Much luck to you all…
Hi
You say you’re someone “who’s in the same position as we are”, but that can’t possibly be true. The THC in pot makes schizophrenic psychosis a million times worse.
You’re on the wrong forum.
I am sorry @RBaker to say that I agree completely with @Day-by-Day. Cannabis/THC massively exacerbates psychosis and may be a large contributing to factor to the onset of many cases of psychosis and even sz. The science on this is excellent.
If your family member got better from detox and using cannabis, happily, they do not have schizophrenia or any severe mental illness I have heard of.
Best to you!
I felt the same way, for awhile…Then I noticed that the weed was not lessening his symptoms of paranoia and delusions. He was not able to not function because of the auditory hallucinations. And even worse he was becoming violent and destructive. I really hated the way he suffered and hoped that the weed would help, but I noticed no difference and only worsening of his symptoms. He had smoked weed for many years and there was no improvement in his symptoms just worsening.
I too hate the way that his medications affect him. He has had a huge weight gain and moves slowly. But he is not suffering, his hallucinations and muted and he is able focus while on medications. I would like to believe that he is getting his life back on track. He has a responsible psy who is reducing his meds slowly.
He has been “weed free” for 1 year. I have seem greater improvement while he has been on medications this year that in the previous 10 years on weed.
I’m sorry you were offended with what was said. Each of us share a common connection but individual situations can be different. I know pot didn’t work for my grandson. It scared him badly and then we read the research about the THC and what it does. I’m trying to encourage him to research CBD (without THC). I read an article the other day about people with schizophrenia have low levels of CBD and it helps. My grandson fears it will have the same effect as the pot but hoping he will at least be open to researching it. He hates his meds from the dr but gets worse if he’s off them so I am hoping CBD will ease his symptoms. Perhaps your son will try the CBD since research does show that THC isn’t the right thing for this condition. Good luck.
Easy RBaker, you are addressing well respected members of this forum. Every now and then someone lands here who wants to help all of us by letting us know how things worked for their specific family member.
We are all happy for you and your son that he is doing so well. We have to be cautious about people announcing cure-alls for our family members. Some of our members are struggling to get past the “denial” stage. We can’t distract their processing progress with false hopes based on successes that are undocumented and involve people who are, basically, undiagnosed with scz. Such things hurt the validity of our forum.
Take care.
My daughters doctor asked if she smoked pot earlier in her life.He is saying that there is a connection between pot and schziophernia.
I personally like sarcosine by Profrontal. My daughter does well on that and she hates the anti psychotics.
I have to second those who said pot is detrimental to those PS diagnosed. I have to ask if your son has been definitely diagnosed. My son smoked pot in high school. He drank excessively after school. He may have been trying to self medicate because of the onset of PS. He had the delusion pot would cure him.
I have read the heartbreaking stories on here of children not medicated and my heart goes out to them. You must realize we are not being judgemental. We only share our experiences in hopes of helping.
My son is on Invega and no longer drinks or smokes. If one could compare the before and after, it could be seen as a miracle. The caretakers, medical professionals and therapists all combined helped my son. It is never one solution. I hope you the best.
I’m pretty well done with you too. This board is not for giving medical advice. It’s for giving support. We swap experiences about our family members’ treatment. We don’t advocate particular drugs or crackpot therapies like “detoxing”. (How can someone talk about “detox” and smoking anything at the same time? Any kind of burning substance is toxic to the lining of your lungs.) And @firemonkey very kindly supplies us with plentiful links to proper, peer-reviewed scientific papers, including those which contradict everything you advocate. I personally never take advice from anybody who talks about “detoxing”. Because it’s garbage, not science. I am also unconvinced that you are a carer for someone with a psychosis spectrum disorder? Why? Complete absence in your posts of any of the sheer anguish everyone else here shows. You post like someone who isn’t really much bothered. It was me who flagged your sales pitch and I’m not ashamed of it
Kellyshayne, I have been considering sarcocine trial for my son who has SZ (perhaps just adding it in addition to his injection) could you please share a bit more about what your daughters experience with sarcocine has been?
First, does she have SZ diagnosis, and what severity or main symptoms (that is voices/hallucinations or mainly cognitive/disorganized ?
is she on any psych meds at all or only the sarcocine?
what symptoms have been reduced with the sarcocine?
grateful to hear more of your and her experience
My oldest Son smokes pot and just had a psychotic break… We definitely have different views on pot. I think it’s very harmful. Best of luck to your Son.
