sCHIZoPHReNIa diARiES
TRUE STORIES BY REAL SCHIZOPHRENICS
Psychologist Overcomes Paranoid Schizophrenia
DR. FRED FRESE'S STORY
"They are all doing wonderfully,'' Penny Frese says of their children. A son, so painfully shy in middle school that he sat in the principal's office to avoid gym, just graduated seventh in a class of 400. He was a class officer and a drama student. "He's extraordinarily popular,'' she says of her college-bound son.
Claire Frese, 16, has produced her own video called "My Story'' to describe her last five years of coping with depression.
Most children with depression can be treated successfully with medication, Penny Frese says. "The disturbing thing is, I see lots of children like my children who are not getting help,'' she says.
Penny Frese, who has a doctorate in comparative arts and who teaches theater at Kent State University, urges parents to get help for children who are withdrawn, usually shy, hypersensitive, or who have sleep or eating problems.
Claire's own friends and school officials are a big help, now that the family has been open about the problem, she says. "They are pleased to help,'' she says. On a recent class trip, a friend noticed that Claire was becoming stressed. He went over to her and asked her to walk with him for a while.
"He said, `Hey, bud, I guess you need a hug','' Penny Frese recalls. "We underestimate people's ability to understand.'' Thirty years of life with schizophrenia have taught Frese and his family to cope.
"As you get older, you are better able to spot the symptoms and to cut them off,'' says Frese. He was hospitalized in 1974 and suffered a severe enough relapse 1 1/2 years ago that he was almost hospitalized again. First, Frese says, a person with a serious mental illness must acknowledge his or her disability and take medication.
Denial is common, particularly at first, because "you don't think it through very carefully,'' he says. "You just hope it goes away.'' Employers, friends and neighbors also usually attach such strong stigmas to mental illness that many people pay a price if they tell others, Frese says.
Frese explains the disease as an "inherited vulnerability to breakdown'' exacerbated by stress, conflict, substance abuse, death or other losses. When he feels his own symptoms worsening, he increases the dose of Risperdal, the schizophrenia drug he takes.
He also may take off time from work or remove himself from a stressful situation. For particularly sticky situations he can't avoid, Frese carries a wallet-size card that he hands to people if it becomes necessary. It asks them to rephrase criticism in a less threatening manner because he is a mentally ill person who doesn't handle conflict well.
