Assisted Court Order Expired

Hi everyone

I havent been here in 2 years since Michael was put on a court order to take an injectable haldol shot. Within 1 month he got a job, moved out and did so well. He hated the injection though and last month they gave him the pills. Last week the order expired, he stopped his meds and the symptoms are back. He is getting more agitated and smoking pot.

No matter what I do, he refuses to go back on meds. I’ve tried to negotiate with him since I pay 1/2 his rent but he said he is 32 years old and I will no longer control his life.

Any ideas??? I fear he will end up in jail.

linda

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That’s very believable what you post, Linda.

Jail is not awful for some folks, of course. Actually, a minority of prisoners use the time to their advantage.

All romancing aside, I was able to get honest with myself enough to admit to myself I didn’t want to do time. Did you know Joni Mitchell? She sang, “Everyone’s saying how/ Hell’s the hippest way to go./ Well, I don’t think so;/ Gonna take a look around it though.”

Jayster

Is it possible to get the court order again? I believe he may not have insight which is why most refuse to take medication. The laws for mental illness suck, so unless he is danger to himself OR others not much can be done if he is not willing. It’s heart breaking . Keep us posted and good luck!

Is he better? I got off meds and I am literally better no voices or anything. Sometimes psychosis goes away, my grandma dated a schizophrenic whose psychosis came back and went away. I also read an article that said only 1/3 of schizophrenics need meds the rest of there lives.

If he is not better be might just need to find the right medication, maybe that particular medication didn’t work well for him. I will never touch zyprexa again, it made me feel like I needed to eat everything in my refridgerator daily. You couldnt pay me to go back to that. Risperdone caused me Gynecomastia so I couldnt be paid to go back to that either but for some people thats the best one because it causes the least amount of weight gain (although it causes pituatary tumors)

Abilify is the only 3rd generation antipsychotic and its supposedly makes you feel less depressed and gives you happy feelings which can lead to weight loss in some and weight gain in others. Just be careful with abilify because it has the highest chance of Tarditive Dyskinesia (a permanent nuerological condition that doesnt have a cure)

Also, he might need to add antidepressants or anxiety meds to the risperdal to feel comfortable in his own skin.

Unfortunately these meds arent like taking an advil and it takes months for you to get used to some of them. Anehdonia is a reason a lot of people stop, because feeling emotionless is not good. This could mean the dose was too high. Sometimes doctors overshoot the dosage if things dont appear to be getting better, mind overshot it. I needed 3.5 MG to feel comfortable but because there was no .5 MG pill he just kept rounding it up for some reason

Imagine this, if someone said you had to live with an uncomfortable plastic bag over your head the rest of your life for your protection and sanity would you want to? Hell no these meds sedate us and suck, even cause anxiety with some.

So basically you gotta find out the reason he hates the meds so much (if he truly needs them, which like I said I dont my psychosis it gone now) if its causing him anxiety or shakyness, if its too sedating there are ways to cope. The sedation is fixed by simply drinking coffee. Otherwise just find out what about the medicine makes him uncomfortable. Haldol is an old ass medicine why did they give him that one? There are Generation 1, Generation 2, and Generation 3 antipsychotics. There are also seizure medications like depakote and bipolar meds like latuda that can work as well. He doesnt have to pick the first medicine the doctor prescribes, the doctors only prescribe them half the time because the get a kickback unfortunately, and they have literally no empathy for the patient in this regard.

If you cant get him to open up to switching and trialing meds til his “plastic bag over his head” is comfortable and livable enough to enjoy daily life, you might need to commit him if you are truly afraid for him going to jail or getting in trouble. The pot thing is a little scary because some evidence shows it can cause schizophrenia in some but that evidence is still sparse so no reason to freak out.

Take this from someone who has had drug induced psychosis twice (im just really sensitive to ADHD and Depressant meds) the doctors most of the time just go off what Pharm Reps train them to say, information and articles about side effects are skewed by pharmaceutical companies to make them look rare when in actuality they are extremely common (this sounds like a conspiracy theory, but think about it in this light, have you ever worked for a company that had sketchy ethics in how they paid employees, treated customers, withheld details regarding product recalls, etc? I have, and so if you think about it, it doesnt sound so farfetchd Pharmacuetical companies would do this too)

I used to work at Whole Foods, one time the protein powder had been recalled because a prescription drug for heart attacks added to it instead of an enzyme and we were all told to downplay the situation to the customer, not tell them at all what happened and just said there was a quality issue (so they could buy it next time when it came back in stock)

So basically dont be afraid to question the doctor. Chances are you and him are more aware of what the meds are doing to your mindset and brain and if you need to switch meds you need to switch!

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Hi Linda. I don’t know what the circumstances were that caused the order to be put into affect but is there a way to have it renewed? I wish that I could offer some advise that would fix this. Have you ever looked into some sort of guardianship? I know that it is something that I’m currently having to look into with respect to my son. I’m guessing that trying to negotiate with your son to be compliant or you won’t pay 1/2 the rent probably won’t work. I know my son’s defiance gets in the way.

Thank you all for your responses. My son will not budge on meds. Even negotiating the rent will not work. I am trying to surrender but my fear gets in the way. I wish he would trust me. I’ve tried everything. The meds are poison to him, but so far he has never been able to live without them. The pot and alcohol doesn’t help. I mortgaged the house for a dual diagnosis rehab and he chucked the meds at the door and came back psychotic.

