Grief Talk w/ Vonne Solis

Ep. 41 Schizophrenia: A Diagnosis - The Truth and Healing

May 31, 2023 Vonne Solis/Rosalyn Hui Zhang Season 3 Episode 41
Grief Talk w/ Vonne Solis
Ep. 41 Schizophrenia: A Diagnosis - The Truth and Healing
Show Notes Transcript

Many of us are struggling today with stress and anxiety amidst personal problems, losses and tragedies. Whether we seek treatment or even get a diagnosis for what is troubling us remains questionable. I lived with PTSD for nearly ten years before being diagnosed.

Not understanding what is wrong with us when we are suffering from a mental condition, disorder or limitations can and does wreak havoc on our lives and the lives or our loved ones.

Meet my guest  Rosalyn Hui Zhang. Rosalyn is a Certified Holistic Nutritionist, Grief Recovery Specialist and Author.  In this episode, Rosalyn shares her story of a diagnosis of schizophrenia that begins in China. She shares what it was like to live believing she was schizophrenic, and ultimately, how she found holistic healing from what she now believes was a misdiagnosis. I am grateful to Rosalyn for telling her story because I learned a lot about a subject that remains taboo to talk about. I hope you will too.

TIMESTAMP:
0:00    Welcome
0:31    Meet Rosalyn
2:14    Schizophrenia diagnosis
4:43    Rosalyn's story
5:36    China's medical system
7:16    The misdiagnosis
9:32    Medication
11:55  Schizophrenia and symptoms
14:42  Sleep deprivation, paranoia & PTSD
17:28  Medication side effects
20:13  Behavioural changes
24:24  Hiding the diagnosis
28:34  Self-care
35:22  Meds or not?
38:41  Self-healing and micro nutrition
44:01  Body & spirit
47:50  Rosalyn's resources
50:25  Mental conditions and genes
53:47  Closing
54:16  End

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Vonne Solis  0:00  
Welcome to another episode of Grief Talk. Everything you want to know about grief and more. I'm your host, Vonne Solis. As an author, life transformation coach, online instructor and bereaved mom since 2005, I'll be bringing you great content that is informative, inspiring and practical. Whether you have suffered a loss or other adversity, stay tuned and tapped in as I cover a variety of topics to help you get where you want to go on your journey to heal and grow. 

Vonne Solis  0:31  
Today's guest is Rosalyn Hui Zhang. Rosalyn is a certified holistic nutritionist, Grief Recovery specialist and the author of several books. Discussing her experience with healthcare in China and Canada, Rosalyn shares what it was like to live with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Was it even real? And the journey she took to holistically heal herself from long-term depression, anxiety, insomnia, and trauma after losing her father suddenly to cancer. 

Vonne Solis  1:01  
Welcome to the show, Rosalyn I am. So looking forward to this conversation. 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  1:06  
Hi. Welcome, everybody. And I'm very glad that you be invited here to share my experience. 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  1:13  
Rosalyn is going to be sharing her story today of a diagnosis of schizophrenia, which began in China and she is now part of Canada. And so she's got the benefit of understanding two healthcare systems, and how mental health disorders are treated in each system. So while we're not comparing, this show is all about ultimately understanding your mind, your body, and the importance of self-care. This is not an episode telling anyone to not seek medical care, or not change the care that they're already receiving. It is simply awareness about one's self. And in many cases, myself living with a disorder, we do have to take responsibility for how we want to heal, manage our symptoms, not heal. And in all those cases, how we want to go about it. 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  2:14  
So I find Rosalyn, your story is extremely inspiring. And I'm going to get to it right away with my very first question for you to basically share a little bit about your story. Your diagnosis of schizophrenia leading to your trauma. And then I'll have some follow up questions going from there. 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  2:33  
Yeah, thank you, Vonne. And I would like to introduce a little bit about the background of my story. And just like you just said, introduced me, I think this talk is only talking about my real experience. And it was a misdiagnosis of schizophrenia during a very special situation. So I was born in a typical Chinese family. Parents are always quarrelling with each other. Some kind of not respecting each other very well. And busy at work, and no time to take care of the only child in the family. So it's quite typical in my generation in China.

