Schizophrenia

[pomba gira]

Then there really is nothing they can do except the cocktails until they find out what works best....

But some people seem to outgrow it in there mid 20's.

Most of those people didn't actually have schizophrenia- they were going through a very heavy life-change period that happens to some people in their late teens to early 20s, and is often misdiagnosed as schizophrenia. This isn't officially recognized as a "real" phenomenon by the mental health establishment, but there are mental health professionals who do recognize it. Happened to me my 2nd year in college, thank all the gods I wasn't around my family because with the best of intentions they probably would have carted me off to be made well... and with this thing, the accepted medication therapy is only going to make things worse.

[Homicidalheathen]

Good lord. This describes a few people I know.

This is a list complied by friends and family members with it. It is not a doctor's list. One or more of the symptoms indicates you should encourage the person or guardian of the person to seek professional help and opinions. I've actually had my daughter evaluated for it (she doesn't have it, but exhibits a few of the symptoms).

Early Warning Signs

The following list of warning signs was developed by people whose family members have schizophrenia. Many behaviours described are within the range of normal responses to situations. Yet families sense -- even when symptoms are mild -- that behaviour is "unusual"; that the person is "not the same."

The number and severity of these symptoms differ with age and from person to person.

Bizarre behaviour

Irrational statements

Shift in basic personality

Deterioration of social relationships

Hyperactivity or inactivity -- or alternating between the two

States opinion and/or imagination as fact

Inability to concentrate or to cope with minor problems

Extreme preoccupation with religion or with the occult

Excessive writing without meaning

Indifference

Forgetting things

Losing possessions

Extreme reactions to criticism

Inability to cry, or excessive crying

Unusual sensitivity to stimuli (noise, light, colours, textures)

Believes things are true that are not

Lives outside of reality

Unable to cope with normal life situations

Drug or alcohol abuse

Strange posturing

Refusal to touch persons or objects; wearing gloves, etc.

Cutting oneself; threats of self-mutilation

Staring without blinking -- or blinking incessantly

Rigid stubbornness

Peculiar use of words or odd language structures

[Homicidalheathen]

I just dumped a friend because its just too much. I tried to stand by him but he is verbally abusive.

He see's things.....that are not there.....talks to them and they talk back. I had no idea it was this bad.

You don't know these things about people until they open up to you. Then its too late in a way because now your too close to them, care about them....he wonders why no one wants to hang out with him....its just too much for me anymore..I tried for years...I just can't take it anymore. Don't want to be cold but.....enough is enough.

I honestly thought he was half joking at first with some of the things he said....thought it was harmless...but its not.

Is there any warning signs this is coming? If there is, can't there be something done about it early that might help?

No kids have it ever, do they?

And manic derpessives and bi polar people I can't handle anymore either. Its like they have to have someone to abuse or they don't feel good about themselves.

Or they cry and whine all the time and their lives are a mess.

I honestly don't know how therapists can take that day in and day out......what a hard job. Used to think talking to someone laying on a couch all day and giving them advice would be easy.....not anymore.

[Homicidalheathen]

Oh geez. I guess kids do get it. This is really sad.

http://www.aacap.org/page.ww?name=Schizoph...ts+for+Families

[bean]

it's generally diagnosed during childhood. My ex husband had a few episodes when he was younger, but his family chose not to do anything about it - to seek help, to find out what was wrong...so I got to deal with it. And they never warned me.

To be a therapist (a good one anyway), you have to be someone that truly cares about others and wants to help them - you can't be selfish. You have to be patient, and most importantly, be able to handle all the things you deal with being a therapist.

[Rayne]

it's generally diagnosed during childhood. My ex husband had a few episodes when he was younger, but his family chose not to do anything about it - to seek help, to find out what was wrong...so I got to deal with it. And they never warned me.

To be a therapist (a good one anyway), you have to be someone that truly cares about others and wants to help them - you can't be selfish. You have to be patient, and most importantly, be able to handle all the things you deal with being a therapist.

That's one thing I never will understand ... why WOULDN'T you want to help your children?

I've had my daughter in therapy now for nearly 6 years. When her father took custody from me for a few months he refused to take her, when he had joint custody he refused to let her therapist treat her while with him.

I've seen a few other cases where the issues/problems have been ignored or brushed off as something different.

I've seen this with health conditions as well. People who just don't care because treating something would be too much of a hassle to THEM, for the love of Chrysler, then they never should have had kids to begin with. Children ALWAYS come first ... and if you can't realize that ... then you have no right to be that child's parent.

Sorry for the rant --- but It makes my blood boil. It really does.

[Homicidalheathen]

I think most parents are too proud and want to think it couldn't happen to THEIR kid....or that society is overeacting, or its a 'phase'.

I tells ya if my kid were doing something strange I would get them in right away before things got worse.

This guy I am talking about.....you can see it happening...his face changes.

