Basic principles of therapy

  • Systemic approach: The sources consistently emphasize the importance of a systemic approach to therapy. This means that not only the person affected, but the entire family system is included in the therapy process. The family is considered a dynamic system in which a person’s problems are often related to the family’s relationship structures and communication patterns.
  • Resource orientation: Therapy should be resource-oriented and make use of the family’s strengths and abilities. Parents are seen as resources and not as obstacles.
  • Relationship orientation: The therapeutic relationship is of central importance. A fearful or overprotective attitude on the part of the therapist can have a negative impact on the course of therapy. A confident and attentive attitude is helpful.
  • Learning process: Therapy is considered a learning process for everyone involved, including the therapists. Mistakes are seen as part of the learning process.
  • Multidirectional partiality: Therapists should adopt an attitude of multidirectional partiality, i.e. they should empathize with all family members and recognize their respective points of view.
  • Patience and time: There is no quick fix for schizophrenia; therapy is a long-term process. Changes take time and patience.

Specific therapeutic approaches

  • Family therapy:
    • Genogram work: A genogram analysis of at least three generations is an important tool for understanding family entanglements and dysfunctional relationships.
    • Observation of interaction patterns: The communication patterns and interactions within the family are observed to identify dysfunctional patterns.
    • Identification of patterns: The therapy aims to identify and change recurring patterns and behaviors.
    • Processing unresolved conflicts: Unresolved conflicts in the family, especially between the parents, are addressed.
    • Parents as key players: Parents are central actors in the change process. Changes in the behavior of parents have a positive effect on the entire family.
  • Therapy with parents:
    • Parents‘ feelings of guilt: The feelings of guilt of the parents are acknowledged, as these often cause resistance to change.
    • Parents as a team: Parents are encouraged to work together as a team and to respect their different parenting styles.
    • Working on personal issues: Parents are encouraged to deal with their own family of origin, as this is an important step towards change.
    • Relief: Parents are supported in therapy to free them from entanglements with their children.
  • Dealing with the patient:
    • Understanding symptoms: Symptoms are not only seen as symptoms of illness, but also as an expression of conflicts in the family system.
    • Their own reality: The own reality of the patient is recognized.
    • Strengthening personal responsibility: The goal is to get the patient out of his role as a “diplomatic mediator” between the parents and to encourage personal responsibility.
    • Activation: The patient is actively involved in therapy to initiate change processes.
  • Communication therapy:
    • Direct communication: The family is encouraged to communicate with each other directly and openly, instead of indirectly or evasively.
    • Addressing conflicts: Conflicts should not be avoided, but addressed.
    • Mindful listening: Therapy promotes mindful listening and a better understanding of each other’s perspectives.
  • Vocational rehabilitation:
    • Support with job searches: Patients are supported in their career choice and job search.
    • Job coaching: Job coaching as an alternative method can be a great help.
    • Resource orientation: The patient’s talents and abilities are taken into account in vocational rehabilitation.

Important aspects of the therapy process

  • Resistance: Resistance to therapeutic interventions is seen as natural self-protection.
  • No compulsion: Therapy should not be forced upon anyone. Parents and patients must be willing to engage in the process.
  • Flexibility: Therapists should respond flexibly to the needs of the family and adapt the therapy process accordingly.
  • Criticism as feedback: Criticism of the therapy is seen as valuable feedback that can be used to improve the therapy process.
  • Emotional calming: In the first step, it is important to calm the family’s emotional climate before attempting to correct irrational behavior.
  • Active participation of parents: The active participation of parents is crucial, as they have an important influence on the success of therapy.

Collaboration

  • cooperation: A cooperative attitude between all parties involved is very important.
  • Involvement of relevant persons: Important persons such as employers, teachers or other therapists are included in the therapy process.
  • Trust: The parents‘ trust in the therapist must grow before changes can be made.

Additional remarks

  • Psychotropic drugs: Psychotropic drugs can be used as a support, but should not be the only treatment. They should always be taken openly and not secretly.
  • Dealing with anxiety: The therapeutic attitude should not be characterized by anxiety, as this can impair the success of the therapy.

In summary, it can be said that the therapeutic approaches to schizophrenia are diverse and based on a systemic understanding of the disease. Successful therapy requires close collaboration between therapists, patients and family members, a willingness to change and patience. The therapy aims to recognize and change dysfunctional patterns, activate resources and promote personal responsibility in those affected.

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General aspects of partner conflicts

  • Frequency in families with schizophrenia: The sources emphasize that partner conflicts are significantly more common in families with schizophrenia than in comparison groups. This is often associated with a tendency to escalate.
  • Inherited patterns: Conflict patterns can be transferred from the families of origin to the partnership.
  • Emotional dynamics: The arguments are often emotionally charged, with both sides trying to make themselves heard at the same time without really listening.
  • Unresolved conflicts: Conflicts often go unresolved and repeat themselves as both partners hold on to their opinions and hope for empathy.
  • Hasty interpretation: People with ADHD tend to hastily interpret statements, leading to misunderstandings.
  • Authoritarian conflict resolution: In patriarchal structures, conflicts are often suppressed by authority, but this is not always effective.
  • Conflict avoidance: In families with schizophrenia, conflicts are often avoided or denied, leading to pseudo-unity.

