My brother was just diagnosed with bi polar schizophrenia he has been on 2 different medications. The 1st round of meds helped him but the Dr said since his symptoms are not any better we need to change his meds. These meds he is on now don’t seem to be helping at all. His delusions are worse, he doesn’t remember what is going on around him or what he has done. example he took my car with my kids and drove to the hospital to see my sister who he said someone was coming over the radio telling him she was in danger. He never told me he was leaving or taken my kids. When I got to him and I asked what happened he was out of it. He didn’t remember how he got there or where he was. He thinks there is people under the house if I try to talk to him and get on his level it just makes it worse. We are all knew to this and we are still learning. But I think he has schizophrenia active and not schizophrenia bi polar. Is there any thing we can do to try and help him or ask the Dr.
Oh my, that must have been very scary for you for your brother to take your kids and your car like that. I am glad that no one was hurt. You should call the doctor as soon as you can and report what happened. Has your brother ever been hospitalized for his illness? It was ONLY going in the hospital that resulted in my daughter being on the right med.
Meds are funny (odd) in that they don’t always work the same for each person who needs medicated. My daughter’s med (Haldol) was a miracle drug for her after 3 years of active hallucination/delusion. But for others on this site, Haldol was not helpful or even was harmful with side effects. She went through 4 or 5 different meds before staying on Haldol.
Diagnoses are also funny (odd) as doctors can change them from Schiz to BiPolar to “unspecified psychosis” as they see their patients more or as the patient changes doctors.
The most important thing to me is simply what helps the loved one and what doesn’t. You have to let the doctors know what helps and what doesn’t and what new behaviors are showing up. And if you get your brother to sign a release that his doctors can talk to you, that is a game-changer.
Keep coming on this site, if you are new to care-giving to a person with schizophrenia or bipolar, as there is a wealth of information here. And people who know the struggles you and your family are going through. And care. I learned a lot from the book “I’m not Sick, I Don’t Need Help” by Dr. Amador, and from family-to-family classes by NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness).
Hopefully he will keep seeing his psychiatrist and they will find the right meds for him. I believe that bipolar schizophrenia is called schizoaffective disorder which is a combination of bipolar and schizophrenia.
I take it that he lives with you. Maybe you should make sure he does not have access to your car keys. You could say that you don’t feel comfortable about him driving around with your kids until the meds are better.
You don’t say the ages of your children, but out of an abundance of caution, maybe he should not be left alone with them for the time-being. If you have to be out of the house could you drop them off somewhere?
Tell doctor, what is going on.
Sometimes you have to try different ones to find the one that works. But are you sure he is taking his meds?