Meeting 22 April 2003
EPI (Early Psychosis Intervention) Parents' Meeting, April 22, 2003
The meeting was attended by 19 people, 17 of whom were family members. Also attending
were two facilitators, Walter Lidster, Group and Family Therapist with EPI. And Hardeep Thind
a Regional Coordinator with the British Columbia Schizophrenia Society (BCSS).
The usual introduction and check-in with families provided both encouragement
because of the number of successes many families were eperiencing but also
disappointment in some area's where difficulties were being experienced.
This check-in is very beneficial in helping people to keep things in
perspective and allows those in need, to release some of their frustration and have
questions answered in a caring and supportive environment.
The main topic of discussion for the evening was Auditory Hallucinations.
The following is a quoted report from an attendee:
Quote: " When you were at school did you ever have to sing "rounds"
during a music Lesson? Where the class was split into three and each group
started singing the same song, but progressively one sentence later.
That's what I expected auditory hallucinations would be like.
Well according to my wife that is not right at all.
During the session an exercise was carried out where myself and two other
people were asked to read from a page of about 200 words, but the three of us
starting speaking at ten second intervals.
I'm told the result was absolute auditory chaos. I could hear confusing background
sounds, but I was concentrating on reading my text, so was not affected. But my
wife could not concentrate at all on the questionaire that she was supposed to be
filling out while the three readers did their "party pieces"
It wasn't like standing in the middle of a crowd of people, all talking to their own
small group, my wife tells me. It's more like trying to concentrate on cooking the
evening meal while three little insistent children are trying to attract your
attention, talking a mile a minute. I couldn't concentrate on any one of them or
anything else. It was almost like I was drowning. If I do compare it to being
in a noisy crowd, then it's like trying to simultaneously concentrate on each of
three different speakers addressing me from the crowd at the other end of the room.
She found the exercise very helpful in understanding what confusion auditory
hallucinations cause." END Quote.
After the excercise the group discussed strategies which could be used to help those
having auditory (and other) hallucinations.
Next months topic: The role that street drugs play in the triggering of psychotic episodes.
If you have comments you would like to share please email pspops@psychosissupport.com