I am taking my son to Amen Clinic. We have tried medications pharmaceutical. They left him like a zombie. I , as I know most everyone else, am exhausted. I have been researching natural alternatives as far as medicines. I started my son on B12 this morning. I am taking it with him because he was so paranoid that I decided i was just easier if we both take it. I have been researching natural alternatives and by no means am a doctor. I read there are many vitamin deficiencies in people who have schizophrenia. So I am just trying to get my son back to normal again. I will let you know if I see a difference in his negative schizophrenia symptoms.
We have appointment with Amen Clinics. Anyone familiar with Amen Clinics or have any feedback?
Thank you.
I would like to know more about this Amen clinic as well.
Our appointment is in June via Zoom for consult.
We had went for first patient consultation maybe a year ago but my son was smoking cigarettes and on Seroquel at that time.
So we did not continue with the spectrum brain scan. It would not have been accurate bd side of medication.
Now he has been off all prescription medication for about 6 months and quit smoking cold Turkey 2 months ago.
He is not hearing any voices or experiencing hallucinations which seemed to get worse on the seroquel.
However he is very unresponsive. He does respond but we have to repeat several times. He does not interact unless coerced.
I’m hoping for accurate results with the brain scan.
This is just all so heartbreaking. My son is only 20 and my heart is broken as I am sure everyone in this platform is heartbroken as well.
Also the Amen Clinic does not take insurance Everything must be paid in advance.
Unbelievable really.
I’ll start selling whatever I can to pay for all the expenses. Just like any mom would do.
I can’t leave his side for a minute. I’m so afraid from the last psychosis episodes to be away from him.
I wouldn’t encourage it - it seems like a waste of money. There isn’t, to my knowledge, much scientific evidence that it works. Read up and get real third party evidence for any therapy’s effectiveness as a treatment in schizophrenia. Most of the current therapies for schizophrenia are imperfect - but the ones with good data behind them are probably going to result in the best benefit for your loved one:
I am desperate.
My son was in lock down in a psychiatric facility on his 19th birthday.
This was almost 2 years ago.
He went from an intelligent beautiful soul and stunningly handsome young man to someone who didn’t even know if I was a real person standing in front of him.
No medications have worked. They have either made the hallucinations worse or turned him into a zombie like state.
Where can I go to get him help with natural or herbal medications they don’t have long term and permanent damage to his brain?
Is there a natural alternative that can get him a normal life again? …or even functional life again?
I am searching and researching daily and have been for years now.
It’s truly like my son is gone and has been replaced with a stranger.
We are open to any suggestions.
This is not only immobilizing for my son it is also a tragedy for his brother, his dad and myself.
I cannot sit back and watch him deteriorate.
I have to do whatever it takes to help him have a functional life again. He is in no mental state to live a normal life.
It’s sad. He is young. This should be the prime of his life.
He is emotionless and just not there.
Everything I research brings me to a dead end. I realize only 1% of people are effected with schizophrenia but these people are someone’s son, daughter, mom, dad, etc…Their lives matter.
Their families lives matter.
Why isn’t there more help for the people and the families that have loved ones with schizophrenia?
It’s a sad and hidden brain disorder that most people effected by this don’t want to talk about.
So many people brush it under the rug like it doesn’t exist.
Anything you can share to help is very much appreciated.
Thank you.
What about family therapy? If drugs don’t work, seems like talking is all there is.
Have they tried Clozapine on your son yet?
In regards to the Amen clinic, my friend who taught Family to Family for NAMI and trained instructors, did take her son to the Amen clinic in the early days of his scz. I asked her and she said she had done the Amen clinic for her son only because she didn’t believe he had schizophrenia. She said the medical protocol they recommended for her son was identical to what his psychiatrist had planned.
She said her son (who did not suffer from the symptom anosognosia) was at first relieved to see the brain scan that was similar to other people who had been diagnosed with scz. He told her “there is something wrong with me”. A few weeks later, the news depressed him greatly and he attempted suicide several times.
After trying many meds, her son did start on Clozapine and very very slowly began to improve.
Best wishes to you and your son.
Thank you so much! I will go to their website now! 
Hello @momlove. It has been some time since I posted and I have to say your story is very similar to our own. I too was reaching out to Amen Clinic out of desperation and to avoid another psychosis but reading this, and your own story, I’ve changed my mind. For my son, @naturallycured whom has alot of experience as he himself has the dis-ease. I got my son on Amyloben 3389, six pills a day and this did help eliminate the positive symtoms. I highly recommend. But make sure its the correct brand. My son isn’t taking it right now because of the number of pills he was taking and they upset his stomach. They are truly the sz miracle pill along with antipsych meds. What seems to be the biggest hurdle is maintaining med consistency and the constant desire to get completely off them. Who could blame them. My god, I’m with you, there has got to be a better way. I am constantly looking for another way…I will post here if I find ANYTHING!
Thank you so much for Sharing that with me. I will definitely go and check that out!
We (him and I) just started taking B12. I have researched this and research showed B12 with Folate supplements and fish oil will greatly improve cognitive function.
So we started on the B12 and have folate and Omega 5 on the way…which I actually just found the folate and Omega 5 on Dr. Amen website under his supplements available. The B12 I found at Costco. It is good because you just put under your tongue and it dissolves…it’s actually good. It’s 
cherry.
Mother’s Day was very hard. My husband bought a Mother’s Day card from him for me. He could not even write his name. It took several hours of him going to and from the dining room table where the card was. He did finally sign the card and my heart is just broken.