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  3:26  
However, I believe I suffered stress from the conflicts from the parental family from early age, but I didn't notice it at all. I just didn't sleep quite well from like, maybe okay teenager or even earlier, like eight or nine. But I didn't take it as serious. And I don't think, like the growing up environment might have affected me psychologically, mentally, and then will affect the maybe physical side of the health. And then when I go into, went into the society, graduated from university, it's normal to suffer more stress and challenge in the society. So my insomnia developed into chronic insomnia. And I didn't realize it's a big problem to my health. And I took sleeping pills on a regular basis, but not every day. I know it's not good for every day, but as long as I have stress and I couldn't sleep well, I will consult with sleeping pills.

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  4:43  
However, after about ten years, more than ten years ago, my father died from cancer. Passed away suddenly. It's very sudden news for me and he passed away in about two weeks. He can't be cured anymore. So I got trauma. And then my long-term insomnia can't get any help from sleeping pills and it developed into sleep deprivation. The first time it happened about one year after my father passed away. And I couldn't sleep a single second for seven nights and days. So it's torturous. But at that time, I think I have to go to hospital for my insomnia. 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  5:36  
And at that time, in China, the medical system are quite different. So we don't have family doctors. We have to go to hospital, different departments to consult any kind of our health problem. So it's kind of difficult for me at that time. I don't know which department I should go to take care of my sleep deprivation. So I went to the Psychology Department first. That was the root of the misdiagnosis of my schizophrenia. First of all, I think the psychology department, there is no formal or professional certification on psychologist providing therapy in China. So it's quite different with the system in Canada.

Vonne Solis  6:35  
Can I just ask, so somebody providing counselling, do they have any training at all for psychotherapy?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  6:44  
It's a kind of a very simple training. Even during recovery, I got those kinds of license to offering psychological therapy. So it's a very, just a three month's training. Online training. Very basic training.

Vonne Solis  7:03  
Again, so we're not here to criticize the system. Just learn about it, because it really did impact you. This is the reason Rosalyn, you're discussing this, is because of the impact of this misdiagnosis. 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  7:16  
It was a misdiagnosis. The psychologist is also the expert of psychology. And then he advised me he can't treat me. I have to take a psychiatric medicine and go to another, it's another specialized hospital to treating the psychiatric condition. However, this was misdiagnosed.

Vonne Solis  7:41  
This is an important piece I want to understand that was really different in China. So when you went to the hospital, I want to say two things. First of all, I am not asleep, specialist, but Rosalyn, it does something to the mind and the body when you don't sleep. So that would have formed part of, by the time you went to the hospital, that would have formed part of the assessment and diagnosis, I'm assuming. But the other piece I just wanted you to speak on very briefly before we turn to symptoms next, because those are very important, is this idea of taking companions or partners or family members, to the doctor with you. And that, am I correct? That I read and what you said to me that their assessment counts towards a diagnosis as well?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  8:30  
Yeah. My situation might be different because there are some worries. When I suffered sleep deprivation, that kind of a feeling it was very weak speaking for help. And if anyone can give me piece of words, maybe I feel a little relief that like that. It's very weak. Helpless. 

Vonne Solis  8:56  
Yeah. 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  8:58  
So at that time, we can understand our families. Our friends also worried about us. However, for the psychological condition and a mental condition, actually, maybe 90% of the people or more normal people, didn't realize or didn't understand the thing at all, right? So they're worry might affect their mood, and their mood might affect their expression and understanding. 

Vonne Solis  9:28  
Such a good point. I want to circle back to that. Yeah. 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  9:32  
Yes, yeah. Right now, I want to compare the actual symptoms at that time, and after I took the psychiatric medicine. So astonishing. 

Vonne Solis  9:44  
So you're diagnosed with schizophrenia. Let's start with the symptoms of schizophrenia. So we're not diagnosing folks. Anybody listening to this or watching this, I don't want you to go, Oh, my God, I have that symptom. No, this is just Rosalyn's experience. And your amazing in-depth research about schizophrenia, which you write about in your I think it's your first book, I learned an awful lot about schizophrenia in that book. So what are some of the symptoms in general of schizophrenia, Rosalyn?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  10:19  
First of all, I'm not challenging the diagnosis. When I was in China, the first time the psychiatric doctor prescribed me with Olanzapine. Which is especially for the Schizophrenia. It's a strong psychiatric medicine. Stronger than I think, than the sleeping pills, of course. And also stronger than most of the antidepressant psychiatric medicine. So I'm not challenging her. And at that time, the first time she diagnosed me as early stage of schizophrenia, she also told me that this is just a temporary treatment for you. 

Vonne Solis  11:06  
Okay.

Vonne Solis  11:06  
Yeah.

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  11:06  
You have to rely on yourself, not rely on the medication. Because later, when I felt the side effects, I can think of, what can I do now? In this situation of mine, right now. 

