I am interested in the walks to support mental illness. This is great. Thank you for the information. I checked out the website and found that there will be a walk in Portland Oregon at some point. It gave contact information as well. I emailed the person in charge to find out more information about when it will be. Thank you

I am told there is strong scientific evidence to support the line that recreational drugs can trigger schizophrenia. Certainly, there does seem to be scientific evidence that *suggests* Hash can do that, and that it can cause permanent damage to the ability to concentrate, memory and self-motivation.

However, I wonder to what extent the conclusions about recreational drugs and alcohol are incorrectly interpreted. Sure there is a correlation between drugs and mental illness. But which causes which? Does the booze and drugs cause the mental illness or does the mental illness cause the over consumption of the booze and drugs? Self-medication prior to a diagnosis? Or, may be it’s a bit of both?! Or, is there something else going on for which those things are symptoms such the drugs, drink and mental illness don’t have a causal relationship? Could it be that the genetic abnormalities make some of us prone to alcohol or drug abuse AND mental illness, like a Cold makes us have a temperature and to sneeze where the temperature and sneezing do nt have a causal relationship but are symptoms of something else – the viral infection we know as a Cold?

Well, can’t say I’ve tried weed or street drugs (or sex, for that matter), but if it would help me get through this turmoil and difficult times I am now experiencing, I’d be willing to try anything.

Interesting articles especially about the diagnosis of children with bpd but my concern is this, ‘If a parent is diagnosed with bpdII, what are the chances that the offspring will eventually exhibit those same symptoms? and will these symptoms surface while they are young children or mid-adolescents?’
I have been married to a woman for the past four years that felt all she suffered from was social anxieties for which she was never diagnosed but was able to secure medication to counter the problem. The downside to this was that she also was and is a heavy drinker. The alcohol counteracts the effects of the medication and she gets extremely agitated during these periods. After the second suicide attempt and having to spend a week in a confined area of the local hospital, she realized that she had more than just social anxiety. She was later diagnosed as bpdII.
From what I have learned from her talking about her past experiences, she was involved in drugs ranging from weed to cocaine to ecstacy. I guess those rave parties she attended were fantastic for her emotional well being. Unfortunately, I think the amount of drugs and type of drugs she did may have created more emotional problems for her. Even now she is still going through episodes and exhibitiing irrational behavior. But she travels on assignments for her job and keeping tabs on her is impossible. There are times when I think she exhibits other symptoms such as schizophrenia which I wouldn’t think would be part of bipolar. Anyways her and I have decided that it would be in our best interest to end our marriage but we will always be connected since we have two young children. When we get to that point, she will no longer be eligible to have her medication and therapy through my employment. I fear she will return to her past and again go through the major depressive episodes that caused her to try suicide twice while we have been together. My biggest concern is the welfare of our two children. We have agreed to shared custody but I’m always going to be worried of what could possibly happen to our children if she doesn’t maintain her current medications and treatment. I don’t want a situation like others whom have felt it best to cause undue harm to their children while experiencing a depressive period.