I am new to here and see most family members are complaining about loved one who is resistant compliance with medicine or medicine not very effective or severe medicine side effects. My daughter was diagnosed 2-3 years ago. She was very ill at that time. She has tried 5 medicines which include that clozapine which needs weekly blood draw in half year and bi-weekly blood draw another half year and then blood draw weekly in order to get medicine. All these medicine has little effect, but her 6 medicine changed everything. She became basically normal on 6 medicine, now she is talking about going back to school and working. I am concerned that is schizo really can be recovered or controlled. Can she go back to school and work with on medicine. The doctorâs opinion is to try easy major and easy job, but my daughter wants to try difficult major and school, is it realistic for her? I am hesitate to help her the way she is trying, but needs to convince her to go an easy life, any comments or suggestions are welcome! Itâs been a tough round in the past 2-3 years, but now just seems much much better.
I am still new to this game, but so far I am noticing that stress makes a huge difference in my daughterâs symptoms. She was in a rigorous academic program before this all started, and now we are happy if she can just make it to school and try to do her homework.
We havenât yet found the right medicine, but once we do, I would be very afraid for her to try anything too stressful to upset the balance.
Plenty of people with sz DO succeed at very difficult tasks and careers - doctors, lawyers, hell, thereâs at least one Nobel Prize Winner. In fact i think there may be two. So she CAN do it. But she will need to learn to manage stress, and take things step by step. And she will need to engage very well with her support network - her psych doctor, a therapist, maybe. She needs to look after her physical health better than the average person too. On the Diagnosed board on this site, there a members with PhDs, and mortimermouse is just about to start his PhD (in psychology, i think). Other people hold more average jobs and professions. Many have spouses and children.
Donât forget that for someone who is intelligent, working at low paid, mundane jobs under people who are less able is VERY stressful. Feeling like a âfailureâ is very stressful. I say she should go for it, but that you need to support her and make sure that every step is thought through and planned carefully, and there is lots of 'decompression" time too.
I think you should give her the address of the Diagnosed board too, so she can get support from other people with sz who have managed.
May I know finally which medicine was helpful enough to stabilize your daughter. My son has been in a locked facility for the last 15 months but we have not found the med or combo of meds to bring him back to reality. Thanks
Thanks for everyoneâs reply! I think the support from family member is so crucial. Without me, I donât think any doctor will try 6 medicines. Almost all doctors will stop with clozapine as itâs said to be golden âmagicâ medicine for SZ. I tried very hard to switch from that medicine and it takes half year to totally stop that (The switching process takes 6 months). Thatâs good medicine and most difficult to be stopped. My daughter is on abilify now which makes her much much better, donât know the exact reason, maybe she just improves by her body and brain, not the medicine. I still need to think about her future, I prefer she takes 1-2 courses locally to see how it goes. But things are never predictable for SZ people. I was really scared when my daughter 2-3 or 1-2 years ago.
Always good to hear about someone responding well to a medication and having some success and relief! For my son Abilify completely sent him off the rails, but clozapine is working well - so it seems completely unpredictable what will work for an individual.
We also went thru several medication trials - and agree that if not for me, my son might now be either on the street living a very subsistence life, or committed somewhere - doctors often donât have the time to care about people who donât seem to care about themselves if there isnât an advocate to push them to do so.
My son doesnât seem ready to go back to school. Maybe someday. (Maybe not.) If he comes to the decision to try, I will support him, but will also make certain he doesnât try to start up too fast. It would be better to succeed at one class than fail at 4.
We advised our son to take an online course first and see how he does with it, then take 1-2 classes at the university. I donât push him and this week he said he didnât think he wanted to go back.