I don't think they have episodes like manics but sometimes it seems like it. His face changes and he just looks ugly when he is otherwise ok......but he doesn't always look this way.

[bean]

That's one thing I never will understand ... why WOULDN'T you want to help your children?

I've had my daughter in therapy now for nearly 6 years. When her father took custody from me for a few months he refused to take her, when he had joint custody he refused to let her therapist treat her while with him.

I've seen a few other cases where the issues/problems have been ignored or brushed off as something different.

I've seen this with health conditions as well. People who just don't care because treating something would be too much of a hassle to THEM, for the love of Chrysler, then they never should have had kids to begin with. Children ALWAYS come first ... and if you can't realize that ... then you have no right to be that child's parent.

Sorry for the rant --- but It makes my blood boil. It really does.

I couldn't agree more.

[the eternal]

That's one thing I never will understand ... why WOULDN'T you want to help your children?

I've had my daughter in therapy now for nearly 6 years. When her father took custody from me for a few months he refused to take her, when he had joint custody he refused to let her therapist treat her while with him.

I've seen a few other cases where the issues/problems have been ignored or brushed off as something different.

I've seen this with health conditions as well. People who just don't care because treating something would be too much of a hassle to THEM, for the love of Chrysler, then they never should have had kids to begin with. Children ALWAYS come first ... and if you can't realize that ... then you have no right to be that child's parent.

Sorry for the rant --- but It makes my blood boil. It really does.

I have to take up a problem I had with your post...

There's very little I'd do "for the love of Chrysler"

It IS sad though, that we don't take enough time thinking about our kids and get them the treatment they deserve.

[Rayne]

I have to take up a problem I had with your post...

There's very little I'd do "for the love of Chrysler"

It IS sad though, that we don't take enough time thinking about our kids and get them the treatment they deserve.

LOL, in all actuallity me too, I own an import and am EXTREMELY happy with my import. I've just been watching to much "Cars" with my kids.

[Destroit]

This is a list complied by friends and family members with it. It is not a doctor's list. One or more of the symptoms indicates you should encourage the person or guardian of the person to seek professional help and opinions. I've actually had my daughter evaluated for it (she doesn't have it, but exhibits a few of the symptoms).

Early Warning Signs

The following list of warning signs was developed by people whose family members have schizophrenia. Many behaviours described are within the range of normal responses to situations. Yet families sense -- even when symptoms are mild -- that behaviour is "unusual"; that the person is "not the same."

The number and severity of these symptoms differ with age and from person to person.

Bizarre behaviour

Irrational statements

Shift in basic personality

Deterioration of social relationships

Hyperactivity or inactivity -- or alternating between the two

States opinion and/or imagination as fact

Inability to concentrate or to cope with minor problems

Extreme preoccupation with religion or with the occult

Excessive writing without meaning

Indifference

Forgetting things

Losing possessions

Extreme reactions to criticism

Inability to cry, or excessive crying

Unusual sensitivity to stimuli (noise, light, colours, textures)

Believes things are true that are not

Lives outside of reality

Unable to cope with normal life situations

Drug or alcohol abuse

Strange posturing

Refusal to touch persons or objects; wearing gloves, etc.

Cutting oneself; threats of self-mutilation

Staring without blinking -- or blinking incessantly

Rigid stubbornness

Peculiar use of words or odd language structures

Damn...I pretty much fall under every category on the list. I don't think I'm schizophrenic though or anything like that, but now I'm kinda questioning everything because I dunno, I've been noticing something off about me for the past few years. I just think I'm really weird tho, I've always been really off, like when I'd make people disappear with my mind when I was a child. Or how I don't talk to my neighbor, but her dog and I get along great.

[Sybil]

I am highly disturbed.

My little baby cousin Nikki 21 y.o, has been slowly declining for about 5 years now.

She was sort of a disturbed child, needy, couldn't speak until about 9-10, cried alot, was a big follower....etc....

At about 15-16 she was writing beautiful poetry that she would let me read that made sense and was logical.

Graduated High school, was working at a fast food place....

Over the years I have started to notice weird things, conversations....

She would tell me things of how she got raped, how she was on Heroin.....etc....however, there was never any evidence that she was doing these things, or that this ever happened.

I seldomly talk to her anymore.....she has been hospitalized, in homes, on a variety of cocktails of meds, anything from valium to lithium.....and even harsher.

Seems like things are getting worse.

She tells me she works for the government, the president, secret service, how she is dating Famous people, ....she'll be talking on the phone....to no one. Talking to invisible people......

And then today.

Heres the latest of her dillusions.....

She is dating the guy from Miami Ink....she works doing tattoos now.....travels the world with him doing tattoos.

She has several new tattoos that no one can see....there is a special potion that she needs to pick up from the tattoo parlor so that will make them appear.

She works out of Orange County and Miami FL.....

