Thank you Patty. How is your son doing? I’m glad that he is able to turn himself around on his own.
Thank you Nick. It’s quit possible this whole not wanting to be healthy thing gets triggered by some thought/voice.
I was never a parent but I know that we all go through a period of rebelliousness when we are youths because that is the point in life where we start making life changing decisions of our own choosing so having anything that we are suppose to conform to(social standards and norms) is a complete turn off. I think from watching my siblings raising their kids that there is a time in their kids rebellious years to only lightly suggest alternative ways to choose from while not avoiding the fact that we all need to become self supportive in the not so distant future. So, in other words all we as parents can do at that point in their lives is to just say a prayer that everything will turn out OK.
hello, BarbieBF. I think it may have something to do with his sex drive. He might feel uncomfortable with those muitivitamins. I noticed men’s multivitamins teblets contains some ingredient that may increases men’s libido level, especially vitamin B group. I think ordinary muitivitamins is useful. But your son might not need men’s muiltivitamins as Olanzapine doesn’t reduce libido level.
Above is my guess. Hope it helps with your question.
Plus: BarbieBF, your son might have thought olanzapine increases his libido level and that’s the very reason for him to reject olanzapine. It’s not that he likes voices it’s that he could not bear the high level of libido.
He’s adjusted to his illness
Hi Barbie my son is doing ok… He is on meds since he’s been home since Dec.23 2014 and I am keeping my fingers cross he stays med compliant for awhile …I think him wanting to come home since last May in 2014 begging me everyday to come back home has helped a little to stay med compliant for awhile …I think he usually stays med compliant for a month after getting out of hospitals or long-term care. I hope and pray that your son decides on his own to get back on his other meds/vitamins…lots of prayers to u and your son!!!
I have heard this many times from others and experienced it with my son. I guess its a form of denial, but the symptom during illness presents as if I change my location(geography), then all of this goes away, because there is nothing wrong with me, its everything and everyone around me, Also, the medication is the only thing they feel they are in control of when they feel very out of control and don’t know how to fix it. It would be hard to control if your not accepting it. They are navigating a course that keeps moving out from under them.
Anosognosia is a term that is used in Schizophrenia and Bipolar illnesses. It is defined as person’s inability to recognize that they are ill. It is not the same as denial. It is very common in schizophrenia. Approximately 50% of schizophrenics have this behavior. The part of their brain that is responsible for the recognition of illness is damaged and they are unable to distinguish that they are sick. I have three schizophrenic siblings and everyone of them have experienced this in their psychosis. One is going through this now. Once they are stabilized, they can become aware of their illness.
This and my reply sums it up. Don’t try to save him, it’s so condensensing (?) and rude
Oh BarbieBF, this convo string is just making me so very sad… as I am in, what sounds like, a very, very similar situation with my 21 year old son. I love him so much and its killing me (and his dad and brother) to watch him get sicker and sicker as these years go on (this is his fourth year since becoming ill with terrible psychosis) both mentally and physically…and nothing and I mean nothing we or doctors or friends or anyone or any of the many, many meds he tries helps him or gives him any relief. I can hardly blame him for no longer caring about being healthy…but we have to!..we have to have hope…OMG OMG
Sorry @jackson8673 that you are in the same place… My son is 21, diagnosed in 2011. For a bit his pdoc and I tossed around the idea of psychosis NOS or drug induced however that is not the case. His sz was triggered by marijuana.
It is hard watching him relapse and not being able to do much to stop it. I agree with you that it’s easy to understand why my son or your son wouldn’t care about being healthy. And yes we still have to!
exactly the same then… my son is also 21. started hearing voices when he was 17 (in fact he turned 18 during that first hospitalization). He is actually in the hospital now and this is his 11th hospitalization… though two were from attempting suicide and one was in the burn unit from being in a house explosion where some boys were making ‘weed budder’ and my son didn’t quite understand and lit his lighter. Also diagnosed psychosis NOS (diagnosis has not been changed to sz (yet)…they say it was cannabis-induced. He will not stop smoking it…even after all that has transpired in such relatively short time. Anyway, sorry, this is not helpful to anyone and apologies for negative comments, its really not like me…bad day I guess
A little update… My son just got a new nurse through the PACT team who meet him yesterday and scheduled a home visit with his pdoc this morning. The pdoc just left. We are going to try adding Latuda instead of upping his Invega. My son seems to do better on low doses of two medications and his pdoc seems to agree with me on concerns of upping the Invega. Hopefully this will work. I must say I find it refreshing or comforting when my concerns or opinions regarding medications are taken into account. Means I’m on the right track So fingers crossed!
@BarbieBF It is nice when you get a good one!
J.
He says these things because he is ill. There is no motivation behind his illogical statements they are a bi product of a mental embalance. The medicines he is on are either not at their peak effectiveness or another medicine or medicines need to be explored. His doctor should know about his behaviors. My son did the same thing. When he was ill and while he was on other medications (before he got on the one that worked currently) He had no care for health or wellness or safety or anything and he would say he wanted to be homeless nearly every day. It took me a long while and taking the Family to Family class with NAMI (which is extremely educational) to finally realize you cannot assign a logical reason to the behaviors of a mentally ill person who by the nature of the illness will remain illogical at least until the proper medication is found. . Even with my son’s current remission of his voices and visions and with the return of more normal and understandable speech he will still occasionally say irrational things, not nearly as often anymore but he doesn’t act on anything he just says them and for a minute I am dumbfounded and then I move on as does he, and I thank the medication for that. I would suggest as a veteran of this process that the first priority has to be getting his mind stable and if his current doctor is not committed to that then he needs another doctor who is. As long as he is safe from harm and eats and drinks something enough to get by, I would suspend my efforts to get him in a ‘physically healthier place’ JUST until he is mentally stable because efforts to change his physical health habits while he is still hearing voices only serve to cause him more stress and anxiety which I know you do not intend at all. I did the same thing you did with the health and I learned that it made matters worse. Now that my son is more stable (it took almost 5 years of trial and error before we got the right solution) Now he is conscious more of his physical health -not great-but better-and he goes to the gym with me, he would still rather live on candy and ice cream and sit in his easy chair all day with the remote but he is able to be more reasonable about it now and he makes an effort at least 5 out 7 days a week. He also had addictive behaviors with drugs-pills or alcohol --anything really -before he got stable and it was a persistent fight to keep everything away from him BUT once he was mentally stable his efforts to get high or stoned faded away quickly-he later admitted he would do anything to silence the voices and now that they were virtually gone he felt so much better so he has been clean and sober now for almost 7 years. Everyone is different but sometimes there are similarities. Good luck to you and your son. I hope my story helps a little. Thanks for sharing
Agreed. Psychosis is extremely difficult to experience. People who appear to outsiders not to be doing much are working very hard just to get through each day.