Vonne Solis  11:23  
It's almost like the psychiatric specialist, when you were told, you need to take care of this, that put a little bug in your ear, which you remembered, however much time later. Was it years later that you started to self-care?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  11:37  
One and a half years later. At that time I arrived in Canada. There are some different situation. And I don't know what the attitude of like Northern American people think of schizophrenia or the severe conditions.

Vonne Solis  11:54  
Not much. 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  11:55  
I previously thought, as long as I was diagnosed with schizophrenia, whatever that means, diagnosis or anything, as long as I got that, I have to lifelong being a schizophrenia. And I have to lifelong take the psychiatric medicine to treat it. However, what the doctor told me made me believe it's not the truth. As long as for my situation, it's just a temporary situation. Temporary treatment. I have to think over about that the situation changes. And take care of myself maybe in a different I think, which is really good.

Vonne Solis  12:37  
Right now, let's talk about the symptoms. At that time, the schizophrenia diagnosis was basically based on the seven days and nights sleep deprivation. And that sleep deprivation triggered the major positive symptoms, right now I acknowledge of schizophrenia which is paranoia. I did have some paranoia. I linked the several things together in my mind and think of the reason. Some of them are reasonable. On the other hand, I also believe some of them are not realistic. I know that. I understand that. Yeah. 

Vonne Solis  13:22  
So you had these paranoid thoughts? 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  13:24  
Yes. At that time, that's the only one major positive symptom. However, after I take the psychiatric medicine, the olanzapine, immediately, I felt relaxed. And then I can fall asleep. And then the paranoia disappeared gradually. So this is one tricky point about medicine. After I did the research a few years ago, during the holistic recovery, actually, this medicine has to take effect in a week. So my symptoms, I felt I took the medicine and I'm safe. I was safe. 

Vonne Solis  14:09  
What are some of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia? Even if you weren't experiencing them, you've done a lot of research about this. There are delusions, hallucinations, disordered behaviours, inappropriate reactions, lack of interest or pleasure, lack of motivation. Would that cover from your research and or experience pretty much the symptoms of schizophrenia in general? 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  14:35  
Yeah. Those are the most major positive symptoms of schizophrenia. I don't have any of them. 

Vonne Solis  14:42  
You didn't have any of them, except you experienced some paranoia?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  14:48  
Yeah. 

Vonne Solis  14:48  
Do you think that the paranoia came from the sleep deprivation? 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  14:52  
Yes. That's what I want to share with your audience. After I slept and the paranoia disappeared gradually. Sleep deprivation made me overthinking about something, and then resulted in paranoia. However, I only have insomnia which is a kind of negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Negative symptoms means you can't diagnose schizophrenia through these symptoms. Because, like depression, anxiety, might also have those kinds of symptoms with another major like positive decisive symptoms. So I have a lot of negative symptoms. Like, I felt chronic fatigue. And then depressed mood. Anxious. And dull pains all over my body. Of course, insomnia. 

Vonne Solis  15:47  
I just want to say too, though, struggling very early, early, early on, after my daughter died from suicide back in 2005, I had, I had Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder immediately, but it wasn't diagnosed for nine years. So I'm just saying your situation was schizophrenia. Mine was no diagnosis. But when I would have all these weird things happen to my body, right? They would say it was stress. So while I'm sure that was part of it, I'm not saying it was all of them. I'm sure it was part of it. What I am saying is one or a combination, or all of these symptoms together can wreak havoc on our minds and bodies. Would you agree that I just don't think people understand any type of stress or anxiousness, or even anxiety that is impacting one's life in any way, can become much more serious and can be, in my view, and experience responsible for many more things in the body and the mind.

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  16:49  
Exactly. 

Vonne Solis  16:50  
If you're experiencing anything like that, talk to your doctor. But also I did a lot of research, like you did Rosalyn, for years, on what I thought I might have. And it felt right. And eventually I got help for it. But it took nine years. So I just wanted to put that in for audience members if you are dealing with any of this. 

Vonne Solis  17:08  
So understanding, putting the story together and understanding now that you didn't have the major symptoms of schizophrenia. You had the sleep deprivation, which would have caused havoc on your body, and so on and so forth. Right? And then you're taking the medication. What were the the side effects of the medication?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  17:28  
After I took the psychiatric medicine, the good thing is I can sleep immediately. However, I just explained that to you is not is not the accurate results of the medicine. Psychologically, I felt safe.

