 |
|
|
If you are yourself a carer and have any news, information, or comments which you think might be helpful to others then please get in touch with us either by phone (0208 659 6519) or by email - dhvs@freeuk.com or by using the Form Robert J. Morton has written a very descriptive and poignant article about his experiences as a carer and of his wife's illness in his book 'The Lost Inheritance'- we recommend that you have a look at his website.
In the diagram below there are two cycles represented. The first cycle in normal typeface (that is, it is not in bold) represents how things generally for people when things are considered to be fairly normal or in other words going fairly smoothly. NORMAL IS DIFFERENT FOR EACH PERSON but in this sense is taken to mean that the person’s day to day life feels generally uneventful or not unusually stress provoking.
The second cycle is represented by bold typeface indicates what happens when a trigger event pushes stress levels further up the scale: when this occurs it sets off a CHAIN OF EVENTS which eventually CHANGES a person’s behaviour towards themselves and others: such behaviours may be sufficiently changed to cause others to believe the person under stress may be "BREAKING DOWN". Everyone reacts to extreme levels of stress in different ways e.g. they may drink more, work out more, get more irritable and cross, or maybe tearful etc.
Others may withdraw from social contact, not talk so much or not at all, do less, eat less or more, sleep less or more, they may also not look after themselves as well etc.
If people start finding their voices are getting on top of them, then that might produce other behaviours in response to the voices. For example the person may find it very difficult to concentrate or hear what others are saying to them, they will find it difficult to ignore what the voices are saying and therefore look "PREOCCUPIED" or "DISTRACTED" by other people: it is almost as if the person is just not noticing very much the presence of others. These behaviours may be accompanied by other responses suggesting that person under stress is not reacting directly to what can be seen around them but to something else that cannot be seen or other wise perceived by people around them.
A few people may shout at the voices or take recreational substances that might for them seem to bring temporary relief from the voices: unfortunately use of these substances (alcohol, cannabis, crack cocaine etc) while bringing short term relief may also increase the problems as such substance will reduce the quality of sleep.
A CHRONIC DISTURBANCE IN THE NORMAL SLEEP PATTERN will often quicken the person’s decline towards illness. Research into so called normal people show that people who are severely sleep deprived can often show behaviours not dissimilar to a person with a "PSYCHOSIS" but such experiments were fairly extreme.
A number of people who have not become familiar with their pattern of increasing stress and breakdown may actually literally seem to "LOSE IT", that is to LOSE THEIR WAY in the break down or ILLNESS; often this means they LOSE AWARENESS that they have become ill. This is a very difficult situation as the person who is ill may not appreciate the helping actions of others: equally, well meaning helpers may always be able to see how their actions may look to the person they are trying to help!
People in a helping role may not always be able to read or anticipate the signs of the other person’s stress or furthermore realise a break down is taking place. A very natural response is for some helpers to inadvertently take an overly CRITICAL stance in judging a person’s behaviour, often occurring because the helper themselves is becoming stressed by some of the behaviours. Another response by some helpers is to take an overly giving (loving protective) attitude to behaviours that are an alarm signal that the person becoming ill is desperate need of outside help.
THERE IS NO EASY WAY, NO EASY ANSWERS AND EACH SITUATION HAS TO BE DEALT WITH AS IT COMES, IN AS DIGNIFIED A WAY AS POSSIBLE. SAFE GUARDING PEOPLE’S SENSE OF RESPECT even when they are ill is always important.
The most important issue is to make a judgement on whether the person EXPERIENCING THE BREAKDOWN IS SAFE where they are, and that includes BEING SAFE FOR the people directly helping them. The term FEELING SAFE does not imply that people around person breaking down will be at risk of being harmed (very rarely is this the case) but whether the person breaking down will still be able to look after themselves or that the support around them will be sufficient to maintain them during the period of vulnerability.
People in a direct helping relationship can often feel horribly guilty, always feeling they’ve not done enough in a number of ways: THIS IS RARELY AND TRULY THE CASE. What is important is for people in a helping role to be REAL (or realistic) about what they can do and for how long. The worst that can happen for the person suffering a break-down, is for the carer to also then break down from EXHAUSTION: such a situation may well create a double burden of guilt and resentment on both sides and may make it difficult or impossible for the helper to give care in the future.
Generally IF IN DOUBT IT IS always better TO obtain a SECOND OPINION of a person preferably in a PROFESSIONAL CAPACITY. What may also be helpful is to speak to other helpers who may be part of a CARERS SUPPORT GROUP. Clearly much depends in each country on resources, and who is around to help. Even so called developed countries, may not always have sufficient services to support people and their helpers outside of a hospital setting: this certainly includes the UK.
In situations where the helper and the person - who may experience episodes of severe stress and actual illness - have a good relationship; they will have agreed a series of steps to be taken when the helper sees the person beginning to breakdown. Many of those with voices (not all) who happen to have mental illness with their voices, will have become familiar with the first signs of illness and be warn their helpers or their family doctor (or other health worker) that this is happening. Such warnings allow first aid measures to be taken to prevent a full break down in mental health taking place. The measures might include increasing medication, or simply more visits by the support worker and in more rare cases booking a bed in a respite hostel or in a hospital ward.
The only people who may notice the person getting unwell (not always obvious for the person who may be breaking down) will be those who are friends, relatives, partners or people working with the person in some capacity. Some people may get unwell if they for example they either forget or stop taking medications that have been helpful in maintaining their mental health. In this case I am talking of those people who have identified medication as being of positive benefit to them even with the side effects. Sometimes people break down NOT because they have stopped taking medication but because they have without realising it become subjected to more stressful events in their lives: such stresses may have built up quietly in the background rather than being dramatic events. In such situations rather as for diabetics suffering increased stress from a physical illness like a cold, a temporary increase in medication (under medical advice) may be all that is needed, along with help to tackle or in some way sort out the events causing the stress.
See page 4 for diagram representing the relationship between stress and the occurrence or increase in voices. Please note that for some voice hearers, an increase in voices may be preceded by an intensification of paranoia but equally it may be the other way round.
The sequence on the circle diagram needs to be viewed as flowing clockwise. The sequence in non-bold type follow after each other when life feels more routine and unstressed. When an outside trigger event or maybe even a series of trigger events occur the voice hearer can find themselves being switched in the second cycle of events outlined in bold typeface – a kind of vicious circle which may continue unless action is taken to a break-down other episode of illness.
If you have any questions to put with regard to the diagram below than please put those on the discussion board. The author realises that the above diagram may not come across as intended by the author, so suggestions for improvements will always be welcomed. The © copyright symbol is not put there to prevent people using or copying the diagram for themselves but as a polite reminder for people to quote the source of the diagram if they use in their work. Quoting the source also helps brings the website to the attention of other people.’ The author of the website will where possible also give due credit to sources from which he may copied or otherwise borrowed ideas. Occasionally the sources for a particular diagram or idea get lost somewhere – so anyone able to inform the author of the real source of a diagram or idea is welcome to do so!
|
Copyright © 2001 Hearing Voices.net All rights reserved. |
