\"THE Center Cannot HOLD – Elyn R. Saks\" PDF

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Essay for a book called "The Center Cannot HOLD – Elyn R. Saks"....

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1 Writing Assignment #2 Abnormal Psychology April 23, 2019 Questions for "THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD – Elyn R. Saks" 1. What did you learn about schizophrenia from this book? Did it change your perspectives in any way? I have learned a lot of new things about schizophrenia from this book, and I have loved reading it. I did not know many things about schizophrenia, and I was never particularly interested in researching what it is all about. Right from the beginning, she was describing her fears of being in the house, and while she was going to sleep, she thought somebody was outside waiting for the parents to go to sleep and get into the house. She was thinking about all sorts of questions, for example, “Will the man break in? What will he do? Will he kill us?”. I found it interesting that she has mentioned this fear like a fear of every normal child, and it is true. For myself, I have always been afraid of the dark, and when I was falling asleep in my room, I was thinking about and asking myself the same questions as Elyn did. When I continued reading the parts of this book, it was evident that her condition of schizophrenia got worse. Elyn started explaining how disorganized she was. Her sight, feelings, thoughts, and sounds did not go together. Her parents never really noticed because all of that was happening inside Elyn and she knew it was something that she needed to hide from her parents. She was delusional and was having terrible hallucinations. She has also started to have serious psychotic thoughts about her professor. For example: “She’s God. She wants to help me.” Elyn attended Yale Law School, and she was determined to finish her degree. However, she did not want anyone at school to know about her condition. She soon realized she needed to take herself to Student Health Services to find help because she was scared, and things were out of her control. Her thoughts became more violent over time. For example,

2 “I’ve killed people, and I will kill again.” She was too anxious to read. Reading books felt like safe heaven to Elyn, but now, she could not remember anything she had read. Therefore, I have changed my perspective of schizophrenia in many ways because I did not know much about it until now. It was interesting to read about all of the stuff and situations that Elyn had to go through in her life and how the start of it would most probably feel like a normal thing that all of us might experience.

2. What is your response to the various medical professionals that treated Elyn throughout the book? What surprised you about them? What made an impression? When anyone has asked Ely how she was feeling that day, her answer would always be “Much better, thank you.” Hans Pritzer has told Elyn that he does not think she had schizophrenia. He said that with schizophrenia people do not connect in the world and are not able to function. However, Elyn was connecting with the world successfully he said, at least that is what he thought so far. From my perspective, the doctors in the New Heaven hospital treated Elyn horribly. It has surprised me how the doctors were treating her there. They bound both her legs and arms to a metal bed with thick leather straps. She was screaming for help begging them to do no such thing. She has refused to take the medication, and they had forced it to her. I think this is just absurd. Elyn mentions later in the book that she just needed to talk to someone about her problems and the only thing these doctors did was make her believe even more that she was psychotic. They had chained her up to the bed, and they were all acting as if no one cared about her getting better. They were only maybe solving the problems at the time when they did not know what to do, but they were not focusing on the bigger picture, to get Elyn better. After, Elyn was transferred to Yale Psychiatric Institute. This must have also been a terrible experience for Elyn because they had also put her in restraints and they put a net over her. She could not move at all and felt as if she had trouble breathing. She has explained that

3 this experience was worse than her psychotic breaks. “No single hallucination, no threat of demonic forces or impulses had ever held me hostage like this.”. Elyn felt angry but she wanted to get out of there, and she kept trying to pretend and lie that she was feeling better every day. If I were in her situation, I would probably be doing the same thing if I knew that no one was helping me. I think the right thing the doctors did was that they had contacted her parents even though Elyn begged them not to. Also, if she did not want her parents and her brothers to know, I think it was really good for her that they found out and would be able to help her somehow.

There was nothing that has impressed me about the way the medical professionals treated her. The only thing I was pleased about was that in the end, Elyn has finally found a medication that did help her with her schizophrenia.

