Topic : 11/23 Schizophrenia

I am a 37 year old female with what should be a wonderful life.  I have been battling schizophrenia since I was 16.  I hear a single voice, it is a male of whom I don't know.  He tells me horrible things about myself.  I have tried several doctors, inpatient, outpatient and several medications but nothing makes it stop.  He makes me cry and hate myself.  I am currently on Geodon, which helps to some extent, but not to where I feel "normal".  Any suggestions on how to cope?

Thank you for sharing your knowledge of Seroquel.  Our 24 year old son was diagnosed with Bi-polar at age 17.  He's been hospitalized 7 times.  Zyprexa has been the most effective treatment, however the side effects have been a real issue with him.  We have tried several other meds through the years.  I would like to talk to him about Seroquel after I have a chance to read more about it.  He has just been approved for medicaid (thank God).  He has been living in an apartment on his own, with some financial assistance from family members.  When medicated he is quite functional and had a good job. (Now working part-time.)  He has earned an Associate's Degree in Human Services.   This info on Seroquel is very encouraging.   I will be researching it further and will encourage him to try it.  Thank you!

I totally agree w/ u. however, theres lot of hypocritical christians who want to dismiss ths concept of demonic posession in any human cases at all, when the god that they supposedly are so dedicated to clearly said that it exists (and I am not referring to anyone on this messageboard). While there's no way to ever be 100% sure of the origin of an illness like schizophrenia, all types of treatment need to be explored if one treatment doesn't give lasting results. If a patient thinks spiritual treatment could help them more than medication, they should seek it, and vice versa. I think a few- certainly not all- mentally ill patients struggle with negative parts of the spiritual realm (demons, or whatever you want to call them), depending on their individual aspects and characteristics of their illness and history.

 Stryker, I wanted to ask you if you beleive in educating children about Schizophrenia. I'm from New Zealand, and one of my teachers asked a very young woman with Schizophrenia to speak to my class about her condition when i was 10. 

She said she began to display syptoms at 17 and everyone, even her parents, abandoned her. I always thought that it was important that she told us this because we obviously did not want to repeat what her parents did (as children, we saw that as 'being mean'). I think it was only because of this woman coming to speak to us that i grew up with a lot of acceptance for other people, and was aware that i should make sure i looked out for it around my late teens.  

However, it took me a long time to view those with schizophrenia as 'ordinary' because she told us of the many delusions she suffered, and  it made me scared. I avoided a lot of people in the street, and until i experienced depression at 16, i did not realise that those with mental illness would not hurt me. 

So, i think there is a plus side and a down side to educating children about the illness. what are your thoughts on it? 

 

  I can so much relate to your story. This disease is so destructive not only to the victim but to their family members. My mother had her first breakdown in 1947 when I was 6 years old. This was a very traumatic experience for me-I, like you have blocked out a lot of these memories, but I can still remember the terrible noises in the night when the local sheriff came to take her away to Vermont State Hospital. She had a knife and was talking about killing us. (my father didn't know what to do and my sister was 1 year old.) From then on my life was never the same. My security and self esteem were gone. For the next 53 years my mother was constantly in and out of the hospital and on several different drugs.She would always get worse and worse when she didn't stay on the meds. Voices, staying up all night muttering and constantly talking, FBI spying through the electrical outlets, talking to God, burning things, writing nonsense,ect. ect. I grew up in a small town, in a time when mental illness was a taboo subject. I was ridiculed in school and made fun of. To this day, I can't go back to that town without these bad feelings coming back. My father took care of her until he died in 1993, then my sister and I took turns having her stay with us, which was a very horrible time in my life, altho I'm glad I at least could do something for her. (By that time, the Dr. had her on a med. that at least allowed her to be stabilised and without hallucinations-a shot once per month, which  I forget the name of) My mother died in her sleep in 2000. 

   Thank you , whoever reads my story, which I have never really told anyone. I have been too busy being "superwoman" depending on noone and always being in control of my own life.I so much miss having a mother. My heart goes out t all those who have been robbed of their loved ones by this devastating disease. 

   I would like to see Dr Phil do a show about families of the mentally ill and how it affects them. When I was a child noone even considered help for family members and the great loss that mental illness causes. 

I have schizoaffective disorder depressive type. It took a very long time to properly diagnose. I thought I had people living in my head telling me what to do. Today's guest felt good to me. Her hallucinations were very different from mine, but I felt validated with the language she used. I, too, often look at people's mouths to make sure I am hearing the right voice. It is hard to tell what is real from not real at times. I am very lucky in that medication controls the hallucinations and voices very well. I have written my story in a book and hope that it will be published one day. I want people to know that there is hope. It isn't easy, but there is hope.

