My unmedicated loved one likes to blame virtually all their problems, health and otherwise, on the meds they took for a fairly short time some decades ago.
To a somewhat lesser extent, other targets of blame are family (i.e., bad parenting, cruel treatment by siblings) or friends who abandoned them.
Curious if any of you have seen this kind of persistent delusion. Needless to say, it makes it almost impossible to introduce or even hint at treatment options that might include meds. Meanwhile, their health has really deteriorated and I doubt they will live out the decade at this rate.
Diagnosed opinion here. This may be a bit of a semantic argument, but I’d call this less a delusion and more faulty logic or misunderstanding of events when you look at it from your loved-one’s (flawed) perspective.
First your negative bias is confirmed when you say they “like” to blame their problems on meds and other things. It’s not a question of liking, it’s just their best explanation of the experience. To them, their problems all started with the drugs. They’d been going along fine with their life, and the one thing that changed was they took medication at the behest of family and friends.
And their friends left them and their parents and siblings’ interactions with them changed, and they moved forward as the diagnosed person felt left behind. And their disease made it difficult to have the introspection necessary to realize their brain isn’t not working properly and their logic is flawed. In their mind, they haven’t changed. Don’t you see how that might foster a certain sense of resentment and resistance?
The name for this is Anosognosia, and it is very common. I suggest you search the forum for it and the acronym LEAP.
Thanks, Maggotbrane. I think you summed up the situation very well. No doubt they suffer from anosognosia, but what I would call selected anosognosia, since they seem to acknowledge having mental illness, and yet they remain convinced that meds caused it.
They once expressed the hope that past therapists might have diagnosed them with something relatively benign like anxiety, not something “bad.”
I do use the LEAP method with them, and that has helped build trust. But it seems that there is nothing I or anyone can do to nudge them toward accepting some kind of help. In the meantime, I try to be a consistently positive element in their life, even if from a distance. Maybe eventually they might accept some kind of help, if it isn’t too late.
I really think this was good to mention, this seems to be (other than blaming me) the large part of why she My daughter, won’t take medication. To her she was just fine till she took them medications. Then that is when her world fell apart. I’ve offered to pay for her to do DNA testing for what medication may work better for her, Nope she doesn’t believe she needs medication. Talk with here psyciatrist about the testing he is about 70 years old or older and he said he has only done the testing about twice and it only showed what not to try (medications). To me that sounded huge since everything she has tried so for has not worked or had such bad side effects she couldn’t live with it.
She would rather have a totally disorganized mind than Not be able to walk without feeling lethargic and out of breath, and in pain because all her joints hurt.
I am struggling to find the words to explain the significance of these two sentences to me.
When I began to understand that Mike was doing his best to work out the world on the terms that were being presented to him, I could support him with with a genuine spirit of good will. The mindset change is important.
“Maggotbrane” you have helped me tremendously on looking at things my daughter says with different insight. I keep trying to get her to try meds again she is so lost and scared.
I have told her I would not put her in the hospital again, and her doctor told her she could try different medications without having to go to the hospital. But that is not helping because she does not believe she has SZ, she definitely has Anosognosia. She is constantly in a state of psychosis now. Hearing and seeing things. Doesn’t know who I am half of the time.
I talked with my doctor about things, I am having a hard time dealing. And she talks like I should reason with her, there is no reasoning with her people don’t realize this or understand.
I really don’t know what to do at this point.
I am so sorry, there are so many professional people who don’t understand anosognosia. Outside of forced meds, only Dr Amador’s LEAP method can help find a way forward.