I was able to get my daughter out of the house today:
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Hi Diane, sorry its taken some time to reply.
We are still building onto the amount of niacin. My son actually liked the flush effect of the pills and is slowly building up. He is currently only at 900mg per day. i have some thoughts about getting the 1000 mg pill as opposed to the 300 mg pills he is using. also i noticed online you can get powdered niacin. Then I thought we might try loading it into a smoothy. i do this with the sarcozine. But donāt know how that would taste. I often do taste tests on smoothies and warm milk concoctions, sometimes adding raw honey. Also I do think about combining the
Wonder if anyone else can answer your question - and mine.
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More from the functional psychiatric nurse we saw -
for better sleep she suggested Melatonin Liposonal liquid use 1/4 to1/2 mg 20 min before sleep. i found a spray for under tongue. Son not taking it at this time.
Load up on Omega 3s. he is unwilling to full protein powder at this time, so making nut butters, flax, pumpkin etc.
She also suggested magnesium glycate or magnesium citrate. i have a product called Calm. but he isnāt interested. so trying to get food products that have magnesium into him.
The best part is that we are working together, and he sees the benefits. He looks like himself so I know the haldol is out of his system. His eyes were shining with love today.
But I am asking very little from him otherwise. I like the chore idea very much.
My son does manage to sleep full nights, gets up early and makes some money taxiing friends to work in the am.
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i am having a hard time with my delete button.
Could we combine flush niacin with no flush niacin to get more in without a very uncomfortable reaction. And i read somewhere that no flush still works well.
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Thank you so much for all this info. Iām glad to hear your son is sleeping well and working with you. It gives me hope that I will get to that point with mine.
My son is the same way. He stays in the house all day doing nothing. His only interaction is with me and his brother. He does ask me to take him for a hair cut every other week. He just started on Zoloft in addition to abilify to see if this will help with his negative symptoms. I hope things get better.
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Glad to know Iām not alone. This is a rough one. I was giving him $ in hopes that he would leave the house to get food but now, Iām going the other direction and cooking and providing healthier food for him as he only occasionally would go to the store. After reading all these stories you all have inspired me to be a better caretaker. I just didnāt realize the enormous confusion that he is continuing to experience. He needs a haircut for sure. I know he has wierd experiences when he goes. I will offer to go with him but he doesnāt seem to want to be around me at all. I do my best to try to talk to him a bit when he is out of his room and also try to leave him alone so heāll feel more comfortable coming out.
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Since my sonās first break last May (he just turned 25), he has been in my home 24/7. The only time he ventured out was to meet his caseworker once a week at the local library or sometimes to go for an evening run. He stays mostly in his room either laying on his bed or sitting at his computer. The only time he leaves his room is for meals. He never comes downstairs just to hang out. Never.
Occasionally we all go on a family outing and he seems to enjoy that when it happens. He sees/talks to no one except immediate family members and his caseworker.
I understand where the OP is coming from. It does feel sometimes like being a hostage in your own home because all things that go on in the home are done with the ill person in mind - noise, conversations, arguments, etc. Everything is purposefully subdued so as not to cause any stress for the ill person. That can wear on caregivers over time. When my husband and I want to have a private conversation about our son, we have to go sit in the car in the driveway!
But a huge blessing recently dropped in all of our laps. My brother-in-law basically created a job at his company for my son. He goes to work, assembles parts for different equipment, then comes home. He doesnāt have to deal much with people and the tasks he performs are quick and easy to learn, so itās all pretty non-taxing on him cognitively. It is perfect right now. So he gets out of the house three days a week!!!
I already see a change in him after two weeks of work. He is not so depressed. Sometimes he smiles and laughs and engages like he used to.
He does experience symptoms regularly still, even after experimenting with dosages of xyprexa. His symptoms are mostly auditory hallucinations/hearing voices. He says no matter what the dose of meds, these symptoms havenāt changed. So we donāt know how he will do at work as the symptoms occur. He has dropped down from 10mg to 5mg of olanzapine/xyprexa, hoping it will help him with the negative symptoms, which he dislikes more than the voices.
It is nice to get my home to myself for a few hours on the days he works. If he couldnāt work, I would have to look into getting him into some kind of ongoing day program - for both our sakes. Luckily, his caseworker and her associates specialize in dealing with all these issues and they are a great resource, so if the job doesnāt work out, there will be other options. He needs at least some stimulation outside the home, as long as it doesnāt stress him.
As difficult as this has been on all of us, there have also been blessings showered upon us, and for that we are extremely grateful.
Good luck to all. You are braver than you know!
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Thatās absolutely brilliant for you and your son. That would be ideal for us here too.
Nice to hear positives stories and people getting a ābreakā
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