPH for a 30 day psychiatric evaluation because I had made a threat over electronic communications that I will not go into the specifics of here. And they had to determine if it was criminal or psychiatric related symptoms.

Some days we were allowed a real cup of coffee at breakfast time but any time after that it was only decaffeinated coffee.

FPH stands for ‘Forensic Psychiatric Hospital’.

Prior to going into FPH I had been abusing coffee by drinking it late into the day, and I was not taking my prescribed medication. Which eventually caused me to have a psychotic episode that caused me to be submitted to FPH.

Later 2008 and into 2009 I was on a ‘Review Board Order’ as a result of the finding of my psychiatric evaluation at FPH. I was allowed to return to my residence to serve out the Review Board Order and not required to spend it at FPH.

One of the conditions of the Review Board was that I take my medications via Intramuscular Injection. This was the only way to suffice to them that I would actually be on the antipsychotic medication.

To be continued in part 3..

Memoirs of a Schizophrenic Part 1

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Hello, I cannot guarantee that I have an expertise on the subject of schizophrenia. But I do have much experience on the subject due to the fact that I do have schizophrenia.

In 2003 I saw three psychiatrists over the period of a few months. And they all came to the same conclusion with a diagnosis of schizophrenia for me.

For years I wasn’t really convinced I truly had it so I really didn’t take my meds and really didn’t want to take a pharmaceutical based on what some people call a pseudo-science.

In my younger years I would ‘talk to trees’, let me explain, I would have a question in my head and wanted an answer so I would attempt to mentally project my question in the trees direction out my window and then I would wait for an answer and if the wind blew the branches up and down I would accept that as a ‘yes’ and if the wind blew the branches side to side I would accept that as a ‘no’.

I told my older sister this when I was about 13-14 years old and it was apparent to her this was not normal behavior.

Years later after I was diagnosed she commented that my mental illness/schizophrenia was comparable to the fictional movie called ‘A beautiful mind’.

One of the main characteristics/symptoms of a person who has schizophrenia is disorganized thinking and disorganized speech. I am sure that when I was originally diagnosed that it was one of the first things they noticed from their interviews with me. Though at the time I had no knowledge or interest in what the symptoms of schizophrenia are.

Most schizophrenics don’t actually have actual visual or audio hallucinations. Though I had an experience in 2004 that may be equivalent.

There are positive symptoms of schizophrenia and there are negative. Hallucinations and delusions fall under the positive, and by the way that is a classification not an opinion. (There may not really be anything positive about a given positive symptom of schizophrenia). Whereas many of the other symptoms fall under the negative symptoms of schizophrenia and are much more common.

In 2004 I was asked by a nurse if I was seeing or hearing anything abnormal or anything other people couldn’t see or hear.

In my response I told her that when I closed my eyes and pressed my palms against my eyelids with a little bit of force, that I would see repeating patterns in green and purple with black behind it and also sometimes numbers and letters would appear and disappear.

I had a hard time with the doctor treating me at that time. He believed I was possessed and that I needed to be exorcised or have demons exorcised out of me. Later that night I flipped out (but not in a violent way towards any persons), and then they moved me to a different hospital.

At the new psych unit I was on I was treated alot better. There was more freedom for me there. They had day passes and a covered smoking area and the doctors weren’t pushing me to see a priest or an exorcist.

However it was hard for me to want to take the meds given to me as I didn’t believe in them, but eventually I did take them and was allowed more privileges as a result.

As an outpatient I had to go to the clinic where a nurse would watch me take my medication each day. This went on for a week or two.

To be con’t in a part 2.