Vonne Solis  17:47  
 Yes.

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  17:47  
I believe the medication can help me. I sleep immediately. 

Vonne Solis  17:51  
You know what they say Rosalyn? It's like we create what we believe. I'm hoping that being able to sleep again, actually restored some strength to your body. 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  18:04  
Mm hmm.

Vonne Solis  18:05  
Were there other symptoms you were going through with this medication for however long you were on it? 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  18:09  
When I reflected, I found there are some positive symptoms of schizophrenia came up after I took the psychiatric medicine.

Vonne Solis  18:21  
So you're saying you took this medication and then you actually started to exhibit symptoms of schizophrenia?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  18:31  
Yes, exactly. It's interesting. Let's look at the those positive symptoms. There are some effects. Lack of emotional expression. And easy to be agitated. And then phobia. I started to be afraid of driving and height. And then, but previously, I never never had this. Even I, when I was insomnia. Severe insomnia, I didn't have those kinds of phobia. And I have a symptom of a decreased speech. Speech output and decreased response.

Vonne Solis  19:12  
So what's happening with that? Why I want to jump on this decreased speech and response for a moment. Are you just afraid to speak? You feel you can't speak?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  19:21  
Yeah, you are right, two sides, two sides. One side is I think, deep in my heart, I felt I'm schizophrenia. I'm a psycho. So I don't I don't want to express. I don't want to. Because at that time, I thought everything I think might be ill-thinking. This is one reason. But the second reason is when we dig into the pathology of the medicine, we can see this kind of olanzapine, it can control schizophrenia. It's because it reduces the blood flow in certain areas in our brains. So it naturally reduced our feeling responses and the mood responses. So, it basically it made the person into numbness.

Vonne Solis  20:13  
So in the work and social situations, did people find a change in you, as you became, you know, quieter and quieter? And could you still be productive at work and socially in any other area that required you to be, you know, engaged?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  20:32  
Yeah. I, because I'm a little different. Not long after I felt different, after taking psychiatric medicine, I changed my environment. I emigrated to Canada. So the previous, like my environment, I had no opportunity to feel my change. Only in my family. However, I did believe those symptoms affected my social relationships. So different because new friends, they felt I'm extremely quiet. Extremely numb. At first they didn't understand. Maybe it's just my extreme characteristics, personality only. Because they at that time, they didn't know I'm taking psychiatric medicine. And nobody will dig into such details whether this, like positive symptoms was caused by medicine, or previously I already  had them, right?

Vonne Solis  21:34  
So you did move to Canada. You're still taking the medication when you arrive in Canada. Did you have a community? Did you know people when you came here? Or did you have to start all over again? And you're starting over again as what I will just call this severely weakened person?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  21:51  
Yes. When I arrived in Canada as immigrant, I got many support from government. Like the employment supporting and they help us to produce an English version resume. And help us how to get a job in this society. Government supported the English lessons. Many of the use of things is really good for me. Not only for immigrants.

Vonne Solis  22:22  
Yeah.

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  22:22  
For me as, like recovering from, I can't see as schizophrenia, actually, but the recovering from a severe psychological and mental condition. Suffering the side effects of a psychiatric medicine to get into the society. To get a job. 

Vonne Solis  22:42  
Yeah. 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  22:43  
Then to learn something is really important. Like a normal person.

Vonne Solis  22:46  
So you had to force yourself, or at least you were required to go out and do certain things to settle into your new home. Which would have made you be around people, and to try new things and look for work. So all the time, though, you're feeling different inside. Numb inside. So you're just really putting on a brave face. But inside you're kind of like dying.

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  23:16  
Inside is like dying. However, I have to push me out of that, like a shell probably. It's really helpful to acknowledge the difference of myself right now and the different situation previously. I shouldn't be like this. Previously, I'm not like this. And the actual attempts to fit into a normal society. Normal kind of relationship, actually pushed me out of the shell and helped me recover. Another thing is, even someone like me, have to consult to the medication for awhile

Vonne Solis  24:03  
yeah

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  24:03  
and to put ourselves as patients forever, you just have to do everything, like normal. Maybe gradually, maybe slowly that will be really helpful to acknowledge first, whether the psychiatric medicine is still helping me right now. 

Vonne Solis  24:24  
Yeah. At that time, and we're talking around 2014 or so, so a few years ago, were you embarrassed to think that you had schizophrenia?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  24:36  
Yes. At that time I am. I am. I don't want to talk about it anymore. 

