The inpatient setting provides an opportunity for personalized care provided by highly experienced staff, which is qualified and licensed. Many residents find this kind of environment “safe” and even a haven from the difficulties of the “real” world while they heal, recover and begin to learn important life skills and readjust to the outside world.

In addition to twenty-four hour professional care, often the company of others with similar issues and situations is helpful to residents. Being surrounded by other residents provides a sense of not being alone or not being the only one in the world with “problems.”

Watching residents gain skills and confidence in themselves as they move through their program and recovery is rewarding for them, their families, and the staff.

Pasadena Villa is an adult residential treatment facility that caters to individuals with bipolar syndrome, dual diagnosis, and other challenging mental illnesses,. Our mental health programs strongly feature the Social Integration Model, which immerses clients into real life activities within the community. We also offer medication management and traditional and group therapies. Pasadena Villa ‘s mental health facilities include adult residential treatment centers in Orlando andTennessee, as well as transitional living. Please call 877.845.5235 or contact us online to speak to someone today.

"Marsha Linehan" Photo by David Winter, The New York Times

“So many people have begged me to come forward,” says mental health therapist Marsha M. Linehan of the University of Washington. “I owe it to them.”

With that thought, Dr. Linehan, whose mental illness as young woman merited her the distinction of “one of the most disturbed patients in the hospital”, publically told her story at the Institute of Living.

“I was in hell,” she said. “And I made a vow: when I get out, I’m going to come back and get others out of here.”

Despite rocky stays in the local psychiatric clinic in her youth, Dr. Linehan earned a Ph.D. in psychology in 1971 and immediately began working in a suicide clinic in Buffalo. She chose to focus on people with borderline personality disorder, incidentally the same diagnosis she would have given her younger self. Her approach to treatment would come to be called dialectical behavior therapy, or D.B.T., which includes focusing on day-to-day skills for coping with intense, destructive emotional outbursts. Today, D.B.T. is widely used for difficult mental illnesses, including eating disorders and drug addictions.

Despite the stigma of mental illness, Dr. Linehan chose to share her past in order to give her patients one of the most valuable of motivators: hope.

“I decided to get supersuicidal people, the very worst cases, because I figured these are the most miserable people in the world — they think they’re evil, that they’re bad, bad, bad — and I understood that they weren’t,” she says. “I understood their suffering because I’d been there, in hell, with no idea how to get out.”

Learn more about Dr. Linehan via her profile story on the New York Times.

Pasadena Villa is a mental health treatment facility that offers adult residential and transitional living services to individuals with bipolar syndrome, dual diagnosis, and other challenging mental illnesses. Our mental health programs strongly feature the Social Integration Model, which immerses clients into real life activities within the community. We also offer medication management and traditional and group therapies. Please call 877.845.5235 or contact us online to speak to someone today.

The most important thing for the bipolar patient and his or her family to understand is that it is possible to do all of the right things (medication, therapy, diet, exercise, sleep, etc.) and still relapse. There is no clear understanding of why this happens. Sometimes stressors and difficult life events may lead to a relapse.

“There may be changes in the cellular level that cause cycling but their cause is unknown,” says Joseph R. Calabrese, MD, director of the Mood Disorders Program at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio.

If bipolar symptoms worsen or return, the situation should be addressed quickly by the patient and his or her family. Many families develop a “relapse plan” in which there is a list of actions and agreements between the patient and another party about what will happen as a relapse reveals itself and progresses. Effective treatment at an early stage of an episode may help shorten and/or lessen the severity of an episode.

Patients who believe they are relapsing should contact their psychiatrist, therapist, family practice doctor, a trusted family member or friend, or even visit an ER for help as soon as possible.

If you are the caretaker or family member of an adult or young person with bipolar syndrome or another mental illness, please call us at 877-845-5235 or contact us online. We provide full medical treatment, psychiatric therapy, medication management, life skills training, and aftercare via our safe, friendly locations in Orlando, Florida and the Tennessee Smoky Mountains. We believe every person can live a happy, productive and healthy life; every client has the ability to learn, grow and recover.

When one’s life is consumed by procuring and enjoying the source of addiction, during recovery the question of what to do with all of that “extra” time, which used to be devoted to feeding the addiction, becomes important. This extra or empty time can be disconcerting and may actually become a trigger for relapse if not managed carefully. Since Pasadena Villa’s programs are structured and supervised, keeping residents busy and occupied from the moment they awaken until they go to bed, residents have significant help and support in learning to fill their “extra” time with healthy, productive activity. Residents also have access to weekly AA meetings for additional support.

For those not struggling with addiction, this may seem an odd problem. However, for those who have paced around their house seeking any distraction to divert their mind from what it wants, there is understanding. The structure provided by Pasadena Villa is vital to the recovery of your dual diagnosis young adult.

If you are the caretaker or family member of an adult or young person with a mental illness, please call us at 877-845-5235 or contact us online. Our Social Integration Model helps individuals with a dual diagnosis by providing an integrated, comprehensive approach to both the emotional disorders and the substance abuse.

