My son (24) has schizophrenia

[classycase]

Hello all.  Just a quick update on my son. He was released from the hospital on 7/13/2018.  He has just begun to be able to watch movies this past week. He still resists watching TV, as the commercials disturb him. He is living in our RV again.  He is current med-compliant, which is pretty much all I can ask for.  He is kind and polite, currently, which makes things easier. We've had some issues with small things sending him into a frazzled mindset, but they have mostly subsided.  Just an update. I hope everyone and your loved ones are hanging in there.  We all know it is a long road ahead of us.  Best wishes and respect to you all

[Dadcaringalone]

Dear All,

Just wondering how you all are going?

My son and I had a pretty bad night last night. I was woken in the middle of the night hearing my son sobbing and crying uncontrollably. I went into his room half asleep and tried my best to calm him down by talking to him and hugging him. It didn’t work for long and we seriously contemplated calling the acute crisis line or going back to hospital. It was a real struggle to get him out of hospital last time and the next admission to hospital will be for a much longer period. He was triggered by trying too hard to just do normal things to reenter society and after seeing his case worker. He was very suicidal and I have never seen him like this before and it was really scary. After an hour or two I managed to calm him down and get him to sleep. He’s medication compliant but I’m not sure his antidepressants are working properly. They just doubled his dose when he was last in hospital. He’s still taking his antipsychotics which seem to be working but not sure what to do as I’ve seen him off his antidepressants and its not nice. His diagnosis is more schizo affective rather than schizophrenia as he has a mood component with schizophrenia but we are having challenges with his moods as we saw late last night. Does anyone have and ideas or experiences to share with me about how to handle this? 

All the best to you all and keep truck’n. I’m trying my best but pretty exhausted after last night so today I will be out of action 

[classycase]

I am sorry to hear about your current situation.  I wish there was something wonderful I could say to help you through it.  What struck me, based on my personal experience, is that my son did not do well when he was on anti-psychotic medication and anti-depressant medication at the same time, as that is the only time he has tried to hurt himself.  In my opinion, the combination of the two types of medication are dangerous.

[Dadcaringalone]

@greenpea

Dear @classycase

Thank you for your kind message. In an ideal world I would absolutely love to have my son off the antidepressants but I’ve seen him when he’s not on them and he has now been on them for over a year so unfortunately has developed a dependency. I am interested whether your son has schizophrenia or schizo affective disorder? My daughter who had pretty severe depression last year was on antidepressants and couldn’t handle the side affects which in fact made her more suicidal. She’s now coping pretty well with her friend’s support and seeing an excellent psychologist pretty regularly when its required so I completely understand where you are coming from. I also find to keep my son, who has schizo affective disorder with a pretty severe mood component away from my daughter keeps her depression under control. I have shared this with greenpea because I know she has had similar experiences with her daughter and son.

I thank you greatly for your kind thoughts.

Best regards Dadcaringalone

[patientpatient]

Hi @Dadcaringalone,

Sorry to hear that your son is unwell. My son (27) has Sz. I was interested in your comment about triggers ("... trying too hard to just do normal things to reenter society and after seeing his case worker. "). My son lost interest in "normal things" and spent nearly all of his time at home. A quiet and stable environment is the usual recommendation and that's what we worked towards, as much as possible. He's more comfortable now venturing out and slowly getting into social activities but the transition isn't smooth. Do you know why your son "trying too hard" or if he's being put under pressure? Pressure always tips my son off balance. My son's also on antipsychotics (night) and anti-depressants (morning). The anti-depressants are being used "off label" to manage OCD. The combination seems OK for him. 

[Dadcaringalone]

@patientpatient

Thanks for your message. Concerning “triggers” according to my son, his main triggers are his ex-girlfriend who according to him triggered his recent hospitalization, uni exams, work and my parents and crazy family who triggered his 1st major psychotic collapse. After he saw his case worker and then tried to interview for a job he has now decided to just put more effort into recovery and cancel all these activities which according to him are normal activities which the majority of people may find stressful but are not totally devastated by the prospect of such events.

He is in a way putting himself under pressure himself. He has a future job position which is reliant on him graduating and this stressed him enormously until we met the future employer together who reassured him the main thing is that he just focuses on getting better and they are not going anywhere and he can start when he is finished his studies and ready. Generally a lot of these so called “normal” things such as exams etc take him a lot longer and special consideration adjustments need to be made to get him through the process. He ends up doing pretty well in the long run but he needs a lot of support to complete them.

Concerning your comments about social activities and just staying at home, my son is very similar to yours. Many of his social relationships have just broken down and I found I needed to accompany him to many of his meetings with case workers etc as a type of backup. He is now doing more of these activities alone. He’s on very similar medication at the same times as your son. These completely knock him out and he spends a lot of his time asleep and loves the safely of the Home environment.

Hope these comments answer your questions. Please let me know if you have anything special you would like me to comment on. Have a good day

[Berniadette]

Hello Barbara, <br>I too have a son 24 with schizophrenia. As a young child I always knew there was something wrong but it wasn't till his last year at univ. that real problems emerged in February 2017 (paranoia, voices etc.) We were able to get him on meds but that didn't last long. He quickly took himself off them and his life spiraled down, he quite his job, and went awol for 2 months but we were able to convince him to give up his apartment and come home. So here we are Aug. 2018 and he is doing much better thanks to anti-psychotics. May I recommend a book that was helpful for me, "I am not sick, I don't need help" by Xavier Amador. It will give you some insight as to what is going on with your child, and also teach you better ways to approach him so you can reason why he needs treatment. Timing is very important, but the book will instruct you so you can move forward to better things. Take it slow and easy and you will make progress. Also I joined NAMI (California) and speaking with other carers helps tremendously. Good luck

[Lifeisbeautiful]

As folks try to get treatment in the US, it seems that we bump into a roadblock that an individual is not an 'imminent risk to themselves or others.'

Has anyone contemplated (or tried) going to another locality, e.g. outside the US, to see if civil liberties are different and might accommodate an involuntary admission? I wonder how many people would be helped if, indeed they had a regimen of treatment including medication and therapy?

[classycase]

Perhaps your loved one's symptoms are not as significant as others or he/she is better at masking them when clinical assessment professionals are present.  I have never had a problem getting involuntary admissions.  My son has had 7-8.  The thing I have had problems with is keeping him in.  I found that when he was on private pay insurance, the moment he got into the hospital, the insurance company was trying to get him released... stable or not.  Since he has had SSI and Medicare, longer admissions, with more treatment, have not been difficult, as the doctors can base the length of admission based on symptomatically and not insurance complaints.  I found that to be the most frustrating situation.  
I have never considered going outside the US, as other countries might have more lenient rules for admission, but they may also be allowed to treat our loved ones with less humanity.  I would hate to think the quality of not only care, but of existence overall, that they would endure in another country.  The current mental hospitals, even in the US, are not ideal.... I just can't imagine what it is like elsewhere in the world.   

[Lifeisbeautiful]

Agree on difficulty of having someone stay against their will. That’s sort of the string I’m pulling on to see if there are countries that have differing civil rights,  perhaps even in a facility that is private and costs a good deal of money.  I would do anything to help my daughter