Triggers and causes of partner conflicts

  • Unfulfilled needs: Unfulfilled needs for affection and support from childhood can manifest themselves in the partnership.
    • This can lead to deep-seated anger and resentment towards the partner.
  • Lack of self-fulfilment: If a partner is unable to fulfil themselves in the relationship, this can lead to frustration and conflict.
    • Women in particular often develop anger issues when their autonomy is restricted.
  • Role patterns: Traditional role patterns, in which one partner takes on the role of “provider” and the other that of “care recipient”, can lead to conflict.
  • Dependency: One partner may remain dependent on the other in the relationship and try to compensate for unmet needs from childhood, which can lead to conflict.
  • Jealousy and mistrust: Jealousy can arise from feelings of insecurity and inadequacy.

Specific conflict patterns

  • Tug-of-war: Constant pulling back and forth in the partnership, often triggered by different views on parenting or one person’s need to control the other.
  • Competition of needs: A fight over who deserves more support, with needs being projected from childhood into the partnership.
  • Distancing: A partner can withdraw from conflict situations, thus making the situation worse.
  • Overinvolvement: Mothers can be overinvolved and weaken the father in his role.

Impact on children

  • Triangulation: Children are drawn into conflicts between partners and made into a “substitute partner”.
    • This leads to disturbed emotional development.
  • Divided loyalty: Children experience a loyalty conflict when their parents argue.
    • This conflict can also persist after a divorce.
  • Feelings of guilt: Children may develop feelings of guilt when they try to reconcile their parents.
  • Behavioral problems: Children may show behavioral problems as a result of their parents‘ conflicts.
  • Mental illness: Conflicts between parents contribute to the development of schizophrenia in their children.

Conflict resolution and prevention

  • Calm down before solving the conflict: Conflicts should not be solved in the heat of the moment.
    • Both partners should calm down before trying to solve the conflict.
  • Change of perspective: Both partners should try to understand the other’s perspective.
    • It is important to listen to the other person and understand their motivation.
  • Equal exchange: Conflicts should be seen as an exchange between equals, not as a power struggle.
  • Controlling your own emotions: Especially for parents of children with ADHD, it is important to keep your own emotions under control.
  • Systemic therapy: Systemic therapy can help to understand the causes of conflicts and develop new behavior patterns.
  • Reflection on the family of origin: reflecting on one’s own family history can help to recognize recurring patterns.
  • Open communication: open and direct communication is important to avoid misunderstandings.

Special aspects of ADHD

  • Increased willingness to conflict: partners with ADHD tend to have rapid escalations and impulsive reactions.
  • Difficulty listening: People with ADHD have difficulty listening and not interpreting statements prematurely.

In summary, it can be said that relationship conflicts in families with schizophrenia represent a complex interplay of individual, relationship-specific and systemic factors. The causes often lie in unfulfilled needs, unresolved conflicts from childhood and dysfunctional communication patterns. To successfully overcome them, a systemic view is needed, as well as reflecting on one’s own family history, open communication and the willingness to embrace new behavioral patterns.

Family Structures and their Role in the Development of Schizophrenia

Family structures and their significance for schizophrenia

  • Family system as a central factor: The sources emphasize that schizophrenia is not just an individual illness, but reflects profound systemic problems within the family.
  • Emotional overfocus: Certain family constellations can cause emotional attention to be strongly focused on a child.
    • This can be due to talents, gender or early illnesses.
    • Children who are the emotional focus can remain trapped in their role and have difficulty detaching.
  • Sibling positions: A child’s position in the sibling series can lead to certain role distributions.
    • Older children often take on structural responsibility.
    • Middle children often act as mediators.
    • Youngest children are often responsible for emotional concerns.
    • Only children occupy a special position.
  • Traumatic circumstances: Children born during difficult times may assume the role of “comforter child”.

Interaction patterns in the family

  • Circular communication: Emotional communication patterns are circular rather than linear and can be passed down through generations.
  • Stressful communication styles: Families with schizophrenia often exhibit stressful communication patterns.
    • High emotional expressivity: This includes impatience, a raised voice, and rapid speech.
    • Associative communication: Leaps of thought and unclear statements are typical.
    • Indirect and mystifying communication: Conflicts are avoided or described in a roundabout way.
    • Double-bind communication: Contradictory messages are sent at different levels simultaneously.
  • Conflict avoidance: Families with schizophrenia tend to avoid conflict, often by denying individual perception.
  • Chronic relationship conflicts: Constant conflicts and rivalry between parents create a tense atmosphere.
  • Divided loyalty: Children can experience a conflict of loyalty when they are caught between their parents.

Parenting styles and roles in the family

  • Inconsistent parenting: Inconsistent parenting styles between fathers and mothers are a risk factor.
    • Mothers often criticize the lack of involvement of fathers, while fathers ridicule overly involved mothers.
    • Over-committed mothers and passive fathers reinforce destructive patterns.
    • Mothers are more likely to assert themselves, leading to matriarchal leadership.
  • Parenting styles:
    • Parenting through punishment (authoritarian).
    • Parenting through cooperation.
  • Overprotective mothers: They are often emotionally overinvolved, which leads to control and manipulation strategies.
  • Parents as role models: Parents should be a support for their teenagers, not themselves in search of love and understanding.