I can only imagine how hard it must be for him to take haldol but it worked when none of the others did. For now I can just pray…I hate this disease.

linda

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When they suggested I take meds at age 19, I said, “Fine.” And I took them.

At age 25, I got off the meds and said, “Wow.” And it was Hell to get me to take them again.

Now I’ve taken the meds for greater than 30 years suggesting to the doctors that we consider the meds thoroughly and more carefully.

What did I get out of it? Do you think I found anywhere in society where medicated schizophrenics are loved and appreciated?

Jayster

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I hear you Jayster and wish my son could live without meds. But he is about to lose his part time job due to his psychosis… He is paranoid, angry, and screaming. He hates meds but I wonder how long he can stay until he will be picked up and placed in a ny jail.

If he would take a lower dose, it could stop the inevitable- more trouble. I’m sorry you don’t feel appreciated. I can remember many nights when you were the first one to respond to my sadness over my son. The site was different then, but you gave me hope. I appreciate you.

Linda

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There are medications he could take that are not as harsh as Haldol. I was on the Haldol shot for a number of years, and I was terrifically unhappy the whole time. Now I am on Geodon and Seroquel and much happier. Maybe you could hold out the incentive of milder medications as a way of getting Michael back on a medication regimen. They’ve come out with a new generation of anti-psychotic medications they call the “atypicals” that easier to tolerate than the old generation, which they call the “typicals”. People can react differently to different drugs, so there might be some trial and error in finding the right drug for your son. As a matter of fact, I was talking with one guy on the internet who had a hard time tolerating Geodon, and Haldol was easy for him to handle. For the most part, the atypicals are much easier to tolerate than the typicals. Both types of med’s have side effects.

I agree with Barbie, if you can’t get the court order reinstated, I would go for guardianship. I suggest that because he has non compliance and No insight or denial. Here is a link to the info for the filing in your state. http://www.nycourts.gov/forms/surrogates/guardianship.shtml. You can file it yourself. I had the same fear and/or my son wasn’t going to make it. Your son probably didn’t fight the court order, he will adjust to guardianship much the same way. But you will have his back, a bonus to him, not the system. I too was concerned that he was going to lose rights if I didn’t take it out of his hands. I did hire an attorney, difference in states. I have posted about guardianship, search this site for that keyword. Your son would probably rather you help him with treatment rather than being told to take it by the court. Most agree to the guardianship, but won’t at first. The court allows a waiver of his guardianship( he signs and agrees to it) , that means he is not contesting it.

Thank you for the kind words, Linda! You sound like a relatively great (and truly self-sacrificing) Mom.

There are incredible forces out there in the world that don’t approve of medicating schizophrenics. As a schizophrenic, I am sensitive to all that rhetoric. My point is that from this schizophrenic’s perpsepective, even taking the meds doesn’t give such a great quality of life. Of course I take the meds , and I work very hard with my team to be on the best meds possible.

“In the end, the love you take is equal to the the love you make.” Is that John Lennon’s lyric? Oh, I see it was Paul’s lyric

Jayster

Jayester, I have been reading your postings before. Most of those give a good insight into the journey. So you accepted meds at 19 and at 25 you refused all of them. Can you explain your journey from that point on including when and what brought you back to treatment. Thanks.

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Dear Pally,

You ask me to challenge my memory!

I thought pain motivated me to change.

When I was so sick with schizophrenia, i was also abandonned by just about everyone but my parents and my doctor. Those three were consistently advising that if I wanted to feel less pain, I should take the medication.

At age 28, I got on the maximum recommended dose of Trilafon (Perphenazine). I was on that for some time when the psychosis broke the way a fever breaks. Over the course of three days, spent mostly in bed, the entire psychosis left me.

Jayster

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Thanks for the reply jayester! My son got diagnosed at 18, started taking meds at 20.
Quit his very nice job at 26 and quit meds as well at the same time. Started being overly involved in religion. That continued for 3 years and started getting hospitalized and then conserved for the next 4 years till today. Currently he is under conservatorship and is in a locked facility. He has lost everything his friends, his life, his house, his hopes of getting a family life. He has been in a locked facility for almost a year now without (or may be very little ) insight. Praying and hoping for a change of scene.
Prayers for everybody over here!

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For whatever reason, when I was 25 years old, I had the emotional maturity of a 14 year old. I believe that is common for schizophrenics with drug and alcohol problems. My emotional maturity is post adolescent at last!

I sought solutions in religion as well. I got into religiosity, that is. It is clear to me that some people who yell, “Jesus,” in my face have real anger issues.

I’m 66 years old and still pretty angry! I mean, greater than a year ago, they took tobacco away from me! Isn’t it good I stopped smoking?

Moms are the greatest!

Jayster

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Hey Jayester
Reconnecting after a while. I read that you quit tobacco about 2 years back. My son’s doctor has prescribed him a medicine to help him quit smoking which he will start soon today or tomorrow. He is not living with me but not too far either. I was wondering how can I help him to stay motivated to quit smoking. Smoking had gone too high and was effecting the way his regular meds were being metabolized and he was not getting desired benefit from his psyche meds.
Thank you. Good wishes to you! Pally

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@Jayster, just adding this in so that he will get notified of your question.

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