I’m concerned that my brother’s rage is going to get him in trouble. Maybe kicked out of his Section 8 housing, or in trouble with the law, or those helping him will stop assisting him due to fear. He loses his temper almost every day. He says it makes him feel powerful. He’s in a cycle of abuse with my mother. (He’s 58 and our mom is 92). Sometimes he slams the car door on her. Other times he calls us bitches. It’s rage, not just anger. He feels very persecuted. My fear is that he will push the wrong person’s buttons and end up in trouble with the law. Are anger management programs effective for adults with schizophrenia? He’s on meds and takes them religiously.
Just an addition to my post:
He is verbally abusive and slams things but hasn’t been directly physically abusive.
Thanks.
What medications is he on? Doses?
I’ll get up-to-date with his medications and doses and post them as soon as I’m able. Thanks for your questions. V
I had a friend who was on respiridone for anger management apparently.
I’d suggest therapy more than anything. Distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and more abstractly common sense… why it should feel better to just be happy.
I don’t think it’s ever to late. Unfortunately it might be unchangeable real life circumstances that might make him act this way. It’s hard to accept things like that in a way that will allow him to be happy (still totally possible).
Not knowing anything about his particular case of SZ I don’t have much else to add.
We aren’t doctors or professionals here. You might try talking to the professionals who have been treating him. I know there are legalities but it’s not uncommon for patients to authorize the sharing of information.
Absolutely. Since he’s on medication (and I’m assuming doing ok with it) - he should be significantly helped by therapy. The most scientifically proven effective approach that I know of is CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) oriented therapy for anger. You can get an overview of this here at the links below. It seems that some medications are specifically helpful in this too to some degree :
http://www.angermanagementnyc.com/anger-management-techniques
and
I also have the same problem with my son. Not what hes doing, and not apologizing, thinking its ok, or doesnt care, makes me think he using again. Im not sure what the best advice is, but I stay away from him when he is like that.
Thank you. He did go through anger management process with a therapist. Seemed to help a bit. I’ll follow up with her and ask her for suggestions.
Thank you, SzAdmin - I’ll read up on this.
i know that it sounds hokey and philosophical but it isnt,excersise REALLY DOES help.
this coming from someone that reguraly hears voices telling me to be violent and i have the constant rage to accomodate that, i would have way back if i didnt take up weightlifting.
i hope your brother finds some peace of mind.
sorry for the punctuation im typing from my old laptop and buttons are kinda screwy like.
oh yeah antioxidants help also as they help cleanse the body of chemical build up in my opinion thats a primary factor in mental disorder,im not a doc just a tune playing my way through life.
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There are numerous different approaches to AM. One size decidedly does NOT fit all when it comes to unplugging the mis-perceptive / mis-judgmental trigger mechanisms from the PTSD that’s pretty likely underlying them (whether internally or externally induced).
If he is paranoid delusional sz, my suggestion is to go after those mechanisms rather than attack the anger “frontally” (which almost never works with sz pts).
Here are some therapeutic approaches that have been research-proven to do that in the majority of cases:
DBT – http://behavioraltech.org/resources/whatisdbt.cfm
MBSR – Welcome to the Mindful Living Blog
ACT – ACT | Association for Contextual Behavioral Science
MBBT – An Introduction to Mind-Body Bridging & the I-System – New Harbinger Publications, Inc
SEPT – Somatic experiencing - Wikipedia
SMPT – Sensorimotor psychotherapy - Wikipedia
Great. Thanks, notmoses - I’ll look into these approaches. He does tend to feel persecuted, and he has experienced abuse by others.
Thanks, petester. I hope he joins this forum. Think it will help. Nobody likes family members trying to tell them how to live their life.