Vonne Solis  24:36  
So you keep it all hidden. 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  24:38  
Yes. So I have to hide and I have to pretend to be a normal person. But this really kind of helped me because I acknowledge the situation right now. And it's also improved me to fight with side effects of a psychiatric medicine. And I also started from I think 2016, I talked withdrawal with my family doctor here. He helped me a lot.

Vonne Solis  25:15  
I just want to say one thing to consider here, for me and for you, not talking about anybody else, both of us with a disorder of some type. But here's the thing, if we already are aware that we have to pretend to be someone stronger. Someone healthy. Someone different. I think right then and there we're candidates for being able to manage, if not heal from whatever were diagnosed with. You asked earlier, and I'm just going to pop it in here, what we think of schizophrenia in Canada. And while I cannot speak for others, my own experience, we're afraid of it. And I think when I met you, originally, a few months back, and I said to you, hmm... it's going to be a little bit brave of me to do a show on schizophrenia because we don't talk about schizophrenia here. 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  26:10  
Yes. 

Vonne Solis  26:11  
Do you think that, from your perspective, we embrace schizophrenia? I'm talking about people now. Not the medical professional, but just the society. Or do you think that we well, they're crazy people?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  26:27  
Yes, definitely. I think before I was diagnosed with schizophrenia, we stuck into chronic depression or anxiety, but mildly, we couldn't, like previous me ignore them, or think I'm strong enough to handle all the mental or psychological symptoms or conditions which didn't affect it physically. At that time, we should consult for the, like a holistic way, or even like psychotherapy. However, whatever the reason is, but if we stuck into more severe condition of mental health, we need to be stronger. Because we need to believe first of all, it's just temporary. Not for lifelong. We have to take care, like you said, we have to take care of ourselves, to work us out of the situation. The strength is within us. 

Vonne Solis  27:38  
So I just want to say here, Rosalyn, we are speaking to people like you and me who are afflicted with something that may be temporary. We're not talking here for the more severe disorders, that they can't differentiate what's going on within the body. But all I'm saying is, and I'm just questioning this. I'm not saying this is a fact. I'm just I'm just asking. If we have the ability to understand something's not right within us, and we might go, Okay, I've got this disorder. I've got to either learn to manage it, or I have to try and heal from it, right? There are different degrees of disorders and mental conditions and issues that impact us. Stress, anxiety, depression, all of which are considered, well certainly anxiety and depression, mental disorders, right? They fall in the DSM. 

Vonne Solis  28:34  
So anyway, let's move to self-care. So you've got this awareness. And the reason we talked about this awareness is because you have to have the awareness, in my view, to heal. To do something. To make decisions. To make choices for how you're going to recover and rebuild your body and your strength. And for you, how did that self-care start?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  29:01  
Yes. I think everyone might have a different inspiration and the strength within to support them. However, for myself, it's the responsibility of my daughter. Because when I was first stuck into this sleep deprivation, my daughter was just three years old. And when she was growing up, I think I have to take on the responsibility of a mom. So I have to be as much as possible a normal parent to providing her the support. So I was thinking about self-care at that time. And then I think between, in the self-care it's very important like to compare the symptoms. Some of them, like me, maybe it's newly developed symptoms. Some some, some of them might not. And the third party, like the family or friends, their opinions were really good. Not like me. Mine is an extreme situation. But in normal situations, the third party's opinion was really important. However, I have some suggestion when people want to self-care or recover, holistically recover, regularly to compare the symptoms is really important. And we really need the feedback from the other people. Maybe probably you can take like more than one doctor's, maybe one is a family doctor and another maybe is a psychotherapist, don't rely on one third party only. It will make the opinion, I think more objective. 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  31:01  
When I was in China, I was really helpless. So at that time, I, especially after the I was kind of diagnosed by the psychologist in the psychology department with a psychiatric condition. But I couldn't believe anything from my own cognition. At that time, I have to consult another person. But it was not right. Even at that time. We have to have the opportunity to speak with the doctors individually.

Vonne Solis  31:41  
Here, and I won't speak for other people, but generally anytime I've gone to therapy, if it's therapy for myself, I just go by myself. If I go and see a medical doctor, I go by myself. But I know when my mom was aging, for example, she's passed away now in 2010, but when she was aging, she was fairly cognitive. But she wasn't listening really closely to what doctors were telling her. You know, I'm talking about medical stuff. And so I would go with her to appointments for that sort of thing. So it might be a little bit of a different approach. It's an interesting question. Whether or not here in Canada, people take someone with them to appointments. 

