I am praying I can take my mom and son to the beach. My mom needs a break and son a different scene. I pray we get to go
My son has had medication added. He does not talk as much.latuda. I hope he is ok.
@hopeforsonā¦Group homes can be very good places for helping schizophrenics get their feet back on the ground. Theyre not one bit as restrictive as hospital, you have a lot more freedom and staff (social workers/ psych nurses) help the patients get back on their feet. You should give it a try.
Itās like anything. There are good ones and not so good ones. My son was in one with an overworked psychiatrist. He saw them on tv and not effective. My son could hardly talk. He sees a better doctor in ga at my moms. I wish I could get a job near mama. I wish we could find a good group home. He wants to be at home. He is afraid of group homes after the one he was in,
Unfortunately, he was not accepted into the group home due to ordering the drugs off the Internet. And he really didnāt want to go. They are not going to accept anyone that isnāt there totally voluntarily. So he came home and there was another psychotic breakdown and the police had to be called. I think they are bringing charges against him ā we meet w/attorney this week. Of course, heās still in hospital and doing much better. They are trying different things ā Abilify, and a different anti-depressant.
Nickā¦ was there anything in particular that made you come to the realization that you were not well?..Itās difficult to try to treat a 28 year old that believes everyone else is āsickā but not the people that love themā¦so frustrating to see the despair and isolationā¦thanks for any insight
dear ant, a schizophrenic will never realize he isnāt well if itās been a while that they are delusional. Only meds from a pschiatrist and observation will get him stable again.
Sorry, this probably wonāt help. It was no big dramatic moment that I realized I was sick, no big epiphany. I had been in my first psyche ward when I was 19. I stayed two weeks and then from there my parents arranged for me to move into Soteria House, a world famous home for schizophrenics. Their belief was that schizophrenics could recover without hospitalizations or medication. Anyway, I was living in this house but I didnāt believe anything was wrong with me, but the paradox was that I was suffering pretty badly. After several months there my parents set up an appointment with a friends brother who was a psychiatrist with a private practice.Both my parents and me went there and all three of us sat in his office talking. I forget the conversation but my parents were very worried about me. The psychiatrist had my parents leave the room so he could talk to me alone. I remember the psychiatrist saying something like, āYour parents think you are very sick and that you have big problemsā.
I replied,āThereās nothing wrong with me, they are the ones with the problemsā And I seriously believed this. And we left shortly after that. My parents took me back to Soteria. I remember a few months later my parents we going to pick me for a visit with them. My delusions at the time were that I was a genius, that I was āperfectā, and nothing was wrong with me. I seriously believed this. But I think the visit with the psychiatrist had planted a seed in my mind that maybe I was wrong and that maybe him and parents were right. After much suffering it dawned on me that something wasnāt right and that maybe since I was in a house for schizophrenics with people who had schizophrenia and had some prominent delusions that just maybe I was schizophrenic too. So thatās my story. Good luck to you and your son.
Sorryā¦ seems I have to learn how to navigate this siteā¦ my question was in responsen to something way aboveā¦
Thank you SOOO much for your quick responseā¦I feel like I am dying a little bit every day seeing him in his own worldā¦he began meds and treatment with a psychiatrist and psychotherapist but recently announced that I canāt āmakeā him take medsā¦ āgoā for treatment" or āget him out of the houseāā¦ which is NOT what I WANT to doā¦ but its soooo frustratingā¦he tooā¦ tells the psychiatrists that WE his family are psychoticā¦LovE my son (have 3 other adult children) that LOVE him too and I guess finding this site has made things a bit better knowing I am NOt aloneā¦
By the wayā¦ why and how was it and under what circumstances did you enter your first psyche ward?
In 1980 when I was 18 I was renting an apartment with my sister. I had not been acting like myself for a awhile before that. No one suspected it was a mentally illness though. But my mom told me years later that she thought something was wrong with me in high school but she didnāt know what it was. But anyway I was smoking a lot of marijuana and I was also taking LSD. When I say I was not myself, I mean I was hanging out and mingling with people who I had no business being around. Criminals and hardcore druggies. Also, even though I barely said two words to any girl during high school I thought I was cool to women leading to embarrassing mistakes like asking beautiful women out on dates a couple time or trying to pick up on other women. I didnāt do anything horrendously wrong with women, but it was all awkward and so unlike me.I was (and am) very shy. I was also hanging around people I was petrified of, and going places where I was frightened of.and helping these people rob cars and steal gas. In one sense it was normal (except for stealing) but I always felt so out of place in the situations I got myself into. Anyway, while living with my sister apartment I started having agoraphobic attacks. Going into a supermarket was painful y scary and brought on minor panic attacks. But throughout this time I almost always had a job but at work I was out of my mind with fear.Of what? Of other people I guessā¦ It all came to a head when I took too much acid one day. I freaked out for 8 hours and it gave me a massive headache which lasted for 7 months. Anyway, I lost my friends and started isolating and staying inside. I was never the same after the LSD and I believed it triggered my schizophrenia and Iāve never been the same since. So I had to moved back in with my parents when I was about 19 1/2. I had a few jobs but I lost them and I started staying inside and watching TV all day and I was afraid to go outside.Which I hid from my parents.I canāt remember the exact circumstances but my parents started having me see a therapist. Now you think I would be upset or freak out about all this crazinessā¦But in a sense I was taking all this in stride. It was my new normal. I started seeing the therapist (a real cute, nice, young women) once a week. I drove my parents car there but on the way there I used to get as close to oncoming traffic as I could. It was scary but Iām eternally grateful that I did not hit someone and hurt anyone. Anyway I saw this therapist for 6 months. In between visits I was hanging around our downtown area which at the time was pretty wild with hookers, and street people, and druggies. Again I was out of place and had no business being there. When I was seeing this therapist the whole time, I never really told her what was going on with me.I was getting increasingly sicker but I put on a good front. but one day a psychiatrist sat in our meeting and when he saw the state I was in he called an emergency meeting with my parents me, him, and the therapist. The psychiatrist determined that I should be admitted to a psyche ward. I remember my therapist cried when he said this because she had NO idea I was in such poor condition. So thatās basically it.
