Messages By: fluffyfat

I keep a very clean house, I vacuum and dust daily, dry the sink and shower after every use and always have "a place for everything and everything in it's place." I keep my clothes organized according to color and style, with all the hangars evenly spaced. I exercise every day except Sunday and eat the same thing for lunch each day. Does this make me a bad person? I don't think so. My husband and I enjoy living in a clean comfortable environment. I like looking at my pretty closet and being able to find things when I need them. My exercise and diet lunch keep me slim and enable me to indulge myself at dinner. This is my choice. I wouldn't dream of telling my sloppy friends that they need to clean more often but for some reason they feel free to make remarks about my housekeeping ("It's so sterile in here! It's like a hospital!") whenever they come over. Sometimes I think the real control freaks are the ones who want everyone else to be as slovenly as they are so that they won't feel guilty for being too lazy to mop the kitchen floor. I kind of resent all the hints on this thread that there is something horribly wrong with those of us who like to live an organized, tidy life. My husband is just as neat as I am, so neither of us is trying to control the other. We laugh, we cry, we entertain, and no, I am not a lesbian. (That one made me laugh.)

I keep a very clean house, I vacuum and dust daily, dry the sink and shower after every use and always have "a place for everything and everything in it's place." I keep my clothes organized according to color and style, with all the hangars evenly spaced. I exercise every day except Sunday and eat the same thing for lunch each day. Does this make me a bad person? I don't think so. My husband and I enjoy living in a clean comfortable environment. I like looking at my pretty closet and being able to find things when I need them. My exercise and diet lunch keep me slim and enable me to indulge myself at dinner. This is my choice. I wouldn't dream of telling my sloppy friends that they need to clean more often but for some reason they feel free to make remarks about my housekeeping ("It's so sterile in here! It's like a hospital!") whenever they come over. Sometimes I think the real control freaks are the ones who want everyone else to be as slovenly as they are so that they won't feel guilty for being too lazy to mop the kitchen floor. I kind of resent all the hints on this thread that there is something horribly wrong with those of us who like to live an organized, tidy life. My husband is just as neat as I am, so neither of us is trying to control the other. We laugh, we cry, we entertain, and no, I am not a lesbian. (That one made me laugh.)

My son suffers from this waking nightmare called schizophrenia and I'm so grateful whenever brave people step forward to help increase awareness and understanding. Mary, you are such a beautiful, intelligent girl, if you weren't married I would be playing match-making mother right this very minute. (ha ha) My dear son was making top grades in college when this awful disease struck. It doesn't run in our family, but then, as Dr. Phil said today the genetic link is not there in most cases. For ten years my son was unmedicated, psychotic, suicidal, cowering with fear and dread. [b]We need to change the law, so that family members can forcibly commit their loved ones for treatment.[/b] Asking the adult schizophrenic to make wise decisions for himself is like asking someone with alzheimers to make such decisions. The organ that is sick is the one needed to make good decisions, so, unfortunately, the last thing someone who is paranoid will want to do is go voluntarily to the doctor -- his illness will cause him to fear that the doctor will "use him as a guinea pig" or "put monitoring devices in his head', etc. We must vote to allow parents to get help for our children, as it is now we have to wait for them to be "a danger to himself or others." Since most schizophrenics are as gentle and frightened as lambs, they go without treatment for years. I finally, going against every mother's instinct, called the police on my son one night, and fibbed that he had threatened suicide (he was highly psychotic at the time.) They took him to a psychiatric hospital, started him on Zyprexa and he has been doing wonderfully well ever since. He works full time, enjoys hobbies and friends, and since switching to Abilify, he is even back to his slender weight. [b]Schizophrenia is not a rare disease.[/b] It is far more common in the U.S. than muscular dystrophy, MS, AIDS, and many other diseases that we hear about all the time. It is the number one disabler of young people; yet when was the last time you saw a march or telethon for schizophrenia? Every year millions are collected for the March of Dimes, when will we start to address this devastated disease? It's been estimated that forty percent of our homeless have severe mental illness. Is this the way Americans treat our sick? Please continue to help raise awareness of this disease, Dr. Phil -- and thank you, for getting the ball rolling. To paraphrase one of my favorite Dr. Philisms "Let's step up to the plate and demand a cure for these people!"

