schizophrenia

Comorbidity

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As a child, Ruby spent most of her days alone in her room smoking, giggling one minute and then crying in despair the next. Even though her main diagnoses was Schizophrenia, I can’t help but feel that depression was another illness that affected her. Also, I had never heard of the term “comorbidity”- that is, to be diagnosed with more than one mental illness. So Schizophrenia was all I knew. I didn’t know how ignorant I was until I spoke with a friend of mine whose mother was also diagnosed with Schizophrenia.

His mother would get dressed, leave the house, and be social despite her illness. I wondered about that when he told me. Was she that woman? You know, the one who walked the streets mumbling to herself, crazed look in her eyes? Did she have moments of clarity where she interacted with people out there on the streets? I never asked.

One reason that Ruby was so antisocial is she hated her appearance. After four children she went from a brickhouse to a mini-mansion. Her skin was pocked with acne. Her wardrobe consisted of house dresses/muumuus that she wore day in and out. She never bothered to fix her hair and instead wore it under a scarf.

I know now that some psychotropic medications can have side effects such as making you gain weight and other effects. This is truer with the medications of the past forty years.

Nevertheless, her self-hatred led to isolation that was unbroken. If I wanted to see my mother, I had to walk into her world; that room that was so filled with smoke that the walls were covered in tar. I would sit with her breathing it all in. Sometimes she would talk or ask me to sit on her belly to flatten it and I would comply. That was as close as she would come to a hug or any type of affection.
In reflecting on these memories, I can you that serious mental illness affect everyone in the family and when you’re a child that does not understand “mommy’s strangeness,” you tend to blame yourself.

 

Wall of Voices and Sound

This collage is how I saw Ruby’s struggle with auditory and visual illusions.

Avoiding the Man in the Mirror

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In a study conducted by Mental Health America of Colorado found that African Americans are least likely to seek treatment for depression. Although the study’s focus primarily deals with depression, I found that it is likely true for a broad range of mental illnesses. These statistics reflect the beliefs that are dominant in the African American culture:

* 63% of African Americans surveyed believed that depression [mental illnesses] are a personal weakness, compared to the overall survey average of 54%.

* Only 31% of African Americans said they believed depression [mental illness] was a health problem.

* Almost two-thirds of respondents said they believe prayer and faith alone will successfully treat depression [mental illness (es)] “almost all of the time” or “some of the time.”

As a child, there had been rumors about the mother of one of my friends who was also diagnosed with a mental illness and whose pastor had performed an exorcism to rid her of the voices. I cannot verify whether this is true or not because no one who is around to talk wants to remember or, they want to forgot.

Religion is a vital component in the African American community because it has helped us survive slavery, become proponents using biblical text for the abolishment of slavery, and was integral to the Civil Rights Movement. On a personal level, it enables many individuals to survive the harshness of etching a living, personal and situational strife, and as a safe harbor.

          My mother considered herself a Christian who not only believes in being reborn but who has also made claims of meeting Christ during her psychosis. She has always held firm to the bible even though she cannot concentrate on its content. Faith can be an important component in dealing with a mental illness for the individual diagnosed and the family however, it is important not to dismiss mental health care as something less important than the care given to the physical body.

Soul History – The Short Version

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In times when people feel troubled, most turn to their families or to their church. This was probably true of most Americans across the board especially before families migrated from a rural environment to the cities in search of work. Still, those who migrated to the cities remained within a community that shared a common culture. One example of this can be seen from the film Lakawana Blues where the main character, Rachel ‘Nanny’ Crosby’s boarding house was central to seeking safety and solace within the African American community prior to integration. Many African Americans do not see the utility of mental health and therefore dismiss it as another means for “white people to get paid.” As a result of this attitude, psychologist or other mental health care professionals are not only an aberration within the context of community, they are also unwelcomed and viewed with suspicion. What is the origin of this suspicion?

Prior to the beginning of psychology in the U.S., enslaved Africans who attempted escape were diagnosed with Drapetomania. Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright, a general medical practitioner suggested treatment for slaves who refused to accept their fate should  be to  have the devil whipped out of them as a “preventive measure” and treatment.  Cartwright also believed that enslaved Africans who were treated humanely became too familiar with their masters and as a result, expected some level of equality. Although liberty and justice may be a part of the American Constitution, these same ideas when conceived by African Americans would take on other connotations equating black anger with madness.

 Scholar Jonathan M. Metzl’s book, The Protest Psychosis:How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease describes a period during the Civil Rights era where African American men who participated in the civil rights protests were forcibly hospitalized at Ionia State Hospital in Michigan. Their anger and participation in sit-ins, protests and other forms of civil disobedience classified them as criminally insane. All of these “patients” were diagnosed with schizophrenia.

The history above is not the only reason why African Americans are reluctant to seek help and while most people do not know about this history, the implicit messages have been passed down from one generation to the next: Do not trust doctors especially psychiatrist and psychologist.

Pit of My Stomach

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When I heard the verdict for the Kelly Thomas trial, I grew sick. What happened to Thomas is the fear that every family member has for a loved one who lives on the streets. We usually think that it will be another homeless person that does them or that they die from illness or disease. Mostly, we don’t think that law enforcement would needlessly take the life of our loved ones; except of course, if you are a person of color.

It was Thomas’s mental illness that placed him in harm’s way of a deadly confrontation that normally does not happen between “most” police officers and middle class white people but is normal for others. Nevertheless, I feel for his family and had my own fears about my mother interacting with the law; particularly, when her diagnosis of schizophrenia was compounded by dementia. When she lived with my cousins, she would call 911 to report that someone was breaking in the house. That someone was a younger cousin. Situations like that could have ended his life and even hers.

My mother lived in South Central Los Angeles for approximately forty years and slept with a hammer and/or knife under her pillow. In the hood, the threat of someone breaking in your house was no illusion-it could get real in a hurry. The problem was she continued this habit and had dementia. My cousins called me and I had to hurry to get to her less she pulled out a pair of scissors or a knife on an officer.

I will blog on this later on but wanted to touch on it because of the recent verdict and to say that this could  happen to anyone whether we have or have not been diagnosed with a mental illness.