All the Things We Never Knew Read Online Free PDF

intervention.
    According to David’s doctors, his presentation of bipolar disorder was unusual because he had compensated for his illness for most of his adult life without psychiatric medication, counseling, and/or hospitalization.
    David’s sister, a psychologist, said David had informally reported periods of depression in his teens, twenties, and thirties. He experienced significant impairment in his forties, affecting his mood, anxiety level, and ability to sleep. Untreated psychiatric disorders can lead to more frequent and more severe episodes and are more likely to become resistant to treatment.
    The Early Assessment and Support Alliance (EASA) project has shown unequivocally that early intervention in mental illness works. EASA supports youth ages twelve to twenty-five years old and offers a holistic approach to psychosis. The two-year intervention includes community education and outreach; intensive multilevel treatment that includes medical care, mental health care,occupational therapy, and vocational support; and strong support to keep young people independent, in school, and tied to employment.
    Tamara Sale is Oregon’s EASA program development director.“The current system of mental health care in most places in the United States is broken,” she says, “forcing people into long-term crises and government disability by not providing access to services or evidence-based practices. . . . The approach we have taken has been a fundamental cultural shift. Now, there is greater awareness in the community about being proactive and persistent with psychosis intervention.”
    A case study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation says that the EASA program “has reduced hospitalizations for psychosis, helped young people maintain critical family and social support, and helped keep them in school.” “If a young person starts to develop psychosis in Oregon,” says Sale, “there is someplace to turn.” According to the case study, a person who is hospitalized for an acute psychotic episode is at heightened risk for another episode and typically faces a longer recovery process. Sale adds, “If you can identify people before they’ve lost contact with reality, it is much easier to keep them on track.”

Chapter Three
    David’s upbringing against the backdrop of the Canadian Rockies fascinated me. His father had been a fighter pilot for the Royal Air Force, a forester in the Canadian Rockies, and a Harvard business school grad and business executive. So when David asked me if I’d like to travel with him to meet his parents, I didn’t hesitate. We’d known one another just three months, but this was crucial intelligence; I wanted to see what he was like with his parents.
    â€œWhat should I wear?” I asked, thinking I already knew the answer. “Something nice, a dress, or a skirt?”
    David laughed. “No, please, no. Let’s drive up. Bring a swimsuit and some shorts. There’s such good swimming along the way.”
    Just as David had promised, we’d driven in Old Yella, talking and listening to a dozen new CDs I’d brought for the trip. We stopped for a dip in the Columbia River and again just south of the Canadian border. David loved the water, and he seemed to have internal GPS for finding the best swimming and fishing holes. He looked more at home in a canoe than in a car. I watched him drive as he hummed along to Fleetwood Mac, and I thought, I could do this forever.
    We arrived in Victoria, British Columbia, just after dinner. My hair was tangled from the ferry ride, and the long, hot drive had lefta kind of humid stickiness on the backs of my legs. The ranch home they’d bought was modest, on a half acre of manicured lawn, lined with dozens of magnolia trees and rose bushes. This was a part of the world that literally oozed the benefits of good soil, ample rain, and just the right amount of