Iām not a family member, Iām a sufferer of schizophrenia myself. I can just say from my own experience that my first psychosis was the start of a long, 46 year journey of dealing with paranoid schizophrenia. My initial psychosis lasted two years, maybe more. Schizophrenia is so random and unpredictable that we canāt tell you for sure the course your sisters is going take. There are such things as people becoming psychotic and then recovering relatively soon from that first psychosis and never having symptoms again. Thatās one extreme, the other extreme is my case where Iāve had schizophrenia for most of my life.
I would suggest reading up on schizophrenia on the internet, you can find plenty of articles and stories about it on the internet including videos of people who have it on YouTube. It might give you a little information on what to expect. I will say that from what Iāve read the prognosis for schizophrenia is better for women then men and the prognosis is also better if the person who has it is intelligent, which it sounds like your sister is. If you were functioning well socially before you got ill your prognosis is better too.
I donāt know if your sister will be able to go back to work, many people with schizophrenia are unemployed because they canāt work. I must commend you for doing what youāre planning on doing. Some families reject their mentally ill family members when they are diagnosed which in turn makes their recovery even harder.
You make no mention of medication; being medicated can make a huge, huge difference in a persons recovery. If she is prescribed medication and adheres to regularly taking it, it will make the situation better for everyone involved. A lot of people with a form of schizophrenia will not take their medication due to side effects like sedation and weight gain among others but if she is prescribed medication and takes it regularly thatās half the battle.
In my own case I was diagnosed in 1980 at age 19. I went in my first psyche ward at age 19 then my parents found a group home for schizophrenics for me. Unfortunately for me, the founders of the house didnāt believe in medication so I spent my first year there psychotic and unmedicated and suffered a lot because of it. I was delusional and paranoid.
After that group home I was put in a long term hospital where I stayed 8 months, psychotic the whole time but at least I was finally put on medication. After the hospital my parents found another group home for me and thatās when my recovery really began. It was a nice environment, it was a nice, clean, safe home and I lived there with 7 other clients with counselors available around the clock and it was highly structured so we all did chores and cooked and cleaned and ate meals together.
I became fairly stable while I was there and 9 months after getting out of the hospital I got a job where I worked for four years. I moved out of the group home a year after moving in and moved into supported housing where I lived until 1987 when I was 26. I wonāt tell you my whole story, a lot happened to me but I will say Iām looking back on being employed almost all of the last 43 years, I got my Associates Degree two years ago and Iāve driven and owned my own cars steadily since 1997 and Iāve only gotten in one car accident in the past 28 years in which no one was hurt.
I lived independently from 1995-2015 before I was back in a group home because my mom died and I got suicidal and spent two days in the hospital in 2015 after staying out for 25 years. After I got out of that last hospitalization I moved back into a group home for almost two years then moved into supported housing again where I shared a small apartment with another guy. I just moved out of there 6 months ago and I moved into a low income studio complex so Iām living independently again and Iāve been at my current janitor job for 14 years. I choose to keep to myself, I rarely socialize but Iām fairly content in my life.
So that is the course my life with schizophrenia took, I had a lot of help along the way but I helped myself by cooperating in my own treatment and taking medication. I did all the hospitals, the group homes, the vocational programs the support groups, I saw therapists and psychiatrists. And most of my life wasnāt half bad, I had friends and did fun things.
For your sister you may want to arrange for her to see a therapist and psychiatrist, if she canāt work thereās SSI and Disability. I would recommend getting educated on schizoaffective and maybe get involved with NAMI where they have support groups for both the family of the sufferer and the person herself. I canāt predict the course of your sisters illness but there are resources out there to help you and her deal with it.
If your sister takes her medication and cooperates in her own treatment then things will go a lot easier and she must avoid drinking alcohol and doing drugs. This is so important, Iām a recovering addict and I know what drugs will do to a person and especially one with schizophrenia.
I donāt know if you are aware of this but there is a āsisterā forum to this one just for people who suffer from schizophrenia. Iāve been a member for many years and itās very pro -medication. The stories I hear from my fellow schizophrenics there do not sound as harrowing as the stories I hear on this family/caregiver forum. From my short time on here Iāve seen what itās like when the person with schizophrenia does not take their medication and is a difficult person to live with.
I donāt know how your sister will be with schizoaffective, the sad reality is thereās the possibility that she will turn your life upside down or at least try to if she is a difficult person. I should add here (and this is important) that people with schizophrenia get a bad rap as being violent but the truth is they are no more violent than the average person walking around. Usually, a schizophrenic rarely gets violent unless three things are true: 1) They had a history of violence before they got ill, 2) they are unmedicated, or 3) they are doing drugs or drinking. I know you hear the horror stories of people with schizophrenia committing gruesome murders or committing violence but thatās because the only time the media reports on anything having to do with schizophrenia itās when one of those violent acts occur. So thatās all the general public knows about schizophrenia when thereās plenty of people like me who have never gotten violent and most likely never will.
How your and your sisters life goes with schizophrenia will depend on your sister, if she is compliant and cooperative then things will go easier.