Does my friend have early signs of Schizophrenia?

Family
1

Please help, we are all concerned about her.

She is a 24 year old female who has used “recreational” drugs since her early teens, including marijuana, MDMA, LSD, and etc… She believes that she is clairvoyant, or psychic, but does not follow through with accurate readings. I am unsure if this is a real thing that is going on in her head, or if she is trying to seek attention.

She is extremely spiritual and will read the same spirituality books over and over again and repeat the same phrases over and over again, ‘parroting’ I believe is the term. She is quite obsessed with her newfound religion and though it can be a good thing (she tries to be positive most of the time), it clearly dominates her mind and she cannot hold a conversation without relating it back to herself or her spiritual relationship with the world. She is very adamant about everyone believing in what she does and if you don’t, she will push her beliefs onto you until you give in or it’s time for her to leave.

She is quite narcissistic where every conversation is related back to her in someway, and it can be quite exhausting to spend time with her because everything, even our own personal experiences, are of relation to her and her world. It feels as if she believes that the world revolves around her and we are just the people in it.

She believes that people who have a criticism of others and herself, even if it’s constructive in nature, is a reflection of themselves and refuses to believe that there is anything that she could be doing wrong.

She believes that all men, and some women, look at her as a sexual object and I truly believe that, if this is true, she enjoys the attention immensely. She is continuously posting photos of her cleavage and etc. on facebook.

She has a habit of lying, or exaggerating the truth. She has told me in the past that her family wasn’t affectionate with her and when we confronted a family member about this they seemed surprised that she had felt that way and insisted that she had plenty of attention growing up.

The most concerning thing is that she sees visions, ghosts, orbs, colors, and people that are not there, including Jesus and Mary, and insists that the universe is trying to tell her something. She consistently says that ghosts will inhabit her body to send their loved ones messages and truly believes that she has powers that no one else has.

Finally, it has become known to us that her mother’s mother unfortunately had an intense schizophrenia that kept her in the hospital until her passing.

Please, what are we dealing with here and what can we (her friends and family) do to help her?

Thank you!

2

Well no one can tell you her diagnosis. Only professionals can do that.

There is no fine line. Some people get away with being eccentric their whole lives without falling into this shit.

She’s definitely hallucinating and delusional though.

The real problem your going to have is convincing her that she is wrong about everything she thinks she knows… and that she needs help.

Sorry man, good on you for reaching out.

Fuck our culture, it takes the imagination of some and allows them to make new realities.

It’s this supernatural bullshit that everyone entertains. Complete waste of time.

3

Well, schizophrenia runs in families sometimes. Maybe tell her you’re worried about her and suggest to her that she might want to talk to a professional mental health worker even if it’s only for a couple visits.

Some of that is similar to schizophrenia symptoms.

4

I definitely don’t see her being accepting of criticism of her beliefs at all, so I know it will be an uphill battle. I don’t know that much about our natural world to completely rule out any of the things that she says, but it does seem kind of strange and much like the delusions I’ve researched.

In any case, she has been feeling very sad lately because some people have stopped seeing her so much and we’d like to help, but really not sure how to approach the situation… I have zero experience with this but I know that she is one of my good friends. In fact, I tend to hang on to a lot of our old memories and wish she could be the person I used to know again - carefree and just really easy to shoot the shit with. This is not the case anymore. I don’t know what to do… But, thank you for your response.

Also, I hope I am not being insensitive or anything in my postings, and apologize if I am, I just sincerely do not know much about any of this and it just seems like she changed over night…

5

Thank you for your reply. It’s a sensitive subject to her because I think she may question it herself. I definitely feel like she would take much offense to me suggesting she seek medical help, but I’m not sure if there’s any way around that with anyone?

I know that no one on here can truly diagnose her, but it might bring some comfort to know if anyone else is going through or has gone through something similar…

6

It’s sad every time I hear a story like this. It happens every couple of days.

Every time, I have no idea what to do. She needs to ground herself. Unfortunately, a world that is less interesting is harder to accept for some.

I can tell you that physics encompasses everything. If it’s not physically possible it’s not real. Telepathy, or other psychic powers, things that have never been proven scientifically. They simply don’t exist.

You can either play along or shatter her reality. Both are bad options but only one has a chance of fixing things in the long run. Leave her to her own devices and who knows where she’ll end up and how out of control her experience will become. It’s a rocky road.

There is no road map for this. Everyone is different. Convincing her to change her perspective is going to be something you have to figure out for her.

SZ is a trap. God I wish I could help. I’m sorry.

7

I am not a psychologist, I am just a psychology student.

She has a psychotic disorder. What I need to know is how long she has had these symptoms and how well she functions. You told everything else that would make me very confident that she has schizophrenia.

How old is she? What is her occupation? How does she function socially? How long has she been like this? Does she make a normal amount of eye contact?

Delusions of grandeur
Delusions of reference
Hallucinations
I’m going to bed

8

Hi,

It’s really sad that your friend is going through some hard time…I guess someone has given a great advice that try to convince her to see a psychologist or psychiatrist (I am sorry I don’t know the difference between them). My personal advice is do not enforce her to leave her beliefs and at the same time try convincing her that what she says is not real and how it can’t be true…Just be careful that you guys don’t end up in any argument. Be gentle and be polite… Understand it that she might be having a tough time and being a friend you would do what you can do. Be mindful that what she describes you is what she believes so she is helpless to see anything different than what she believes. If she gets agitated or behaves ill/harsh, don’t take it as termination of friendship. If she is close to you, talk to her directly about seeing a doctor. If she is close to someone else, discuss it with the person.

I am really grateful that you are thinking for the welfare of your friend. Thanks for that.

9

She probably has ‘something’ whether it is the beginning of schiz I don’t know. There are people that believe far out things , see ghosts ufos etc , that never become psychotic , maybe she will be one of these people. If she survives without psychosis for the next 10 years , she will probably not develop schiz. Even if she survives 5 years she will not go on to develop it. People usually get schiz from 17 to 24 , I got it at 26 , all though I always had problems. I’m talking about out and out( a psychotic break ).

10

One of these sites may be able to direct you on what you can do help.

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

Can also find some very useful information here: