About three or four weeks ago my best friend (16 yr old male) began talking about how he believes he is a God or higher power and that everyone else is fake and no one understands and he would talk about famous artists and rappers that are the devil and that they deserve to die because they need to be sacrificed. she said that the famous rapper Drake was a God and Drake is passing down his energy to him so now he is becoming a God . A lot of the negative/sacrifice talk was directed towards me he believed I was really fake and like just not a person. he talked about God and the devil and sacrifice for a few days, it stopped but his behavior was still odd he was constantly moving his hands and dancing weirdly. he was someone I spent every day with for almost a year and now he wasn’t asking to hang out he was staying in his house and I would only see him if I went over to his house but it would be for very short periods of time like an hour or two hours and then he would want me to leave. during this time he was really into the African culture and he would find African artifacts around his house and use them or look at them for long periods of time. he was also really into working out he would lift weights a lot. we contacted his mom who is in the military and she came home to see what was going on and right when she got home he pretty much started acting how he was before just totally normally no weird behavior everything was pretty normal except for he would stare at me in a pretty passionate way but besides that everything was pretty normal. he went with his mom to the military base and stay with her for five days and he really missed me I could tell that his behavior over text seemed exactly as it was before and he asked me to come see him so then I came to visit and took him back to his home and right when we begin to spend time alone without his mom he was moving weirdly constantly moving his hands dancing weirdly and I would ask if he was okay or what are you doing this and he would just deny it and say I’m fine what are you talking about I’m not doing anything I’m just dancing But it wasn’t normal dancing it was very weird movements. this has been continuing for almost a week again. he is very strange over text he seems to not remember conversations he will respond very weird or respond with something not pertaining to anything I said if I ask him to hang out he doesnt really want to says he misses me and loves me and all that but he theres no real enthusiasm it just kind of all doesn’t really matter to him. it’s just unusual behavior and I can tell and another one of his good friends he’s just not himself . he is obsessed with wearing sunglasses even if irs not sunny he is always wanting to wear them and he will tell me to put them on as well he also wears hooded sweatshirts inside or outside when it’s very hot he always has them on. He seems to realize that he’s doing something and acting differently but he can’t figure out why he’s doing it and we have asked him about treatment and I cannot take him it needs to be his mom and he has told his mom and I told his mom but they are not acting on it as quickly as I would like so I’m just wondering if anyone here thinks that he is definitely showing signs of schizophrenia and I can hopefully show his famoly this post and your guys response and get him an appointment with a professional
Does he post any of his unusual beliefs on social media? My son is a bit similar—he denies that anything is wrong, and can actt “okay” for short periods. He is okay with telling the doctor he is depressed, so for that he is willing to see a psychiatrist.
If there is any symptom your friend will admit to, his mom could take him to a psychiatrist for that. Possibly if you had a print-out of his social media posts, his mom could give that to the psychiatrist ahead of time.
Other people here have a lot more experience than I do, so you can get a lot of good advice. Beat wishes and I hope your friend can get help soon.
I wanted to add that he is a marijuana smoker not as much since we’ve noticed symptoms but leading up to the first time I noticed them he would smoke probably every day for 4-five months and the months before that it was pretty frequent but not every day
Why has he stopped smoking pot so much? Have you seen less weirdness since he started cutting down?
I’m glad you’re recognizing something is wrong. These kinds of changes in behavior don’t sound good to me. I would be very concerned.
My son smoked a ton of pot and later had a major psychotic break. He’s been different ever since. Many people on this forum have said the same thing happened to their children.
Please please try to get your friend to completely stop smoking pot. The THC in pot can set off schizophrenia.
No I disagree it just let’s it out because it’s already there
Check out the thread called “is my mom suffering from schizophrenia” there are some excellent links posted in that thread by our forum admin.
My son thought I was fake, he thought bills were fake, he thought the police who arrested him were fake. I agree with Hope - check out the chain “is my mom suffering from schizophrenia” The admin posted a ton of information on that chain. Your friend has something going on. There are many forms of schizophrenia as you’ll learn. It doesn’t really matter which kind it is (if it is - could be bi-polar? Could be something wrong with this thyroid) at the moment but it does sound like he has some psychosis. You could say to him - having all these fake people around would make me feel anxious, if you are feeling nervous maybe we could visit a doctor to give you something for your nerves. I’ve learned it’s better to talk about the symptoms and not accusingly say - you have schizophrenia!
Hi , sorry to hear about your friend , my son used to smoke weed and it set off schizophrenia , its been a year and half now and my whole life is one big stress . My son never takes his sunglasses off day or night and is mostly in hoodies no matter how hot the weather is . The doctor says they do that due to paranoia and feel if they cover up and hide their eyes with glasses or cover with hoodies than they feel no one can see them ,strange i know but this MI is strange . He has no insight of his disease but right now med compliant . I hope your friend gets the help he needs . Try and reach out to Nami and see if they can help with good advice . All the best .
thank you for your reply. do you know if schizophrenia is already in is brain and smoking makes it come out or can smoking cause someone to have schizophrenia ?
he has stop smoking because there is no one paying for it for him and he is just not around it everyone knows he should not be smoking so no one is really letting him do it anymore
he was never really a social media person and I haven’t seen any unusual posts but I will keep a lookout thank you for your help
he is very moody I would say especially with me he will block me and say he never wants to see me again and that I can’t contact or see him or his family ever again and then an hour or two later or the next day he will apologize and unblock me
That’s a question I have asked many times but no body knows , they say it can trigger schizophrenia… their moods changes very quickly , from being impulsive and angry and 2 hours later being ok … it’s a very hard disease and you need to try and take one day at a time .
There is a ton of research. If a person has a genetic predisposition to psychosis, any underlying sz type illness, marijuana makes symptoms much, much worse and makes the illness start earlier in life.
i was blocked from all communication for a few days, he added me back, blocked me again its pretty much a cycle. when i wasnt blocked i noticed alot of posting on social media but nothing too out of the ordinary that i could show his mom. he is currently living with her in delaware but spends alot of time alone because she is always working. he was not back to ‘normal’ but he was talking to me and seemed almost there but a little off. today i decided to ask how he was feeling and brought up going to a doctor (he had said he would/wanted to before) for his constant movement of hands because i wanted to see if it was getting better or if he was still doing it since im not there in person. he asked if i seriously thought something was wrong with him and that he should go to a doctor(he now said he only said would go bc i was asking him but he feels no need) after i said yes i think you should go just to see i am blocked on everything and have no communication with him