Columns

Quite a few years back, I wanted to go off of Zyprexa because I feared that it was giving me diabetes. I asked my psychiatrist to take me off Zyprexa, and he went along with it while prescribing other medications.  

My wife describes the ensuing months in terms of me becoming psychotic and she being afraid of me. I was beginning to speak in hostile and aggressive tones, and I was starting to do things that didn't make sense. I was also becoming increasingly paranoid. The antipsychotic meds that I had switched to apparently were not sufficient.  

I don't have a good memory of that time period, and in fact much of this memory is blacked-out. At some point, my wife made the connection that I had, not long before, gone off Zyprexa. And she realized that it was probably the reason why my behavior had gotten so bad. She told me I ought to take Zyprexa and said that I was getting psychotic. Apparently, I narrowly avoided another trip to the hospital.  

A few weeks after I went back on Zyprexa, I felt better, and my wife said I was acting a lot better toward her. She later told me that she had been on the verge of packing up and leaving. 

The above paragraphs are an example of "navigation" of my mental health, to avert relapses. In this instance a family member helped. Yet it was still an example of correcting course to avert a mishap.  

Concerning the Zyprexa-induced diabetes, I was eventually able to get my blood sugar down to a normal level (at least in one blood test) through using diet to compensate. I had to cut out most of the refined sugar in my diet and had to eat less food in general. Getting my blood sugar under control took about a year and a half.  

The above diet compensation is an example of navigation concerning my health. This is an instance where I may have stopped myself from going down the diabetes path. Once a person gets too far into Type II Diabetes, it is much harder to get this illness to reverse. (While taking Zyprexa is definitely a risk factor for diabetes and obesity, these diseases can sometimes be delayed or staved-off with control of diet.)  

Navigating life entails that you know where you want to go, take the steps needed, attempt to anticipate pitfalls, and in general, that you operate at a high level of awareness. There is the navigation of one's life path. This involves making plans that are probably realistic, and also making backup plans in case something doesn't work as expected.  

It can also be helpful to think in terms of priorities. If you spend all of your time and energy doing tasks that someone else wants you to do, it could leave you exhausted and unable to pursue your own personal goals. Yet, if you do not have any goals to begin with, you are at the mercy of other people's wishes, or perhaps you drift randomly.  

Navigating with respect to treatment is important. When slipping back toward psychosis, it can be a lifesaver to have systems in place to warn you of where you are headed and to redirect your course. The example of my wife taking care of me is a scenario in which I had something set up (namely, the help of another person) that warned me before things got too out of hand. If foresight is used and not just hindsight, a person with mental illness could go much longer between relapses.  

(It is okay to accept some amount of supervision from mental health caregivers. Or if you don't like the word "supervision," you could call it "getting suggestions.") 

The point of this week's column: If you consciously navigate your paths, both the path your mind is taking and the path of where you are going in life, you have a much better chance of getting what you want, whatever that may be.  

(While by some definitions I am not the embodiment of success, since I am broke and living on the generosity of the government, at least I have stopped going back to the hospital, am meeting most of my basic needs and I do not need constant supervision or extreme measures of care. The writing efforts also do a lot to keep me out of trouble.)  

When you take an approach to life that you are going to use organized thinking rather than doing things haphazardly, the results will usually be much better. It becomes easier to make plans and follow them when one has more years of recovery under one's belt.