On Conquering Schizophrenia

On Conquering Schizophrenia addresses the topic of schizophrenia like never written. Author Robert Francis offers a revelatory and breakthrough paradigm regarding the relegation and defeat of schizophrenia hither yet present in the topical annals. In his conceptualization, Francis offers both a theoretical clarity along with the necessary pragmatics. And along the way, in a seemingly effortless stream of topic and word, Francis also broaches the topics of metaphysics, philosophy, theology, literary form, and humor while all the while crafting a long overdue methodology to conquering schizophrenia. As the reader peruses the pages, Francis’s personal touch and affinity for his audience will quickly be experienced and felt. This is not only a book on conquering schizophrenia but also on the greater life experience, including overcoming all typical generalized afflictions. This truly is a book with no precedent!

This chilling, inspiring journey through the mysterious tunnel of schizophrenia tells the story of a father guiding his son from despair to hope. In the tradition of "Is There No Place on Earth for Me?" and "The Eden Express", this compelling and enlightening book offers hope for the one percent of the world's population affected by the disease.

This story of a father guiding his son from despair to hope is a chilling, inspiring journey through the mysterious tunnel of schizophrenia--a world once closed and forbidding, now suddenly radiating excitement as thousands of patients are, in effect, being reborn. Jeff Wyden, a bright, happy boy in childhood, began to withdraw in adolescence, and by the age of twenty-one was severely psychotic, disconnected from reality. He was schizophrenic. In the ensuing twenty-five years, Peter Wyden accompanied his son into a hell without certainties as they searched for a solution. We see them pass through the hands of more than fifty psychiatrists and countless hospitals, clinics, and halfway houses. Doctors and health-care providers help and sometimes hinder both father and son in their odyssey through hypnosis, electroshock, dozens of drug therapies, and disabling "side effects." Throughout their ordeal, the father's management of his son's managers is his daily task, self-assigned despite self-doubt. He is alternately tolerant and challenging while he observes and learns, always primed for more of Jeff's mercurial signs of new crises. Along the way we learn about the history of the treatment of schizophrenia, from barbaric stopgaps like prefrontal lobotomy to the biomedical treatments that have revolutionized psychiatry. And finally, there is the new drug Olanzapine--a godsend for Jeff, and reason for cheer. It is not a cure, but many consider it the safest, most effective treatment to date (the first of similar medications recently licensed by the Food and Drug Administration, with more on the way). The story of its development is told here for the first time. Until now, few of us have realized that two and a half million Americans, mostly young and intelligent, are schizophrenic, merely existing through the decades, separated from reason, rendered dysfunctional by the costly and little-understood disease. Fifty million people worldwide suffer from it. This compelling and enlightening book offers useful information about what can be done for them today--and the hope of more help to come.

For more than a quarter of a century, author Robert Francis has been living with schizophrenia and its entanglements. Diagnosed at the age of twenty-four, he understands firsthand the implications. In The Essential Schizophrenia Companion, he offers insight into his life based on his personal experiences from the perspective of a patient and as a licensed clinical social worker and mental health talk-therapist. Geared toward individuals with schizophrenia, their families, and for providers who work with them, Francis offers a quick and powerful reference guide discussing all you need to know about schizophrenia. The Essential Schizophrenia Companion, the second book about this mental health issue by Francis, offers his newest insights and reflections on what it takes for a gainful recovery from schizophrenia. It is about living life with schizophrenia similarly to the rest of shared humanity. It is about gainfully living a full life in all one’s chosen life realms.

Here, leading neuroscientist Nancy Andreasen offers a state-of-the-art look at what we know about the human brain and the human genome--and shows how these two vast branches of knowledge are coming together in a boldly ambitious effort to conquer mental illness. Andreasen gives us an engaging and readable description of how it all works---from billions of neurons, to the tiny thalamus, to the moral monitor in our prefrontal cortex. She shows the progress made in mapping the human genome, whose 30,000 to 40,000 genes are almost all active in the brain. We read gripping stories of the people who develop mental illness, the friends and relatives who share their suffering, the physicians who treat them, and the scientists who study them so that better treatments can be found. Four major disorders are covered--schizophrenia, manic depression, anxiety disorders, and dementia--revealing what causes them and how they affect the mind and brain. Finally, the book shows how the powerful tools of genetics and neuroscience will be combined during the next decades to build healthier brains and minds. By revealing how combining genome mapping with brain mapping can unlock the mysteries of mental illness, Andreasen offers a remarkably fresh perspective on these devastating diseases.

Author Robert Francis has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia for longer than a quarter century. Over the many years, Robert has been intimately familiar with the commonly tempered expectations and diminished hopes for those living with schizophrenia to live a full and abundant life, similar to others. In his now third book on living with schizophrenia, Robert was driven to literary action, to flip the schizophrenia narrative from one of abundant deficits to one of abundant strengths. In Schizophrenia: A Strength's Perspective; Life Lessons Learned from Living with Schizophrenia, Robert details personal strengths and life lessons learned from living with schizophrenia for many years. The narrative shows a positive spin on the schizophrenia diagnosis as well as on its prognosis. Robert precludes such positive reflectivity as a simple or wishful pie-in-the-sky naïveté, and instead neatly details such positives as resoundingly rational, insightful, and genuine. Robert truly believes in recovery from schizophrenia, which includes a robust and fulfilling life, similar to everyone else, and the absence of the requisite "grim perspective". Across all literary domains, the strengths of living with schizophrenia are barely addressed, that is, until now. Join Robert as he spins a most positive perspective to living with schizophrenia.

Conquering Jericho: The Biblical Guide to Crush Mental Illness is a testimony of the power of God through Jesus Christ to walk along your side mightily as He leads you through to victory over the present-day battles in our hearts and minds. We will discover that there are practical steps to take that will be beneficial spiritually, as well as spiritual decisions to make that will lead us to a restoration. The truth of the matter is that mental sicknesses and behavioral health issues are spiritual in essence, and the resources and arsenals that are needed to address these deep-rooted issues are through the love and truth of God’s Word and by the Holy Spirit of God.

"With an introduction by Dr. Richard O'Reilly"--Cover.