Daughter not yet diagnosed. Seeking help and encouragement

My daughter is 14 with a genetic predisposition for schizophrenia. She has begun to behave erratically after years of unusual behaviors and self harm. I am very overwhelmed right now. I called a clinic and just need advice. She is very confrontational and angry. Skipping school, breaking laws, lying and stealing with what seems like paranoia and isolation as well as so much more I can not even begin. How can I help her?

have her checked out by a psychiatrist. Skip the psychologist, she needs meds probably but that’s up to the pdoc. good luck.

Yes, find a good professional.

In some places there are Early Episode Treatment Centers for Psychosis and the admin often posts that link in these forums.

I hope the best for you both.

two lists of Early Treatment Centers

Piles of research show that sz pts tend to get “better” when they…

  1. Get a copy of this book and read it and have their families read it, as well.
    http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Schizophrenia-6th-Edition-Family/dp/0062268856

  2. Get properly diagnosed by a board-certified psychopharmacologist who specializes in the psychotic disorders. One can find them at…
    Find Top Psychiatrists by State. and Find Psychiatrists, Psychiatric Nurses - Psychology Today

  3. Work with that “psychiatrist” (or “p-doc”) to develop a medication formula that stabilizes their symptoms sufficiently so that they can tackle the psychotherapy that will disentangle their thinking.

  4. The best of the psychotherapies for that currently include…
    DBT – What is Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)? – Behavioral Tech
    MBSR – http://www.mindfullivingprograms.com/whatMBSR.php
    MBCT - Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy: theory and practice - PubMed
    ACT – ACT | Association for Contextual Behavioral Science
    10 StEP – Pair A Docks: The 10 StEPs of Emotion Processing

  5. the even newer somatic psychotherapies like…
    MBBT – An Introduction to Mind-Body Bridging & the I-System – New Harbinger Publications, Inc
    SEPT – Somatic experiencing - Wikipedia
    SMPT – Sensorimotor psychotherapy - Wikipedia

  6. or standard CBTs, like…
    REBT – Rational emotive behavior therapy - Wikipedia
    Schematherapy – Schema therapy - Wikipedia
    Learned Optimism – Learned optimism - Wikipedia
    Standard CBT – http://www.beckinstitute.org/what-is-cognitive-behavioral-therapy/About-CBT/252/

  7. If you/she/he needs a professional intervention to get through treatment resistance, tell me where you live, and I will get back to you with leads to those services.

  8. Look into the RAISE Project at Google.

Fourteen is a bad age for girls. With boys it is seventeen. Getting an undiagnosed sz to accept treatment is often hard. If she continues to be erratic confront her with it. Maybe she will acknowledge her schizophrenia in time.

I would say to take her to a psychiatrist straight away. She probably won’t be given a diagnosis of sz because she is not psychotic and she’s under 18. But treatment now may help to head off the development of sz. I would say it is pretty urgent.

You’re the parent, while she’s under your roof she has to follow some rules. Just accept the fact that she will not like anything you want to do for her but force her to do it anyway for her own good. A kid doesn’t know what’s best for her in the big picture. You have to lay down the law and help her. A 40 year old knows what’s best for a 14 year old better than the 14 year old does. I have never, ever been a parent but I know that parenting is not a popularity contest. When you try to help her she may not like you or she may even hate you. So what? She’ll get over it, most kids hate their parents sometimes anyways and use it to manipulate the parent…

Please look at these sites:
http://www.leapinstitute.org/ - under resources are free videos on using LEAP
LEAP is a way of communicating to build trust. Listen-Empathize-Agree-Partner.

http://dramador.com/ - Dr. Xavier Amador is a clinical psychologist whose brother had schizophrenia. He is the founder of the LEAP Institute. Wrote the book: I’m Not Sick I Don’t Need Help! Can buy from his website.

Search Xavier Amador on YouTube for more videos

http://ourhealthyminds.com/family-handbook/communication/Building-a-collaborative-relationship-leap.html
Building A Collaborative Relationship “LEAP”

Treatment Advocacy Center - under problems you will see anosognosia
Anosognosia looks like denial but is different.

Bayes for Schizophrenics: Reasoning in Delusional Disorders - LessWrong - helped my understand delusions

(May 26, 2010) Professor Robert Sapolsky finishes his lecture on language and then dives into his discussion about schizophrenia. He discusses environmental factors as well as genetic characteristics that could apply to people who are affected. He describes schizophrenia as a disease of thought disorder and inappropriate emotional attributes.

http://www.nami.org/ - National Alliance on Mental Illness.
http://www.schizophrenia.ca/ - Schizophrenia Society of Canada