Keep hope alive.
It has been almost. Years for us.
Correct type and dose of med is critical.
He truly needs you to be his advocate on this journey.
Get your rest and find strength and joy through this. I find mine in my faith and watching something funny on tv.
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Praying for the miracle you need.
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Every time they listen to me at the hospital and give my son Ativan he gets amazing relief.
So much better.
If only he would take it when he leaves!!
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Simdad-
My son is 29 and PSZ. He is non med and has a roller coaster of manic phases to lows of lack of interaction.
I want to speak to your sadness or regret for your sonās missing out on a ānormalā life. I also go through this. Sometimes it can get all consuming. Please seek therapy/ counseling for yourself. It will help in your communication with your son. I hope the very best for your son as his happiness is connected to yours.
Love and Peace.
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Hi Simdad , Just to let you know that my son too laughs to himself for no reason and when i ask whatās so funny he says 'nothing ', i totally understand what youāre going through . I stopped asking him . If he wants to talk we talk and if he doesnāt thats ok too . You will hopefully in time see glimpses of your son from time to time once he is on the right meds . Its been 2 and half years with this nightmare for my 21 year old son and the best remedy to heal is a ton of love, education on the illness and non stop care giving . They are going through difficult changes and scary changes . I pray every day and thank Gd we can reach out on this site . I took my son to ā Equip ā in London and they were helpful . Iām not sure where you are in the u.k but you can look them up . Hang in there , your son needs you .
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Hi yes I have also stopped asking him but it is upsetting at times so I understand what you are going through @Linda . He also talks to himself in his room. He is eating so much and its a battle. 21 years of age and having to suffer this is wretched wretched illness!!!
He has a medical review today so lets see how that goes. Its like he is a little boy again. I see him come down to the kitchen he looks at me, then goes in and takes what he can up to his room. The hunger because of the meds torments him. I feel really really down and sad some days about it all.
Im on my own here with him. He has a good team around him though but refuses to engage really. Where have our children gone with this ???
Im in the North of England - just getting used to the system as my son only started living me 5 weeks ago before then he abroad. Wish the best for you also Linda and your own battles with your son who is same age as mine. Never heard of equip but we not London based but thank you x
tv can be a life saver 
sending you positive thoughts back
They are now talking of Clozapine for my son. But Im trying to weigh up the risks and benefits. But he seems resistant to other medications and he has tried a number of them. They wont rush on the choice on this though yet. I know some swear by it, others not. Opinion seems very very divided. Some days its hard to know what is the right direction or step. Im sure many of you here facing your own struggles will know what I mean 
You may have already read some of the posts on the Clozapine topics elsewhere on this site. I suggest reading this article for additional information. Dr. Duckworth is the Medical Director for NAMI. https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/March-2017/Taking-Another-Look-a-Too-Often-Forgotten-Treatment. Dr. Laitman (referred to in the article and author of āMeaningful Recovery from Schizophrenia and other Serious Mental Illness with Clozapineā) told me that his patients do not gain weight (one of the troubling side effects for many) because they are active. The book goes into a lot of other detail based on experience with his own son, as well as with his medical practice treating something like 100 patients on Clozapine.
Catherine - I just discovered this post so I apologize - this post is over a year oldā¦lol.
I can relate with you and your son. Our son who is 32 had a break down this year and was diagnosed with SZ. He is on medication and stable. He lacks emotional expression like your son and many other SZ. I try so hard to talk to him and make him laugh. It is really a challenge. He shows little emotion and looks up to me for guidance and direction all the time. I am trying to adjust to this life. I have little emotional space for myself because he waits for me and my guidance. I hope that in time he will return to us in some fashion. I dream one day he can move into his own apartment and get back to his career. In the meantime, he is safe and free of the demons in his head that was destroying his life. Thank you for sharing.
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If you dont mind me asking, What is the name of this Residential care home?
Is it a privately run ?
Hi @LisaS . I understand this is an older thread, if youāre still here and youāre comfortable sharing, Iām curious as to what types of voices your son, at 7-1/2 years old was hearing and if it progressed later into visual hallucinations or not. Were they telling him to do things? Maybe the violent things? Where they just indistinct murmurs? If it progressed into visual, what were the visuals (if he communicated this)? This is a tough disease and Iām wondering if it presented that young, what it looked like to you and how you engaged or responded.
