What if crazy people arent crazy

But your doctor should listen to your reason for wanting a second opinion. An advocate is independent from the mental health service. They are free to use. They can be useful if you find it difficult to get your views heard. There are different types of advocates available.

Community advocates can support you to get a health professional to listen to your concerns. And help you to get the treatment that you would like. You can search online to search for a local advocacy service. We will look for you. They give information and support to patients.

This is where your concerns are investigated in further detail. You can ask an advocate to help you make a complaint. Advocates that do this are called Independent Health Complaints Advocates.

Many people who live with schizophrenia have recovery journeys that lead them to live meaningful lives. Some doctors and health professionals think of recovery as:. Dealing with symptoms is important to a lot of people. But some people think that recovery is wider than this. What you think of as being a meaningful life might be different to how other people see it. You can think about what you would like to do to live a meaningful life and work towards that goal.

Recovery is an ongoing process. It is normal to have difficulties or setbacks along the way. What it took for me to recover from schizophrenia was having people who believed in me and who did not give up on me.

Their belief and love for me encouraged me to believe in myself, so I could have the patience to heal slowly over several years, with the help of steady, continued medical treatment.

Their love and confidence in me gave me a reason and the strength to try and endure the emotional pain and social stigma of having schizophrenia. Research suggests that people with serious mental illness SMI , such as schizophrenia, have a shorter life expectancy. People with mental illness may die 15 to 20 years earlier than the general population.

This may because people who live with SMI are at higher risk of having a range of health issues. Such as being overweight, having heart disease, smoking and diabetes. Because of these issues, NICE recommends that when you start taking antipsychotic medication, your doctor should do a full range of physical health checks. This should include weight, blood pressure and other blood tests. These checks should be repeated regularly. Mental health professionals are responsible for doing these checks for the first year of treatment.

Responsibility may then pass to your GP. Your doctor or mental health team should offer you a programme which combines healthy eating and physical health checks. You should be supported by a healthcare professional to help stop smoking. The risk of suicide is increased for people with schizophrenia. Research has found that the increased risk is not usually because of positive symptoms.

The risk of suicide is associated more to affective symptoms, such as low mood. It can be distressing if you are a carer, friend or relative of someone who has schizophrenia. You can get support.

What is a carers assessment? NICE guidelines state that you should be given your own assessment through the community mental health team CMHT to work out what effect your caring role is having on your health. And what support you need. Such as practical support and emergency support. The CMHT should tell you about your right to have a carers assessment through your local authority.

How do I get support from my peers? You can get peer support through carer support services or carers groups. You can search for local groups in your area by using a search engine such as Google. Or you can call our advice service on They will search for you.

What is a care plan? The care plan is a written document that says what care your relative or friend will get and who is responsible for it. A care plan should always include a crisis plan. A crisis plan will have information about who to contact if they become unwell. You should be given information about what to do in a crisis. You can use this information to support and encourage them to stay well and get help if needed. Can I be involved in care planning? As a carer you should be involved in decisions about care planning.

The healthcare team should encourage the person that you care for to allow information to be shared with you. What can I do if my friend or family member is in crisis? If you think your friend or relative is experiencing psychotic symptoms you may want them to see a doctor. This can be difficult if they do not believe they are unwell. If you think that your friend or family member is a risk of harm to themselves or others you can:.

Your nearest relative is a legal term under the Mental Health Act. What is a Mental Health Act Assessment? A Mental Health Act assessment is an assessment to see if someone needs to go to hospital to be treated against their will. How do I ask for a Mental Health Act assessment? If you are concerned that your friend or family member is a risk to themselves or other people you could try and get a Mental Health Act assessment by contacting an Approved Mental Health Professional AMHP.

Your friend or family member will only be detained under the Mental Health Act if they are assessed as a high risk to themselves or other people. Because of the stress involved in detaining someone it is usually the best option if your friend or family member can be encouraged to get the help for themselves, such as though their GP. There is no extra care available whilst detained, compared to in the community.

At Rethink Mental Illness we have done some reports into severe mental illness. You can read more about this here: www. She talks about her journey back to better mental health.

