"Yet, I don't hear many people with my illness identify environmental triggers or at least speak of them. Most memoirs I read do not identify environmental triggers and instead describe a childhood and upbringing that did not have triggers. For my memoir-in-progress, Threads of Truth, I detail multiple potential triggers for my illness and how my trauma-riddled childhood could have contributed to my chronic mental health condition. In this post, I'll just take a cursory look at potential triggers according to academic research."
"For me personally, I do not believe I would have developed schizophrenia had it not been for several environmental triggers. There is no person in the history of my family, living or deceased, for at least three generations back who ever has had a psychotic break. If I have a gene or genetic sequence related to schizophrenia, I must have been the only person in the history of both my parents' families to be unlucky enough to have sufficient triggers to bring about this illness."
"I will say that identifying my potential environmental triggers and addressing them in therapy has helped tremendously with my emotional recovery from psychosis and schizophrenia. It has also helped for my psychiatrist to be aware of the environmental factors too. It also helps make my illness feel objective and straightforward instead of some type of enigmatic mystery."
Understanding environmental triggers can validate causes of psychosis and normalize the experience by showing similar triggers affect others. Therapy that addresses triggers and processes trauma supports emotional recovery and improves overall quality of life after psychosis or schizophrenia. Sharing environmental factors with a treating psychiatrist can aid clinical care and make the illness feel more objective and understandable. Many memoirs and accounts fail to identify triggers, leaving causes obscure for some individuals. Reported potential risk factors can include obstetric complications such as mild maternal preeclampsia and specific birth circumstances.
Read at Psychology Today
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