support systems go
Feb. 2nd, 2011 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sienamysticThe support group was ok, although there were only three other people in attendance, plus the person leading the group. I got to talk a little bit and cry a little bit more than that, and will probably show up next week, although I don't know that it all was helpful, exactly. What it was, I'm not certain.
There was an elderly couple dealing with their daughter, who has something along the schizophrenic line, where she believes that she is the only well one in a world of sick, abusive people who infect her carpets with gas that leaks out if she turns the heat on, so she is sitting in an apartment with no heat in this frigid weather. Also, she refuses to take any medication because she is not sick. Her mom and dad are concerned that as belligerent as she is, she will never be allowed to stay in a group home (she's been evicted from several), but she obviously has trouble living alone in her own apartment (...she's been evicted from several), so what will she do once they're dead? Heartbreaking.
The other guy was, I dunno. Honestly, the things he described that he's witnessing in his wife sound much more to me like early-stage Alzheimer's than the dissociative identity disorder that he firmly believes she has - I hope they have a good doctor who screens for that. I suggested it and the therapist leading the group agreed that it was a definite possibility, so I wasn't completely off-base with my suspicion. And god knows which diagnosis would be worse.
The therapist herself was youngish, and helpful enough, although occasionally muddled in her explanations. She mentioned that the uni I work for has a big-deal specialist in anxiety disorders, so it might be worth it taking Bemo there specifically for anxiety stuff while working on his depression there at the crisis care center. She also expressed some deep suspicion about the utility of Xanax, which I'm interested in since I think my mother's side of the family must be keeping them in business. In her mind, therapy and therapy alone is the most successful solution to anxiety disorders, and she says she suffered from panic issues until recently, and has successfully overcome them this way.
I was also sad to learn (although not surprised - I had an inkling) that the governor of Nebraska has done a lot of slash and burning to the mental health services budget. Apparently people who need long-term care are really going to be underserved, and a lot of useful programs will be getting cut. It's easy to cut back on mental health programs until somebody shoots up a school, and then people want to know why the person wasn't diagnosed and helped and given therapy and medicine and carefully shepherded by psychiatrists until they were better, and it's usually because there's no infrastructure to get it done...not enough money, not enough trained people, not enough interest. The short-term hospitalization that Bemo is using right now seems to be quite good; I'm grieved that people who need even more intense long-term care will have a hard time getting it because of the cuts.
There was an elderly couple dealing with their daughter, who has something along the schizophrenic line, where she believes that she is the only well one in a world of sick, abusive people who infect her carpets with gas that leaks out if she turns the heat on, so she is sitting in an apartment with no heat in this frigid weather. Also, she refuses to take any medication because she is not sick. Her mom and dad are concerned that as belligerent as she is, she will never be allowed to stay in a group home (she's been evicted from several), but she obviously has trouble living alone in her own apartment (...she's been evicted from several), so what will she do once they're dead? Heartbreaking.
The other guy was, I dunno. Honestly, the things he described that he's witnessing in his wife sound much more to me like early-stage Alzheimer's than the dissociative identity disorder that he firmly believes she has - I hope they have a good doctor who screens for that. I suggested it and the therapist leading the group agreed that it was a definite possibility, so I wasn't completely off-base with my suspicion. And god knows which diagnosis would be worse.
The therapist herself was youngish, and helpful enough, although occasionally muddled in her explanations. She mentioned that the uni I work for has a big-deal specialist in anxiety disorders, so it might be worth it taking Bemo there specifically for anxiety stuff while working on his depression there at the crisis care center. She also expressed some deep suspicion about the utility of Xanax, which I'm interested in since I think my mother's side of the family must be keeping them in business. In her mind, therapy and therapy alone is the most successful solution to anxiety disorders, and she says she suffered from panic issues until recently, and has successfully overcome them this way.
I was also sad to learn (although not surprised - I had an inkling) that the governor of Nebraska has done a lot of slash and burning to the mental health services budget. Apparently people who need long-term care are really going to be underserved, and a lot of useful programs will be getting cut. It's easy to cut back on mental health programs until somebody shoots up a school, and then people want to know why the person wasn't diagnosed and helped and given therapy and medicine and carefully shepherded by psychiatrists until they were better, and it's usually because there's no infrastructure to get it done...not enough money, not enough trained people, not enough interest. The short-term hospitalization that Bemo is using right now seems to be quite good; I'm grieved that people who need even more intense long-term care will have a hard time getting it because of the cuts.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-03 10:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-03 03:23 pm (UTC)Anxiety stuff is just really not fun. When combined with depression it must be even worse.
Perhaps you could vent your frustration with the governor by egging his house? I always wanted to do that when I lived in Lincoln.