And she makes the case that by learning to listen to her voices she was able to survive. Website : www. This BBC radio programme looks at what causes people to hear voices. You can listen to it online or download it. A website produced by Durham University together with mental health professionals, voice-hearers and their families. The website aims to make it easier for people to find information about different approaches to voicehearing. And ways of supporting those who are struggling with the voices they hear.

The service is for young people in the SLaM area. But there is lots of useful information on the website and resources you can download. Researchers have been looking into how computer-based treatment may help with hearing voices. This treatment is known as avatar therapy. Avatar therapy is not available on the NHS at the moment. In this therapy you create a computer-generated face with a voice which is like a voice you hear.

You work with a therapist to talk to the avatar and gain more control over the voice you hear. Results show that this therapy is helpful for some people. But there is more research taking place.

You can read about the study by following the link below. Avatar Therapy UCL webpage : www. This is a free, online course provided by Kings College in London. It is aimed at people who care for people who have psychosis or schizophrenia. The Royal College of Psychiatrists Their website has reliable information about different mental illnesses.

Telephone : Email through online form : www. They give information, support and understanding to people who hear voices and those who support them. They also support people who have visual hallucinations and people who have tactile sensations. They have a list of self-help groups across the country.

Email : info hearing-voices. Intervoice Intervoice are a charity. They encourage people all over the world to share ideas through their online community. You can also find information about hearing voices through their articles and resources. Email : info intervoiceonline. Donate Search Menu. About us About us. See our contacts page Looking to contact us? Covid support. Supporting yourself Read more Supporting yourself.

Covid information hub See all pages Covid information hub. Help in your area. Find peer support online Visit the Clic website Find peer support online. Advice and information. Contact our advice service today Need more information? When Erin returned to school after her attempt, she and a classmate had an argument. Erin tells SELF that, in front of a hallway full of students, her classmate said, "Well, at least I'm not the one who is crazy!

This debate dates back to when I first saw judgmental headlines circulating about Britney Spears in and others about Amanda Bynes a few years later. Their public struggles with mental health earned them both a horrifying amount of vitriol. My uncertainty about using the word has only become stronger now that people often use it to describe the perpetrators of mass shootings and blame their heinous acts on mental illness. But is that really even necessary? I see conversations about this kind of thing on Twitter all the time, especially when it comes to words like crazy that have become so ingrained in conversation but also have some potentially tricky connections with mental health.

As we reexamine our language and try to be thoughtful and not ableist with our word choices, crazy is one of the words we should be discussing. To help figure out where exactly I stand when it comes to crazy, I talked to people with mental illnesses and mental health experts. One of my most interesting discoveries? No one I talked to felt like we should all just stop using the word crazy entirely. Instead, everyone I interviewed felt as though the conversation should be about when and how we use the word crazy.

It is a word used without any serious thought or consideration. But, in a strange way, we see the first two meanings used to hurt some and benefit others. It is a word that can be used to criticize an individual or group, keep a stigma in place or, when used in commercials, sell cars, sweets and even peanut butter i. What a word, indeed. So, what is the solution? Many dictionaries are constantly being revised to accommodate the newest slang. Of an angle appearing absurdly out of place or in an unlikely position.

Or perhaps it is time to retire the first definition altogether and begin to strive to be a more enlightened society. It has been a verbal weapon long enough.

Folks can be crazy in love, crazy about old movies and crazy about cheese. And let that monument lean at its crazy angle but leave it at that. There is always room in our world for more empathy. Robert Spencer has been living with bi-polar illness for the last thirty years. Family and group therapy are also important, and can be done virtually.

For people who show clear breaks with reality, antipsychotic medication can help greatly. Women who experienced postpartum psychosis after having a baby are at high risk of experiencing it again if they have another pregnancy, and should receive special attention during and after pregnancy.

A very small number of people with psychosis may be driven by their paranoia or hallucinations to act strangely in public or try to harm others. The longer they go untreated, the higher the chance they may experience damage to the brain and be worse off even when they get treatment. Brain Health. Kara Gavin. October 12, PM.