The Curse of Rainman

Don’t get me wrong – Rainman is one of my favourite movies. It is an excellent portrayal of a moderately-functioning autistic savant.

However – it was also the birthplace of the myth of the autistic genius, and this myth is still being perpetuated today. This myth shows an autistic person doing a remarkable feat of memory or calculation, or both. In the movie, Rainman displays flash counting [where a person can immediately count items with a brief glance], calculations, and a display of photographic memory.

As I write this, there is a segment on television regarding Asperger’s syndrome playing in the living room. While it is great to see a positive portrayal of Asperger’s, the segment falls back onto the Rainman myth. The person featured in the segment has a phenomenal memory for movie scripts, and can recite entire movies after a few watchings.

While I can’t deny that autism can bring with it phenomenal splinter skills like the above – for a lot of people on the spectrum, that doesn’t happen. However, the persistent myth of the autistic genius hangs over the heads of people on the spectrum like an albatross. It is also used as a way to deny someone of their autism, because a person doesn’t happen to have a watertight memory, or isn’t a walking calculator, etc.

The thing is, only a small segment of people with autism have savant-like skills. The vast majority of us are mere mortals. Autism, by itself, does not confer savant-like skills.

It would be refreshing for a program to simply show people with autism being – well, just getting along with their lives like others. Instead of finding someone with savant-like skills, it would be nice to have an autistic person simply being an individual with an alternate brain wiring.

About these ads

Suicide – How can you help?

Suicide Prevention Hotline EP (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

According to Suicide Prevention, suicide is among the top 10 causes of death per year. 34,598 deaths are attributed to suicide, 34,598 preventable deaths. That’s 11.3% deaths per 100,000 people. 11 attempted suicides occur per every suicide death. Those statistics are both staggering and disturbing. 

Two of the main reasons for suicide is Depression and Bipolar Disorder. You can find symptoms for both of these here Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder.

It’s important to respond to the person with strength and courage. If you are afraid to talk about the topic with them, then you are likely to lose out on your chance to help them. Please realize that suicide is not some flaw in a person’s character, nor are they weak and they are absolutely not cowards. These feelings do not just go away and treatment is necessary. 

The symptoms mentioned in the link above, combined together could lead someone to consider suicide. Reminding the person that recovery is possible can be encouraging to the person contemplating their own death. When someone is going through depression, they often use something called “selective memory”. This is where the person only focuses on the negatives in their lives. This is a symptom of their illness and requires attention and treatment.

With treatment the person can find hope to push through this difficult time.

Recognizing the Signs

• Feelings of despair. The person may talk about their situation as being unbearable or overwhelming. They may express self-doubt, self-blame or guilt for something they have done. The more someone talks about these things, the more they are contemplating suicide.
• Taking care of personal affairs – For instance, making sure family members will be cared for once they are gone. Taking out life insurance policies, assigning beneficiaries, settling trusts and custody arrangements for their children.
• Rehearsing their suicide.
• Discussing certain methods.
• Talk of suicide come and go in an attempt to build up to the impulsive action.
• Drugs and alcohol abuse as a way to help them with the impulsive action.
• Beginning to feel better – with affairs in place, knowing the end is coming soon, most feel better and at peace with their decision.

How can you help someone contemplating suicide:

• Take them seriously. Do not blow them off and think they are just venting. This is NOT the case. They are reaching out to you for help.
• Involve others – friends, family members, their psychiatrist, their therapists, the crisis hotline
• Express your concern – Give concrete evidence that the person is contemplating suicide.
• Listen closely to the person, hold their hand, hold them close to you and comfort them.
• Ask direct questions – Try to find out specific details of their plan, determine which method they are considering using.
• Offer reassurance. Remind them that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Remind them that there is help available to them.
• Don’t promise confidentiality. A true friend or close family member will seek out help for the person they love, the person that is in crisis.
• Take all guns, medications and harmful objects and put them some place out of reach. This includes ropes, knives, plastic bags, ect.
• Don’t leave the person alone until they are in the hands of a trained professional.
• Express sympathy – Do not play therapist. They don’t want to be told what to do.
• Talk about it – Talking about suicide does not plant the idea in the person’s head. It lets them know you are there for them and not afraid to talk to them about their concerns. This is a oppurtunity to explore how they are feeling, their thoughts and actions. This can provide you with valuable information to your friend who may be depressed. Take any mention of suicide seriously!
• Take note to when, where and how the person plans on following through with their suicide.
• Describe behaviors and events that bother you – How they have changed. This could strike up the conversation enough for them to open up to you about how they are feeling.
• Work with professionals. Call their pdoc, tdoc, crisis line. Don’t be afraid to call for an ambulance if your friend or family member isn’t willing to go to the hospital voluntarily.
• Stress how important the person’s life is to you. How devastated you and others would be if they were to take their own life.
• Be prepared for them to be angry with you. They may feel betrayed, but later may thank you for saving their life.
• Be supportive – They may feel guilt and shame. Assure them that you understand it’s their illness.
• Take care of yourself

I have contemplated suicide many times in the past. I can count 2 attempts that didn’t get me the help I needed and numerous threats that have also not gotten me the help I needed. It wasn’t until I reached out on my own before I got any serious help. I urge you not to put someone else in that position. They may feel as though their pleas for help are going unheard and they may act. Do not make yourself wonder what you could have done when all these examples are in front of you.

