I am just wondering if a paranoid schizophrenic ever has a moment of clarity. My adult sibling has taken such a terrible downward spiral. I worry about her night and day. She is once again homeless and has no contact with family. If I happen to see her, she has just anger and rage towards me. Just curious if they ever have clarity about their situation.
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Such a thought provoking question. My initial response was, yes, as I remember moments that Mike was puzzled about how he had come to be in his situation. A few weeks before he died he said “I’m not sure what happened with my life, somewhere I just got off track”.
Some don’t, some do is probably the correct answer.
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I saw my brother Billy about five hours before he died. Billy was a terror, a very dangerous person, for about 40 years. He never had anything but abuse to offer. Even spending an hour with him was totally draining for me; I dreaded every minute of it.
It was obvious that he was failing. He kept trying to get out of bed. He was always, always, always either catatonic or agitated. He couldn’t even sit up. I had to run to work and tie up some loose ends and I said “I’ll see you in a few hours Bill.”
At that point, he had a moment of clarity and looked at me without the Charles Manson eyes for the first time since 1979 and said “I love you.” I was floored. I think it was the first time he said that to me his whole life. It was so out of character for him; he could never even bring himself to say “Thank you” to anybody.
I went back to work and rushed home as soon as I could get away to freshen up so I could run back to the nursing home. Before I could even take my coat off the phone rang. Billy had passed away about ten minutes prior at the age of 56.
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I will echo Hope with some do and some don’t probably .
Personal experience with my own sibling is yes there have been moments of clarity, but not about everything and lots of moments of confusion. And trying to make sense of what has happened.
It’s a horrible disorder for all involved I’m so sorry your sibling is unhoused right now !
I can relate to the anger part !the disorder has caused so much trauma for my sibling and he has bad days of anger and PTSD, he also has anosegnosia and takes no accountability for his actions that have caused his hospitalizations and often refers to the times I put him in the hospital .
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Every case is unique. There are some anecdotes and studies that show that a significant number of even unmedicated sufferers experience less frequent and less intense symptoms as they age.
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Only years on the proper medication gave my daughter clarity about her odd behavior and thoughts for any length of time. Otherwise she believed it was everyone else who had a problem, not her.
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“Otherwise she believed it was everyone else who had a problem, not her.”
That’s exactly how Billy was. Everyone in the world was crazy, but he was sane. The guy who thought he was Hitler was the sane one in the room.
Someone just gave me some pictures of Billy they had taken shortly before his death. It really drove it home for me; if I didn’t know Billy and I saw him walking down my street, I would have run for my life. He looked so awful, so scary.
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This was a really good subject. My daughter is like so many others, its the world and the people around her that are messed up, she is the only one that understands. All though a lot of times she is talking it make absolutely no sense to me, what she is even talking about.
I really don’t know if she has ever had any clarity of her situation with SZ.
She has clarity when she is hungry or she wants something. And lately she says to me. “I want you to know I care” she seems to say that with a little clarity. I do appreciate it when she says that and I let her know.
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That sort of thing means so much. I have also heard such words in moments of clarity on occasion: “Thanks for caring;” “Everyone has forgotten me except you.” Their worlds often are so scary for them, and so small.
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Diagnosed opinion here. I feel this depends on what you mean by clarity, its context and how long these moments might last. I’ve met plenty of paranoid people in hospital and other settings regardless of diagnosis with clarity about a good many things including their illness. Whether this clarity can be sustained or not is the difference between societal functioning, recovery and spectrums of disability.
In fact a paranoid diagnosis is often cited as correlating with a better prognosis as it tends to indicate various cognitive functions remain intact. In my experience and personal practice, paranoiacs can appear relatively normal as long as their delusional systems aren’t activated or challenged. Schizophrenia has been posited as a spectrum disease and includes undiagnosed yet functional people, people like me with a single hospitalization and sustained recovery, people who cycle between acute and remissive phases and chronic cases.
