There is a term that got introduced into our family about 8 years ago when the kid sis was about 9 to 10 years old. Expressed Emotion.
I was 21 to 22… I was hospitalized for the long term and finally starting to recover from the mess I made of myself being homeless and rabid. I was about to be moved to a group home.
A fancy brained PH’d expert really laid into my kid sis and my middle brother Jack after some family caregiver session. The fancy brained expert went on and on about Expressed Emotion and really scared the hell out of her. He used proper latin and told her about the high percentage of relapse in household with high E.E. numbers and how damaging it is to patients with SZ and if I had any hope of recovery, a low EE would be a very important factor…
She was 9. How much latin and medical lingo does a 9 year old know? So my sis took it as if she expresses any emotion at all… I will instantly relapse and spend the rest of my life in hospital. So she got very neutral. If you asked her how she felt she would say… “I am very neutral today, I have nothing to express.”
So this expert was very helpful (NOT) … My sis still has a fear about EE and will needlessly check herself all the time. She will try to shut off some of her emotions so there will be a low E.E. number. It’s like choosing wax build-up. I hate it.
Through therapy and fighting anorexia this has been coming up hard for her. So NOT expressing emotion has not helped me or her.
It’s a concept I’ve pondered for ages, and now that the CBT for anorexia and this whole EE thing has been coming up again, I am still trying to get my head fully around the concept.
I really don’t think I’m going to instantly relapse if she expresses any emotion about my S.Z. It kills me to think that the anorexia she is fighting off has it’s roots in my SZ. Just more collateral damage. I was really hoping someone would have gotten out of this with minimal damage, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
This is just a hint of my research so far.
http://www.schizophrenia.com/family/expressed.htm
Does anyone else have any idea about E.E. (Expressed Emotion) Have they had to ponder it. I am really still trying to figure out what it is. I can read these articles and all, but I’m trying to find examples. I’m sure there are some.