My daughter is 25 and diaganosed with schizophrenia.  This is a horrible disease especially when you have no control of it and your child is in denial that anything is wrong.  I live in Hawaii and am raising my daughters 2 children ages 1 year and 6 years.  My daughter has had this for about 4 years that I know of.  She has been in and out of mental hospitals got pregnant with her last child and denied being pregnant, said she was a boy refused all treatment unless she was picked up by police in California and sent to a hospital.  The saddest thing is I cannot do anything about it to make her get treatment.  The hospital gives her medication until she is able to function and then turns her loose again to fend for herself.  My mom tries to help but is terminally ill with cancer and cant handle her sometimes.  Recently she began a treatment once a month shot of zaldo and that helped temporally. Now,  She is off and running, no meds, she talks to anyone she has no fear and very friendly.  Very beautiful girl weighs all of 100 pounds. Last I heard from her she was in San Diego and dont know how she got there.  By law she can do whatever she wants.   If anyone could tell me how to help my daughter who is really a danger to herself I would appreciate it.  Right now all I can do in this situation is sit back and raise her 2 children. 

Thank You  

 My son suddenly became psychotic when he was 15.  Bi-Polar 1 with Psychotic Features.  He's gradually progressed into paranoid schizophrenia. He's 22.  He's very bright, has an excellent work ethic, really good memory and wry sense of humor when he's sane.  He's a joy, and I savour every minute of it.

But when he's sick, he's very sick.  We live in a state, TX,  that offers very little in the way of help.  He's been in a psych hospital in  upstate NY and 2 near LA so I have a comparison in terms of quality of care and services available.

You name it,  and he's been on the med:  atavan, abilify, seroquel, trileptal, tegratol, geodon, lithium, depacote, clauseril, prolictin, and others that I've forgotten. He's in a hospital in NY right now and finally getting better care and better, again.  He's now to the stage of burning himself with cigarettes.  The voices tell him to do it. The voices are a recent development.

I've mourned his early death for 5 of the past 7 years.  Anguish doesn't quite touch the fear.

However, I've come to accept that this is his way of life for as long as he lives.  On the meds and then off, for various reasons.  This time he couldn't afford to buy them in TX and SSDI wouldn't pay for them. (Oh yeah, I've had to file for bankruptcy and couldn't buy his meds, again.)  Other times he preferred Weed to the meds and their side effects.  Each time a different cause but the same effect.

One of these days, I've been told, he won't be resilient enough to come out of it.  He'll be in a pyschotic state forever.  I also want to add that his father, who's adopted, has the same thing but a milder form of it and is functional.  I doubt my older son will have children.  He's seen this and understands that there's a STRONG genetic component.  Actually, he'll always be at risk too. 

I feel badly for all of you who have had a loved one commit suicide, OD, or get killed in some other way.  It gets to the point, sometimes, when there's nothing that can be done to stop that which will happen in spite of our best, most expensive, and anxiety ridden efforts.

I, too have a son who was diagnosed with schizophrenia. I know and share your fear of losing your beautiful child. It is a concern I struggle with daily. I will add your son Michael to my prayers , and maybe God will hear our combined pleas and give our boys some peace, and their mom's too !  : ) 

 

My son  is living in a low income apartment, subsidized  by the mental health facility we turned to after he was arrested, and ordered to get treatment. I don't know if he would be alive without the medication. I just hope he continues with it.  

 

I noticed that you mentioned your son's first psychotic episode came after doing mushrooms. This really struck a chord with me, because it's so similar to what happened to my son. He was partying a lot, probably self medicating, and then he tried mushrooms too. That was when it got scary. It makes me curious about the connection....  but it's like the chicken or the egg theory.  Do they start abusing drugs because they have symptoms, or do the symptoms begin after drug abuse? 

 

Anyway, thanks for openly sharing your story, and for letting another brokenhearted mom share a little too. 

 

 

  

Todays show really hit home with me. I grew up with a mother that had schizophrenia. Just because your parent or grandparents have it it doesn't mean that you'll get it, my sister and I neither one have ever showed signs of it.  My sister is 51 and I'm 49.  I can remember it affecting my mother in her mid 30's, at the time I was only 5 or 6 years old and it was an extremely frightening thing to go through because I couldn't understand why my mother was so different from the rest of the mothers in the neighborhood.  Now remember that this was back in the 1960's when most people with any kind of mental illiness were locked away.  Thank God society has changed the way that view mental illinesses!  Any form of mental illiness is a sicknes that can be controlled with medication, it's not a disease and it's not contagious! 

  

I just want to voice my opinion and let people know that just because someone in your family has schizophrenia it doesn't mean that you'll get it.