Mental illness doesn’t just appear; it has its roots deep in genetics and the societal influences that surround children and adolescents and carry them into adulthood. A new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found nearly two million adolescents experienced a major bout of depression in the past year. Other findings include:

• Nearly 15 percent of high school students have seriously contemplated suicide in the past year
• 4,400 adolescents and young adults (ages 10-24) commit suicide each year
• 9 in 10 of these suicides suffered from treatable mental illness
• 63 percent of these showed clear signs of mental illness in the year before their death
• 149,000 seek emergency care for self-inflicted injuries

Parents and teachers who suspect a young person may be depressed or exhibiting other mental health issues should trust their instincts and seek help or provide referrals. Teens and young adults, who smoke and/or abuse alcohol and illegal or prescription drugs, may be likely candidates as sometimes these behaviors are an indicator of deeper problems. Identifying and treating mental health problems in early life may change the course of a young person’s life.

If you are the caretaker or family member of an adult or young person with a mental illness, Pasadena Villa can help. We offer a full spectrum of residential housing, medication, therapy, life skills training, and other mental health services. Please call us at 877-845-5235 or contact us online.

Relapse is a common and important concern of the patient with bipolar disorder. A relapse is the return of depression or a manic or hypomanic episode after a period of wellness. A study in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that 73 percent of patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder experienced at least one relapse during a five year period, and, of those who relapsed, two-thirds of those had multiple relapses.

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 a loved one is feeling down and hurting, it’s natural to want to say something to make him or her feel better. Have you had the experience of offering what you thought were loving and supportive words, only to be met with anger or frustration?

A word of caution, if your loved one is actively threatening suicide, don’t try to handle the situation on your own. Call 911, take your loved one to the emergency room, or contact his/her mental health professional.

Pasadena Villa^® provides mental health residential and transitional services for adults with cognitive, emotional, and social disorders. If your loved one has a mental illness, Pasadena Villa can help. Our social integration model enables young adults with mental health disorders to live with a greater sense of independence, become socially responsible citizens, and rebuild relationships with family and friends. Please call us at 877-845-5235 or contact us online.

For patients with a dual diagnosis (mental illness plus addiction), the adult residential mental health program at Pasadena Villa may be ideal. A significant challenge for those fighting addiction while learning to live with and care for their mental illness is the emerging reality of “found time.”

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.

A new study recently published in Nature Genetics has paved the way to beginning to understand how gene mutations predispose one to schizophrenia.  The international study, led by Guy A. Rouleau, MD*, used modern DNA sequencing technology to examine 20,000 genes from patients who have schizophrenia but whose parents do not. This circumstance, known as “de nova mutations,” is experienced more often in schizophrenics than in “normal” individuals.

Schizophrenia affects men and women equally and occurs in similar rates in all ethnic groups around the world, according to the National Institute for Mental Health. With the results of this study, researchers can begin to understand how gene mutations predispose one to schizophrenia.

“Most of the genes identified in this study have not been previously linked to schizophrenia, thereby providing new potential therapeutic targets,” said Simon Girard, one of Rouleau’s colleagues who performed the key experiments in the study.

Schizophrenia may be the most misunderstood mental illness in the world. Those who suffer from the condition are often stigmatized and labeled violent despite a lack of evidence to support the claim. Rouleau’s findings will lead to expanded research. “Our results not only open the door to a better understanding of schizophrenia,” said Rouleau, “they also give us valuable information about the molecular mechanisms involved in human brain development and function.”

*Guy A. Rouleau, MD, is a researcher at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre and director of CHU Sainte-Justine Hospital Research Center.

What You Should Do if Someone You Love Has Schizophrenia

If someone you care for has schizophrenia and you’re looking for more information, including residential and inpatient treatment options, please contact us.

While there is no cure for schizophrenia, it is a treatable and manageable disease. Pasadena Villa Orlando and Pasadena Villa Smoky Mountain Lodge are adult intensive residential treatment centers for patients with adult schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or other mental illnesses. One of the first programs in the country to base its treatment upon social integration, our mental health facilities offer help through individual and group residential programs with a focus on independent living.

• You can call now to speak with someone at: 877.845.5235
• Email: mailto:info@pasadenavilla.com
• Or, click here to go to our contact form.

Relapse is a common and important concern of the patient with bipolar disorder. A relapse is the return of depression or a manic or hypomanic episode after a period of wellness. A study in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that 73 percent of patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder experienced at least one relapse during a five year period, and, of those who relapsed, two-thirds of those had multiple relapses.

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.

Pasadena Villa^® provides mental health residential and transitional services for adults with bipolar disorder. We provide full medical treatment, psychiatric therapy, medication management, life skills training, and aftercare in 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. Call 877-845-5235 or contact us online for more information about our adult residential mental health programs.

A new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry says that using marijuana, or cannabis, may cause psychosis to develop sooner in patients already predisposed to developing the condition. In other patients it may even cause psychosis.

The study was led by Australian researchers, who analyzed data from 83 studies involving more than 20,000 patients. One important finding is that cannabis users experienced psychosis three years younger than non-users. Users of substances other than cannabis experienced symptoms two years earlier. The study found alcohol had no influence on the development of psychosis. Read more here.