Someone certainly has been blessed and I tink it must be the precious children you have adopted. With so many people afraid of those with mental illness, it truly warms my heart to know that someone like you will adopted these children, knowing they are at high risk, and give them the love and stability they need. One reason that I believe my son with schizohrenia is doing so well is that he has the calm secure home to return to each evening, after work. We never ridicule anyone, we try to keep negativity and sarcasm down to a minimum, we don't watch violent, disturbing TV, etc. A quiet loving environment is so helpful. ------- To the moderators: Even with all this, I know my son wouldn't be in recovery without the God given gift of good medicine. It bothers me that the first post on this thread implies, falsely, that a person can "get" schizophrenia by taking the medicine for it. This is totally impossible. With all the problems surrounding medication compliance with schizophrenics, that post is the last thing they should be reading. It can't be said often enough: Schizophrenia is a problem with overproduction of certain hormones in the brain. The medications block this excess and allow for the return of calm rational thinking. The medications allow the schizophrenic to recover and be himself, just as taking insulin allows a diabetic to recover. If you have schizophrenia -- if you have overwhelming, irrational fears -- or if you hear voices -- see your doctor. He can give you the proper medicine to make you well. Your doctor is there to help you. Your doctor can make you well.

Tompain, I know you mean well but I think you are needlessly worrying a lot of people. ALL drugs have side-effects from aspirin to zyprexa. The question to ask yourself is whether or not the rare side effects are worse than the disease. ------ You could go to a diabetic's website and talk endlessly about how insulin can cause blindness but it wouldn't be helpful Severe diabetics must take insulin to live. People with schizophrenia must take medications to live a half-way decent life. ----Tom you are wrong to compare anti-psychotics with frontal lumbotomy. That's like comparing athlete's foot ointment with foot amputation. One is a medicine and one is an operation.----You are wrong to imply that Dr, Torrey is on your side. Dr. Torrey has had his own sister hospitalized for her own protection and she now takes regular medication. He is firmly in favor of changing laws so that family members can seek and demand hospitalization for their ill loved ones. His site is psychlaws.org.---I would like to second the warning about street drugs. My son was not at any known risk for mental illness when he tried marijuana, yet he is certain that it caused his schizophrenia; he actually felt it happen. There is more evidence all the time that this can happen; 80% of all young schizophrenics say that they have used marijuana.

We all need to remember that drug companies have to inform us of the side-effects of their products, even if it's something that only shows up in a tiny percentage of patients. Read the extended list of warnings on the aspirin bottle and you'll never take another one. My son thrives on Abilify -- he's happy and has a job he loves. No one he works with has any idea that he has a serious mental ilness. Yes, long term use of this drug could cause problems down the road, but ask yourself, what's worse -- a slight chance of liver or eye problems or the 80% chance of attempting suicide which the un-medicated schizophrenic risks? These drugs save lives!

I hope people watchiing today's show got the message. Bottom line is: If YOU don't want to have a child right now, then YOU should be using a good reliable form of birth control. Never trust something this important to someone else. Oh, and BTW, anyone who uses an innocent unborn child as a tool to manipulate their romance is lower than dirt. Children should be brought into the world when the man and the woman *both* want them. And women: If he isn't committed enough to marry you, he darn well isn't committed enough to father your children.

They happened to be at the right place at the right time. Look at the Olsen twins; their mother took them for an audition when they were just babies, so they grew up in front of the cameras and became famous.  Suppose one of the other baby twin-sets had landed the roles?  The Olsens would have grown-up, gone to school, married, had regular jobs and nobody would have heard of them.  Why pattern your life after someone who happened to get lucky in the entertainment world?  

  

I admire people who spend their lives helping others.  Nurses, firemen, teachers -- I would much rather be like them. 

  

BTW.  I  weighed 105 lbs (5'6") for many  years.  Then one day I started to gain, due to several different factors. Now I'm around 150.  I'm just as happy now as I was thin. Maybe a little happier.  It was nice to walk down the street and have heads turn because I "looked like a model" but it's also nice to eat cookies and ice-cream while watching an old movie on TV.    Life is short -- have fun! 

Heroin is addictive; it changes your brain.  Going to the mall and buying everything you like is not addiction; it's the behavior of a spoiled woman.  Watching porn in front of your kids, talking about suicide in front of your kids, cutting in front of your kids -- not  addiction.  What it is, is terrible, self-centered  behavior of a spoiled b*tch.  Dad should get a divorce and take the kids with him.  I would love to see this woman have to support herself on minimum wage.  

  

BTW Bridgette -- my hung-up husband isn't affectionate either. Get over it. 

[quote]As his mother, who loves him, and can still remember his sweet childhood ways, I suffer along side of him, though I try very hard to stay strong, logical, and to be a soft place for him to fall.  [/quote] Bless you for being such a loving mother, he's lucky to have you.  I'm also the mother of a young person with severe mental illness (schizophrenia).  We're talking about it on the thread for yesterday's show -- just check the list of shows by date.