She looks at magazines and thinks they are us and she thinks I have five children with random made up names that she strongly believes. She gets angry and yells at people because of her paranoia but never physically hurts people. She had rare bouts with paranoia about people leaving her or abandonment issues when I was young. She spent a lot of money and put my dad into debt for a time causing issues during her depression then became manic on ssri.
She’s had psychotic depression. She’s very caring and sensitive. I think I have bipolar so would you call the bipolar that’s getting worse because of her poor insight and refusing help? What is the difference between that and schizophrenia they both look the same…and I’ve been told bipolar has a better prognosis on medication. Then again, the moods weren’t the underlying issue for me I think. And we did everything to keep mom happy. Maybe her psychosis is what made her sad not major depression or borderline.
Eventually she’s going to be forced into treatment or jail by the state because she’s yelled at too many people in public and we are helpless to take her to a hospital and they won’t take her without her consent until law steps in.
Does this mean I have schizophrenia too and does my mom sound like she had schizophrenia?
I ask because she reminds me of someone with a disassociating disorder. Like that movie about a woman who went to sleep and had another false life and family and was scared because she didn’t know which family was real and forgot her last life in the other one. In reality she didn’t even have any children or live on a ranch.
I had episodes but they were gradually subdued so I don’t live day to day with symptoms. I try to differentiate between my spiritual beliefs and what would be seen as psychotic thinking. I don’t have grandiose thoughts or think I’m special anymore.
Education about schizophrenia has helped me so much! But I also wanted so badly to get better. My mom doesn’t have that chance to want to get better because she has zero insight. So it’s not her fault it’s not like she wouldn’t want to heal she’s so damaged by her suffering and in constant distress. She was a normal happy kid like me and a great mother to us until we became teens my brother and I and I had my episode then she was strong for a long time until she just couldn’t hide her symptoms and they took her over.
Hello! I think you and your mom should see a psychiatrist to be properly evaluated!bipolar disorder is different from schizophrenia! Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder characterised by alterations in mood between depressed (sad) and manic(elated)!a person could be bipolar especially in cases with severe mania they can have psychotic symptoms but that doesn’t mean they have schizophrenia! Schizophrenia is a different spectrum of psychotic disorder characterised by positive and/ negative symptoms!but it’s possible to have schizophrenia with symptoms of a mood disorder also,either bipolar or depression (it’s referred to as schizoaffective disorder) I wish u guys a quick recovery and all the best
I don’t think you have schizophrenia. You seem pretty well grounded in reality. I would work on getting your mom into the hospital. Then a doctor can give her a diagnosis.
It sounds like your mother has some sort of psychosis - and she definitely needs to be evaluated. Try to get her to one of these free centers for psychosis evaluation and treatment as quickly as you can.
Its got to be very stressful for you too - so that is I’m sure impacting you. It doesn’t seem like you have any psychosis.
I recommend you read up on ways you can get your mother help - and also talk to the local NAMI office.
She’s only 47 and it’s been like this since she was 40. She’s very sick though. I am not sure what I have but I’m labelled with Bipolar 1. It’s bipolar that untreated can evolve into mania and episodes but not as severe as it was or seemed and I’ve been treating my illness since I was 16.
I also got worse in the hospital which factored into my misdiagnosis of schizophrenia until I was 18 they started to suspect bipolar but called it schizoaffective at first. I recall my first psychiatrist was talking about mania but it was severe after the hospital abuses that she called it schizophrenia so the insurance would take it seriously. I don’t think she did it to harm me and it made me take it more seriously.
That makes sense that my mom has schizoaffective disorder. I think that was her last diagnosis.
Thanks for the supportive input!
I don’t think I actually need medication all the time anymore either but I’m getting a new doctor and continue to take Abilify and Vyvanse as prescribed.
Mom had post partum depression first then borderline then mood swings and then psychosis.
I never had severe depression but I have always been eccentric and I have been psychotic when I was younger. If I’m upset I can hallucinate too, but usually absent of my medication as happened in the past:: after six months I relapsed and had paranoia and persecution complexes, mania, creativity, and anxiety. I didn’t have those thoughts that she has: I didn’t think people were imposters much but I’ve been on the verge of it thankfully I prevented the symptoms from growing.
Do people with schizophrenia think they always had it? I was an intelligently creative girl of sound mind and stress only triggered me. But my first episode was so random either I was attacked at boarding school or I just woke up crazy although the depression had been building and I believe it was depression and bullying induced.
Think mom has schizophrenia because she just hasn’t been successful over it…it’s just that she never seems sane she’s constantly sick. Her delusions jump out from nowhere but she makes it up on the spot and believes it’s true.
Is schizophrenia even an accurate label? If you think how everything’s on a spectrum…I told my last psychiatrist I had schizoaffective and he thinks it’s less severe and I’ve been given two false labels ADHD for instance. He wants me to take an ADHD test at a facility lol because he also suspects abuse and mislabeling.
I have two grand mothers with Alzheimer’s on moms side my great grandma and my dads mom. But my moms mom is healthy and fine! They all are! I doubt this illness is even genetic my mom was just a willful oddity fighting battles with the establishment and a major stress factor was her activism and civil disobedience because she randomly went nuts after released from jail for 17 weeks…I can’t bring it up or she’s upset.
It seemed like she was delusional to go on that protest she just left on my birthday to that protest to go against a military facility makes me wonder but I don’t want to think that it was done like they cracked her. I think it was her own sickness making her stubborn to get help, and instead saw the protest as a sort of way to fix herself poor mom
PTSD made her worse for sure. She spent four months in jail for crossing a symbolic barrier to make a statement. I couldn’t last a week in jail. Imagine being in jail if you have severe depression?
They don’t give you meds in jail often even if you are unwell and need them. They don’t care. She tells me she’s been tortured well a woman spends four months in jail that’s torture and she refused to post bail that my father was asking to let him pay for
It was only $200 and he would have gladly spent it to ensure her safety as she just left out of the blue she was ill then and they made her worse. She got time served at the trial.
That is a tough one, but I`m thinking the same as @Daze about your mom. A doctor really needs to look at her.
When my son was small, I never thought anything was unusual with him. But when I think back now, I can think of a lot of little signs.
I’m on medication for schizophrenia and it has worked so well that my label changed to something else. I do have schizophrenia. I’m just a very strong person. I want to give others hope and I’ve been devoted to education and recovery for years since I got sick.
