@kope – Please know, you are not alone, and please recognize your own strength. What you did, by having the intuition and courage to turn the water source off started the domino effect to help your son. It’s so painful, lighting the beacon to get the system involved, but this is the beginning. You are strong. Feel free to reach out to me if you’d like.
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I don’t mean to be ‘that guy’ in this conversation and am by NO means a psychiatrist, but it’s been my personal understanding that a diagnosis of schizophrenia should take a long time, years even, simply to be able, through prolonged observation to determine and distinguish between similar diagnosis (such as bipolar, which can also manifest intense delusion and sometimes hallucinations in manic episodes) as well as severe depression and such (which may cause singular psychotic episodes such as disassociation or self harm, for example). Also, drug or alcohol use causing isolated psychotic episodes? I guess I’m just not convinced of a one-off episode = full schizophrenia diagnosis… 
Also, though, as one of our valued contributors here (MB!) has said on more than one occasion, it doesn’t always make sense to put a lot of value on labeling as much as rooting down and addressing what can be addressed symptomatically with a combination of talk/cognitive therapies (CBT anybody?) and proper medication (often an incredibly long and difficult road in and of itself).
Every individual case being different of corse…
If my understanding is mistaken I am always, ALWAYS willing to learn and please bring it to my attention if anybody has input there.
My thoughts and heart as always, with you all.
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My 27 year old son has been through those events too. The main thing is keeping an eye on him so he doesn’t hurt himself. He’s gotten into such a frenzy he’s cut himself, then we ended up in the ER then Mental Health Hospital for around a week. I don’t know about them being released without medicine compliance? I guess he wouldn’t be coming home at that point…
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We have gone through the same issue: long showers even when they were not 8 hours but 2 hours somedays 2 times a day!!! I had to lower the pressure of the water for the whole house and have kept it that way ever since. The first time he did that I lost my cool I have to confess and we got into an argument (which is really bad) and he got agitated; I learned not to go there!
Jeez, it’s hard! He just doesn’t have insight, it’s called anosognosia so he doesn’t think he has to take the meds.
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May I asked what State you are from?
I’m in IL and actually I’m my son’s legal guardian; last time he was agressive and he had to spend 6 months in the county jail while all these court procedures: psichological evaluation to see if he was unfit to stand trial and to get him into treatment at the state hospital to get him stabilized another 6 months since the goal was to put him on the shots, there’s also the problem that they shut down mental hospitals and beds are probably just for serious cases. The prior year he was in and out of the hospital (classic frequent flier) of course he was not compliant and after 2-3 weeks we were on the same ride; well this time he came back stable to announce that he’s not complying with meds after being out of the hospital only 3 months ago!!!
We need laws that really help in instances like these.
On the IA side 2 persons go to the court and the meds can be court ordered. I was looking into having my son’s meds court ordered and it didn’t happen for one reason or other until he lost all control.
On a normal circumstance we need to name a person to be our POA in case we become disabled or unable so why in the world it takes so long to get a person into treatment with this kind history? We need to unite to make things happen.
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She stopped taking meds due to the side effects. When the situation came to a boil I could not get her back on the medication.
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@rosyd Is there any way to get your son to take baths instead of showers? That’s what my son does. I’ve read somewhere on the board that that the water soothes them. Might be able to explain that you just can’t afford a 2-hour shower bill, but can afford the bath.
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Thanks for the tip about lowering the water pressure. My son is now back in a Behavioral Unit trying to get himself out on a Writ of Habeas Corpus for the 2nd time. I’m hoping he doesn’t get out and they are able to convince him to comply with the therapy and meds. Praying alot.
Kope, definitely this kind of illness takes us out of our comfort zone!
I’m so glad about this forum, our son is very gentle and kind on his meds, but when the illness takes over it’s hellish for everyone concerned.
I have suggested to my son we’re going to get a small tub for him to take a bath and he doesn’t agree; we have a bathtub/shower and he rather take a shower! I know it can be relaxing but I also thought about so many hot showers can damage your skin, he could care less. During last hospitalization surely they noticed the issue of long showers and I’m sure he was redirected. He came back about 3 months ago, he stopped going to get his abilify shot 2 weeks ago and little by little the time in the shower is increasing, so far it’s 30 minutes there without turning the water off at all. Still nothing compared to 2 hours.I’m looking into the amyloban 3489 and looks like it’s mushrooms, at this point I’m open for whatever he wants to try.
This is what we tried in the past: so be careful. We went on a 14 hour trip ( from IL to Washington DC!) looking for this ‘therapist’ that had ‘cured’ persons on the spot (he was a fraud) and shown on tv, and good thing we were with our son, because only 10 minutes into the session with him I realized that people gets taken advantage of; I was really upset with myself but it was a lesson to be learned: we spent time and money.
