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Transcription
The podcast discusses schizophrenia, a mental health disorder. It explains the positive and negative symptoms of the disorder. The speaker, Carly Singh, shares her experiences as a parent caring for someone with schizophrenia. She talks about the importance of validating the experiences of individuals with schizophrenia and not dismissing their hallucinations. Traditional parenting doesn't work for children with schizophrenia, so it's crucial to validate and help them calm down. Sleep disturbances and depression are two debilitating symptoms for Carly's child. There are misunderstandings about schizophrenia and depression, leading to the term "schizoaffective." Other parents can help their children by not being afraid of the diagnosis and learning about validation therapy and gentle parenting. Hello, and welcome to the Croke Who Podcast. Today we will be discussing the psychotic disorder schizophrenia. I'm joined by my mother, Carly Singh. This podcast is meant to be informative and shed light on the disorder. Let's get into it. Schizophrenia is a mental health condition that starts in adolescence and is normally diagnosed in adulthood. In rare cases, schizophrenia is diagnosed in children. The positive symptoms include hallucination, delusion, and disorganized thought or motor behavior. While the negative symptoms are a lack of motivation, difficulties with personal hygiene, and lack of expression, flawed affect, and difficulty with facial expressions or eye contact. I will be asking Carly, someone who has lived with and taken care of someone with schizophrenia, questions about her experiences. Carly, how has your parenting style changed since taking care of someone with schizophrenia? For me, I had to learn how to validate and accept that my child could see and hear things I couldn't. At first, it was confusing and a bit terrifying, knowing that my child was being terrorized by their own brain. I realized that my default, going to fax and reality checking didn't help. Instead, I learned to validate and explain that they were safe while also not invalidating their experience and avoiding criticism. When dealing with schizophrenia in children, traditional parenting does not work. Immediately criticizing and telling your child this isn't real or to stop making things up won't help. Instead, it is important to validate and try to help calm down your child. Asking questions or trying to distract them in a way that can be helpful and ease their mind. Although in some cases where the child is a danger to themselves or others, it's important to get them to a safe environment, but remember to stay calm and know this won't last forever and you and your child will be okay. Moving on to our next question, what do you think is the most debilitating symptom when it comes to your child? There are two that have had a particularly negative effect. The first is sleep. There are many sleep disturbances and the second is deep depression. Sleep problems are often overlooked in schizophrenia and it's quite sad. Hallucinations can make it nearly impossible to fall asleep and leave you awake, wondering when these noises or sights will leave you alone. Up to 80% of people with schizophrenia suffer from depression. There are lots of misunderstandings when it comes to depression and schizophrenia, with some psychiatrists saying people with schizophrenia don't normally suffer from depression, which couldn't be further from the truth. These misunderstandings run so deep that psychiatrists created a new term for schizophrenics who suffer from depression or other mood disorders. This term is schizoaffective, a disorder that has been debated on for years, but we will talk more about schizoaffective in another episode. Now, we're at our last question. How can other parents help their suffering children? Number one, don't be afraid of the diagnosis. If your child doesn't get a diagnosis, your child may not get the help that they desperately need. Two, learn about the therapeutic benefit of validation. Dialectical behavior therapy is a great place to start and practice gentle parenting. Alright, thank you for coming on today, Carly. I appreciate it and I appreciate you all listening to this podcast. Have a lovely day.