I pray these vitamins correct the deficiencies.
I also found a doctor online. We are in California. She is in Iowa. We will fly there or zoom. Hopefully she will take him as a Patient. I am waiting to hear back.
Hi @momlove, I recommend Amyloban 3399, “Wen Dan Pian” (traditional chinese medicine,) and Daily Essential Nutrients, from Hardy Nutritionals (coupon code CFNDiscounts for 15% off.)
Amyloban 3399 you can get on amazon.com (look for lowest price,) and “Wen Dan Pian” I’ll link to.
https://www.hardynutritionals.com/products/daily-essential-nutrients-360 .
Good health to you and yours.
Please try Clozapine if you haven’t - my son was a HOT mess until I demanded the big guns, Clozapine be implemented. Little by little he became better and now 3 years has gone by and guess what, not 1 hospital stay and there were 13 the 3 years prior on every medication under the sun. If you haven’t tried Clozapine, DO IT! And, you can spend a bunch of money on the scans at the Amen Clinic, but the results are marginal and nothing to get too excited about. Best of luck!
Thank you! I will ask for that. I was referred to a doctor at UCLA. We talk Friday. I’ll let you know how that goes. 
Are you local in Cali? We live in Orange County, Seal Beach. Lean on me if you need any help, I’ve been through the ringer and I’ve acquired lots of information/referrals if needed. Xo
Yes.
I lived in Los Angeles. I gave up my condo and we bought a house in Imperial, California.
I am between Imperial & LA.
Thank you very much! I would really appreciate that! I can’t really be open with many people about this. It’s so sad!
Yes, @momlove , it is hard to find help for those afflicted with this awful disease, but help is possible and hope is the most important thing you have to keep you going. Your statements above are true, but each case is different and there is no simple pat solution. Families untouched by schizophrenia will usually NEVER have any idea of what you are going through trying to help your son. Even some psychiatrists don’t really understand. There is so much bad advice out there.
When my daughter first became ill in 2016, I had a friend who worked in a group home that used no medicines, only natural solutions, and provided life in a calm environment in a country setting to help those with schizophrenia. Sort of like camping in cabins in the woods. It was soooooo expensive, but seemed to offer an answer. However, I refused to mortgage my home to pay for the costs (over $5k a month) so my daughter never went. Months later, the place was shut down by the police and a few staff arrested. The friend I knew who worked there, later told me that very few of the patients there ever really were helped. Most stayed the same. Some of them were released from the “home” to the care of the state, after their families spent thousands for no result.
I was also told about the Amen Clinic, but the costs were too high with no guarantee of success. I know of one family only that the brain scans and supplements helped the daughter to recover.
In the end, we built a separate entrance for my daughter so she could come and go without disturbing us, closed the communal hallway in our home to contain the nightly screaming noise, and we kept her home where I could make sure she was safe and fed. A mix of factors (police, court ordered meds, a local pharmacist who ran a nutritional supplement store, advice from posts on this site, NAMI…) led to her getting on a med that worked (Haldol dec shot), supplements, the State of Florida Dept of Voc Rehab, and finding a job. She has a new life, and is doing well compared to where she was, but nowhere near her pre-schizophrenia independent self.
You CAN find a way to better your son’s life, but he may not ever return to the way he used to be. He is on a path to a new him. With your love and persistence, he will improve, but do not overextend yourself or your finances. Some combo of meds/supplements will help, most likely. And you must take care of yourself and the rest of your family so you can continue to take care of your son, until he can once again contribute to taking care of himself. We all wish the best for you, this site is so good to have, and we all understand.
Yes, I’m the best at masking my true feelings and being very selective with the few individuals’ that I talk with because sadly, we will be judged and rejected. Quite honestly, I was so slammed with the stigma, I pushed out a lot of people. Quite a lot of my son’s closest friends shunned him and that was so difficult, but he has an older brother and they have tons of mutual friends and he is loved and accepted - so, so awesome! This illness is not for the weak and I seriously was curled in a ball in the corner of my house for a long time going through the grieving process over and over, but I emerged extremely strong and now I’m one mean advocate! I even quite my job and work in the mental health industry to help my son best that I can. I’m sorry that you joined the 1% club, but lean on everyone here - there is tons of knowledge and amazing empathetic people here - we all get it 100%! We just moved to OC County from LA County (both my son and I were born in LA County - I know sadly am getting to know the system oh, so well - but, I will say it is SO much better in OC County. Please take some time looking into Clozapine, this is a website that helped me, https://curesz.org/. I even reached out to them regarding side effects and she had the doctor that wrote a book on Clozapine return my email - they are gold and Clozapine is the gold standard of medication. It comes with a monthly blood draw before it’s dispensed, but it’s worth the work and they have a device that you can buy and monitor his blood from your home if the lab becomes too much. I could go on and on, but do some research as this drug has saved my son’s life and numerous others on this forum. PLEASE let me know how UCLA goes!!! Xo, Jen
Also, does your son have Medical or private. I know of an awesome pilot program created by The Los Angeles Department of Mental Health that was delayed by Covid, but might be up and running and so worth it to check out. This is the whole proposal, I sat through meetings with the Director and this project will be/should be ground breaking: http://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/dmh/1054552_TriesteConceptPaper-4-18-2019FINAL.pdf
Xo
Thank you so much! I cry every day. Of course behind closed doors. I have to be so strong in front of my son. I’m not even sure he knows what’s going on. I try to talk to him but he is trying talking much and the answers are very short. He mostly shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head yes or no.
I’ll let you know how the call goes.
Thank you!