Articles by flowergirl

I was asked the question recently as to what i thought about the idea of the label ’schizophrenia’ being abolished. There is no getting away from the fact that the label ’schizophrenia’ inherently carries a poor image and stigma. This has ultimately been brought about through the negative and unbalanced portrayal of ’schizophrenics’ in the media. The image that they are all unstable murderers and attackers.

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As requested by Lou, I have decided to write my take on alcoholism.

I believe that some alcoholics are mentally unwell and they use alcohol to dampen their emotional pain…as some have suggested on this site before:-
“until such time as the pharmaceutical industry come up with a pill that helps like alcohol does, it will continue to be my coping mechanism of choice”.
Lets first make clear what i mean by ‘mentally unwell’…by that i mean a person that does not function normally in society, or a person that has inadequate coping strategies when dealing with either mental or emotional turmoil/torment.

I believe that once a person is an alcoholic, it is inherent in that, that they will at some point behave in a selfish way.

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Well, it’s the much loved chicken and egg scenario that we so often encounter… is it the mental illness causing the substance/alcohol abuse, or is it the substance/alcohol causing the mental illness?

Either way, how do we treat them? With difficulty and barriers is the answer!

Unfortunately it has been my experience of late that patients entering the services with dual diagnosis become very political, in terms of whose budget are they going to consume. Hearing many phrases like

‘their primary problem is alcohol, if they didn’t drink they wouldn’t be suicidal’

‘no, no, they wouldn’t be drinking if they weren’t so suicidal and mentally unstable, that needs treating before we can tackle the alcohol’

Meanwhile the poor patient is in the midst of all of this cafuffle being tossed from one to tuther like a frisbee!

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We constantly get shoved down our throats the concept of ‘collaborative working’ but do we not mean ‘collaborative’ in a very loose sense of the word. Certainly in my experience, it is only collaborative if the patient agrees with us and our idea of what they should be doing???

Similar to my previous post, we are not collaborative with patients that want to have the freedom to smoke, we are not collaborative with those clients who want to sleep all day and wake at night, we don’t tend to be accommodating and collaborative with patients who like to sleep until midday, as it doesn’t fit with our view of what is deemed acceptable. we might collaborate with them in terms of sitting with them and writing a care plan, but is that care plan a product of what we want it to look like, or do we really write what the patient thinks is important, and in their own language.

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well, i,ve been badgered to come on to this site and write something, so here goes. it is seldom that you find someone who is so honest, genuine and will go to any lengths to protect and look after their colleagues, but i can truly say i have had the privilege of knowing such a person. being a newly qualified mental health nurse was daunting, going into a new environment/area and being expected to know everything. but there he was, ready to take me under his big wing and teach me a thing or two about management, policies and procedures (firstly to ignore them, and secondly to laugh at them!).

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