3. Elyn battles with her doctors about taking her medication throughout the book. How does this affect her illness? Did you agree with her choices? Why or why not? Do you think her doctors should have forced her to take medication? Elyn described how after a while she felt as she should talk to somebody or take some pills. However, she said that pills were bad, drugs were bad. At the Student Health Services, they announced that it was best to give Elyn a little medication, Triaflon. Elyn refused to take the medication because she knew all about the side effects of the drug; heavy sedation, arms or legs that won’t stop trembling and in the worst case, death. She refused to take the medication and soon, Elyn was being kicked out of the Student Health. She had hallucinations and delusions that the doctors and psychiatrists wanted to kill her and send her to a hospital. She tried to escape a few times, but she failed. “I didn’t want a hospital. I didn’t want the drugs. I just wanted help.”

However, after a little while, Elyn was considering the medications. She mentioned that if taking medication were the only thing that would help her, she would consider it. Moreover,

4 after a while, she had admitted that the medicine had made her thinking clearer and it was improving. She somehow managed to control her demons.

I do agree with Ely; I am not too fond of medication. Maybe in some cases it is necessary, but I feel the same way as she did, and I would hate taking something because they are side effects to everything. However, even if the doctors think that taking medication would be good for Elyn, they should never have forced her to take medication. As Elyn said in her book, they should have asked her what would make her feel better instead of making their own assumptions. The people at MU10 didn’t want to know what was going on inside her mind said Elyn. We are still people, and we should have our own choices on how we want to be treated.

4. Early on, Elyn was told that schizophrenia is a “grave prognosis,” meaning that she was not likely to experience a positive recovery. What do you think helped her challenge and overcome this “grave prognosis”? Elyn has received an actual diagnosis of “Chronic paranoid schizophrenia with the acute exacerbation” after a long time being in a hospital. She has never thought of herself as an ill person. She had many doubts because of all the book she was reading and because the books mentioned that she would never have a life. Ely was not diagnosed early, and she was not treated early either. She was on a high dose of antipsychotic medication, she was attending therapy groups, and she agreed to be treated because she could not function normally. She has realized that she had an illness, it was real, and it was ruining her life. She had Mrs. Jones in England, and somehow, she had such a great relationship with her and believed that Mrs. Jones could be the only person to help her, so she traveled to see her. Elyn tried some new medication called Navane even though she was very well aware of the side effects. After a while, her doctor suggested trying Zyprexa, one of a new class of antipsychotic medications

5 that came on the market only recently. Elyn’s change was fast and dramatic. She felt alert, rested, energetic, but she has gained much weight. However, with this new medication, Zyprexa, the clinical result was that she could see the world in a way she had never seen before. The illness was still there, but it wasn’t pushing Elyn around anymore. She could finally focus. The Zyprexa helped her with having no psychotic thinking at all.

Elyn has later on in life decided to write about subjects she knew well and that she was interested in – mental illness in various legal contexts. She had a special empathy for the mentally ill. Elyn explains that she still has a little trouble in life and that she will never fully recover from schizophrenia. However, the treatment she has received has allowed her to have a life she was happy living. Even though everything around her was telling her that she would not have a normal life, Elyn is now in love and happily married to a kind and a funny man who understands and accepts her.

5. Elyn described writing this book as “something of a risk.” Why do you think it was risky? Has society progressed in the last few years in its perception of mental illness? As I was reading the book, Elyn has mentioned many times how she struggled with the feeling when everyone would find out about her condition. One day, when she had finally done it, cracked in public, she said that everyone would know the truth and see the evil in her. If there were a pill that would take all the negatives from her life, Elyn would take it in a heartbeat. However, she does not want pity from people. She understands mentally ill people, she has sympathy for them, and she wants to help them. Because with proper treatment, someone who is mentally ill can lead a full and rich life. The challenge is to find a life that is right for us, and this is not only a hard question to answer for ill people but for all people

6 around the world. Elyn had a lot of trouble with treating her condition because she started to treat it late, but she did find a way to function in life. I think that society has progressed in the last few years in its perception of mental illness. Because back in the old days, people were looking at people with mental disorders as really dangerous and sometimes even with some demonic presence. In these times, people want to help others and feel sympathy, and that is how it should be. Through history we now have many treatments for all sorts of mental illnesses. It is good how society has progressed through time and that now people can get real help if they need to....