Common Symptoms of Schizophrenia and how to energetically support someone diagnosed as schizophrenic
by Ask a Healer
Suggested Reading:
Healthy Anger Management
Question on mental health care and healing: Is there any information you can give me that might enrich or improve the quality of life for the schizophrenic?
Note: Personal details of this question have been deleted to protect the privacy of the writer but the devastating symptoms of schizophrenia that her close relative experienced included hallucinations and that the quality of life for this individual had deteriorated so that the writer felt very helpless in assisting them.
Related mental health resource: Schizophrenia Test - If you wonder whether or not someone you care about might be schizophrenic, this online test outlines some of the patterns of thinking that may be present in someone who is diagnosed with this condition.
Healing Facilitation Response:
The first and perhaps most significant thing I need to say is that my approach is spiritual and metaphysical, not medical. In most spiritual paths, there is a recognized condition that would constitute a break with reality in medical terms but which is, in fact, an opening into quantum reality. The Shaman, the visionary and the healer know this. Because no one really knows all there is to know about life at a quantum level, it is not considered spiritually wise to define reality too firmly. This perspective is often at odds with living in three-dimensional reality, or the work-a-day world. For purposes of this article, I'm referring to those who have had a break with reality that they cannot reconcile and still be able to function in the world.
In my years as an active spiritual counselor, I had occasion to meet with a couple of people who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic. It was a challenging energy field to be in so I can understand how you might struggle with how best to be of positive support in that situation. I repeat, I'm not a clinical therapist and do not understand the chemical or psychological workings of the schizophrenic mind. As a healing facilitator, my focus is energetic balance. When with a person the medical profession has labeled schizophrenic, what has been important for me is to resist any urge to dwell on the mental imbalance I can feel strongly or to attempt to shift it for the person experiencing it. Instead, I focus on connecting with the soul aspect of the person, the part that knows why the soul has chosen this experience.
My sole purpose in connecting with the soul aspect, or higher self, is to energetically support. Sometimes, it's tempting to try and shift the mental patterns to a more healthy rhythm. I resist this idea and just stand in honor of the soul experience while providing as healthy and cohesive a mental energy stream as I am able. If the person is ready, on a soul level, to shift brain patterns to a different rhythm, simply providing energetic support and invitation is good. Releasing expectation and surrendering to the truth that you are with this person because there is something in the relationship for both of you, can often shift what no amount of drugs, therapy or energetic insistence may accomplish.
Being a safe haven, a neutral energy in the field, can be extremely supportive for someone going through this type of experience. They have enough people telling them that what they think is real just isn't real at all. Trying to convince them that no one is after them or that the thing they believe is a dragon is really just an old rusty car is like trying to convince a person standing on a cliff to jump because they really are safe in bed. Could you jump, every part of you believe you were standing on a cliff, even if someone you trusted said you were actually lying down in bed?
Leave the sorting out of reality to the specialists as much as possible. I know there are times when you must intervene because the person may have a view of reality that is about to harm them or someone else around them. In those cases, of course, it's impossible to say the right thing to do but I believe that if one is in a state of calm (and this can be practiced by regular meditation and/or prayer), the correct way of dealing with the situation will be much easier to find and implement.
Schizophrenia is a serious mental health disorder. I must preface what I have to say about the subject by emphasizing that I am a spiritual healing facilitator, not a medical doctor. I am providing medical information here from recognized sources. However, some of what I believe about schizophrenia will part ways drastically with the medical profession's view of this disorder. Nothing I say here is to be construed as replacing any medical attention that may be needed.
Symptoms of Schizophrenia:
Please note that no single symptom is definitive for a diagnosis of schizophrenia; rather, the diagnosis encompasses a pattern of signs and symptoms, in conjunction with impaired occupational or social functioning
(Source: DSM-IV, available for purchase on Amazon.com). The array of schizophrenia symptoms, while wide ranging, frequently includes delusions and hallucinations. In addition, the schizophrenic individual may also have the following character behaviors:
* Psychotic manifestations, such as hearing internal voices or experiencing other sensations not connected to an obvious source (hallucinations)
* Assigning unusual significance or meaning to normal events or holding fixed false personal beliefs (delusions).
An interesting approach to schizophrenia from a mental health professional
ph Levels Check Suggested: One bit of practical health care advice I could give, which may be in line with at least the opinion of some medical doctors, would be to check this person's ph levels. An over-acid ph can cause a host of problems and could conceivably make a mental challenge worse. ph strips for testing ph levels are readily available at health food stores and some drug stores. Balancing the ph can be managed by increasing alkaline rich foods (fruits, nuts, vegetables) and reducing intake of acid-producing foods (meat, fish, poultry, eggs). Baking Soda is sometimes suggested, to help improve acidity levels in the blood and prevent a state of acidosis
I believe science will eventually prove that balancing the ph levels could be an important first course of action in any mental disorder. I believe one reason this is true is that the over-acid body is a tense body. A tense body is a body in a state of stress. Relaxing that tension would have to be viewed by any sane person as a good thing in cases of mental disorder, as well as physical disease, I believe. Again, this health care suggestion is not to be construed as taking the place of any needed medical attention.
Health Care Disclaimer: Schizophrenia is a dangerous mental health condition and anyone who believes they may be schizophrenic should seek the proper mental health counsel. Reducing symptoms of schizophrenia often requires medication and, sometimes, in-patient therapy. Nothing in this mental health article should be construed as replacement for any needed testing, evaluation or treatment.