Vonne Solis  32:22  
But I did want to say really quickly, when we talk a little bit more about self-care and the work that you do and your resources, you were saying earlier, and I just want to jump on this point just a little bit, the way we interact with those around us, and if they are in tune with something doesn't seem right. So if you have anxiety, or you have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, I mean, we do some weird things. I don't want to scare anybody. But you know, we can fly off the handle. I mean, it's all different for different people. But the point is when something is wrong with us, when we become physically ill, and we can see that in our loved one, we know something's wrong, so they go to the doctor. And we treat them differently. We treat them with care and compassion until they're better. 

Vonne Solis  33:09  
But mental conditions are so invisible. And we really don't have time to talk about this too much. But I know you say in your books, and if you want to know more about Rosalyn's story in-depth, I'll have a link to her website and where you can find her books. But what other people expect from us, and they don't even know what we're going through can greatly impact negatively our healing. I just want to throw that in. Again, we're not going to talk about that but I just want to throw that in. It's very, very difficult for loved ones to understand mental disorders. 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  33:52  
Yeah.

Vonne Solis  33:52  
So we're almost left on our own. Even when you make the choice about, I need to get better for my daughter. Even if it's not for ourselves, it's for our children, which is very powerful and in and of itself, because we're making the choice to want to be better, you almost have to take responsibility for your entire self-care. Would you say that's true for you?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  34:19  
Yes, yes. I think the major transition is I took the responsibility of myself and my family back. So when I was in China, it was, I think you are quite strong and your way resulted in different pathway of our maybe quite similar situation. Maybe. I'm just saying. Because at that time I lost the locus of control of myself. So every time in China, I went to hospital to talk with a psychologist or psychiatric department, I was with somebody else. But it's understandable. Someone else might worry more than us.

Vonne Solis  35:11  
I respect that Rosalyn. For sure. Yeah. But I'm so proud, I'm so proud of where you are today. So in your self-care, which began largely in Canada did it?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  35:22  
Yes. And when I was in Canada, I started to notice the side effects, which were kind of not previously I had. And I noticed that I have to find some other way. And I started to take back the locus of control. I read a book of Dr. Peter Breggin. He was a psychiatrist. However, he advocated that psychiatric medicine was not the solution for mental condition, and even worse. Maybe toxic for our body. So I read some of his book. And he said, we have to take the locus of control on ourselves. Not the medicine. Not someone else. But we have to wisely gather the support from medication and get support from the other party, when we really do the self-care. Right. Yeah.

Vonne Solis  36:30  
So you're saying and also this Dr. Peter Breggin, does he suggest that some medication is okay, and maybe just for a period of time? Or is he completely no medication?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  36:43  
I think he was kind of radical. Right now he's more than 80, something. 80 years old, but he was a psychiatrist. And I think most of his works, like books, and YouTube channel, he advocates psychiatric medication was toxic. We can get out of the psychiatric disorder without psychiatric medicine.

Vonne Solis  37:13  
So that influenced you a lot, right? Like I turned to Bessel van der Kolk's work, who is a internationally renowned psychiatrist, specializing in trauma. And so, it's so important to grasp that one thing that speaks to us. That one doctor, psychiatrist, whatever that the work resonates, and it lights a little fire in us. Now of that decision going, okay, so now, are you thinking I need to get off this medication?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  37:47  
Yes. At that time, yes. Because I read his works from 2019 only. Previously, I just kind of thought, thought of maybe there is some holistic way to get back into normal. And also because, see the doctor in China gave me medication and a diagnosis. I believe she also indicated that my condition was temporary.

Vonne Solis  38:19  
So you go, Okay, this is temporary. I can heal from it. It wasn't a life sentence. And I want to get off the medication and do something else. So what has been the one or two major holistic changes in your life that you cite, as getting you on your path to healing?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  38:41  
I think is when I understand, I believe every health condition was the result of a combination of mind, body and spirit. And then along this pathway, I tried many kinds of holistic recovery approaches. Like the physical way is just we talked about that. And nutrition is very important because when we lose sleep, actually, our mind, our brain never rests. Or even when we suffer the poor quality of the sleep, our brain is still alive partly when we were kind of a poor quality sleep, right? So those kinds of actual brain activities consume the more micro micro nutrition. It's a small nutrition, like the vitamins and the minerals. It doesn't consume much of the macro nutrition, which give us energy to move. To grow or to exercise. So macro nutrition basically we can acquire from the foods. Our brain activities need more mineral and vitamins. We have to supply more micro, the small ones. Normally it can't provide it from our food.

