 trying to set a good example for those who are in the acute stage of psychosis to at least give the medication a try. If you are one of the ones who does respond to medication, it gives you a choice of something that might help you to avoid suicide. I hate to say it so plainly, but it is a hard, cold fact, if you develop schizophrenia it is going to become acute, a trial by fire, in which things will eventually come down to life or death if gone untreated. It is those lost souls that I am most concerned about.
But what of those people who don't respond to the medications or who have way too serious side effects, what are they to do? Before I began taking the medications I found a therapist and saw her once a week and I went to the only support groups available for mental health in my community: Al-Anon and a domestic violence support group (I had lived with an abusive alcoholic for over five years...). My voices were both positive and very negative, angels and devils and sometimes angelic devils and devilish angels. I don't know how to explain it but they tormented me into reaching out to help others. They said I had to "be of benefit to my community". It was their idea, both the good and the bad voices, that I seek out a therapist, that I check myself into a hospital for an overnight stay so that I could get my diagnosis, that I go to support group meetings and actively try to help the people (mostly women) I met there, all while I was floridly psychotic. What I really wanted to do was to go hide in a hole somewhere and try to survive the storm, but the voices absolutely forbade it and threatened permanent hell if I tried to avoid being responsible to myself and others. I was required to pray for everyone in my support groups, required to make frequent calls to them to see how they were doing and to generally go out of my way to help others when I was in such desperate need of help myself. I didn't tell almost anyone that I suffered from schizophrenia because I was still in denial about it. So though I was busy helping other people, I was at the same time very isolated, living in that twilight zone and only talking to my therapist once a week. What I really needed was to be surrounded by my peers, especially those in recovery.
If you have decided not to take the medications or they don't work for you, you must have a support system in place. Actually that goes for people who take the medications as well. Isolation is so tempting and I understand that some of that is necessary to reduce stress, but connecting with others who are in the same boat as you is the light at the end of the tunnel. For me, the connection has been nearly entirely online because my community has not organized mental health support groups yet. So far, this online presence alone has been able to sustain me, though I really believe that face to face meetings work to lessen the sense of isolation and to connect people within their communities. It's one thing to contact someone online for support and quite another to call someone in your community and possibly see that person and interact with him or her. Really both online and offline support are very important. The more avenues are open for communication, the better you will feel. This goes for individual therapy as well. Talk therapy is known to work to alleviate symptoms. So talk to your therapist, talk in your support group or at your club house, talk online and talk to yourself, too. For me talking to myself took the forms of keeping a written and an audiotape journal. The audio journal I began after I was firmly into recovery. I'm not sure what it would be like during the acute stage of psychosis. It might be disturbing, but then again it might be helpful to track the comings and goings of your symptoms. I see it as a tool to develop further insight into myself and my illness.
Therapy, support groups and journaling as well as a dedication to one or more forms of creative activity (art, music, writing, etc...) give some guidance and direction and a release from the stress of holding one's psychosis inside. My therapist taught me to objectify my illness, to see it as separate and distinct from myself. If she hadn't helped me with that I might have internalized all that negativity and wound up feeling like some kind of monster. Instead I believed in my basic goodness. I was an ill person, not a bad person. Adopting a Buddhist practice has gotten me to not only be very honest with myself, but has given me the tools to look at my mind with some discrimination. Think of yourself as a compassionate and artistic scientist. Study yourself. I do think it is possible to overcome the trappings of psychosis without medication, but it would take great courage and discipline and support. During the three and a half years that I was unmedicated I couldn't pull it off. I broke down. I had only partial insight and no support group. It was all very new to me then and my main delusion colored my world; I lived inside of it. I am not ashamed to say that my illness overwhelmed me to the point where I began to take the anti-psychotic medications. There should be no shame in taking the medications if you need the help. That's one area where I'm at odds with the anti-psychiatry people. If they want to go cold turkey with their illness, that is their right, but they should not attack those that do take the medications. Some of us really need the help. For some, our lives depends upon it. There is enough stigma attached to mental illness without adding more into the mix.
I wish I had more to offer those of you who are sitting on the fence about whether to take the medications or not. I only know what I know from my experience first without medication and then with medication. I have not yet tried to reduce my medications or go off them completely. Maybe someday I will try too, but if I do I will be prepared to the hilt. So if you are unmedicated or going off your meds, have a plan of action. Really think it through and never give up on yourself.LOS ANGELES -.
In May, the University of California decided to limit enrollment of out-of-state undergraduates to 18 percent at five of its ten campuses to make more room for California students. Out-of-state students pay $27,000 more in added tuition and fees, and increase revenue for the university system.
The governing regents, who have authority over enrollment, placed a higher limit on UC campuses in Berkeley, Los Angeles, Irvine and San Diego, which exceed 18 percent out-of-state enrollment. The regents pointed out California campuses have higher international enrollment than the average for public universities nationwide.
The debate was intense, and one regent, Iranian-born Hadi Makarechian, said the proposal would build a wall around the university. The cap’s supporters say it expands opportunities for California residents.
International applications dropped at nearly 40 percent of American universities in March, about the time the travel ban was proposed, according to a study released by several education associations. One, the Association of International Educators (NAFSA), held its annual meeting this week in Los Angeles.
Its educators say the California action should not start a trend. “In fact, I think it mostly likely will be the opposite,” said John Wells of the College of Global Studies at Arcadia University in Pennsylvania. Arcadia sends its U.S. students abroad and accepts international students, mostly from China and India.
Wells says that as state funding for higher education “continues to become tighter and tighter... many states are allowing their universities to find new means to recruit students, including an expanded focus on recruiting international students.”
WATCH: Related report by Mike O'Sullivan
President Trump’s ban on visitors from six Muslim-majority countries has been temporarily blocked by federal courts. Amid the uncertainty, applications to many U.S. universities are down from the Middle East, according to the survey of US universities.More than 100,000 people from that region studied in the United States in academic year 2015-2016, comprising 10 percent of the U.S. international students, according the Institute of International Education and its project Open Doors.
Educators from other nations say their students have also been watching with concern, some preferring to apply to universities in Canada or Australia, said Iqbal Ahmed of the Acharya Institutes in Bangalore, India. “Still,” he said, “I think it’s not had a big impact” for students from India.
Many American universities actively recruit overseas, said Qimmah Najeeullah, director of international student and faculty services at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. She says her institution is combating what she calls a “widespread anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States” with a message to overseas applicants that “you’re part of the solution in coming... and diversifying our student populace.”
Studying in America has expanded the worldview of a former student from India, Jayaditt Basani, who attended Chapman University in California. “You have people from so many different parts of the world already coming here,” he said, “so this is the best place to meet and make connections.”
Campus diversity helps American students, says Najeeullah of Morgan State University, allowing them to meet future overseas colleagues “that they can build businesses with, start companies with, help us to grow our footing in other markets.”
English-speaking countries, including Australia, Britain and Canada, attract significant international students, said John Wells of Arcadia University.
“Germany is actually increasingly strong as they expand the number of courses offered in English,” he said.
In the