Schizophrenia: Three Moms in the Trenches

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks! A “Just Us 3 Moms, Digging Deeper” Episode. Tonight we just talk about our boys - and what we’ve lost, what they have lost. Feeling even more alone than ever? Not only is your family member diagnosed with schizophrenia, but you have your own reactions and emotions to deal with - what is “normal”? What do oth...

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks! S ometimes the best parts of the conversation happen after we press "stop" - so today we captured what happened after that. Guest is Eric Smith, a nationally recognized mental health advocate, public speaker, and consultant on matters of severe mental illness (SMI). He is also a graduate of assiste...

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks! Guest : Eric Smith is a nationally recognized mental health advocate, public speaker, and consultant on matters of severe mental illness (SMI). He is also a graduate of assisted outpatient treatment (AOT). His story has been told in the documentary Stopping the Revolving Door – A Civil Approach to Treating S...

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks! Have you ever wished there were a way to learn about your loved one’s mental illness, so that you can stop grasping at straws, making things worse, being always in the dark about what to do and how to cope? This DOES exist - and it’s free.  It’s called Family-to-Family, offered by NAMI (The National Alliance...

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks! Guest: Judge Lisa Wexler, Connecticut In past episodes we’ve had the chance to talk with social workers, psychiatrists and other practitioners about the “flaws” in the system to get help for people with schizophrenia - get them off the streets, into treatment, and stable.  Many of our listeners have shared f...

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks! Guest: Judge Lisa Wexler, Connecticut Many of our listeners have shared frustrations with the law, confusion about the process, and want to know more. Today we get the story from the other side of the bench.  This is Part Two of our conversation with Judge Lisa Wexler ( https://www.lisawexler.com/ ). Judge L...

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks!  Marijuana - it’s being legalized for medical and recreational use more and more, on a state-by-state basis. But for people diagnosed with schizophrenia, there are concerns.  Does it “cause” or trigger schizophrenia ? Or is it’s use just a result/symptom of the illness as it helps some with the brain confusi...

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks! Rebecca’s Story, Part 2 What do the intrusive thoughts (aka to some, “voices”) say to you? Rebuilding your life, and giving to others - how does that help? Psychiatrists - the good, the bad, the changes, and why it matters Relationships - How were they affected?  Whether to disclose your illness? When? How?...

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks! Rebecca Lyn Phillips Rebecca Lyn Phillips, 43, is a published author, speaker, and mental health advocate.  She regularly shares her story of trial and recovery to help others who need hope.  She wants to shine a light on a dark subject and show that life can happen again. Episode 9: Rebecca Lyn Phillips, Pa...

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks! Personal story updates include: case management team change; possible medication change; need for employment, and support to get there. (first 5 minutes of podcast) Then, a  conversation with Amedeea Enache, Exec. Director of Estuar Foundation in Romania, Board Member of Mental Health Europe We talk about: D...

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks! Interview with Lynn Nanos, L.I.C.S.W.  If you’ve ever wondered why our loved ones aren’t getting the help they need, Lynn writes about her side of the process in the book Breakdown: A Clinician's Experience in a Broken System of Emergency Psychiatry .  Stories about her patients open our hearts, and she...

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks! In the news: Britney Spears and conservatorship Brief Sons’ Recovery updates, “good and bad” - and The Miracle of Ordinary What is Conservatorship? - varies from state to state How we did - or didn’t - get to be our sons’ conservator/guardian Mindy and Mimi - Managing without conservatorship Randye and Ben’s...

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks!  Top Five changes we Need - and More #1 Reclassify SMI (Serious Mental Illness) as a physical/medical, not behavioral condition - we need to fund more research : and Why is there no cure for SZ? #2  - HIPAA (discussed in more detail in Episode 4) #3 - Repeal the IMD Exclusion (would make more hospital beds a...

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks! Interview with Dede Ranahan, author and editor (64 co-authors)  of “Tomorrow Was Yesterday...Mothers Across the Nation Tell It Like It Is“ living with SMI (Serious Mental Illness) in our loved ones.  Not just family stories, but about action. Advocacy. What we want to see happen to help families like ours. A...

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks! What is schizophrenia? - definitions we use/hear - what it is not What do you think happens in your son’s head when symptomatic? What does it look like to you and your family? What do you observe? What changes when treatment is effective? What doesn’t change? Positive and Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia H...

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks! Q: Describe one of your lowest points as schizophrenia progressed in your son - how did you survive? Q: Were there “wild goose chases” while trying to figure out what is happening?  Q: Describe a moment of hope / accomplishment - what was working ? Getting Help: " SEARCH" Support - emotional, pract...

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks! Why this podcast? - a place to tell the truth about SZ in the family  Our stories, sons, our books (and why we wrote them) Who were our sons ….before? Where are our sons today? What has been the hardest thing about this so far? PEOPLE ARE ASKING...What we wish we’d known earlier  Each close with message: Mim...