Do your loved ones with schizophrenia have intense sugar cravings? Sugary foods and drinks are literally all my 23-yr-old daughter will eat. She truly lives on sugar. Has anyone else experienced this? I don’t know what to do. I fear for her physical health on top of the mental health issues. She is very headstrong, has anosognosia, and will not accept any suggestions about her diet.
Yes my sibling is a heavy sugar eater also.
He goes through 5 lb bags of sugar very quickly I believe he drinks that mostly all in his coffee
He also likes lots of other sweets once when I was on a video call I saw him take a swig of syrup like just drinking syrup out of the bottle.
I’ve never really read any research about the sweets and schizophrenia but it does seem to be common.
Hi! I just read an article that pointed out that eating sugar leads to a dopamine flash in the human brain. This really opened my eyes because I eat way too many sweets and this is my main obstacle to avoiding overweight. As a doctor pointed out to me: schizophrenics will seek dopamine flashes because of the antipsychotics blocking the dopamine receptors. This means that because of our medication we actually have a lack of dopamine, most of the time.
https://www.reddit.com/r/schizophrenia/comments/1eg1u6i/sugar_addiction/?rdt=62388
@KBella, if your daughter isn’t on meds, then this theory would not apply.
@megmeg and @caregiver1, thank you for your responses. Unfortunately my daughter is not on meds (she has anosognosia and adamantly refuses them) so the cravings aren’t related to anti-psychotics, although that theory does make sense. I’ve read that the disease itself is correlated with disordered eating, but hadn’t seen anything about people consuming sugar to the exclusion of all other food. It’s so bizarre, but of course many things she does are bizarre. Thanks again.
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Same with my sibling also unmedicated but he doesn’t exclude normal foods at this point .
He has been into those nutri shakes in the past they are sweet but at least have nutrients
Maybe your daughter would like those they usually come in vanilla and chocolate flavors
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Hi KBella. Our son Ben is 30 unmedicated SZ and eats sugar like an addict! Drinks sodas all day and eats sweets constantly. Only reason we have sweets around is to help keep him calm,ish…At this point, we are done, we have tried and tried to talk him into taking meds, seeing a psychiatrist, getting on a good diet but his illness prevents him from making that connection. It is out of our control, everything with Ben is out of our control and it is time for us to stop worrying about trying to think that if we CAN control part of his illness he will eventually get on meds, get better and move out on his own. Not so with this illness, all we can do is live in the day, give them the best advise we can and move on for ourselves.
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@Refueler1, you are exactly right, the illness makes it impossible to get my daughter to agree to see a psychiatrist, take meds, eat anything besides sugar, or do anything else she doesn’t want to do. She is not violent or dangerous so I don’t think anything will happen to result in hospitalization or forced/court ordered meds. So I don’t see how anything will change. She is like a very stubborn child with her damaged brain, even though she’s an adult… It’s hard not to feel hopeless. I’ve seen some of your other posts and saw that your son used to take meds, so I will hope for you that he will go back to doing that. Best wishes
Well, our son went into a rage today. Started screaming and throwing things in his room, put three holes in his walls, broke a picture frame and other stuff. I told him to pack his car and take off. He walked out of his room screaming, pushed me out of the way then walked past his mom, turned around and pushed her in the back. I went balistic on him and told him not to ever lay a hand on his mom, told him again to get out of the house. After some further screaming, all nonsensical stuff, he left the house, with no jacket and left his cell phone on his bedroom floor. We live in Indianapolis Indiana and about three hours after leaving home the tracker we placed in his car showed he was in Dayton Ohio. As he and i were yelling at each other my wife was on the phone with sheriffs department reporting the incident. They asked if we wanted to press charges for him shoving his mom and we said no for now, they suggested we go to the court house tomorrow to start the eviction paperwork. So tomorrow will do that. Sheriff deputy said it takes 30 days for the eviction to be effective. My wife and I did not want to put him out in the cold but we can not have him going off like he did breaking things and starting to lay hands on us.
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So sorry to hear you’re going through this, @Refueler1. Is there any chance of your son being evaluated by a mobile mental health crisis unit and/or being put on a hold at a psychiatric facility? In my state a person can be put on a 3-day hold if due to a mental disorder they have been deemed a danger to themselves or others. It’s a serious step, but he would have a psychiatric evaluation and some initial treatment at a psych facility.
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Hospitalization and court-ordered meds sound like what he needs. He has used violence against you and the next time might be worse. I hope you re-think not pressing charges.
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That sounds very horrible but not surprising for a younger man unmedicated man with SZ. My son 29, who is currently in jail, was unmedicated for 10 months and went after my husband with a metal pole. This happened mid December, he was getting dangerous being off meds so long. Take care of you and your wife, it is awful to live in fear and danger. Now that my son has been in jail for 2 months I don t feel the fear that he is going to go after me, I always carried pepper spray, I feel terrible sadness and anxiety that he is in jail unmedicated maybe getting worse. Also, when he gets out he will likely go after me and my husband as he has said on the phone calls from jail that I did this to him, which he always blamed for his SZ.
He hasnt come home yet after leaving yesterday around noon. His tracker showed he was in the Dayton Ohio area all night. We are heading over to court house this morning to start eviction process.
That is good, you really don t have any choices, not a lot of help for these unfortunate souls and your own safety is vital.
Does he have his wallet with him? I know you said he had left his phone.
yeah he took his wallet. His tracker shows he is back in indiana about an hour away. He will probably try to come home tonight. If he does im going to tell him to go to a shelter.
Hopefully you will be able to drop his phone off to him in the shelter.
well he did not show up at home, he ended up back in the Cincinnati area spending the night in his car again. Dont know if he will come back home to get his phone and clothes or not.
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