MZ womb twin survivors - finding a kindred spirit

The MZ womb twin survivor always seeks out a kindred spirit - someone who is similar is some way, either in looks, or behaviour or interests or beliefs.

For example, Eva loves people, and is always inviting people to her house to feed them sumptuous meals, but she is always somehow in the back ground of the group, serving the food. However  if she finds someone who agrees with her opinions or who likes to do what she likes to do, she becomes excessively excited and awakens  in a way, and feels very happy and contented.

IT is not unusual for young MZ survivors to talk about " another me" and be interested in their own mirror image, for here at last is the missing identical twin!

At school there is the Best Friend, who is always there, and you do  everything together.  Julie, who has  severe cerebral palsy ( a condition associated with the loss of an MZ twin before birth)  and  spent her youth at a special school for the disabled,  asked only for a twin pram for her dolls and  when she was sent away to school made an instant and lifelong bond with another girl, and insisted in being next to her at all times. The other girl had  great difficulty communicating but Julie always knew what she wanted.

Womb twin survivors misdiagnosed: (4) "Schizophrenia"

When you think of schizophrenia, the idea that one has a "split personality", it's not such an enormous leap of the imagination to think of a sole surviving twin, being two people at once.  On my web site there are many stories, and one of them details the experience of a womb twin survivor who was misdiagnosed as "schizophrenic".

I had the feeling of being so far removed from reality. It felt like a memory from long ago. I think because the doctors in the hospital had never heard somebody telling a story like this, they just needed a label they could put on me for their records. They diagnosed me "schizophrenic" and "psychotic." Despite the fact that I was diagnosed as such, I had the feeling that something else was going on but I didn't know what that could be.

What a terrible tragedy, for someone to be labelled in this way at such a young age, and left with the feeling for the rest  of their life that they are "mentally ill".

Its time for the people who make these diagnoses to consider that there may be a normal explanation  for some seemingly " pathological" character traits.  It is possible that people who show these traits are reacting in a perfectly normal way to a rather unusual prebirth situation?  Would that not be good news, worth shouting about?

Or is professional opinion so entrenched and inward looking that they do not want to know?

When I had the extraordinary experience last year of offering this idea to the sceptics forum to see what they made of it, one person made an illuminating remark which suggests that some mental health professionals may indeed not be open to new ideas such as this.  I had told the story on the forum of a young woman known to me who was quickly and  permanently cured of her "eating disorder" by discovering that she is a womb twin survivor.  One of these sceptics, who had many years of experience working with eating disorders, answered sardonically :

10 years of being a psych nurse, working with a lot of eating disorder patients and personality disorders, trying all those old fashioned non womb twin therapies, when all this time I could have easily cured their suffering by making up some [unprintable]  about "womb twin survivor guilt". I feel like I've wasted so much time....

Very funny I'm sure, but seriously, if this is a hint of how defensive people can be,  it is going to be a very long time before we get the professionals to listen.  Of course, 90% of the population do not understand - we womb twin survivors must not forget that!

Because the misdiagnosis of mental illness has a life-changing effect on the unfortunate patient ( as many womb twin survivors know to their own personal cost, see article here) doctors would like to find a physical  marker they can depend on. The Japanese have been working on a more reliable way to diagnose mental illness using near infra-red on the brain, according to the latest edition of Nature:

Quote:  Incorrect diagnosis of people with psychiatric disorders has far-reaching implications. Miss the manic phases of people with bipolar disorder, for instance, and, rather than the mood-stabilizers they need, they might be given antidepressants. The drugs could make them 'hypomanic' — a state in which they might spend money recklessly, invest irrationally and jabber incessantly so that friends and employers no longer want them around — and tip them into even more extreme bipolar cycles. Meanwhile, if the hallucinations of a person with schizophrenia don't become apparent during analysis, the patient may likewise be diagnosed as depressed, be given antidepressants and go on to become even more withdrawn. Unfortunately, misdiagnosis happens all too often — in around 70% of cases of bipolar disorder, according to some estimates. And such mistakes often go uncorrected for years.  more...

The misdiagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder has already been mentioned on this blog and is a matter of deep concern to me.  The so called "symptoms" of Borderline Personality Disorder are no more and no less than the ordinary, normal, psychological, emotional and existential response of a womb twin survivor who has not yet healed from their loss.