If someone you know is in crisis, please, reach out to them, offer them support, call the crisis line at

1-800-273-8255. If the person is in serious danger call 911 and have an ambulance sent and them taken to the closest Emergency Room. Once a suicide is completed, there is no turning back.

Until next time…..

Becca ♥

Related articles

• Suicide: The Non-Solution (viewfromapalm.wordpress.com)

What To Expect At A Psychiatry Visit

*this is also a pinned page at the top. I did this for future reference for anyone who may have missed this post*

Every doctor handles things in different ways. This blog post is just from my own personal perspective and experience. I hope hearing about the way things were handled with me, will help you understand what you might expect if you decide to see a psychiatrist.

My first visit was an intake. A lady took all my personal, medical and mental health information.

Some questions they asked:

• Name and address, birthdate, social security number, insurance information, primary doctor
• Surgeries, head injuries, medications taken, last period, ect.
• Treated for other mental health issues in the past, what where they, who did I see, what medications and treatments were prescribed at the time.

Then came the heavy-duty questions like:

1. What goals are you hoping to achieve by coming here?
2. Have you ever been sexually abused?
3. Have you ever abused drugs or alcohol?
4. What made you seek out treatment?
5. Name 3 good things about yourself.
6. Name 3 things you’d want to change about yourself.
7. What medications and treatments have worked for you in the past?

And the list goes on. That’s just a small example of the questions you may be asked. I’m telling you this in advance, because if you are like me, you like to be prepared. I scoured the internet for hours trying to find a general overview of what to expect during a psychiatry visit and I couldn’t find much.

About a month after my first intake, I got to see the doctor. Believe me, this is quite fast. The waiting period is typically 3 to 6 months before you can get in to see one. I had a few things on my side. 1) I was pregnant. 2) I had just been released from the hospital and was need of urgent, emergency care. Waiting a month was nothing compared to how long I had been waiting to get some relief.

——————————————————

Some tips to help you through the process:

• Don’t expect results right away. I was fortunate that my doc turned a 45 minute appointment into an hour and a half. (this doesn’t usually happen) He was also willing and receptive to speaking with my husband. Actually, he demanded it. Not all doctor’s are like this. Hubs pdoc is one who likes to talk down to patient’s spouses.
• You probably won’t get a diagnosis right away. It takes time for a doctor to get to know you and what you have been experiencing. In my experience, most pdocs don’t look at the past, they only treat current symptoms. This is a disaster as much information is lost by only examining the here and now.
• Don’t be surprised if you don’t walk out with a script right away. Some doctor’s like to have a bigger, better picture before they start prescribing anything.
• Please, if your doc is only concerned about pushing pills at you, then you should probably look for a new one. Good pdoc’s don’t do this to their patients.
• Find a pdoc you are comfortable with. One you click with and are comfortable talking to and telling him how you are feeling.
• Your diagnosis may change over time as your doc is able to gather more and more information about you and the symptoms you are having.
• And whatever you do, don’t worry, you probably won’t have to lay on anyone’s couch to get the correct diagnosis!

Psychiatrists are not scary! Most are only concerned about making you feel better. They are concerned about treating your symptoms and taking good care of you. They don’t want you to be a guinea pig nor do they want to lobotomized you with medication. They want to help you. A good pdoc will want you to educate yourself about your illness, your treatment options, medications that may or may not help, medications he/she prescribes for you. They will want you to be involved in your own treatment and will have you take steps towards getting better with the combination of medication, therapy and self-care.

Until next time….

Becca ♥

Gitty’s Meltdown

It may not be as terrible as what other parent’s have reported, but to us, it’s bad enough. I think each parent goes through their child having an MI in different ways. Some issues are behavioral and can be controlled with therapy and low dose medications. Others are out of control MI’s that even the best of meds can’t control. Gitty falls somewhere between those two lines and I believe the lines are very thin.

Gitty absolutely has her moments of breakdowns and meltdowns that can result in lots of raging on her part. This normally comes with her throwing things. First it was her book bag a few months ago, then it was shoes and then she started to become aggressive with her siblings and eventually with me too. I have yet to see her be aggressive physically with her Dad. She has on occasion been verbally aggressive to him. We both need parenting classes and that’s the first thing I’m putting on my “to do list” for tomorrow.

