Schizophrenia Help?
Question:
What do they do with their day, as much detail is great.
Answers:
My son has schizophrenia. He became psychotic 3 yrs. ago at age 23 and it took 3 attempts before we were able to get him admitted to the hospital for a complete evaluation. In retrospect he was exhibiting predromal symptoms for probably 6 years, but we had no idea it could be schizophrenia. He has taken an antipsychotic and an anti-anxiety medication ever since. Unlike a lot of people with this illness, he is able to recognize that he is ill. He remembers being terrified and extremely anxious all the time so he takes his meds. religiously as he doesn't wish to return to that state of mind. It's a myth that mentally ill people are more violent. My son was always a gentle person and still is, even when he was psychotic.He is quite intelligent and the disease hasn't affected that, but because he can't concentrate his learning is restricted to videos or anything visual that holds his attention. He finds it extremely hard to read so while he was able to finish high school and was accepted at university he was unable to do more than 2 credits. His girlfriend of two years left because she could not cope with all the problems associated with having an an intimate relationship with someone with schizophrenia. That was probably his lowest moment and he no longer wanted to live. A year later he still thinks of her obsessively but has accepted that the breakup is final. The medications cause him to sleep for at least 12 hours and often it's not a restful sleep because he says he has very vivid dreams and nightmares. He is very disorganized and forgets everything which are cognitive problems that go with schizophrenia. Because of the frontal lobe problem, his judgement is greatly impaired and at one point he was taking a lot of street drugs and drinking alcohol which wreaked havoc with an already altered brain chemistry. He still drinks alcohol to excess maybe 5 times a month and then can't function(stays in his room) for days afterward. Apparently this is a fairly common problem associated with schizophrenia, especially with young men. Like everyone else, he says he feels more "normal" when drinking and is able to socialize without feeling anxious. However the ensuing depression is extreme. Alcohol also makes you lose your inhibitions and for someone like my son who already has poor judgement the results are disasterous. He' s been in some trouble because he lacks impulse control and he feels great shame because of some of the things he's done. We have to keep in mind that a mental illness is NOT a character flaw and some things, in spite of the medication, are beyond their control. He is on long term disability because he can't maintain a job for very long even though his desire is to work and have things like everyone else. He has a few friends that call him regularly, however after a diagnosis of mental illness, a lot of people don't stay in touch and because schizophrenia causes him to withdraw a lot into his own world it's sometimes difficult to keep the lines of communication open. My son writes endless journals describing his internal pain, words he has diffculty expressing to us. If you were to have a conversation with him you would think there was nothing wrong, in fact he appears friendly and very well-versed in many subjects. However his shyness is noticeable and he can only maintain a sociable facade for a limited time before he needs to retreat. We always need to remember that schizophrenia is a thought disorder and he often has ideas and plans that he's unable to follow through with, although some of my friends' kids of the same age and no mental illness have the same problem. We have learned to let him go at his own pace with no expectations. Most days he gets up very late , works out at the Y to combat the weight gain caused by the meds, ( went from 5' 10" 140 lbs. to 190 lbs. ), talks to people on MSN on his computer, writes, watches tv or dvd's. and just lives his life. This past summer he coached a junior hardball team (17 yr. olds) and also played baseball himself. He loves baseball and is a real movie buff.
Everyones experience with this disease is different, we've been told that some have one psychotic break and with medication never have another, some recover completely, while others simply don't recognize the illness in themselves, refuse the meds and are homeless. There are a myriad of effects with schizophrenia which aren't controlled by the meds or are directly caused by the meds and a lot about this illness is still not understood, however we try to remain hopeful and positive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia
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