My first year I did that. Lived in a studio with a cat, downtown and didn’t go out that much at all. Very paranoid, and always manic with the (wonders stage) of the illness.
Lack of funding for training police how to deal with people with special needs or the mentally ill. I went to a townhall meeting a while back and that was one of the issues raised. The local PD didn’t have enough officers to cover the shift if some went to the training, so no one went.
Don’t give up though! maybe it’s true the cops are busy…yet WE aren’t.
Hello and thank you to everyone who has responded.
I wasn’t aware of the condition, anosognosia. We have been to three NAMI sessions and that word has not yet been discussed. My brain is so scrambled with dealing with his issues that I can hardly do my job.
My husband and I have thought of giving him an ultimatum…see a psychiatrist or move out. However, in addition to his obvious mental illness, he also has Rheumatoid Arthritis and it is borderline severe. He can barely walk some days. He is in pain all the time. How can I honestly kick him out of our home? Ever since is RA diagnosis at the age or 21, he has been depressed, angry and is now descending into a lost soul.
I may need to start seeing a therapist to save my own mental health. I’m glad we found the NAMI group, but I’m doubtful it will help us get him to a hospital or outpatient clinic. Knowing that it could take years to diagnose him, and also knowing that he won’t comply is causing anguish in our home. Thanks for hearing my venting!
Wow - that is really unfortunate (and unfortunately pretty common - most police are not well-trained on how to deal with mental illness, despite the fact that jails are the largest mental health facilities in our country.
All I can say is that its going to take time for him to begin to trust people again. Can you get a psychiatrist or psychologist to visit you at your home? We have a lot of other tips and suggestions here: Frequently Asked Questions and Answers - Schizophrenia.com
In our family’s case it took us 10 years to get my brother to see a doctor and it was very similar to you, he thought nothing was wrong. Do whatever you can to get him into treatment because the longer you wait the worse the prognosis/outcome that is likely. Don’t give up.
You might also try calling these centers (contact the one closest to you) and see if they can recommend a course of action:
Early Psychosis Treatment center information in these two links
http://psychosisprevention.org/get-involved/education-center/finding-treatment/
http://www.raiseetp.org/sites/
Psychiatric Treatment Centers affiliated with Medical Schools in the USA
This link may help you find a psychiatrist in your area
@adsmom , Most mentally ill have no insight (Anosognosia). The laws don’t help us much to get them in hospital. If you 302 them also known as Backer’s act, Most times they keep them only for 3 days and that doesn’t help at all. Our loved ones get angry for putting them in hospital and won’t trust us . As far as I know unless one is danger to himself or others no one will even do much, unless the person is willing to go to hospital voluntarily. They don’t sleep at night, that is a sign of mental illness along with anger, aggressive and argumentative. This is what I have noticed with my own family member who is ill. It is a cruel illness which takes away everything from them and us. Parents are their advocates. All I can say is as hard as it is I am trying my best to keep my son under my roof for the last 30 months. It hasn’t been easy. Good luck to you and sending positive thoughts as well.
Just to add a little more information for you…
Here is some good reading for the entire family on how to “work” with someone who is psychotic:
http://www.schizophrenia.com/sznews/archives/005561.html
As far as him getting treatment - the psychiatrists I’ve spoken to say that the best approach is to focus on the things in the person’s life that they’d like to change and improve. It might be something like living independently, having a girlfriend, having some spare money, etc… things that most people want - that are typically very hard to do if you are you have schizophrenia and are not getting any treatment.
Don’t get into the argument about trying to convince him that he has any sort of mental illness - just focus on being on his side and helping him achieve what he wants in his life. Obviously at some point this should probably lead to some sort of treatment - but really you and your son want the same thing - a good life for him as he defines it.
In the case of schizophrenia
During the first hours of schizophrenia onset ,the person has start to sees imaginary
people,hearing them voices and feels with radical changes in his emotional case
- FOR MANY causes,medical intervention must be occur during the first 48 hours
against the volition of the person {lose attention,lose dealing with all daily life events,stop eating and drink and sleep ,lose the biological energy…etc},to save the mental and biological life from never-ending breakdown
You should be smart to notice that,the person do NOT feels a symptoms of any disease
during the onset of schizophrenia,just he sees imaginary people ,hearing them voices and some new changes in his emotion,and THAT make him insist to says:I’m not sick
In sum
according to the internal symptoms which felt by the person in the onset of sz,
there is no any stupid person in the world to says that: I feel a disease !
-hearing a voices is not a sign of any known or unknown disease
HOW can someone convince himself that, he is sick because’’ he hears a voice of others ?
if the researcher can not understand these facts,and insist to have wrong ideas
about the qualification of the mental state of the schizophrenic,he must be study and talks about vegetation rather than the sz and schizophrenics