Tonight Gitty had a break down….Since going on the Risperidone, her appetite is out of control. She’s fine, until she takes her meds and then all she wants to do is eat. We try to encourage healthy foods, but it’s not working out so well. I’m trying to approach her in a way that isn’t going to give her body image issues. She’s inherited enough from me, she doesn’t need my anorexia too.

After dinner tonight, 15 minutes before bedtime, she made herself a plate of candied yams. Now these are her absolute favorite food. During dinner, she had three helpings alone. We ate late, so there was no reason for a snack. When Hubs told her no, it was too close to bedtime, she proceeded to put a piece in her mouth anyway. Hubs warned her, one more bite and you are grounded tomorrow. She threw the plate into the sink, the plate crashing into all the dishes already in there and screamed at her Dad. He added a week to her groundation to which she screamed. ”I don’t care!” Stomping her feet, crossing her arms. This is what she does when she wants to challenge us to more punishments.

I then took over, explaining that although I understood she was having difficulty and she had a disorder that made her moods go wonky on her, she would still have to suffer consequences for her actions. If she doesn’t learn this now, when she becomes an adult, these behaviors will seep through. If she throws a hissy fit like that at work, she’ll lose her job or worse, if she assaults someone she will end up in jail. I calmly explained this to her. She then proceeded to get a class of water and kicked AC in the process. I’m happy he does not engage or retaliate when she gets like this.

She then came and sulked in the kitchen, sitting on the floor, her blanket wrapped around her. I left her be, she needed time, but didn’t want to be alone. I think she was trying to form thoughts in her brain that would come out the proper way. Soon she got up, hugged me and started crying. “I’m sorry! I don’t know how to control this! I don’t want to be like this!” Thank God for therapy! We were to go tomorrow, but her tdoc will not be in so her appointment has been pushed to May 1st, which is disappointing. Gitty really wants to see her tdoc. She likes her and trusts her very much.

Her sleep is still an issue, even with the new routine. I’m considering asking if we can try Tylenol PM with her. I don’t want to give her anything too sedating, not yet.

She’s still hearing voices, she says they are mumbles and I told her I hoped it was because the meds were working and they would soon turn to whispers and then eventually go away. She sees people and objects on a daily basis and they scare her. She still sleeps with all the lights on in the hallway and kitchen.

On a good note….we’ve stopped being hassled by the guidance counselor about a 504 plan. Maybe one should be put in place, but daily phone calls was getting close to harassment. We spoke with the principle and he agrees that right now we need to hold off on that plan and give the meds a chance to work.

Gitty wants to connect with other kids like her, but I worry that may not be a good idea. She’s extremely high functioning for a child with an MI and I fear she will feel as though she doesn’t fit in, just like she doesn’t fit in at school

More to come….

Becca ♥

Risperidone .50

I have to say I think Gitty is doing better. I say that with caution as I know there will be relapses and things will eventually go back to the way they once where….or maybe not. Maybe, just maybe we can hold on to the hope that she will get and remain stable for a while. A few months is all I ask, at least for now.

Her mood has been significantly better Wednesday 4 Days Into Treatment. She’s had a few outbursts, but no meltdowns and she’s been handling her siblings in a better manner. I really think therapy is what will help her to change some of these behaviors and now that she is on medication she will respond better to therapy. Her next appointment for therapy is this Tuesday and I’m hoping we can address some of her aggression issues this week. Maybe give us some coping skills for both her and myself.

Today we upped her dose to .50mg, I have to call her doc on Monday to let her know that we did indeed up it. Her doc said that if she wasn’t better in a week we could, so I took her advice. After her major meltdown on Wednesday and the fact that she’s still reporting hallucinations (auditory and visual) I thought it was a good idea. The Risperidone is supposed to be helping her sleep, but she’s like her Mom, as hard as an Ox to put down. The good thing is, once she’s asleep, she sleeps good, it’s just a matter of actually getting her to go to sleep. I think this week we’ll start a new routine. Meds after school, playtime, dinner time, homework, shower or bath and then some relaxing time reading a story or something to help her relax. I’ve read massage can help, so maybe that’s something we’ll look into as well.

In light of all of this, I think we’re going to be making some changes to our diets. No more sugary snack foods, or at least not as much. My meds don’t make me hungry, but Gitty’s meds are a different story. I find her gorging on food at a lot, especially after she takes her meds. The other night she found a box of candy canes (not sure where they were) and she ate the whole box in 2 days. It’s time for me to start watching all of this. I never wanted to be the Mom that created body images in her daughter, but she does need to watch how much she is gorging so she doesn’t end up with health issues.

Until next time…..

Becca ♥