Now, my daughter is only 17yo. But her point was that the disease, like other diseases, can look different in women. My daughter doesn’t have a lot of government conspiracy paranoid delusions, not yet anyway. She is very immature, child-like even (picture a teenager 5’9" using baby talk). The few summer jobs she’s had haven’t ended well because although she usually starts out strong, after a few weeks it’s the same story - so-and-so is mean and says things about her, or is a bully. One thing that has seemed to be helping is CBD oil. She seems and reports feeling much happier, which gives me some hope. Right now the plan is to apply for guardianship in June when she turns 18. She enrolled in community college for next fall. We’ll see how things go I guess.
Thank you for your post, it made me wonder if anyone has studied the differences in men/women with this disease.
Since your daughter was young when this hit her, I’ve read that her emotional maturity may be hampered/restricted to the age she was when it began, but I am no expert, and don’t have personal experience with young age illness as my daughter was over 30 when sz became obvious.
If she is in school, and going to attend college, I think that is wonderful!
My daughter is very similar… she is also 17… about to turn 18 this week. She also doesn’t have obvious delusions, but does hear voices and has much anxiety
My daughter does hear voices and has anxiety (which brings out the voices). She takes Clozapine, Lamictal, Latuda, and Clonidine. The Clozapine has helped the most with the voices. Her voices are self-loathing “you’re stupid”, “why don’t you just kill yourself” and so on. She was abused by her father around age 10 so yes, the doctors think she basically has arrested development and stopped maturing at that age. They believe she was genetically pre-disposed to schizophrenia but the trauma brought it out at a younger age.
We’ve been home for three days and it’s -10 or something like that outside (we’re in NY), so she’s getting very needy. It’s exhausting.
My daughter claims she has no desire to kill herself, but she is familiar with the voices that tell her that she is stupid… or gross or that she only causes grief for everyone else.
Good evening. I wanted to weigh in on the topic. My son had very early onset, started hearing voices at about age 7. I do not believe his maturity was stopped or stunted at that age. He is now 18 and acts like an 18 year old for most intents. He is not social, like his older brother was at this age, but on the flip side has always been very intellectual, capable of discussing politics, history, world events, some times better than adults. It saddens me that someone with such obvious intelligence is being robbed of the future he dreamed of (being a doctor) because of this horrific illness. I know you all can relate.
I’m glad there are others that can relate, although I’m very sorry your children are also struggling. I wish there was some type of social group for teens with scz. My daughter has isolated herself from almost everyone at school. Now that she’s a senior she’s going to miss out on things like prom. Idk what she sees other kids in her class preparing for/doing, but my daughter isn’t doing any of it. When she’s not at school she’s home on the couch or in bed.
This is a very intriguing article and the possibility of this connection has occurred to me from what I have observed in my schizophrenic daughter and memory of my mother, who succumbed to this in her 40s. I hope this is further investigated and is implemented for short term use to reach stabilization. There are so many non pharmaceutical options that may have the same outcome that should be included as well. Options that don’t pose a potential risk of cancer down the road. It takes work and time, but they are worth it!