Iām glad to hear you and he found some relief in meds (not Aderol obviously! Iām glad that you mentioned itās meant for people with very certain brain chemistry who suffer certain types of ADHD.) There has been a good amount of discussion here lately about anxiety disordersā¦ something to consider?.. And I wonder if you ever felt compelled to switch psychiatrists. Self harm is an extremely, extremely heart wrenching thing for caregivers and family to go through. Please, let us know how things are going! My heart is with you.
Hi, Wisdom. Donāt mind sharing at all. Iām glad to share the details of my sonās illness in hopes that it may help someone else. It started with him coming down at night after being put to bed and saying āMom, thereās a man in my head and heās saying bad words.ā Like cuss words is what he related to me. The man was very clear to him and it scared him. I would get up with him and we would move to the living room. I would turn the TV on, thinking this would distract him from the voice in his head. Schizophrenia does run in my family on my dadās side; my grandmaās brother and his two daughters had it. He used to sit on his roof and shot at people with a shotgun! Of course, those were different times and thankfully we have medications now that control some of this behavior. I am not sure when it progressed into visual but he does have visual. I would say his teen years. He had told me the āman in his headā as he referred to him stopped at about age 10. If I knew more about schizophrenia back then I would have known they donāt ājust stopā and would have questioned this. Anyhow, he went off his anti-psychotics around that age. Around age 14 1/2, he attempted suicide with a gun for the first time. Around the same time, he admitted that the voices had never stopped but he was afraid we wouldnāt love him if we knew he was still hearing voices. How sad is that? At age 10 he understood the stigma of mental illness and rather than taking meds that could help his condition, he suffered through it in silence. Makes my heart break thinking about it. When he was young, he had the absolute best psychiatrist who he was already seeing for the ADHD and she didnāt pin an official diagnosis on him, rather said we will treat the symptoms and go from there. So back to age 14 1/2, I said I think you need to go back on anti-psychotics now and see a P-doc, but he was reluctant to do so. Didnāt like the way they numbed his personality. About 6 months later, he said the voices were worse and asked to see a P-doc. Made appt., he started seeing them. They switched his meds around and his violence level actually got worse. He chased me around the house one day with full gas can saying he was going to light our house on fire. Another time, put a knife to my throat, then called his dad (who was already at work). I knew he wouldnāt hurt me, but it was scary as hell. The P-doc just wanted to in-patient him and frankly the previous experiences had been hellish and completely unhelpful. Donāt know what state youāre in, but in Oklahoma, the in-patient is horrible. They do nothing. Nothing. Zonk them out on too many meds till theyāre zombies and send them home ASAP. Itās the absolute worst. So there were three more violent incidents where police were called (two he was a juvenile, last one he was not). With last incident, I begged and begged to get him services with a PACT team while he was in jail. They usually do not take on clients who have been violent but since the violence was limited to family members only, they agreed. It has made all the difference in the world. My son is now living alone in his own apt., he works almost full time at a nice restaurant. His hygiene is amazing now and heās lost over 100 lbs. He takes a fraction of the meds he was on with his private P-Doc. Let me say something here and I donāt care who may disagree. If your loved one is on Xanax or similar, get them off that stuff ASAP. I firmly believe it is straight from Hell. It literally almost killed my son. He was a zombie, didnāt know what he was doing while on it, no memory. Terrible, very, very addictive drug. His P-Doc kept upping his dose. He literally would drool on himself. What kind of life is that? Now heās my son again. All I can say is keep trying to find a solution. If your P-Doc is only pushing pills and upping the dose, dump them. Your loved one CAN get better. My son is living proof. He is on just 3 drugs nowadays. So, keep advocating, keep fighting. If you have PACT teams where you live, I highly recommend checking into this option. It has really helped my son tremendously. He has been under their care for about 9 months now. Hope this lengthy post helps someone out there.
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Thank you so very much for that. It was EXTREMELY insightful. I think youāll find there are many people here who feel the same about inpatient careā¦ and the struggle to get quality careā¦to say the least.
Youāre road, though heartbreaking, gives great realization for hope and success! Thank you
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Same thing sometimes I miss my brother before the illness, from A student to a boy just staying home, trying but canāt go anywhere.
I think we have to accept their change. Itās just like any other illness we have to be patient
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