My daughter’s doctor just started her on Latuda because she has very hard to treat manic episodes. So far so good but not sure how it will work in the long run. Does anyone know folks who are Latuda and has it helped with treating mania? Later her doctor will also introduce Lamictal. She is also on Seroquel. Her pdoc is slowly taking her off Depakoate. She doesn’t do well on the Depakoate plus it’s caused a lot of weight gain.
Seroquel and Latuda are the main ingredients in my med cocktail and I don’t know if it helped with mania, but it sure pulled me out of a deep negative symptom swing.
I also feel a lot more level with the two together. I still have glitch days, but not as bad or as debilitating as they used to be.
I hope your Daughter finds her middle ground soon and feels better.
Thank you SurprisedJ,
Maybe I got it all wrong. My daughter does have a lot of agitated manic states so the doctor took her completely off anti-depressants. She also suffers from complete lack of energy and feels flat and can’t seen to think clearly. Just in the last couple of days I am noticing that she is doing more. Usually I see her either smoking or laying on the couch but its nice to see her up and about and she has started cutting back on smoking.
That sounds like my old foe… the wax build-up (negative symptoms)
For the agitation I am taking Xanax.
Once that upward swing for the better started happening, that is when my parents got me into therapy and CBT and coping classes. That also helped me get some ideas for staving off depression, anger and taught me how to combat some of my delusional thinking.
I’m glad to hear your daughter is up and moving more and cutting back on smoking… I hope it keep getting better.
Dear SurprisedJ,
Thanks for all the helpful feedback. How long did it take you to feel functional. I ask because I have temporary custody of my two small grandchildren. My daughter loves her children but is really not able to care for them properly right now. This is a big life changer for me. I’m in my 60’s and wasn’t thinking of raising small children again, however I will do what I have to for my grandchildren’s sake and also to help my daughter. She is doing a little better whereas before she could barely lift herself off the couch or she would have manic episodes and be all over the place – aggressive, angry at the world and more. It hurts to see my daughter hurting so much and it also hurts to see my grandchildren being neglected.
I feel like there is a part of my daughter who doesn’t want to grow up. She wants to remain dependent, immature and childlike. Frankly I’m tired of it. I want desperately for her to start acting like a grown up. She is 30 years old and has always been behind in her maturity level. When she was first diagnosed around 19 years old she acted like a 9 year old. Her maturity level has grown since then but still she wants to hang on to this childlike state. I even see my little 2.5 year old granddaughter say things “I can’t” when I ask her help me pick things up. She learning this helplessness from her mother. My grandson on the other hand is different – has a lot of initiative and sadly tries to be a caretaker for his mother. Her partner I feel doesn’t really want her to get well. I think he feels threatened when she starts feeling better.
My meds got changed almost 2 and half years ago. I felt awake and “bare basic functional” very quickly. My sis says it was just about a month that she noticed drastic improvement. For the first level of functional I’m meaning, I got out of bed more, got bathed and dressed more, started reading and writing again, didn’t sleep or sit gazing into my head 19 hours a day.
That window of opportunity is when my parents used to get me back into Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and support groups and other therapies and it was after relearning a lot of life skills and relearning coping tools that I felt “level two functional” a few months after that. I was taking more hours at work, I was trying to reach out more, got the offer for the better job. I was in therapy to relearn how to manage an interview, and how to relearn basic life skills. I was becoming functional, but I wasn’t growing up.
It’s a little embarrassing but, I feel I’ve only been “growing up” for the past year. It’s only been about a year that I’ve tried to grow up and lean how to do my own banking and my own shopping and take care of myself better.
This disease takes away and distorts emotions and coping skills… so I see it as stunting emotional growth. When I was in hospital there were some patients along with myself (if I’m honest) who were afraid to leave when we got stable. In hospital when your stable… sure, it can get boring, but it’s all laid out, the day is planned for you, meals are planed for you, activity is planed for you, chores are minimal, and every one is telling you that your ill. So I’m ill, but I have to walk out those doors and take care of myself? Scary Scary.