Further aspects of family structure

  • Implicit expectations: Parents‘ unexpressed wishes and dreams can become implicit tasks for the next generation.
  • Problems of detachment: Difficulties in detaching from parents, which are passed down through generations, can be a risk factor.
  • Unresolved conflicts: Unresolved conflicts from the parents‘ families of origin have a negative effect on the current family situation.
  • Projection screen: The family member with schizophrenia often serves as a scapegoat for dysfunction within the system.

Ursula Davatz’s hypothesis

  • AD(H)D as a vulnerability factor: Davatz sees the genetic predisposition to AD(H)D as an increased sensitivity and vulnerability that allows those affected to absorb the stress of the family system.
  • Family environment: The family environment is more important than genetic factors.
  • Gene-environment interaction: The interaction of genes and environment influences the development of schizophrenia.

In summary, family structure is not just a background, but an active factor in the development of schizophrenia. The interactions, role distributions, and emotional patterns within the family have a profound influence on the development of family members, especially those with a genetic predisposition to AD(H)D. It is therefore not just about individual factors, but about a complex interplay within the family system.

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Work with Birds, Implications for Psychiatry

In the conversation, Johann Christian August Heinroth is mentioned in the context of behavioral research and its potential relevance to psychiatry. Here are the key points:

1. Work with Birds

  • Ideal Experiment Subjects: Heinroth and his wife raised various types of birds. Lukas Jenni from the bird observatory noted that birds are excellent experimental objects. They hatch from eggs, allowing for early and diverse influences on their development. This early manipulability makes them valuable for studying behavior, as it provides a controlled environment to observe how different factors shape an organism’s behavior from an early stage.
  • Observation – based Learning: The Heinroths closely observed the birds they raised. Their work was based on detailed observations, which is significant. Konrad Lorenz, who was well – known in Dr. Ursula Davatz’s family, received a book by Johann Christian August Heinroth on his 20th birthday. Lorenz later recognized Heinroth as the founder of behavioral research. This recognition emphasizes the importance of Heinroth’s work in the field of behavioral studies, as his observational approach set a precedent for understanding animal behavior.

2. Implications for Psychiatry

  • Methodological Inspiration: Dr. Davatz suggests that psychiatry could learn from the approach of researchers like Heinroth. Just as he observed the birds, wrote down his findings, and then developed theories, psychiatrists could adopt a similar method. Clinicians, in their practice, can listen to patients, reflect on their observations, and gradually develop concepts. This observational – based approach to theory – building can provide a more in – depth understanding of human behavior and mental disorders, including schizophrenia. It emphasizes the importance of direct observation and the collection of real – world data before formulating theories, rather than relying solely on pre – conceived models.

Erwachsene mit ADHS: «Betroffene nehmen mehr wahr als andere»

Was die Psyche angeht, so kann ADHS der Grundstein sein für Depression, Schizophrenie, Sucht. Oft verfallen Menschen mit ADHS einer Sucht im Sinne einer Selbstmedikation. Im Bereich des Körpers kann es zu Übergewicht, hormonellen Störungen oder Schmerzsymptomen kommen. Gerade Muskel-, Sehnen- und Gelenkschmerzen treten häufig auf, weil es ADHS-Betroffenen mehr als anderen schadet, zu wenig Bewegung zu haben. Ideal bei ADHS ist viel Bewegung ohne Stress.

Luzerner Zeitung, 26.10.2024

Generationen und ADHS

Transkription

30.05.2024 · 19:00 – 21:00 · Saal, Zentrum Karl der Grosse, Zürich

ADHS wird vermehrt von einem Kinder- zu einem Erwachsenenthema – und im Besonderen zu einem Frauenthema, da ADHS bei Frauen und Mädchen unterdiagnostiziert ist. Viele Frauen finden erst bei der Abklärung ihrer Kinder heraus, dass sie selbst betroffen sind. Inwiefern zeigt sich ADHS bei Frauen und Mädchen anders? Was bedeutet dies für den Diagnoseprozess und den Umgang mit einer solchen Diagnose? Welche Rolle spielen das Patriarchat, der Menstruationszyklus und soziale Medien? Und was sind nützliche Strategien für Frauen mit ADHS?  

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AD(H)S und Schizophrenie – Grenzzerfall

AD(H)S stellt einen Vulnerabilitätsfaktor für die Entwicklung einer Schizophreniekrankheit dar. Dies bedeutet aber nicht, dass AD(H)S unbedingt zu einer Schizophrenie führen muss. Die Statistik zeigt, dass 5 Prozent der Bevölkerung eine AD(H)S hat, aber lediglich 1 Prozent an Schizophrenie leidet. Wir versuchen an diesem Abend aufzuzeigen, was die sozialen Umfeldfaktoren sind, die zu einer Schizophrenie führen und wie man sie «präventiv» verhindern bzw. umgehen kann.

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