I feel moments of clarity are possible across the spectrum and it’s a bit of an inside joke or meme among diagnosed people that they can seem the sanest people in the room in certain crises— especially when emotions run high.
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I wholeheartedly disagree. Billy’s paranoia was rooted in bizarre delusions. He literally thought he was Hitler, and he literally thought Jewish people were going to punish him for it.
Believe me, there was nothing sane about anything Billy said or did.
As far as emotions, schizophrenics mask their emotions. Billy could keep a straight face through the most awful situations. In fact, he always laughed at the most inappropriate time- he was 100% consistent about this.
Again, this is the exact opposite of clarity.
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Hello @Maggotbrane , thank you for explaining your views about clarity. I do understand that there is a spectrum of hallucinations and delusions with schizophrenia, as well as functional ability after a break. I have had very limited contact with those having sz other than my daughter and a few others over a many-years long period of time. I would like to compliment you for your own recovery and stability after your hospitalization, and your ability to express yourself. Personally, I think that is extremely rare, and perhaps you are/were much higher functioning in general in life prior to sz. My loved one is totally unable, (even in her new life after years of psychosis and medication), to operate a computer, let alone come on a site like this one to help others understand schizophrenia. In the past, she would never consent to meeting others in support groups, she only went one time. My daughter and @Eddie1 's brother were so non-functional during psychosis that there was no clarity during breaks because the psychotic breaks didn’t end for years for my daughter, and never for Eddie’s brother. I am very very lucky that my daughter pulled out into recovery, but without me, that would never have happened or been stable. Her total lack of clarity made helping her almost impossible, and only now can she see her past illness.
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That was how Billy was. He needed help but he made it nigh on impossible to help him.
I always felt like there was a fine line between helping him and enabling him. It bothered me that I had to do stuff that he was too stubborn and lazy to do, and on top of that he made it almost impossible to do it.
An example is when I had to paint his apartment. His landlord was fed up with Billy’s bizarre and creepy behavior. The tenants were sick of him (there were retail tenants in the building as well and Billy regularly disrupted their activities). Billy had scared the painter away and the landlord told me I had to hire a painter to do it or else he was going to evict Billy. So I went on the weekend and cleaned and painted his apartment, while he sat around like a lazy lump smoking cigarettes and telling me to hurry up. He was truly awful.
Dealing with him took a lot out of me and left me weary. No thanks for me; only scorn. Such is life.
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This was our experience with our son. Mike was a very high functioning person who appeared normal to most people who encountered him. He was highly paranoid and highly capable.
Every psychiatrist who worked with him was amazed by his cognitive function. Being outside his home was exhausting, but he never lost his intelligence.
We were fortunate that he didn’t suffer from bizarre delusions like @Eddie1’s brother. Mike’s delusions were paranoia based and focused on people he encountered over too long a period. Cognitive Behavior Therapy helped him the most in day to day living.
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Eddie1 it sounds like you are exhausted and in despair how or if you can help your brother. What realistically would you like to see happen for yourself in this situation?
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Hello Eddie1,
I am so sorry about what happened with you and your brother. I can tell from your words you feel so much pain still. Were you two close before all this started happening. I know it hurts but maybe think about that some times if there were any good times for you and him. I don’t know if you have seen a therapist but it sound like you are still doing a lot of grieving, you have anger and sadness and it is totally understandable.
I am glad he said “I love you” I think you really needed that.
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Hi. So sorry to hear where things are at with your sister. I don’t want to give false hope because people are different, but my brother who is in his 60s now and diagnosed decades ago, does have times where he can speak about his condition with clarity. For example, once, prior to having to do a phone interview/assessment to qualify for a certain level of a local support program, he admitted to me just beforehand that it was time “to admit my disability and say I have a mental illness.” I know this was hard for him to do and it was both sad and good to hear.
Good luck. Hope things are better today.
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