My 20 year old son recently had a psychotic break & was admitted to the hospital. I believe that in some level he knew he was sick and was trying to cure himself, naturally. He was obsessed & fixated on taking many different nutritional supplements, many of which we discovered were stimulants and sedatives. Lots of mushrooms. His psychiatrist told us he cannot take them because they have mind-altering effects. (Which May have induced the psychotic break) … He was recently discharged & is in outpatient care. He already got more of the supplements & refuses to take his resperdal. Does anyone have experience with this?
There are all kinds of herbs that stimulate energy and, in general, stimulants can increase psychosis. Maybe even just because there is less sleep?
It would be good for him to prioritize a healthy diet, moderate exercise, and adequate sleep if he won’t take medication. If he has a severe version of a psychotic disorder, he will pretty quickly run out of money and be unable to work, so he will not have money to buy the “mind-altering” supplements. Then you can just buy him the supplements listed on the main page of this site:
“Vitamins and supplements that seem to help people who have schizophrenia or psychosis:” The clinical evidence supporting their use is on the main page if you click the “Home” button in the upper left corner and then, on that page, click on the vitamin name for details:
Sarcosine
D-Serine
N-Acetyl cysteine (NAC)
Melatonin
D-Alanine
B-Vitamins
Omega-3 for Prevention
Prenatal Choline for Prevention
Magnesium and probiotics are also helpful. Also D-3 and C.
It’s really common for people with psychosis to refuse medication. My family member refused for years. I’m sorry for your son’s illness and that your family is going through this.
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Thank you for sharing & for your kind words! Makes sense… I did get him a good multi-vitamin, as recommended by his Dr. He really liked that.
His Dr. is recommending a chemical dependency/substance abuse rehab for him, but we are not sure he will qualify (as these are not illegal drugs or alcohol) or if it will help him.
Were the mushrooms the psychedelic kind or the supplements from health food stores? Psychedelic mushrooms would qualify as substance use… The doctor might have misinterpreted the type of mushrooms?
Health is really important for everyone, but especially to recover from psychosis. It can take a long time to recover and any amount of stable support and good daily sustenance will help.
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We did discover the psychedelic kind of mushrooms he had hidden, but are not certain he took them. He had all different kinds of ‘healthy’ mushrooms… like one called Lions Mane. That’s one that his Dr. was very concerned about it. That’s one of the first things he got when he was discharged from the hospital. So, the mushrooms and then the not taking medicine have worried me because it feels like we are going backwards. 
You are right. I hope it does help him.
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My adult daughter stopped her medicine, and all of the supplements recommended by a pharmacist who has researched various non-prescription pills available. The medicine helped tremendously, and the supplements somewhat. She is now stuck on only taking “Standard Process” supplements suggested by a muscle testing chiropractor. She is regressed to staying in her room 90% of her awake time talking to her voices; she lost the job she got after her last forced hospitalization while still under the effects of a depot injection; she does very little in life. I have consigned myself to having her live in my house this way until I die, as she will not seek any type of help, and has turned down each program offered to her after 4 forced hospitalizations. I have good health insurance for her (three years now) but she won’t see even a general practitioner. I cannot make her homeless, I just can’t. At least your son sees a psychiatrist. I have no suggestion for helping him other than perhaps finding a natural pharmacy like the one in my town. She works for 2 hospitals as chief pharmacist, but loves providing natural supplements. She has her own store and does free phone or in person conversations to recommend homeopathics, detoxes, and supplements. They helped my daughter’s psychosis, and I got my own recommendation for items helping me to keep my own sanity in battling this horrible mental illness my daughter has.
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Sounds like my son. He experimented with many drugs… psychedelic… etc… natural anything… I think self medicating…I’m thankful my son gets an invega injection… it’s been 2 years since his break. I do think he still smokes marijuana… though he claims it’s hemp. Prayers for u and your family 
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So much love to you & your daughter! Sounds like you are an amazing support for her, even if she’s not accepting it you provide her with a safe place to live.
I want my son to come home, but I have a young child at home. We need the psychosis under control in order for him to come home, so as not to risk traumatizing his younger brother or putting him in danger with another psychotic break. It feels like we are in a loop, when he doesn’t take the meds and gets the herbs. I see the symptoms escalate pretty quickly. He will run out of money to buy the supplements soon, he’s been out of work for a month.
He’s in a temporary group home while he’s in outpatient and it’s breaking my heart. I’m doing my best to stay hopeful that he will cooperate with treatment so he can come home.
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Thank you. Prayers for you & yours, too! It does seem like a way for them to self-medicate with that natural stuff, right? My son told me it made the ‘sounds’ go away, believes it was a “cure”, but it didn’t. It seemed to make it worse… or at least more obvious to others. His are not voices that he talks to, but helicopters and things, mostly, that distract him.
I’m glad the injection is helping your son. I will see if I can advocate for that. Thank you
Hello Ohana, Thank you for the love and compliment to me. Sometimes I feel so ineffective.
I totally understand why your older son is not living at home. I have a friend who raised a mentally ill daughter at home and it severely affected her younger brother. Finally, they had to move her out. It is 7 years later and she is medicated, in a stable relationship, and doing well. It was her boyfriend who got her to stay on medicine, once they’d met and become serious. Her younger now-19 year old brother is of an age to understand what happened to her, but back then, when he was young, it was terrible for him. My daughter is lucky that my home is big enough and I learned enough about schizophrenia that I can support her emotionally and financially. I am lucky that she is not violent even when totally un-medicated, but I actually long for her to take medicine as it returned her to herself for 6 weeks (the last medicine was a depot injection), yet she has absolutely no insight. We all do the best we can. It is a very hard road. I hope that both of our children will someday decide to seek proper treatment or at least natural supplements that actually help. If your son wanted to, he could (or you could) have a phone conference with my local pharmacist, as mentioned in my prior post. Love to you and your family, and to everyone touched by schizophrenia.
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Thank you. I hope so, too.
It’s always uplifting hear stories of those who have been able to lead a normal life & be open to treatment.
Yes. If you could the pharmacist info, it couldn’t hurt. Thank you again for your support — all of you here — and understanding. It means so much to me. I’m feeling like I’ve only enabled him to stay stuck, feeling very ineffective. I love him so much & I know he’s in there somewhere, but I can’t seem to reach him. The lucid moments are few and far between.
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@ohana this link is for you. She can help sooooo many things. See below.
Yes, we all look forward to the lucid moments. It seems the more I can get myself to calm down, the more of those lucid moments my daughter has with me.
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I would take legal action against the chiropractor on the ground that in giving medical advice she practiced medicine, which she is not qualified to do and in doing so she left you with a greater financial burden and emotional damages. Quacks need to start paying for wrecking people’s lives with their deluded narcissism
Hoo-boy, do I ever have experience with this.
My son was experimenting with several things, including 'shooms. But he also spent, probably quite literally, thousands of dollars on a variety of supplements, and we went thru several years of non-compliance about his prescribed meds.
He now takes his prescribed med, and tho he still takes supplements, I feel all of them fall into the range of reasonable additions to his medication - a good multivitamin, fish oil, and a few other things.
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