Recovery from Schizophrenia

The following testimonial comes from author Charlotte Le Blanc and is taken from her book Sidetracked by Schizophrenia (on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005AQ2K6G ) In Sidetracked by Schizophrenia, Charlotte Le Blanc documents her son's encounters with the many medications, hospitalizations, and special care homes as well as how she dealt with her son being suicidal. In the trials and errors, failures, partial successes, and side effects, there came a time with an exciting movement toward more and more effective medical treatments, while exploring vitamin supplements giving them hope for living a normal life medication free. Part II of the book describes the inner experiences that Daniel and Charlotte went through in dealing with this awful illness: the highs, the lows, the desperation, the disappointments, the patience, the anger, the letting go, the acceptance, and eventually rebuilding the fragmented parts, the vulnerability of having lived a living death. Part III explains a different perspective of understanding schizophrenia. It looks at how schizophrenia manifests itself in the body when you look at the big picture—the whole body versus just looking at the brain function. Charlotte also goes into explaining all the possible changes in the five senses including changes in thoughts and social behavior. She lists some of the possible theories that explore the causes of schizophrenia comparing this data to their own experience with her son. Part IV describes how Daniel took responsibility for his own health by letting go of all his addictions: cannabis, coffee, cigarettes, and eventually weaning himself off his prescribed medication. It was not an easy road, but with courage, determination, and with his marriage in jeopardy, he pulled up his socks and was victorious. With some digging and investigation Daniel and Charlotte discovered that cannabis may have been part of the cause, but not the only cause for triggering his illness. Through allergy reversals, central nervous and adrenal support supplements, as well as a few other supplements, Daniel was on his way to living a normal life that was medication free. A chapter is dedicated to how to create balance with schizophrenia through establishing a routine, clinical nutrition, counseling, and occupational and recreational therapy. The book describes how our system is broken and society accepts too readily in giving strong medication to school children causing epidemics of mentally ill children. Now add to that the illegal drugs that our government is trying hard to legalize. This snowballs into a vicious circle where our hospitals, prisons, and special care homes are overloaded as well as having a growing number of people living on the streets. Generally our society does not know which came first the chicken or the egg. Which came first, the mental illness or drugs? In Daniel’s case cannabis was one of the main causes.