You can read my latest article  here.  No journal would publish it, as it's far too controversial.

When this book is out, it will make people think again. I hope.

(Onward...still correcting the first proofs of the book. Chapter 9 coming up....)

Schizophrenia and the lost twin

Opinion is divided about the aetiology of schizophrenia. Firstly there are those who are concerned solely with studying schizophrenia as one of many disorders of the physical operation of the brain experienced by those with a genetic susceptibility.   Secondly, there are those who view schizophrenia as a personality disorder and are concerned with personal and cognitive development and how that may have been compromised in various ways and at various stages in the life of the sufferer.  Thirdly, there are those who dare to suggest that schizophrenia is not a mental illness at all, but a catch-all term for a wide spectrum of impaired thinking, extreme emotions, and bizarre behaviours, Among this group is RD Laing, who suggested forty years ago that schizophrenics may be acting normally to some kind of social or inner craziness.           

There appears to be no way to heal this divide, but new research into the psychological effects on the survivor when a twin dies at birth or before may have provided an important missing piece in this puzzle. It is suggested that the symptoms that we call "schizophrenia"  may be a completely normal reaction to a situation that can occur in the womb before birth - ie. the loss of a twin.

Read complete article with references

Comments  welcomed.

Prebirth experiences and mental illness

Stress in early pregnancy linked to schizophrenia.

Yes here we go again; I missed this one, as it was in February and I was busy collecting stories, but today a quick browse found this link to some research connecting difficult intrauterine experiences for a foetus and the eventual psychology of the born child.

Of course these scientists missed an important element: one in 8 pregnancies are multiple at first.

Stress in pregnancy compromises the pregnancy and can cause the loss of the entire pregnancy. How obvious that stress in early pregnancy would have an effect on the born child! The survivor of such an experience (stress hormones from Mum passing via the placenta through the blood supply of the foetus,) would most probably be a wombtwin survivor. Hence etc....

What a different result we would see if such research factored in the vanished twin! Then we would see that the symptoms we call " schizophrenia" are a completely normal reaction to an intense and very difficult prebirth experience.

There are a couple of stories in A Silent Cry of the mis-diagnosis of schizophrenia, and I have spoken of this before on this blog, in connection with the eight years that Janet Frame spent in mental hospital hell. Maybe things will change when these stories are made available. I do hope so!

It has been assumed for some years now that schizophrenia is linked in several ways to obstetric complications in the mother's pregnancy. I have found that, of the 108 respondents who have medical proof of their twins existence, 40% said their mother had bleeding in early pregnancy and 45% said their birth was " traumatic." I found 79 references to research into obstetric complications and schizophrenia, but no mention of the lost twin. My research would appear to be unique, so a scientific paper in a peer-reviewed scientific journal seems to be the way forward.

So I made a start. I put the search terms: " vanishing twin+schizophrenia" into Google Scholar, expecting that some research worker somewhere may have pursued this, even slightly. But no: the only article linking the two was a desperate blog post written by a mother of a schizophrenic son.

I have just become aware of vanishing twin syndrome. 30 years ago my pregnancy had all the classic signs of a miscarriage. This went on for over 3 months of the pregnancy,pain, bleeding and bits of tissue loss.
When my son was born there were 2 placentas. I have enough signs of 'vanishing twin syndrome' to now put the picture together. He may have been a twin, and by all the signs I suffered and witnessed he probably was. Twins are on my father's side. One in eight of us apparently start off in utero as a twin, and the classic signs of losing a twin are a perceived miscarriage - everything fits and I've ticked all the boxes.
A very very difficult baby/toddler/teen - in a world of his own, but very very intellegent. Teachers found him non complient, wanting to do his own thing, yet the educational psychologist thought him highly mature and bright - aged six. Then aged 17 he decided to misuse substances and had a terrifying psychotic attack, and soon after was labelled schizophrenic.

He's now almost 30 years old, and has been in and out of psychiatric services all of that time. No one is listening - least of all the medics that my son's pregnancy, birth, early years were cause for concern. No, all that has been cut off, and the medics are treating him like he has always been a schizophrenic man with a ''normal'' medical history before that.

I wonder: are the scientists asking the right questions? Come to that, am I?