Dear All,
My cousin is suffering with depression since 10 years. I think this is due to schizophrenia but not sure please find his symptoms & suggest whether these perceptions are wrong and could you please guide him with realistic examples so that he can understand they are wrong due to his negative thinking.
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He has moved to different jobs thinking that his colleagues are abusing him. Even though when his colleagues talk to each other he feel like they are discussing about him or discussing about his past things. He is hearing voices in public, at office, while traveling on road, abusive voices from Television, At home…etc every time he says people are abusing him all the time. Sometimes he suspects his parents are abusing him as well.
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He says somebody has kept a memory chip in his brain or electronic device by doing an satellite surveillance to monitor him closely. What ever he thinks in his mind people knew it ahead…
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He is single…can he get married ? will he face any complications to get into a relation. Please suggest.
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Suffering with lack of sleep , unable to recollect things which leads to memory loss, No personal care, lack of concentration.
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He doesn’t believe in people or god even his family as well. What ever he thinks he used to do & be in those assumptions. Not an optimistic believer & thinks in life nothing good has happened from past 10 years. He has very few friends & doesn’t mix well in public & be an isolated person.
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We have used All kind of medicines, visited different doctors to get cured. After starting using allopathy he got cured many times but after a break of 2 months all of a sudden he gets into depression back saying people are abusing him & can hear voices. Right now he is using Homeopathy medicines. We came across Homeopathy is permanent heal rather than allopathy as he gets depression offenly, please share your experiences on this…
Much Appreciated
Hearing voices and delusional thinking is a symptom of sz. But everything else you wrote about could be depression. There is something called psychotic depression. You get psychotic symptoms due to depression.
There are a lot of different meds for depression. What has he tried? What has his pdoc said about his symptoms?
Depression and sz goes hand in hand. Many with sz also have depression coming and going.
Yeah, lots of things can cause this stuff to the point where my doctor has had to think about whether a psychotic symptom I had was from my depression of schizophrenia.
I wouldn’t worry to much about the social or dating component right now. When he gets stabilized that’s when you start on that.
Have you taken him to a psychiatrist? (or psychologist. Whichever is the M.D. I can never keep them straight).
Welcome to the forum.
For the most part, as long as your cousin is suffering then there is probably no way that you can make him understand that he is being delusional.
Please read: Schizophrenia Daily News Blog: Recommended First Aid for Schizophrenia and Psychosis
Using LEAP may help you to communicate better with him and show your support.
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: I’m Not Sick I Don’t Need Help! Can buy from his website.
Search Xavier Amador and LEAP on youtube.com and you should find some long videos
There is also a condition called anosognosia that interferes with a person’s ability to see that they are not well.
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
Is your cousin currently receiving any type of medical treatment like seeing a therapist or psychiatrist? Being properly diagnosed would be a first step to getting him proper treatment.