I am glad to hear about the success your son is experiencing, but in our case, weed exacerbated my son’s condition and resulted in catatonic psychosis–twice. Not only is it terrifying but also it is so serious that if left untreated leads to kidney failure and then death. (Has anyone else’s family member experienced catatonic psychosis?)
I am interested in learning more about the benefits of CBD oil (derived from marijuana) and the uses of other natural substances. I now have two of Dr. Abram Hoffer’s books and soon will delve in but meanwhile am wondering about others’ experiences.
Also, an update: My son has now been hospitalized three times beginning in Dec. '17 but still suffers from anosognosia. The last time, he accepted an Invega shot as a means to be sprung
quickly, but he was supposed to get a second month’s shot three days ago, but of course does not believe he is ill and refused to go. His dad, with whom he lives, is already seeing the signs of decompensation, and we live in constant heartbreak and fear. The irony is that he seemed to be doing really well on it after a few weeks (I’ve read that it takes two to three months to reach full efficacy), so now he will lose all the gains he had made. Does anyone else have a family member on Invega?
With thanks to all for your kindness, wisdom, and support.
Hi Deborah, Our family member does well on AP injections. It took a long time and there are unwanted side effects, but the injections have helped diminish symptoms of psychosis so much.
I think the first episode was catatonia-lite almost because person would move, but not speak, if we helped and it only lasted about ten or eleven days. But never the full experience your family had to go through.
My daughter used to the the formula from Profrontal, you must Google it. I cannot out a link without the staff here thinking i am any advertiser. 2 in the morning and 2 at night, rather 1 from each Bottle morning and night. Since then she thinks she is healed and quit taking it. She was just in the hospital for two wks but doesn’t think there is anything wrong with her, even though she does hear voices and does of things. Her newest thing is streaking when she thinks no one is watching. She thinks God wants her to.
Other daily symptoms are just sitting in her room doing nothing all day, being unresponsive, shaving ore cutting her hair off, being unable to keep a conversation for more than a few minutes, hearing voices, mumbling when things are really bad, leaving the house for hours without shoes or her phone. Not caring about cleanliness, unable to clean up after herself even when i ask immediately.
I have to wait until after the next hospitalization before i can get guardianship. Then i will apply her for ssdi. Then i will have to give her a choice between profrontal or meds. She is super smart and used to have her own business before her illness.
My son is on Invega pill form 6 mg daily. He is med compliant and actually takes it himself without supervision. This has taken a year of (3 voluntary inpatient hospitalizations) therapy, family intervention and lots of listening, love and patience.
Invega has been a miracle. It took 3 weeks to a month for him to totally settle out. Fatigue is one side effect we struggled with. He takes it in the morning now as opposed to night which has helped. It has dampened the delusions. Maybe they are still there? But he seems to be able to think through it now. The difference is this- from a son who scared us constantly, was unpredictable and worried us to death to having our son back- dependable, sensible and offering to help.
Getting your son medicated takes you, therapy, medical professionals and deep down in him will be himself wanting to be more normal. I wish you Deborah the very best. Invega may or may not be the answer, but Love will find the solution.
As a side note. In my son’s case and studies bare this out- Marijuana is detrimental to PS. It is self medication at its worst.
Thank you all for sharing. I too had hopes that marijuana would help my 26 year old, but as the one person who knows him really well and has spent the past five years supporting him since his diagnosis, I must say that the weed heightens his symptoms and makes him worse. If and when he takes his meds, I feel like I have my dear sweet son back. When he’s not on meds and is smoking marijuana because HE thinks it helping…hmmm he is definitely not the person I have birth to. So marijuana is a negative not a positive in this family.
It There is a lot of research that indicates that higher THC (the key drug that people buy Marijuana cannabis for - to get the “high”, is very bad for people who might be predisposed to schizophrenia:
To see more of this research just search on the news forum for “cannabis” - see this link:
But - there is new research that suggests that one compound commonly found in cannabis / marijuana might be helpful for schizophrenia:
Hi Deborah
We recently experienced something we thought could be catatonia, but the psych doc at the hospital explained that it was actually “selective mutism”, likely due to extreme anxiety. Apparently, people will just “shut down”, as a defense mechanism. It literally started the moment we walked into the ER for voluntary hospitalization.
Our son was experiencing a relapse, even after being on Invega Sustenna 156 mg for 6 months. I took him to the ER. His last words were “Am I doing the right thing?”. I said “Yes”. Then boom. It was 7 days of shut down. We had never seen anything like this. It was very upsetting to say the least.
Needless to say, when this happened in the ER, the voluntary hospitalization ended up being another involuntary hospitalization.