My son had a psychotic breakdown in Sep 2013 and has been hospitalized since Oct 2013 in various facilities. They diagnosed him with schizophrenia and he also has aspergers (high functioning). He was released to us a week ago. He is not accepting of this disorder and my husband and I are trying to live day to day with him in our home. I’m exhausted from trying to find services for him outside of my home. I decided today to find a chat room to talk with other caregivers and maybe learn more about this disorder.
Hello. Do you have a chat room? I’d be very interested to join in.
Also, how old was your child when he started showing signs. I’m going through something with our son and I really need the input of parents whose children are on the spectrum.
A good place to start is with some general information,
Symptoms and what to expect:
Treatments and recovery tips:
Other resources for your son and a support group for yourself…
http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?section=Find_Support
http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=schizophrenia9
I hope you find some info that will help you.
Also I encourage you to read some of the diagnosed section as well. People here are very friendly and will answer your questions.
Good luck.
My son was originally diagnosed with Bipolar and aspergers at age 10. He is now 20 and now diagnosed with schizophrenic. We also live upstate NY.
He is high functioning aspergers
Thank you for replying. We are having a hard time getting a diagnosis as yet. My son doesn’t hear voices are “see” things but he has a show that goes on in his head, music that annoys him and would fluctuate between one imaginary cartoon character to the next depending on the last thing he watched.
I don’t know if this is part of his autism or something more. Stressed out, as you can imagine. Thanks again!!
I had a therapist visit me in my own home today. I have paranoid schizophrenia and I live by myself. I usually see a therapist and my psychiatrist in person at the clinic but I was having a mini-crisis two weeks ago and I put in an emergency call to this therapist. He offered to come to my home and I accepted. The crisis had passed but he came over anyway and we had a good talk for an hour. He told me he likes getting out of the office and visiting people. Maybe a first step in getting your son help outside is having a counselor or therapist to visit your home and then if your son trusts and likes a therapist maybe he will be more open to going to get help in person and getting out of the house. Maybe.
@drc551… There are mental health clubs for people with mental illness. I personally find them good. Mental health clubs are in all cities and a lot of towns. Ask at your local psych hospital or ask your shrink. I personally find these places a good place to go. Its basically a drop in center where you can go for a coffee and a chat. They also have things like creative writing, art and health management.
In my country, public hospitals have services that you can avail of that, such as CPN (community psychiatric nurse). They’ll come visit the patient in the home and be like a friend/therapist. They talk about whatever the patient wants to talk about. Im sure this system is the same in the U.S. / Canada and the UK/ Australia, and all other countries.
There are also befriending services out there that are run by volunteers/mentally ill and they offer a service (free of charge, needless to say). They befriend the mentally ill, they come visit him/her and offer friendship and understanding. I personally found this was a great way for me to build up my confidence. Google it or ask at your local psych hospital or ask the shrink.
I hope things improve for you and your son. You sound like a very caring parent.
schizoaffective asupie or just schizophrenic asupie? (that’s the word Temple Grandin [who is really awesome and I will get to her later] used for ausburgers. I think it is a really adorable word. Auspie. I am probably spelling it wrong though).
I am schizoaffective with ausburgers indicators. Indicators. My doctor said something was going on there with that but he doesn’t seem to think it is full blown. Here are my suggestions. (I like lists. I like lists a lot. You will see lists a lot from me because I even just like the word lists. Lists.)
- Go get Temple Grandin’s “Thinking in Pictures”. It will help you understand your son. It helped me understand myself and helped me realize that yes, I have a little asupie in there. Things just clicked for me with that book. Things that I didn’t even know I did, like having trouble getting a different point of view, are things that are part of ausburgers. Temple Grandin has full blown ausburgers and she has a very high degree (I think a Ph.D but I don’t have her book sitting right in front of me) in science. She has full blown ausburgers so she truly understands. She studies cows because she thinks like them (things that sooth cattle sooth her too. She developed what she calls a “squeeze machine”. It might help your son and you can build your own. It applies gentle pressure that most people with asuburgers find soothing. She has interviewed other people with auburgers too so it isn’t all from her perspective. Not everyone shares what she calls her ‘cow’s eye view’ though).
- THERAPY FOR EVERYONE. Your son needs therapy. YOU need therapy. EVERYONE short of the family cat needs therapy. A therapist can teach you coping tactics and work you through them so that you can use them effectively. I suggest you and your husband get separate therapy. I realize that I am not married to C (my fiancee) but I am pretty sure I would have a hard time talking about how badly our kid stresses me out in front of him or anyone else (therapists cannot legally tell anyone else what you tell them unless they have permission so that is different. They can’t slip up and tell your son what you said). Maybe meet up once a week with your son’s therapist (if he is a minor or he gives you permission) and come up with a game plan for the week. Top things to work on. Give yourselves a well deserved pat on the back for what you have achieved and recommit to what you still need to work on. (all credit for the game plan to @kidsister and @SurprisedJ part of their posts on how their parents hammer things out was almost cut and pasted here).
- You CANNOT take care of your son if you fall apart yourself. Get out of the house and have a break. Go to a nice quiet lunch or something. The next day (or however you work it out. You could alternate weeks) make it your husband’s day to go out and relax. Or, if there is someone you really trust that you know can handle him, give them that responsibility once in a while (at least once a month) and go out on a date with your husband. Even if it is just lunch.
- Reconnect with each other while your son is in the hospital. Your love is what brought him into the world the first time and it is what will help bring him back. I know you can’t not be stressed about what is going on with him, and I do encourage you to call and visit as often as humanly possible, but make sure you let each other know that you still love one another. If your bond with your husband isn’t cared for it could get hurt too. Then things would get even worse!
- Nutrition. You are doing everything you can in the pharmaceutical world, now add nature. A vegetarian diet didn’t work for me (I got massive headaches) but I did feel a lot better when I got all of that possessed “food” out of my diet. If you can’t/don’t want to go all veg (it is hard. But I did feel super. You guys might not get the same effect, but it’s an idea) cut down on the meat because while I don’t think meat is inherently unhealthy, all the things we do to make it super tasty is. Oily marinades. Frying. But more importantly no more fast food or junk food (maybe chips once in a blue moon once you kick the habit) but definitely no more soda. There are a lot of tasty home made soda alternatives (like spa water, just soak a cut up orange in water in your fridge over night and voila! Healthy flavored water like at fancy country clubs ^.^. You can use cucumber, lemon, strawberry and lemon, whatever you want. Just no chemicals. Mio and crystal lite are chemicals.) if you aren’t on pinterest get on there. Tons and tons of health ideas.
- (Last one, I promise!) Exercise. I like cardio the best, but strength training is good too. You get a sense of pride from being able to do so many crunches without stopping, or making it that one extra mile (or minute). No full sit ups though. My physical therapist told me those are bad for your back. Some days I only make it through by running. Before my meds that was all that kept me going. I’m not sure about this, but I think that cardio releases more feel good chemicals than strength training. I feel way better having added strength training, but I don’t know. Make sure you stretch though. You can’t walk/run/crunch if you pull something!
I’m sorry this is so long 
I’m stopping now, but those are the basics I have. Keep in mind my Mom thinks I have more ausburgers than I think I do so I hear about it a lot. I also have a nephew with ausburgers (though I rarely get to see him) and I would recommend those things to his parents (especially the therapy, therapy had helped me tremendously and I can go to my therapist with questions that I can’t ask family members. Therapy might help his behavior too. There are special techniques for people with ausburgers and autism to help them integrate more with others and express their needs better). 
Welcome to the forum drc551.
Some of these links may help.
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
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