Fall 2011 Issue

In This Issue

Cover Stories

Taking Back Control: Learning to Cope with Voices, By Melissa Churly

Hearing voices is a form of hallucination in which a person perceives sounds without an external auditory stimulus. In other words, hearing things that aren’t real. Auditory hallucinations are one of the most common symptoms of schizophrenia, affecting about 70 percent of patients. What causes people to hear what others cannot, and how can you keep the voices at bay when medication fails?

Is there Value in Blogging? By Mary Medland

Throughout the ages, the use of narrative has been a tool to help men and women write about their lives and, upon reflection, to sort out their thoughts and feelings. Mary Medland offers up the pros and cons of posting your internal monologue online.

Cutting edge: Using computers to simulate schizophrenia, By Marilyn Dickey

Researchers are using a computer model to test a theory that people with schizophrenia have confused thoughts because of their inability to forget or ignore information…

Lessons Learned
Recovery and the power of experience, By Xavier Amador, PhD

SZ Magazine’s resident clinical psychologist Xavier Amador, PhD, admits he once held a prejudice common among many professionals and family members: that “schizophrenics” have no business being counselors, therapists, or peer support specialists.

On The Cover

Feature Stories 

Don’t believe everything you think, By Jennifer Pellegrini

Aaron Beck, MD, was a young psychiatrist in the early 1960s when he began noticing a common theme among the patients in his Pennsylvania practice. Working with patients living with depression, Beck became curious: Were the negative thoughts pervasive among them a symptom of their depression, or the cause of it? Today, cognitive behavioral therapy is considered a mainstream approach to treating a variety of problems, writes SZ Magazine correspondent Jennifer Pellegrini. Take a closer look at this non-medicinal therapy.

Looking for clues
Identifying the warning signs of schizophrenia, By Caitlin Crawshaw

For most people with schizophrenia, first psychosis initially manifests as delusional thinking. As scary as it might be to witness, family members need to be aware that their actions can worsen a person’s isolation and make it harder for them to get treatment. Caitlin Crawshaw highlights ways in which an impending psychotic break might be detected.

Regular Columnists

Living Life

The perfect time is now, By Christina Bruni

In the 1980s, a gang of musicians called Skeleton Crew sang lyrics to the effect of: There’s no convenient time to break your neck, meaning the perfect condition doesn’t exist. Waiting for the ideal moment to take action could be a mistake— because it might not come.

Ask Dr. Bob

The mysteries of medications, By Robert Liberman, MD

Dear Dr. Bob: If all antipsychotics target the same area of the brain, why do some medications work for some people, but not for others? …

Body Matters

Thin versus healthy, By Peter Jaret

For years health experts have been warning about an epidemic of obesity. People are getting fatter, not just in America but now around the world, as modern lives become less active and food becomes so easily available that we can nibble on something almost all the time. Being overweight and obese has been linked to everything from risk of heart disease and diabetes to certain forms of cancer. So it’s hardly surprising that doctors routinely counsel overweight patients to diet. But does dieting to lose weight really work?

More SZ Magazine

Straight Talk

In the news, By Bill MacPhee

Welcome to the Fall 2011 issue of SZ Magazine. It is truly a privilege to bring you a high quality, North American magazine on schizophrenia. I hope you enjoy it and find it useful…

Mailbag

Hear what our readers have to say about SZ Magazine

Unclear and present danger: Schizophrenia and deep vein thrombosis, By Caitlyn Crawshaw 

After months or years of psychotic symptoms, a patient is prescribed antipsychotic medication and the world makes sense again. Suddenly, thoughts crystallize, delusions fade, and terrifying hallucinations cease. As a neurological condition, schizophrenia isn’t curable—only treatable. But for patients and their families, medication can feel like a miracle cure. Unfortunately, while antipsychotics help people with schizophrenia restore their psychological well-being, the drugs inevitably come with side effects…

Scientist Profile: Romina Mizrahi, MD, PhD, By Jennifer Pellegrini

Romina Mizrahi, MD, PhD, has always had a fascination with the intricate workings of the human brain. She was a teenager in high school in her native Buenos Aires, Argentina, when a fellow student was diagnosed with schizophrenia—something that piqued her interest even further in the organ that sustains not only our life, but the quality of it…

Food

Holiday Staples- Whether you’re expecting the whole family or just a handful of guests at the Thanksgiving Day table this year, these recipes are sure to please…

Respite: It’s a fundamental need, By Michelle Morra Carlisle

Caring for a loved one who has a serious mental illness is a full-time job, yet the fact that the caregiver deeply loves the care recipient seems to make it okay not to get any vacation time. For some, it even feels wrong to want a vacation: “Why would I deserve a break today? It’s my loved one who is ill and struggling, not me.”…

My Story

Weathering the peaks and valleys, By Robert S. Johnson 

Mental illness can be a lifelong struggle with peaks and valleys; for every step forward, there can be several steps back. For Susan Hatfield, those steps back have come in the form of 24 hospitalizations over the past 25 years— even as she has managed to hold jobs as a research secretary over the years…

Connecting though peer support, By Irwin Rapoport

For Toronto, Ontario, resident Geoffrey Chang, peer support has made a positive difference in his life and treatment in dealing with schizophrenia. Chang, 27, who developed symptoms about 12 years ago, is a peer support worker-in-training with the Peer Recovery Education for Employment & Resilience …

My Voice

My gentle friend, By Judith Razieli

She is kind, thoughtful, and aware of her surroundings. Actually, she is often much more aware of what is going on than I am. She possesses an uncanny amount of insight. She would not harm people or animals. She is my best friend. I am a retired psychologist, and the woman I write about has schizophrenia… 

My Story

Inspiring art from personal pain, By Brad Peters

To say that Megan Rahm is energetic is an understatement. Same holds true for bubbly, contagious, encouraging, and upbeat. While she is undoubtedly all of those adjectives, only when used together do they begin to describe the 28-year-old commercial art student from Ohio…

 

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