Hi,
my son has Schizophrenia.
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I’m sorry. Many of us on this forum have had a dr tell us the same thing. I literally felt my heart break. But now 8 years later my son chooses to take his meds works full time and is happy. He is not the old son I had but I have found joy in this new son… keep coming back.
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Welcome @Gina4 to this forum. Please read as much and as often as you can, it will help you feel not so alone in the battle for your son’s wellness and help you to navigate the muddy waters in finding him the care he needs.
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Hi Oldladyblue, I am so confused by it all. My son 42 yrs old has now been sectioned for the third time and today injected with haloperidol. To me he seems coherent but I have been told he will present differently to different people.
He lives over three hundred miles away from me, but I have been to see him in the last couple of weeks .
Any advice is great and I need someone to talk to who understands my dilemma.
Thank you.
I am so sorry for your son’s diagnosis. But you are certainly not alone. Something like 0.5% to 1% of the population has schizophrenia. Look up NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) to find their no-cost Family Support Groups either in the state you live or where he lives. Many meetings are online these days so it wouldn’t matter where you live. It actually might be better to talk with people where he lives. Best thing we ever did. Home | NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness
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Hi again @Gina4 . I can totally understand being confused by your son’s illness. Yes, a person with schizophrenia can present differently at either different times or to different people. It isn’t totally understandable. Living away from your son, knowing he is ill, must be very hard. I did not have that experience as my daughter has lived with me since soon after her illness began at age 32. She is 37 now, and was unwillingly held in psychiatric wards 5 times before she was successfully medicated with the haloperidol dec shot which she is still on.
It is hard to learn everything you need to know about this illness. You just have to read books, talk to professionals, post on this site, read other’s experiences, and like @hope4us mentioned, connect up with NAMI.
Here on this site, you will find many people who understand. We understand as no one in the “regular” world can, that world of people whose lives haven’t been touched by severe mental illness.
If your son is sectioned now, try not to worry, most hospital staff really want to help their patients and will answer your questions. So ask them any questions you can. I still remember one staff member who suggested I write a letter to my daughter after I’d come to the hospital to see her and she refused to see me. She DID read the letter, and my next one too. I would never have thought to write her notes without advice from that nurse.
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Thank you so much for your reply, as any information is greatly received. I have been in touch with Mind and I am constantly learning more and more about my son’s condition and ongoing care.
He is 42 and I believe this started several years ago before he had a complete meltdown.
@Gina4 I am sad for you, my daughter was diagnosed @ 40 (now 45) when her mental health/paranoia/delusions/voices became out of control, she was committed to a Mental Health facility, in and out over 10 times.
Life for her has been miserable, she has Anosognosia (unaware of their own mental health condition or that they can’t perceive their condition accurately).
If you can try to watch “I’m not sick I don’t need help” by Dr Xavier Amador on Ted, this helped me enormously.
Please read as much as you can from this incredible site, it helped me get through some really dark times, we are all friends with sadly one thing in common.Try to be kind to yourself, I light a candle each day to help me get through my own sadness. Maggie
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I do hope that things are looking up for your son, it is so hard to feel so helpless about the health of someone you love. @Maggie46 gave you good advice above. Dr. Amador’s works helped me out tremendously to understand this horrible illness and what actions I could take.
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Not only are you not alone in terms of the diagnosis, you are not alone in having a loved one newly diagnosed! I’m feeling a lot of the same things as you, and I think coming here and reading all of the resources people are linking has been helping me feel more like I’m doing all I can. I’m wishing the best for you and your son, and I hope you are also able to find some comfort knowing you are doing all you can 
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Usually schizophrenia first presents in a person’s early 20s. First episode psychosis in one’s 40s is not as common, I think. It might be a good idea for him to get a neurological checkout to rule out other causes of what behaviors got him sectioned. Psychiatrists would know about referring him to a neurologist.
Also, if it is FEP (First Episode Psychosis) see this link that @SzAdmin posted on this board: https://family.schizophrenia.com/t/how-to-get-quick-access-early-psychosis-treatment-centers/11389.
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Ha, I used to write notes, too, when my son was hospitalized and wouldn’t come out of his room! It really was the illness (not him), but it was important for me to let him know he was loved and not forgotten. He doesn’t even remember much of that now.
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Hi @hope4us , my daughter doesn’t remember a lot of what she went through when in psychosis those 3 years. She is talking to me way more now than she ever used to, including about her out-of-body friends she still talks to.
Today referring to the old “really bad days”, she says went missing those 2 times because I “kicked her out of the house”. I told her I didn’t mean for her to disappear and become a missing person, I simply wanted her to stop yelling in the middle of the night and waking me up. I wanted her to leave the house if she wanted to yell. (I figured that might get her arrested and involuntarily committed and put on medicine. Which is exactly how she got arrested the 2nd time, but it was in broad daylight and not the middle of the night.) I am so glad she is able to communicate her thoughts with me again.
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Clozapine is the gold standard med. Get his life back get him on it. You have to fight for it cause theywant him to try to antipsychotics before and then you have e to have a blood test once a week for 6 months the 2 times a month for 6 months then the rest of your life once a month. But they get their lives back. My grandson works full time now and has friends and drives. It was a miracle drug for him
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