Hi there, I could really do with some advice about delusions. I know very little about schizophrenia (even spelling it is a challenge!).
The diagnosis is paranoid schizophrenia. In view of delusions then, I understand they are very real to the person experiencing them. I’m trying to understand if a delusion can become a ‘memory’ in which the person fully believes it really happened for the rest of their lives or if they understand later it was a delusion.
For example, could someone with this illness believe they were abused as a child, even if they wasn’t. Could the illness make up this memory and keep them believing it or would they know it was a delusion?
Sadly this is true with schizophrenia. My son is 32 and believes my husband and I sexually and physically abused him as a child. He will not have anything to do with us because of this belief. We weren’t perfect parents but we did the best we could. We miss the person he used to be. The holidays are hard because he will be alone with no Christmas dinner or presents. He refuses anything we try to do. My husband and I will try to celebrate with our 2 daughters but deep down we are so sad.
I would have to say yes. For several years my sz son believed that he had stomach problems because he had drank bleach as a child. He did not really have stomach problems and he never ever drank bleach. Several doctors checked him thoroughly at the time and gave him a clean bill of health physically. Still he would insist that if he thought his stomach was bothering him he would go through the whole story about how he drank bleach. He has been stable now for several years and only in the past couple of years does it seem he has given up that delusion…finally.
Hello all,
We all have the same conclusion. Yes, delusions can become a memory and very real to the person having them. My mom has never been diagnosed. She has always had these “stories” it wasn’t until I was in my 30s that I began to question them. The stories used to be believable things like, my great great great great grandfathers brother was president Jackson, or we are related to the Cooper Tire family, related to the queen of England. My mom could repeat these memories as clear as yesterday. Then the stories started being about the crows that follow her around, the same crows would follow her to my sister’s home in another stae and the deer that talk to her on her porch, yes, aliens and 5ft tall badgers walking around eating children.
I used to correct her constantly, now I let it be and listen to the same stories every time we visit.
My mom suffers from dimentia and it’s hard for the docs to say it is scitzophrenia
My husband and I both know she is not only delusional but has vivad hallucinations and talks to others.
Yes, the delusions are often false memories, very strong unbreakable false memories. They cannot be directly challenged in your loved one. They may or may clear up from medications.
If you don’t know much about sz, I hope you will start reading. Many books and videos can educate you. NAMI is a great place to get information at support groups and classes. @SzAdmin has made lots of very good posts for education on the subject, you can look those up.
I’m so sorry to hear that. It’s very difficult isn’t it and for me someone who is just learning about the illness incredibly confusing. These allegations were made before a diagnosis, the diagnosis wasn’t until some years later. However there was always a sort of blankness.
I’m in a position where I’ll never really have the correct answer but if I can gather enough knowledge I can make my own conclusion from that.
I guess I’m very much between - could the abuse be a dillusion (again this allegation was made long before a diagnosis) or could the abuse have led to the schizophrenia, I believe there is a link beween stressful and traumatic experiences. I’m so confused.
My daughter says that she has learned to speak crow… and that they respond to her… funny thing is that she demonstrated this… and a crow did seem to respond to her… but whether the crow was actually responding to her specifically or not remains to be seen.
my mom has paranoid schizophrenia and she was undiagnosed and unmedicated for three years which isnt as bad as alot of people on here but when she was diagnosed and put on meds the doctor exclaimed that she could have some “fixed delusions” which means that some of her delusions are stuck in her memory as real and that they actually happened. for example my mom at the beginning of all this thought people were stalking her on her computer and watching her and she still claims that did happen and that part wasnt a delusion. so yes the delusions can become a memory, anything that logically couldnt of happened to her she now realizes those are delusions.
Hello Windyhill63,
I find this intriging. Crows are very intuitive and smart birds. Who knows, right!
My husband and I ran a golf course, the crows being very intuitive would see me or my husband and know they should not be on the greens, we continually chased them off!. We used an air gun with no ammo, just the sound of the air gun was enough to detour them. The minute we were not there the crows would continue their digging, they have very keen hearing and can hear the worms and other grubs under the ground.
Hallo, I am a mother of 45 year old daughter (single) who has had epilepsy all her life and now after a 2 year journey of trying to commit suicide, constant delusional behaviour, has been diagnosed with
undifferentiated schizophrenia, she was living independently on her own, but has now had to move in with me and my husband.
Our lives are full of despair and sadness.
I no longer engage with friends and have become very isolated, can’t sleep with constant worry regarding her future.
She has been prescribed many different anti psychotic drugs during this journey and so far no improvement at all to her mental state. She owns her own home but won’t live or go there anymore as her “life is in danger” with thoughts of fear distress and being harmed.
It’s all so difficult to deal with. I’m listening to her now sobbing in the bedroom and talking out loud to herself with her delusional thoughts.
Oh @Maggie46 I truly understand how hard this terrible illness is on family members. When I took in my daughter to live with me, I didn’t really know the first thing about mental illness. I was very unsympathetic and had many wrong ideas. It took years to teach me and make me understand that she wasn’t behaving in these strange fashions because she wanted to, but because she had to.
My daughter has a brain malformation which we didn’t know about when she was “well” (partial agenesis of the corpus collossum) which sometimes can apparently lead to schizophrenia. Perhaps epilepsy can also lead to mental illness. Whatever the cause of it, the cure for it doesn’t exist, and the struggle to control it is something I never could have imagined.
I hope that you can find some ways to be kind to yourself and give yourself some “happiness” breaks. When my daughter was psychotic and unmedicated, I needed breaks for my own well being. You MUST find some “me” time while trying to cope with her illness.
Dear oldladyblue, thankyou so much for taking the time to reply to me.
I am grieving for the loss of my daughter who was well until 2 or so years ago (apart from her epilepsy). I’m feeling despondent reading here how this illness will remain with our beautiful little daughter for ever.
I just can’t imagine that this will be our life.
I have been reading your posts on various topics and find them most comforting.
Oldladyblue It is really a difficult journey we are all on.
Thankyou for reaching out.
Warm Regards…M46
This is interesting. I’d never heard of this, but intuitively I always thought the corpus colosseum figured into things since the initial brain scan twin studies of Fuller Torrey. I’d hypothesized that my ambidextrousness figured into my recovery. My father is ambidextrous and I taught myself to depend more on my left hand in my teens. The thought was it would help me mentally and make me more resilient to brain injuries like strokes.
Of course, @Maggie46 , I want you to be able to find a better path to helping your daughter. I totally understand the grief you are feeling at losing her to this illness. No, there is no cure, but there are many possible levels of recovery or adjustment and a future life. I was soooooo sad when my daughter’s illness started in 2016, and it wasn’t until 2018 that there was the start of a stable recovery for her. This site and the kind souls on it helped me tremendously to cope. It helps us all to not be alone on this twisted road so far from where we thought we would be.
@Maggotbrane perhaps your being ambidextrous has helped you. It seems a sensible conclusion to me, that it would give you a resiliency. I am so very glad for whatever elements are providing you relief.
I haven’t read any Fuller Torrey books. I think I should.
Oldladyblue can I please ask you something, does the paranoia have highs and lows or is it just contained in her head until no more self reasoning.
I find from around 4pm each day her paranoia begins to escalate and becomes out of control for her, she goes to her room hides under the blankets and is up and down bashing doors and the like talking out loud until finally getting to sleep many hours later.
Day in day out it is the same…
If we go out (hardly ever) she reaches down to the floor of the car as she believes someone is following us and trying to kill her, on these occasions she comes home with the paranoia staying all day.
Thankyou olb…
M46
