Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl00450)

Schizophrenia is a very interesting disease, but very frightening, as well.  I
doubt that its symptoms are identical in any one case.  My "mother in law" was
schizophrenic and maintaining her illness was part of the daily routine that
existed when she lived with us for the last 9 years prior to her death by
metastatic lung cancer.  For Gloria, the onset of her illness was a combination
of many things.  First, she was a naturally hyperactive and precocious child,
hard to control, hard to please.  It seems the illness came with the onset of
menopause (so it was late and NOT in her 20's), and a series of personal
tradgedies that put her under incredible stress.  It took some time before the
illness manifested itself as "a voice", audio hallucinations.  It seems that
had her illness been treated correctly at the start, which was in the 60's,
perhaps it would not have progressed the way it did.  She was subjected to all
sorts of barbaric medical procedures, including electro-shock therapy, and took
every anti-psychotic medication in the book.  An aside was dealing with the
medication's side effects.  Back about 6 years ago, we took her to a small town
doctor in Milford, Connecticut, who diagnosed her with Grave's Disease.  Turns
out the malfunction of her thyroid was directly related to the audio
hallucinations.   She had a hard time when her husband died and had to be
hospitalized, but when we took her out, she was still having small problems
with the voice.  Once her Grave's was recognized and treated, the voice g
radually disappeared never to make its  presence known again in her life.  So,
this story has a happy ending.  Gloria lived to be 69 years old, and the last 9
years of her life were spent stable, productive, and healthy.  This, the
product of strict routine, good food, regular and uninterrupted medicine, and
lots of heavy duty conversations where she was pushed to take responsibility
for her behavior and her life whenever it was possible -- helped prevent an
acute episode of an illness that in her case was primarily biological, not
emotional -- directly related to the chemicals in her brain.