I don’t know if other hospitals are different now… but for me I was told… “You’re going to have to take care of yourself now” How? Hospital didn’t teach me how to budget money or grocery shop for myself, or fill out a job application. I was able to learn that stuff through vocational training and other therapies but that was later. Now that I’m learning more, it’s only in the past year that I feel I’ve been growing up.
You have a lot of family dynamic going on there. Poor grandson and granddaughter. I can understand the partner not fully supporting your daughter… As long as she’s not better, then he’s not challenged. I never would have believed this if I didn’t hear it from a guy in my Sz group, but there was a guy there who said he wanted a lower functioning M.I. partner so he could always be in control. That scared me.
The meds are great for that initial jolt of getting the energy and being lucid and “functioning” enough to go therapy and classes. But it took therapy and classes for me to be self-managing.
I hope this makes sense in some way. Sorry it got a bit long.
Dear SurprisedJ
No, you were not long at all. Your point of view and personal experience is extremely helpful. My daughter has told me privately that she is not able to care for the children at all but her partner insist they can. I see her struggling to try to care for her children and that is why I stepped in. Her partner is very threatened by all of this. He is even threatened when my daughter tries to be a mom to her children. Everything must go through him first. Even getting up for her children he criticizes her for and tells her she is spoiling the children and that they need to do things for themselves. His own mother is severely disabled with a brain disorder so he got very little parenting from her. He had to do everything for himself from the time he was a little guy. To this day his own mother torments him almost daily by sending him text messages that he is a worthless son.
I worry for my grandchildren. The more I get to know her partner the less I like him. He tells just about everyone in their little neighborhood that my daughter is crazy – yet he has schizophrenia. My daughter is much more educated than him but yet she allows him to treat her with such utter disrespect. I worry my daughter will not get better as long as she stays with him but I know I have little say so in the matter, however as a grandmother I will not allow them to be neglected. I use to like this guy a lot but have discovered that he lies with a straight face. What are my grandchildren learning from this very dysfunctional environment. Both of them chain smoke and smoke in the house and my grandchildren have breathing problems. I could go on and on but I won’t.
I am trying to get custody of the children. This is not what I had planned in my senior years and I am hoping my daughter will start feeling better as her meds kick in and she starts CBT therapy as her pdoc has recommended and push back on her emotionally abusive partner. In the mean time I really don’t want the children to see all that chaos in their home. My daughter’s house is very dirty, disorganized and the children were looking like little orphans. A few months ago I started taking over the children’s laundry so that they always would have clean clothes, but clean clothes I bring are left in bags and they are still not dressed properly. Sorry if I’m depressing folks out there but it’s hard to talk about this with others and I guess I needed a place to express my frustrations and concerns over the two grandchildren. My daughter’s partner had me bamboozled for years until they move within a 5 minute walk from me and I could see what was really going on.
Thank you Surprised for the time you took to answer my questions. You have been extremely helpful and I am so happy for you that your are now feeling better. I wish you continued growth and recovery.
I am so glad you are there to provide a safe haven for your grandkids. I do hope you get custody. I know that at 60 it’s not what you planned, but your saving two lives there. Not having to worry about the kids will also be one less thing that your daughter has to worry about as she tries to get the strength to push away from this man.
Plus if the kids are safe with you, he can’t use them against her, or abuse them, or a host of other things.
Your poor daughter… not only does she has mental illness holding her down, she has this guy. I’m glad she starting therapy and getting an outside professional source to help… that way the guy can’t say that YOU are breaking up their marriage… though I’m sure he’ll get there no matter how much you try and stay out of it.
I’m sorry you have to go through this. But having happy and healthy Grandkids is the best pay off in the world.
Molly what a tough situation. I don’t know what to say except I’m sorry for you, your daughter and your grandchildren. Keeping all of you in my thoughts.