Only eats canned food. I cant believe this is happened again. Why cant he learn or see the pattern. Chef boy r Dee and canned tuna right out of the can. A whole pack of peanutbutter cups. Gross. He is getting so thin and he isnt getting any nutrients. Drinks lots of Pepsi and if I walk by and he left it sitting in the room that I’m in he dumps it out. I really need to discuss things with him but not in his mental state!!! He has been talking to himself but probably the voices in his head. This has been going on all day everyday for 2 months. I’m ready to lose it!
You can’t be too hard on yourself. It’s beyond your control. Unless you/he can get meds that will clear his head up.
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It sounds like he has a delusion that someone might be trying to poison him. It’s a common one.
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save extreme mental conditioning (which is rare), medication will at least bring things closer to reality. You might be able to “make a deal” with him to at least get him eating better. I’ll get your favorite whatever but you have to eat better. But you would have to talk and hear his reason for eating the way he is. You can’t argue a delusion, nor should you accept it, as part of the agreement. Just explain why you think he should eat better. Most often it seems that it’s not the logic process of making choices that’s flawed. Just that they are working with incorrect information.
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Maybe get him some cans of V8? Or a protein/ nutrition shakes in a can.At least you can get some nutrition in him.
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Hi my son has lost so much weight also from not eating right as he believes most foods were shrinking his muscles , i was frantic . Today i am calmer as after many weeks of him hardly eating anything he has started to eat better but decides every day what he believes is the right food for him to eat so his muscles won’t shrink and he calls me up and says for example Mum i need to eat avocado, egg and toast and i need it right now its an emergency and i say no problem and i put money in his account knowing he is actually eating something . He calls me every day and either asks me to make something he needs and has to have that moment or he buys it . I know and feel your stress , its emotionally draining , im sure he will change his pattern of thinking in time . When my son wouldn’t eat i used to make tasty meals and take a picture and send it to him and say to him come over and eat , he would say i wish but its not good for me then usually 5 min later he would come over and eat . Perhaps entice him with home cooking and hopefully he will build his appetite again , also definitely mention this to his Doctor
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He wont take any meds not even over the counter. He doesn’t have a pdoc or even a primary doctor. I found and made many appointments for a primary doctor and he always cancels.
Yes and he believes that person to be me.
He has v8 once in awhile. Any food that is open even if it comes from the store and it is a tiny bit open it goes in the garbage. So fustrating.
I make good meals and he just walks away. I offered to cook together and that wont even work. With no doctors and his family wont get involved it is just terrible!
I understand your upset over your son’s food waste and bad nutrition. I think it is a common problem with this disease. Please try not to blame yourself for his choices.
It is so very hard to accept and understand that the hallucinations and delusions your son has about eating are governing his choices. Without medication, unless your son has a very strong will to overcome his false ideas, they will not change, as he believes he is correct in all of his decisions. @RCV is spot on with his post.
Everything changed in my household when my daughter was properly medicated. If your son is unmedicated, then one tiny improvement at a time is the best you can hope for in his eating. Somewhere in what he says to you when you talk to him about food will be a key to getting him to eat something he likes.
Will he go food shopping with you? I took my daughter weekly while unmedicated and said, “Pick out 10 things you think are good for you to eat and put them in the cart”. Besides that, I always offered her an already made up plate of good food at dinnertime, before I made my own plate. If she didn’t take it, I then ate it myself. She would go out to restaurants with me and eat her food (while talking to herself and her “friends”). None of the other customers paid attention. And only once was she kicked out of WalMart, so the shopping trips usually worked.
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In the book, I’m Not Sick, I Don’t Need Help, Dr. Xavier Amador, writes about a way to help our loved ones with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. It’s called LEAP.
L- listening reflectively without commenting, disagreeing, or arguing
E- empathize, but not with the delusions. Real human to human empathy
A- agree, on common ground, making suggestions beyond your loved ones mental illness
P- partnership, forming a partnership to achieve shared goals.
This takes a lot of work.!my daughter is 30 and back in the hospital again. She is we believe 15-16 weeks pregnant. It’s all heart breaking but don’t lose hope and don’t give up!
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For persons who refuse meds/treatment (most commonly due to lack of insight called “anosognosia “), the best hope I can offer is use of the LEAP strategy mentioned above by @trusting. If you really want your loved one to do ANYthing that they do not currently want to do, you have to study it and be committed to practice it and use it. When they are delusional, their own reasoning is not logical. Use LEAP then persevere and have a lot of patience. It’s either that or wait and see or random luck or give up.