Vonne Solis  40:19  
Okay, so I just want to confirm. So micronutrients are composed of minerals and vitamins. 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  40:26  
Yes. 

Vonne Solis  40:27  
And are you saying that the brain activity which never stops consumes those micronutrients?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  40:36  
Yeah. Even it's more important because when we're stuck into psychological or mental conditions, our brain is actually more activated. So, it can be a good thing actually, if we supplied the brain more micro nutrition.

Vonne Solis  40:54  
Are you saying that from your research that the brain becomes overactive with a mental disorder? 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  41:04  
Yes. 

Vonne Solis  41:04  
Always busy doing different things.

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  41:07  
You'll have them continuously come up with different source, right? 

Vonne Solis  41:11  
Okay.

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  41:11  
That's the brain activity. It's supported by vitamins and minerals. Must supply them with more minerals and vitamins. Otherwise, the normal intake of this micro nutrition, the small nutritions, will be deprived to support brain activity from our body, physically. That's why mental conditions eventually will affect our physical health.

Vonne Solis  41:41  
So put really simply, in your work, and in your personal life, your saving grace is you increased the minerals and vitamins. So the micronutrients for better brain health. What else did you turn to? So you've got your nutrition, your your a healthy diet I'm assuming. Minerals, vitamins. What else would you attribute to your recovery?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  42:08  
Yes. When I took the, I don't want to talk too much about nutrition here. 

Vonne Solis  42:15  
No.

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  42:15  
I just want to emphasize from the body side to our holistic recovery, we have to take care of all the substance within our body. And those kinds of things, like mood, is triggered by a very tiny amount of hormones. And those hormones, actually, were regulated by microbes. More nutrition.

Vonne Solis  42:41  
So besides the nutrition, what else do you think has been important for your recovery?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  42:47  
I believe the mind is powerful. I think it's kind of inspired by Dr. Peter Breggin. Because he made me notice that in the past, I lost the control of myself. I completely depended on kind of medicine. Like once I took the medicine, I believe I'm saved. And then I actually I psychologically felt secure. And then I slept immediately. Which is opposite to the pathology of that medication, right? And then I also lost my control and I'm totally depending on what the third party described as my symptoms. I don't believe my cognition at all. That was wrong. If I can be like you, like, maybe still try to independently talk with my own problem with doctor but maybe wisely support from the third party might be a different story for me completely.

Vonne Solis  44:01  
We all have different approaches to being aware of our body, but let me just say it has taken me years and years to really understand myself. And I'm still learning. Because I think if we're recovering from a disorder or the effects of a disorder, and in my case, at the moment, I'm managing it. I'm very open about living with PTSD, and gives me anxiety and so on, I've learned to manage it much, much better. But I'm continuing to learn new things in in how to manage myself. But I believe the mind is very important. I do acknowledge sometimes things can happen in our brain and they do happen in our brain when we have a disorder that we can't necessarily control. If we're lucky enough that we can overcome a mental disorder, a lot of that I think has to be attributed to our own involvement in our choosing to recover. 

Vonne Solis  45:00  
It's a personal belief. There are some people I acknowledge that will never reach that stage and, sadly may live with something that's impacting them like that in in very, very serious ways, forever. I acknowledge that. I also think that so many people live with depression and stress and anxiety in today's world, that well I won't go so far as to say we all have some kind of disorder, I think it can be very easy to slip into one, even if temporarily. And we have to be extremely mindful about our environments. How we conduct ourselves, who we associate with. How we are conducting ourselves within our relationships within every area of our life. 

Vonne Solis  45:41  
So your healing is down to nutrition, as we said. The mind. Do you meditate? Do you live a really calm and balanced and just try and keep yourself in that state where you can manage yourself in any situation you find yourself? 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  45:56  
Yeah. That comes into the third part of this house triangle. Spirit. I believe from our modern understanding, from spirit side it's more like a micro energy. Because everybody, we interact with each other. But actually, we all possess micro energy. So I think my holistic recovery comes from strong health and micro energy healing. Like crystal and like the music. When I was recovering during 2019 to 20, maybe 2021, or something, at that time, I suffered a third time of I believe I was about to come into another sleep deprivation because of the second divorce and the separation. So those kinds of negative energy affected me. So I kind of got insomnia again. Kind of. At that time, I took the therapeutical music as my live background, even when I was asleep. When I tried going to sleep, I turned it to a very low volume, but never stopped in my life the music, except like maybe I mean, a call. Phone call or something. Or talk with someone, but never stop. So I believe that music also provided us like a frequency to tune our micro energy. For me, I think we can more scientifically understand the spiritual healing from micro energy. That's my opinion and experience. 