Angry outbursts are symptomatic of bipolar disorder and may last during a period of several days. Outbursts may occur during manic episodes and agitated states of depression. During a manic episode, mood changes can swing from irritability to euphoria to depression in as short as a half-hour.

The bipolar person may feel completely justified in his or her behavior and express anger by yelling, throwing or breaking things, and physical violence toward another person. Generally these outbursts are not premeditated and may have been triggered by something that is seemingly insignificant to others. And, unfortunately, usually those closest to the bipolar person and least deserving of this anger receive the brunt of it.

There is hope for your loved one with bipolar disorder and significant anger issues. Pasadena Villa uses the techniques of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to help residents who need guidance with distress tolerance and emotional regulation to deal with daily stresses and major transitions. DBT has been demonstrated to be effective in treating mood disorders such as bipolar disorder. Pasadena Villa’s therapists and groups focus on the skills of mindfulness and interpersonal effectiveness to help residents improve their relationships with themselves and others and handle their emotions honestly and appropriately.

Are you caring for a loved one with bipolar disorder or another mental illness? Pasadena Villa^® offers psychiatric therapy, medication management, life skills training, and aftercare in via our safe, friendly locations in Orlando, Florida and the Tennessee Smoky Mountains. We treat a variety of mental illnesses in our adult residential facilities — among the clinical diagnoses we treat are schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, schizoaffective disorder, asperger’s syndrome, and autism spectrum disorders. Call 877-845-5235 or contact us online for more information about our residential mental health programs.

Those with mental illness may not understand that psychotherapeutic medications may make other kinds of treatment more effective. While these medications do not cure mental illness, in many cases they help patients function despite difficulty coping and ongoing mental pain and distress.

A significant benefit of a residential treatment program such as Pasadena Villa^® is the careful medication management residents receive. In addition to receiving their medication as prescribed, residents benefit from having access to knowledgeable therapists and our on-staff psychiatrist to answer questions and provided disease and medication education.

And through our Social Integration Model, residents learn how to function in the real world, including taking responsibility for their own care and taking medications as prescribed.

Pasadena Villa^® provides mental health residential, transitional and support services for adults with cognitive, emotional and social disorders. Facilities are located in Orlando, Florida and the Tennessee Smoky Mountains. We believe every person can live a happy, productive and healthy life; every client has the ability to learn, grow and recover. Our social integration model enables young adults with mental health disorders to become socially responsible citizens and rebuild relationships with family and friends. Call 877-845-5235 or contact us online for more information about our residential mental health programs.

Mickey (left) and Minnie (right)

Lucky, our baby stallion, is almost a year old! Time flies! In the past six months he has nearly doubled in size and we have successfully weaned him from his mother Trouble. Lucky has a very sweet disposition and we all love giving him hugs. It has been fun teaching him to walk with us in a halter and on a lead rope around the farm.

The weaning process with Lucky was a great success. He has handled the distance from mom very maturely. He also has two new friends, two young donkeys. A young female donkey is called a jenny and a young male is called a jack.

The two donkeys, named Mickey (the jack) and Minnie (the jenny), were introduced to protect him and soften any anxiety of him being alone in a big pasture. All three hang out together and are often seen playing in the field.

Pasadena Villa’s Smoky Mountain Lodge is a Tennessee-based adult residential treatment center that offers in-patient care for diagnoses such as bipolar syndrome, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and asperger syndrome. We offer mental health treatment and life skill training through our social integration model, which includes outdoor recreational activities at the nearby National Park. Click here to learn more about our equine therapy and riding program.

Kristi Seymour, Equine Specialist at the Smoky Mountain Stables

Horses Helping People:

Pasadena Villa uses experiential therapy as a means of helping residents develop coping, life, and social skills. This therapy introduces residents to a guided activity and then encourages examination of the experience’s process, transfer of lessons learned to other appropriate areas of life, and encourages and supports continued change and improvement.

Residents at Pasadena Villa’s Smoky Mountain Lodge have the opportunity each week to participate in equine therapy. By interacting with and caring for horses, residents experience increased self-esteem and a sense of purpose and of being needed.

In a 2009 study published in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Jennifer P. Wisdom, Ph.D.*, and her colleagues determined that interaction with animals helps those with serious mental illness by boosting self-esteem, providing empathy, initiating social encounters, and serving as a substitute or additional family member.

Leslie Irvine, Ph.D.**, author of If You Tame Me: Understanding Our Connection With Animals, said in a 2010 Esperanza interview, “They (animals) stretch our emotional capacities. We can’t tell animals we love them, so we have to communicate through touch, eye contact, and other nonverbal [means].”

Horses are well suited for therapy because they are able to sense and respond to even the slightest signal and emotion from humans. They also are very social and have a lot to teach patients about nonverbal communication and social interaction, lessons which can then be translated to real life experiences.

Pasadena Villa’s Smoky Mountain Lodge is a Tennessee-based adult residential treatment center that offers in-patient care for diagnoses such as bipolar syndrome, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and asperger syndrome. We offer mental health treatment and life skill training through our social integration model, which includes outdoor recreational activities at the nearby National Park. Click here to learn more about our equine therapy and riding program.

*Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, and research scientist, New York Psychiatric Institute.

**Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Colorado at Boulder.