Hi Deborah,
Our son suffers from the symptom anosognosia also. We used the Amador methods to get our son to a psychiatrist for an evaluation.
Once we knew it was the wrong thing to do, we stopped telling Jeb he was sick and needed to see a psychiatrist. He had started to withdraw from us and we used Amador’s words to open up communications again. We did listen to Jeb in a supportive manner and worked to figure out by watching him and listening to him, what he wanted.
We desperately needed to have Jeb diagnosed so he could apply for ssi and ssdi. Jeb has a kidney transplant and without insurance he would not be able to afford his immunosuppressives and would lose his kidney. Immunosuppression meds are required every day when you have a transplanted organ. They are expensive drugs.
We visited a psychiatrist who specializes in scz and presented our observations of Jeb to make sure what he had was schizophrenia. I don’t even remember now how many months it took us to actually hear Jeb talking to his voices - and that was while living in the same house with him. Trying to achieve a goal with a mentally ill child or adult child is a long drawn out business, it can take years to reach a goal.
Eventually, after nearly a year, we knew he wanted to visit Colorado more than anything. We offered to pay for him to take a road trip to Colorado if he would meet with a psychiatrist for one year.
The combination of Amador’s work with anosognosia and bribery got Jeb the diagnosis he needed. He saw the doctor for one year and is now on ssi and ssdi.
I am so sorry and do understand your pain and grief. Our Jeb was a beautiful, wonderful son. Smart, athletic and loved spending time with his friends. Our grief for Jeb’s old life will never end. Hope