Vonne Solis  47:50  
Yeah.

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  47:50  
Yeah. 

Vonne Solis  47:50  
So you do have resources. I'm going to be putting a link to your website where people can find resources. I know that you have information on Chinese breath exercises. You've also got information on cellular orthomolecular nutrition. So people can go to your website, or I'll have your email as well in the description to contact you more if they want to learn further about your experience. Your books are on Amazon, as well. Can people find more information about your you've got a trilogy right now, but I know you're continuing to be publishing more books in part of this paradox series? Can they find more information about your books and where to buy them also, on your website?

Vonne Solis  48:40  
Yes, yes. Just find on rosalynhui.com.

Vonne Solis  48:44  
I'll have that. And I can say that I have read your first three books and I loved them. And it gave me huge insight into your background. We are recognizing there are some cultural differences that you have experienced in two different countries, which I think is is maybe to your advantage in some way. And you know, I'm honoured to have had this discussion with you to be really open about schizophrenia. Whether you know, it was misdiagnosed. Whether it was diagnosed and it was temporary, that's up to you to know your body. I do believe when we want to be in tune with our bodies, we know what's wrong with our bodies. And I have met countless people who have healed themselves from conditions that other people would not think possible. 

Vonne Solis  49:39  
And so in this case, I just am very, very grateful, Rosalyn for you coming and sharing your story. And hopefully we can help somebody out there who might be struggling with something themselves, mentally, or even in another physical situation where don't be afraid to go get medical advice. You don't have to take one opinion. You can, well hopefully get a second opinion. It's hard getting a doctor here though. You know that. But doing a lot of research, and above all, just making a commitment to take care of yourself. You dive much deeper into your story in your books. Is there anything else that you'd like to add for the audience before we close this out?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  50:25  
Yes. You and me both have diagnosed as mental conditions. But from my experience, I don't think genes was a problem for this mental condition. I just want to quick quickly describe the situation. My big uncle, and my mom, I think my mom never diagnosed as a schizophrenic, but he did have hallucination. And my big cousin, my big cousin also diagnosed as schizophrenia and was in the hospital for several years. However, three of them the symptoms opposites. So like, okay, you say maybe the problem of blood pressure was because of a gene. However, two of them in my family at least, two of them kind of have high blood pressure, and one of them are low, low blood pressure. So how come? Is it because the mental condition is because of the gene? I don't think so. Maybe we think about that. Kind of nurturing plays more roles on our health than nature than what we inherited.

Vonne Solis  51:49  
Yeah, I want to very quickly just add to this that, I think, I don't know this for a fact. But I think in in the West, we very much scientifically believe in genetics, and passing down diseases and so on through genes. And obviously, it's been proven in areas, for sure. So I'm on the fence about, I tend to agree with you that I don't look at my health, and what's going to happen in my body. What I'm going to be afflicted with, I take full responsibility. If I get something, I'm going to own it and go, I got it. To me, I'm not going to go, Oh, I got it because my mom or dad or I don't live in fear that my mom or dad had this or that and so on. But again, I totally respect that there probably is a place for this in science and in many, many, many, many things people suffer with. But when we have a spiritual approach to life, and with that comes self-responsibility, it does in some way present this duality of thinking where, well even if I have that, I should be able to cure myself. 

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  53:10  
Exactly.

Vonne Solis  53:10  
And it's something that I'm deeply, deeply interested in right now and exploring. And I am exploring that with guests now on my podcast, who, like yourself, have healed themselves from things others would not think possible. And so stay tuned. None of us have the answer. We can only live life for ourself and what's right for us, and I respect everybody's opinion and experience. But we do learn from our stories. And I love feeling inspired. And I love those who inspire.

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  53:47  
Yeah, I love you to provide me such a good opportunity to express my experience. 

Vonne Solis  53:54  
You're so welcome. And I do encourage anyone to read Rosalyn's books because they're very informative. And you are coming out with more books, aren't you?

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  54:03  
Yes, yes. I'm coming up maybe more spiritual side. 

Vonne Solis  54:07  
So thank you again, Rosalyn for coming on the show. I really, really do appreciate it.

Rosalyn Hui Zhang  54:16  
Yeah, thank you so much.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai