Susan is a good girl, who survived the 60's without falling into drugs or too much social revolution. Mostly because the Dark Woman in the corner didn't like her leaving the house. Susan has enough crazy going on already in her family's home of locked doors and midnight fights, she doesn't need any new hallucinations. But she's come to a point where reality is pretty mixed up, which has led to her being institutionalized for an undiagnosed disorder (not schizophrenia, but close) in the spring of '71. What are some of the treatment options available for her? I'd like for her to get better, but a part of that healing will also involve an attraction to one of her doctors. I'd like for this to be mutual, but right now she's doing a lot of pacing, insomnia, and writing down the Dark Woman's orders so she can tear up the pages. Not mainstream appealing. What boundaries should I be careful of, to make sure that the healing and the relationship both remain stable and healthy?
Caged in Connecticut
Dear Caged,
Some clarification would be needed to address this question. Is the Dark Woman indeed a hallucination? Does Susan actually see an apparition in the corner of her home? Hear this person talk to her and give orders? Or is this Dark Woman a part of Susan's own self? I'm trying to determine if she actually as dissociative identity disorder (which would have been called multiple personality disorder back then) rather than schizophrenia. However, assuming that she's just hearing and seeing the Dark Woman, as a hallucination, then she'd be institutionalized at the early 70s with schizophrenia, not an undiagnosed disorder. After some cursory research online, as schizophrenia in the 70s is not my specialty (lol!), I found a research paper in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry that discussed on page 160 [second full paragraph] an innovative method started in the 70s to treat schizophrenia that your doctor might just be a proponent of. Let me know what you think! He could be slipping her fish oil tablets to get better....
Dear Jeannie:
In my book that I started years ago, and have worked on in an on-again, off-again fashion, I have dealt with an angel coming to check on the emotional health of angels who now live on earth. We discussed the main characters way back in the summer of 2009 (June/July time frame). One of the things my angel therapist has to do is counsel a human woman who is a school teacher who becomes involved both emotionally and physically with one of her students. This has been in the news several times, and I decided to make it part of the plot of my book. Can you help guide me with how you would provide therapy to this kind of woman, or at least point me to one of your blog posts that have dealt with this issue? I would be most appreciative.
"Fictional Counselor"
Dear "Fictional Counselor,"
I remember the plot well. Thought it a most interested twist on angels. You didn't mention the age difference between the teacher and the student, but perhaps that is only secondary to the nature of your question. A few topics come to mind that I'd want to tackle with this woman, namely self-esteem, co-dependency, and healthy boundaries. I'm never surprised when poor decisions are trace back to low self-esteem and confidence. Likely, you'd have to have the angel therapist dig into the teacher's background. How did her dad treat her? Was her mom complicit in this treatment? I'd
probably do some transactional analysis stuff with her (look on my sidebar for all my posts dealing with that subject). The teacher received her view of men initially from her dad. Perhaps, if she had an abusive father, a younger male student was seen as less threatening, someone she could control and not be afraid of. These are just a few of the areas that I'd start with and I'd want to use talk therapy with her, perhaps some artistic pursuits to bring out the creative side of communication. I always let clients decide where we go, so it's a bit unusual of a question, but that's where my initial thoughts went. Hope that helps! Good luck.
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SciFi Junkie · 558 weeks ago
Alice and her four companions are all around the age of 13-15 years old. They have been abandoned in a science facility, left there by the scientists who decided to look out for themselves rather than take care of kids. They are the only ones left that aren't dead already. They experience bouts of going hungry because there is nothing to eat, and fighting for survival in hopes of exiting the facility. They finally are rescued after about a month of living there. What would be the emotional repercussions for the abandonment, isolation, responsibility, and fear placed on these kids?
Anonymous · 558 weeks ago
Oh, that's a good question about a delusion being her projection of self. Because the Dark Woman isn't there--Susan knows she's not real--but that doesn't help shut her up. She does see her, but Susan knows nobody else does. (Susan lives with some other unstable family members, and they've come down hard on her for shaming the family with her public breakdowns.) So, the Dark Woman and some of Susan's family members tend to "say" a lot of the same things, making that division between real and not real confusing. I would love to read the article you linked, but the page keeps telling me I don't have access. Could you tell me the volume/issue, and I'll see if I can track it down through my local library?
Caged
jeanniecampbell 76p · 557 weeks ago
http://www.hawaii.edu/hivandaids/History%20of%20t...
Ella · 557 weeks ago
Susan is a 17 year old girl with psychological issues that include her having extreme anxiety, not being able to have normal social interactions, and pushing away, distrusting, and being angry at everyone. The only conversations she usually has are with a tree in her yard, which she calls "Matthew." The things she imagines Matthew saying are really her "good" or "sane" thoughts, so he is more or less her conscience. She spends most of her time with Matthew. There is a boy next door, Jonah, who is trying to get Susan to trust him (this is because he feels God is telling him to become Susan's friend). Matthew encourages the friendship, and this upsets Susan. Matthew says Susan needs real friends, and that he is not Susan's real friend, only a tree, and Susan recognizes/accepts this in her mind, becoming angry at Matthew and resolving to ignore him. She runs away from home and Jonah comes to find her and gives her an umbrella. When she goes to return the umbrella so as to avoid him showing up asking for it, and then returns home, her father sees her coming from his house and tells her she is not allowed to talk to him or be his friend. This is because her father, Elijah, knows Jonah is a Christian and hates him for it. Susan is a very defiant girl, and is distrustful of her parents, but would her father telling her this, and a sort of breaking off of her friendship with Matthew be enough to motivate her to slowly start to befriend Jonah? Also, Jonah is going to try to tell Susan about God, and Susan is completely ignorant of all matters of religion. How do you think Susan would react to this? Susan and Jonah will fall in love, but I am not sure as to how quickly each person will become attracted to the other.
dreamy in detroit