She is a ghost....no one can see her..... she says that the angels are trying to get her to come up to heavan.....but she isn't ready to go yet.....

She saying satan and the angels talk to her....

and she kept referring to her mom as Margaret....istead of Mom.....

Very eerie.....I am so sad for her......

I think she has lost it to a piont to where there is no return.

=(

I have never in my life actually witnessed THIS sort of disorder.....to such an extent.

The things that ocme out of her mouth are just so random, and so scattered.

It is so disturbing.....

I just don't understand it......

It just seems like it gradually took place....over a few years.

She seemed OK few years back...I mean I always knew there was something not completely right, but now it is very clear.

I don't know how to respond to her most of the time.

I just feel very sad for her is all.

Has anyone else had to deal with this kind of a thing???

Is there any way to help these kind of people? Magic words? Counsel? Prayer?

Seems like the drugs have made things worse....IMO.

I don't know, sometimes I feel like I can talk sense in to her, but its so much deeper than that.

oh my word.. :(

this is terrible.

i always say pray.. situations like these are so far out of our reach .. not possible for us to fix this kind of thing..

i dont understand how some of us float out of reach like this. normal love and compassion and lending an ear ends up hurting the givers alot...

i have a question and i dont mean to sound lame or dumb, i am just wondering.. does she just watch tv all day and lost ahold of reality? or is it much deeper than that? growing up, was she the type of person who skipped social things and watched non-stop tv?

i am asking, because i have HEARD stories LIKE this about people who ALL THEY LOVE is games or tv.. and it hurts them in the long run. they dont see tv as an end of the day unwind, it becomes their life..

i have known people who had SERIOUS issues with their grasp of reality.. and had mood swings that were so bad the 2 words "mood" "swings" doesnt even touch who they were and how they behaved.

one guy i spent alot of time with, had shrinks and medicine and alot of problems that were not being helped by the shrinks or the pills.. (i am being so vague, right now..)

he threatened to kill himself many times.

it was so sad and so hard to see, and i lost alot of sleep over it.

i couldnt do anything.

compassion didnt help.

i was a teen, i didnt know what to do..

i watched the way he treated others, and that was the WORST. he was kind of a cruel person. VERY forceful. a little violent..

sadly after a few years, i just walked out of his life. i couldnt DO anything for him, and he was breaking my heart.. i couldnt stand the way he treated people or the way he treated himself.

i am so sorry you are going thru this with a relative. do you try nicely telling her that she is NOT these people she says she is?

do you try to pull her back into reality and get her out of the house.. take a walk with her.. get her to focus on something else other than her thoughts that are far from what the truth is???

[Dollardave]

I am highly disturbed.

My little baby cousin Nikki 21 y.o, has been slowly declining for about 5 years now.

She was sort of a disturbed child, needy, couldn't speak until about 9-10, cried alot, was a big follower....etc....

At about 15-16 she was writing beautiful poetry that she would let me read that made sense and was logical.

Graduated High school, was working at a fast food place....

Over the years I have started to notice weird things, conversations....

She would tell me things of how she got raped, how she was on Heroin.....etc....however, there was never any evidence that she was doing these things, or that this ever happened.

I seldomly talk to her anymore.....she has been hospitalized, in homes, on a variety of cocktails of meds, anything from valium to lithium.....and even harsher.

Seems like things are getting worse.

She tells me she works for the government, the president, secret service, how she is dating Famous people, ....she'll be talking on the phone....to no one. Talking to invisible people......

And then today.

Heres the latest of her dillusions.....

She is dating the guy from Miami Ink....she works doing tattoos now.....travels the world with him doing tattoos.

She has several new tattoos that no one can see....there is a special potion that she needs to pick up from the tattoo parlor so that will make them appear.

She works out of Orange County and Miami FL.....

She is a ghost....no one can see her..... she says that the angels are trying to get her to come up to heavan.....but she isn't ready to go yet.....

She saying satan and the angels talk to her....

and she kept referring to her mom as Margaret....istead of Mom.....

Very eerie.....I am so sad for her......

I think she has lost it to a piont to where there is no return.

=(

I have never in my life actually witnessed THIS sort of disorder.....to such an extent.

The things that ocme out of her mouth are just so random, and so scattered.

It is so disturbing.....

I just don't understand it......

It just seems like it gradually took place....over a few years.

She seemed OK few years back...I mean I always knew there was something not completely right, but now it is very clear.

I don't know how to respond to her most of the time.

I just feel very sad for her is all.

Has anyone else had to deal with this kind of a thing???

Is there any way to help these kind of people? Magic words? Counsel? Prayer?

Seems like the drugs have made things worse....IMO.

I don't know, sometimes I feel like I can talk sense in to her, but its so much deeper than that.

I have schizo its no secret and I hear devil and angels and god but its all in my head. They should try her on zyprexa its a good drug for it I've been on it for about 2 years now