DISABILITIES

By Daniel J. Vance

Ryann just wants to say for the record that her father is the most loving person she knows. “He'd give the shirt off his back for anyone,” she said in a telephone interview from her home in Spring Hill, Florida. Ryann is 26, and reads this column in the Hernando Today edition of the Tampa Tribune.

Her 50-year-old father is one of more than two million Americans with schizophrenia. The National Alliance on Mental Illness website defines schizophrenia as a “devastating” brain disorder that “interferes with a person's ability to think clearly, to distinguish reality from fantasy, to manage emotions, make decisions, and relate to others.”

She said, “My father has progressively gotten worse over the years and been through just about every treatment imaginable. He's had regular therapy with doctors, tried different medications, and gone through electric shock therapy. The latter he had ten years ago and after it he was absolutely fine for about seven years, even marrying (for a second time) and living as normal as a person with a chronic mental illness could live.”

Her father is a great guitarist, she said, and for a while in the '70s performed in a warm-up band for rock star Bob Segar. “His playing brings tears to your eyes,” she said of his skill. “If not sick, he would have made it big time as a writer or musician or both.”

But he is “sick.” Today he often says “crazy things” that aren't true, such as that people are out to hurt him, or that he was a soldier in Vietnam or he's being watched by the FBI, CIA or local police.

“I have different theories on why he is the way he is,” she said, noting also that he's been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. One theory of hers revolves around her father's former habits. “He's the poster child for drug abuse,” she said.

Any advice for people with family members dealing with schizophrenia?

“Just forgive them or forgive whoever is to blame for the way they are,” she said. “Just forgive. You can't do anything about it now. Some people can be treated; don't give up on that. But some people can't. If there is nothing else you or your loved ones can do, I recommend donating money or doing anything you can to further research toward a cure.”

For more, see www.danieljvance.com or www.nami.org