Thank you Nick for your quick and timely repliesā¦my heart is broken seeing my son going through thisā¦ Am SOO glad to have found this site ,and to not feel sooo alone in my journey to find him help
Everybody has a different story, no two cases are exactly alike. But you will find people on here whoās children have lost so much because of this disease and who can emphasize with you and understand. And offer support. Some of us do get better though. Good luck.
Dear Jukeboxā¦ Finally got him into our community mental health center to speak with the psychiatrist who prescribed meds (Seroquel)ā¦ he had been steadily attending sessions with the psychotherapist weekly and psychiatrist for about 6 weeks then abruptly announced that I canāt āmakeā him take drugsā¦ see the therapists ā¦ or remove him from our home, which was never discussedā¦its so frustrating as I thought I had observed some positive although slow changesā¦ he claims the drug made him dizzy and sleepy and interferes with the job he just got as a valet at a hospital parking cars. Now he is just mad and nasty to everyone in the householdā¦ any suggestions?
Hi @ant930. Welcome to the forum.
My son is 20. Currently living at a shelter while we try to get him into a group home. He decided to go off one of medications, Invega, and things went downhill.
Not recognizing that he needs medications or has schizophrenia is fairly common. I try not to argue with my son over medications or even if he has schizophrenia or not. One day my son got mad at me for trying to āfixā him which helped me to change my approach. I had his nurse at the time talk to him about what the medications are trying to do which is regulate neurotransmitters in the brain. I believe my sonās brain produces too much dopamine. We havenāt argued about him having schizophrenia since before that. We are not trying to āfixā him, we are trying to help his brain regulate itself better. We also discuss medications in terms of anxiety relief. Even though my son went off his Invega he is still taking his Clozapine and Lithium. I canāt make him take them so I donāt argue with him about it.
Using LEAP does help. Itās not a cure or fast solution but it does help with communication.
http://www.leapinstitute.org/ - under resources are free videos on using LEAP
LEAP is a way of communicating to build trust. Listen-Empathize-Agree-Partner.
http://dramador.com/ - Dr. Xavier Amador is a clinical psychologist whose brother had schizophrenia. He is the founder of the LEAP Institute. Wrote the book: Iām Not Sick I Donāt Need Help! Can buy from his website.
Search Xavier Amador and LEAP on youtube.com and you should find some long videos
Treatment Advocacy Center - under problems you will see anosognosia
Anosognosia looks like denial but is different.
Bayes for Schizophrenics: Reasoning in Delusional Disorders - LessWrong - helped my understand delusions
http://www.nami.org/ - National Alliance on Mental Illness.
http://www.schizophrenia.ca/ - Schizophrenia Society of Canada
Can also find some very useful information here:
When my son is not stable he has a tendency to transfer or put all of his negativity onto me. He canāt see that it is originating from himself so itās logical for him to blame me. Itās like: If I feel like my mom is going to do this and that feeling is so strong then it must be true that she is going to do this or has done this. He would walk into a room stating how it was filled with negative energy when it was completely peaceful before he walked in. Currently he is in a shelter as things got out of control at home. He would tell me that he wanted me to kick him out then tell otherās that āmom wants to kick me outā.
I did look into how to discipline ADHD and Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Some of the guidelines were very useful on boundary setting and walking away from negative attitude.
http://forum.schizophrenia.com/t/oppositional-defiant-disorder-odd-and-ad-hd/8922
I hope some of this helps.
Thank you ALL for your replies and suggestions!.. Just FINDING this site has lifted my belief that Iām not alone and that there is hope! Have a blessed Sunday!
My son was better for three months. He had a medicine change because of diabetes and talks to self in room. We are not present. Doctor claims alright. I feel he is in another world. I am heart broken. Heās still living with mom. I canāt find job. I am about to move him to Alabama where the doctor is worse. If we canāt get better why stress my mother
I had that too in college. I just never made it to the appointment with the psychiatrist, so I suffered through it for 7 more years.
Sorry for hijacking the thread everyone.
Did you talk to your parents? We love my son. He is in another world. I want him to manage the voices. He may not be able to. I took him to eat out tonight. He ate his food and thanked me. He talked to voices when we got home. I am praying.
I am coming to accept for now that for my son, managing his voices may mean that he goes into his room and talks with them, rather than in the company of other people. We accept that for now, but continue to work on drawing him out of his head. Yesterday we went to a rather crowded street art fair. He chose to go, and he was a little irritable, but otherwise fine, and I think getting him out to a new and interesting activity that felt ānormalā to him was great for him.
Seroquel made me sleepy in the beginningā¦well, the first year. Now I have more pills to sleep on.
When did he take the Seroquel? Meds making you sleepy is best to take in the evening. You will sleep well and not get the munchies. Sedating meds will make you hungry. HUNGRY. Nothing you eat will make the hunger go away. Zyprexa is another med that you should take in the evening.
Has he tried Abilify? Itās expensive, but if it works for him itās a great med. It made me unzombified and connected to my feelings and thoughts again. Iām not where I was before I got ill but Iām on my way. Abilify helps a lot. Compared to the other stuff Iāve had. But one bad thing is that it doesnāt get rid of the voices.