I’ve learned that it’s a learning experience for everyone involved and helps us grow spiritually; mental illness is as they say in the NAMI class the illness of ‘no casserole’!!! We have met the nicest people there. We all are in different stages of the illness with our loved ones. Traumatic nonetheless in each episode. It never gets easy unless your loved one has insight, acknowledges and accepts the illness fast.
As I mentioned maybe to someone else: there’s the TMS, transcranial magnetic stimulation. I know a brother from the church who’s the CEO of Vera French in IA and I asked him about it because I heard that it was only for depression or manic depressive but he said no, it can help for sz also.
My prayers are with you; I hope that kind and gifted people comes his way ( your son) during his stay at the hospital and know how to talk to him so he can stay on the meds.
My prayers are with you.
- My son did the same about the writ; we were very close to have a hearing to have his meds court ordered and he signed the writ!!!
They’re very smart!
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Thank you for your reply!
This forum it’s great, I love it.
I have thought about that, that way he can spend all the time he wants but so far he rather takes a shower!
Since he came back from the State Hospital about 3 months ago he takes a 30 minutes ‘short shower’. Now and then I mention to him that I will buy a small tub for him so he can stay there and relax. I have not raised the water pressure and I’m not planning to do so just in case.
I’m checking out the amyloban 3489 because another person mentioned it, if only the positive symptoms are taken care of at least we can sleep; he himself ordered some pills called ‘euphoria’ thinking that they are going to help magically and at the first try he didn’t like them but last night took 2 instead of the recommended 4 and he went to sleep fast.
We can just keep on trying and hope that it will eventually (or we) pass!
Thank you for your suggestion, there’s days that I don’t think clear myself and I appreciate your kind tips.
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Check your city/county to see if their mental health dpt has a Crisis Team that can come out and evaluate him. They will determine if he should be involuntarily admitted to a behavioral unit in a hospital.
After checking if we have a MET service in our area and we don’t have it I called couple of other places and one person pass to mi the Care Line number, I called last Sunday and they sent a person to make the evaluation, he called the doctor on call and told him our son had to go to the hospital, we agreed and he made the arrangements do he could be taken to the hospital; of course he was refusing to go but after reminding him that going voluntarily was best he was somewhat cooperative. Still he refused meds but when the social worker called me on Tuesday and asked me what I wanted to accomplish I told her my goal was to put him back on meds. I come to realize after all this time that the person has to willingly take the meds; I can’t make him neither, no one can force him. So it’s only one day at a time for us.
This journey is exhausting!
Thank you for reaching out, sometimes I don’t think clear and I overlooked what I should do.
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Thank you for the insight. It never occurred to me that my fiance would take baths instead of showers. I jiat thought that because he was so paranoid that he didnt want to be behind the shower curtain. Maybe both reaaons but 3wish he would bathe more often
Thanks for " not bursting the bubble"…I am also trying not to aggravate my daughter. My daughter was med compliant for over 30 years, now 54, but various events led to her going off meds. She is finally back on meds but as you know the recovery is not instant. I was on this site tonight as I was feeling lonely. Some of the issues you shared seemed to be similar to mine so I felt like communicating with you. I hope you and daughter are still doing well. I have friends but don’t wish to talk about my daughter all the time. Anyway my friends are larks and I am a night owl and now is nearly 11pm. Do you know if there are any chat rooms for moms like us?
Hi Annie, I learned a lot from the folks in this forum and have not looked into other chat rooms. My daughter is doing well despite the meds not working. Some days, less frequent now, we have our difficult moments, but overall, she is happier, feels more confident when she gets things done, and all that builds up resilience. Sometimes, my wife and I would forget, and then we would be reminded that her med is not working and my daughter is actually suppressing her anger and sadness from time to time. Sometimes, the bubble bursts when she gets frustrated. But what we do know is that she loves us immensely despite the false memories she has. That has kept us strong. Happy to chat more… all the best.
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Hi, hope all is well. Trying to get my son into a top notch facility. Can you please share where your son went please.
Where are you located?
I’m in South FL West Palm Beach. I’m willing to go anywhere.
I actually took my county to court. I got a public defender (no cost) and sued the county over not treating my son. I got all of his medical records together - all of the time he was hospitalized, the lack of the county to treat him. After the judge heard everything, my son was placed in a residential treatment center within 2 weeks.
You need to work with your county. See if they have a mental health treatment team, I’m sure they do.
Good luck!!
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What a sad state of affairs mental health is in, in America. Good job!
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