What inspired you to study mental illness?
The reason why I got into psychology was because I wanted to become a writer and I figured that, if I was going to write about significant things (i.e., people and their relationships), I needed to know something about the way people relate. As I was studying, I realized that there were other areas, other branches of psychology that were a little bit more scientific, or at least in which the rules made more sense to me. I started following those areas and found I had an affinity for them; then I gradually got into biology and started looking at the relationship between brain activity and behavioural activity and that’s how I got to where I am.
-Joseph Rochford, PhD, Mini-Psych School 2009
My daughter was just involuntarily admitted to a mental hospital. How can I cope with feelings that I may have betrayed her?
It’s hard to comment on case history because I don’t know all of the information. I would suggest trying and getting as much information as you can about the illness to understand why a particular episode might have been precipitated by a particular event or series of events or why it came about. But sometime the answers are just not there.
Find people who are in the same boat as you are and you will find that the feelings of guilt, worthlessness, and insecurity that you are having are not specific to you. By sharing them, you can deal with them as a group.
-Joseph Rochford, PhD, Mini-Psych School 2009
