March President's Message

March President’s Message by Diana Wickowicz

For a long time now, I have been dealing with my much-loved family member being extremely resistant to treatment. This has been an ongoing heartache and has created serious frustration. She’s not sure there is anything wrong with her. She believes her delusional ideas to the extent that it’s too scary to oppose them most of the time. Where do we draw the lines as her caring family? I’m sure we can all relate to this experience. I have just recently been exposed to a book that speaks directly to this issue. I want us all to know about it. It was written by Dr. Xavier Amador who has a brother with schizophrenia. In his book I Am Not Sick, I don’t Need Help, the questions of compliance and willingness to accept the mental illness are addressed. He provides real practical applications for family and physicians when dealing with the crazy making dichotomy of denial and illness. He refers to this as “poor insight” or “anosognosia”. He defines this as a brain dysfunction that prevents the patient from realizing their illness and, consequently, from understanding their need for treatment and medication. It is part of their illness. We know intuitively that they’re not just trying to be defiant and resistant – but sometimes it certainly feels like resistance. His approach to managing this resistance to treatment is based on a goal of collaboration. He elicits this goal with four strategies based on the acronym LEAP. LEAP stands for listen, empathize, agree, partnerships. This means really listen empathically, make observations together, meet the patient half way and forge a partnership to achieve agreed-upon goals. This can be a painstaking procedure, but an incredibly worthwhile one.

We all deal with these issues of resistance and denial, probably more frequently than infrequently. We all have to find a way to nudge our ill family members into consistent treatment. Where do we draw the line between forced treatment and free will? These are tough questions for family members as well as society. Dr. Amador’s first hand experience, his research, and his strategies excite me. I hope this information can be a boon to all as it has for me.

Remember, we are not alone. We have each other.

His book can be purchased at - www.vidapress.com or toll free at (877) 990-2369.

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