As those with mentally ill loved ones may know, psychosis can result in losing touch with reality and hallucinations and/or delusions about what is going on around one. Psychosis is frequently seen in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

The study says, “An extra two or three years of psychosis-free functioning could allow many patients to achieve the important development milestone of late adolescence and early adulthood that could lower the long-term disability arising from psychotic disorders.”

In a similar 2010 study, lead author John McGrath, a professor at the Queensland Brain Institute in Brisbane, Australia, told Businessweek, “The earlier you use cannabis, the more likely you are to have symptoms of a psychotic illness.”*

Both Australian studies support the conclusions of a Danish study published in the December 2005 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry. While researchers in this study did not find their results proved marijuana was directly linked to schizophrenia, there was some evidence it might hasten the onset of the disorder. The study also found subjects who developed schizophrenia after cannabis use did so at an earlier age than comparison subjects.

Mikkel Arendt, Ph.D., a fellow at the Center for Basic Psychiatric Research at the University of Aarhus in Denmark said in an interview with Psychiatric News, “I think it is important to follow the patients treated for cannabis-induced psychosis closely and offer them and their relatives information on risk factors for and early signs of schizophrenia.”

Arendt continued, “The prognosis of patients improves with early intervention. An episode of short-lived psychotic symptoms following cannabis use seems to have great prognostic value.”**

* Businessweek, Long-Time Marijuana Use Linked to Psychosis in Young Adults, February 26, 2010
** Psychiatry News, Marijuana-Induced Psychosis May Fortell Future Episodes, February 3, 2006

Pasadena Villa offers adult residential treatment to mental health patients with Dual Diagnosis, addressing both emotional disorders and substance abuse.  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. 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.

Multiple studies show that the link between extensive media exposure as an preteen or teenager leads to a significant increase of risky behaviors in adolescence and into young adulthood. These behaviors include drug and alcohol use, unsafe sex, smoking, aggressive/dangerous driving, street racing, gambling, physical confrontations and possibly arrest.

One study, lead by Valerie Carson with Queen’s University in Canada, showed that teens exposed to 4.5 hours or more of internet, TV, music, video games, and advertising were at risk for demonstrating multiple risky behaviors. Another study, lead by Peter Fischer, Ph.D., with the University of Regensburg in Germany, showed that video games glorifying risk are more likely to prompt dangerous behaviors than more passive media such as movies or music.

With many mental disorders, particularly bipolar disorder and its accompanying mania, patients exhibit these kinds of risky behaviors. Whether as a means of self-medication or hope of self-harm, young adults who have been and are exposed to extensive risk-glorifying media may adopt these behaviors as a coping mechanism.

Hopelessness is another factor contributing to this kind of behavior. Iris Borowsky, M.D., Ph.D., with the University of Minnesota, found that one in seven adolescents believe it is highly likely they will die before the age of 35. “These youth may take risks because they feel hopeless and figure not much is at stake,” said Borowsky.

She continued, “Our findings reinforce the importance of instilling a sense of hope and optimism in youth. Strong connections with parents, families, and schools, as well as positive media messages, are likely important factors in developing an optimistic outlook for young people.”

Despite all or any positive influences, many young adults continue to struggle with risky and potentially life threatening behaviors. In such a situation, residential mental health treatment at Pasadena Villa may provide the type of guidance and supervision necessary to help young adults overcome addictions and risky behaviors as they journey towards a happy, productive and healthy life. Contact us online or call 877.845.5235 to learn more about our mental health programs, Orlando and Tennessee mental health facilities.

Often those with mental illness are uncertain of the best way to address their needs with loved ones. You can help facilitate this important conversation by doing the following:

• Set aside time for conversation in a location that is quiet and free from distractions.
• Preface your comments with statements such as, “Tell me what you need in regards to…” or “Tell me how you feel about…”
• Work to uncover specifically how you can help. It may not be emotional help, perhaps your loved one needs help grocery shopping or with laundry.
• Show your willingness to be available emotionally and physically. Your loved one may not always express thanks or appreciation, but your actions are welcome.
• Encourage your loved one to ask for help when he or she needs it. And then provide that help.
• Help your loved one put a support team together. Who in his or her universe beside you might lend support? How can you request or cultivate that support?

Pasadena Villa^® provides mental health residential and transitional services for adults with cognitive, emotional and social disorders.  If you are the caretaker or family member of an adult or young person with a mental illness, Pasadena Villa can help. We provide residential and transitional housing in Florida and Tennessee. Our social integration model enables young adults with mental health disorders to live with a greater sense of independence, become socially responsible citizens, and rebuild relationships with family and friends.  Please call us at 877-845-5235 or contact us online.

Those with a loved one suffering from bipolar disorder may have experienced many episodes of anger, sometimes uncontrollable anger, directed toward them. It may seem unreasonable and unprovoked. Did you know that often a bipolar person may be using anger to cloak his or her real emotions? Anger may be a coping mechanism that helps the bipolar person relieve tension and avoid dealing with their real emotions and issues.

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.