More about my opinions on Schizophrenia

Hi everyone

The more I read about schizophrenia, the more I feel that there is hope out there.  But healing from mental illness takes time, and this is perhaps why it is so difficult and can be so frustrating.  Hang in there, those of you who are suffering at the moment. 

I have said this before, but I would like to re-iterate it.  Please try to think of yourselves as suffering from emotional trouble, a nervous debility if you like, rather than accepting a dubious mental health diagnosis.  These diagnoses negate hope, and hope is the thing that we need in order to recover.  To keep recovering.

I see recovery as a process, as life itself is a process, and I don't suppose there will be any time in the future when I feel able to put myself forward with any confidence as an example of a perfectly mentally healthy person - the moment I do that could be the moment when it all starts to crumble.  We are all weak to some extent, I am sure - although in some people that weakness may be minimised to the point where it is hardly apparent.  Yet put anyone into the right (or the wrong) situation and they may not be able to cope.  This is normal. 

Or so it seems to me.  I was honoured this morning to recieve a reply to an email I sent to Daniel Mackler only last night - he of the acclaimed films.  I see him as a great healer, doing brilliant work in the mental health field, but I wrote to him because I was upset by one of his views - that nobody should have children unless and until they are healed from their own childhood trauma.  Otherwise he sees it as inevitable that one's children will be abused and traumatised in turn.  The reason this upset me was because I am convinced that I would never have got better without my children, they are perfect in every sense of the word, and I can say without doubt that I am a good mother to them.  This is one thing that I know about myself.

Here is a link to Daniel Mackler's site   http://www.iraresoul.com/

Daniel sent a lovely email, but stands by his point of view in regard to having children.  We may speak further on that subject, but it may turn out that we will always differ on that point - because I think perhaps nobody in this world will ever be fully 'healed'  just as nobody will ever be perfect, even if they have never been damaged as a child. 

Part of the human inheiritance, it seems to me, is that we all have the capacity for good and evil within us - but we are also equipped with the ability to understand the difference between the two and to make the right choices (obviously this is where good and bad parenting comes in).  We can only do our best.

Anyway, obviously, everything I write on here is just my personal opinion - I have had no mental health training.  Which is why at times in this blog I ramble on about my sore feet, or what Toddler has been up to and so on - it is just an ordinary blog, which I began because I hoped it would help other people who have suffered or are suffering with mental illnes to feel more normal too.  Because it is all normal - the whole spectrum of human emotion.  Some of us just experience more extreme swings of the pendulum (I read that expression somewhere recently and am not intending to plagiarise but can't remember where I got it from). 

Take care, all of you.  Have a good day (or evening or whatever, depending where in the world you are).

Louise x

Louise x