I fear that my son may be suffering from schizophrenia. It started in November 2014, he was 16 years old. He had some sort of melt down at his dad’s house. He was asking if he was going to die, and then he sat on the floor and cried, started asking questions like: Is my mom okay? where is my mom? where is my dad? is my sisters and brothers okay? His dad had left to work a few hours before that and he was at the house with his step mom and step brother. His dad left work when he got the call from his wife, when he got home and my son asked him where he was and if he had another family. The next day is when I found out. My older daughter brought my son home, when he spoke to me he was asking if the family was okay and if his dad was moving. At that moment I knew something was not right with my son. To me it seemed like he had maybe took something like a hallucinogenic so I took him to the ER, he seemed very nervous when we were waiting he thought someone was watching him, he would bust out laughing for no reason, looking over his shoulder like someone was there. I seen him go through so many different emotions that day, I have never witnessed this type of behavior from my son before. The ER Dr. asked me if my son was schizophrenic, I told him no and he suggested that I have him evaluated. I was in total shock, I did not expect to hear that! They tested him for drugs he tested positive for marijuana. I set him up an appointment with a Psychiatrist, she talked to him, prescribed medication. It is now two months later and my son is refusing to take the medication, he says nothing is wrong with him, my husband and I have tried talking to him even to just let him know we are here for him, my son just does not want to talk about it, he gets upset. He hadn’t gone to school for the first three weeks, he stays up all night long, paces back and forth, isolates himself in his room, he is no longer social, he doesn’t let us give him a hair cut. He looks so lost! One day he kept telling me to give him his money for about a good 30 minutes he repeated himself over and over. Another day he told me not to worry about him because he was a professional athlete and he was very serious. The other day right after school he decided to leave and walk home, we live quite a ways he has never done that, my husband found him walking along the highway and when we asked him why did he decide take off like that he said he didn’t know. There are days when he seems okay, but not himself. He was the type to always be messing around with his brothers/sisters laughing, making jokes, playing sports, boxing, watching movies with us, going to school getting good grades. He started going to school at least 3 times out of the week, his grades are deteriorating, he doesn’t look well, I fear for my son! He finally agreed to take the medication, he took it last night (seroquel 100mg) The Dr. has only seen him twice she has not given him a diagnoses she just tells me that there is something going on! Can anyone please tell me if their son/daughter at the age of 16 experienced similar behavior. My son just turned 17, I do not want to lose him, I feel like nobody is listening and I don’t feel like I am getting the help I need for him! Please Help
Unless he is having hallucinations, probably not. Watch out for the meds BTW. They can be hard on the body.
Christ
ignore the above post!!!
I have started schizophrenia at that age and have had a similar pattern. He needs meds - as you know there is no other way to get well.
I"m very sorry but it does sound a lot like schizophrenia Talk to a psychiatrist try to get him into a hospital as an informal patient - that is what they call a consential section for 72 hrs, then they can assess him
It’s important that he gets some time in hospital or takes meds probably for the rest of his life.
Hospital isn’t always easy to get into, this is a good forum, ignore the anti meds brigade
I’m 40 now and i have a lot of experience of psychosis from my own my sister’s and my best friend’s schizophrenia
I have so much information on the subject, but i’m in the uk and i don’t know where you are… in a crisis myself, but please ask me anything
yes @CloudDog I am growing to hate Daimon more and more.
You have to bully the psychiatrists a lot…
you have to jump through hoops, you need to basically arm your self for a long battle against a system that is under funded and is basically inadequate
You have to learn, speak to people with the experience you are in a good forum…
jukebox, there needs to be a consensus against i think, at least in words, thx for your post
lt could be drug induced psychosis/meltdown, only time will tell. but having him evaluated and re-evaluated later would be good.
Thanks level J1, perspective, it’s easy for me to see schiz on every side i’m possibly biased
psychiatrists are the people to get your son to talk to
I wouldn’t rush into labeling my kid schizophrenic without it even being confirmed that they hallucinate in the first place. Either way, the kid is on the medications they use to treat schizophrenia, so there you go, but why rush to give them such a stigmatizing label.
I am not labeling my son, I am merely expressing my concern of the behavior I am witnessing. Which is why I would like to know about other situations that may be similar. Yes, he has been prescribed the medication which he took last night but refuses tonight.
That is because this class of medication is heavy duty and no one wants to take it unless they absolutely have to. If I were you I would make sure it is a minimal dose at this point and look at my options when it comes to antipsychotics. Some have less side effects than others.
You gotta do whatever you can to prevent a full psychotic break. Take action quickly no holds bar see a professional. Full breaks can take years to recover.
@CloudDog thank u out for the info. So far I have learned I need to stay on top of the psychiatrist. She mentioned when he has a melt down again I should have him committed so he can be evaluated. However, I can’t imagine doing that to my son at this point, I can’t imagine the horror he is experiencing at this point I feel I would only make it worse if I did that.
I don’t know the laws in your state, but you could consider injections. That would break a lot of trust though.
@ Daimon, believe me I am very sceptical of the medication, especially since the Psychiatrist only seen him that one time and then prescribed that medicine. I didn’t want to shove pills down his throat but at this point almost three months later I don’t see him making much progress on his own, and we are really worried!
Does he have any strange beliefs? If you could do counseling for your son you might get more info on where he is at and a possible diagnosis.
@ Daimon he refuses to talk to me or the psychiatrist, he insists he is good but his actions say different. I don’t believe he has any strange beliefs I do know that he is really paranoid and questions everything.
you wouldn’t be doing anything to your son i’ve spent a year and a half in total in acute wards and i have my family and friends who pushed for me to be admitted which i thank them for, and at times even when i was going in it was a relief…
psychiatrists and nurses in a hospital is a horrendous idea - i usually quite enjoy my time away from the world in a bizarre way, I’ve been well 8 - 9 yrs now and believe me i’d be dead without hospital