Comment from: moonchild, 35-44 FemalePublished: October 09
My 39-year-old son was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in July of 2002 at our state mental hospital. He started being scary after 9/11/ and "got messages" that told him he was sent to save mankind. He had a terrible temper with cursing and violence toward his dad. On his second trip to the mental hospital in 2003, they were finally able to get him on Risperdal, which helped but raised his blood pressure very high. After four years, the psychiatrist switched him to Prolixin, an old drug that seemed to work better for him. He will never work again and has lost everything but his house, where he spends his days and nights alone, chain-smoking, like a recluse. He does visit his three daughters and has a cordial relationship with his former wife. I miss my youngest son the way he was before the “evil” took him away, and I cannot find anyone on either side of the family who had the disease.
Comment from: denise62, 65-74 Female (Caregiver)Published: October 06
My mother is 67 years old. She is having a lot of these symptoms. I have not taken her to the doctor yet but we go soon. She is on a lot of medicine including morphine. She was using the fentanyl patches. She was putting the patches in her mouth. The last time this happened she didn't come all the way out of it, after it wore off. Since then which has been about 3 weeks she has all these signs of schizophrenia. I read that drug abuse couldn't cause this disease but I'm not so sure about that. She thinks her mother which is deceased and her mother's best friend who is not deceased is living in her bedroom. She says they are very little and they stay in pillows, blankets, and drawers. They don't want anyone else to see them or hear them talking. My mother asked her mother how she came back from the dead. She said her mother said she did not really die and the doctor made a mistake when he pronounced her dead. But she is embalmed and she crawled out of a whole in her grave and came to my mother's room. She thinks her mother's friend came about 3 or 4 days later. My mother talks to both of them all the time. Other than this behavior she seems to be fine. She talks with normal sense the rest of the time. She has fears of other people showing up that she don't know. I hope the doctors get this right and don't just say she has dementia. Or is it all pretty much the same?
My brother, who is now 67, has been schizophrenic for many years. He has been on Zyprexa for a long time now and it has improved his behavior tremendously. He still has very delusional thinking, even on the Zyprexa. For instance, he still believes that previously, when he was not on medications, he heard the voices of his spirit guides, who were assisting him when he was being attacked by wizards and demons. He believes that several people at his day program have strong auras that he can sense, and he believes he can communicate telepathically with those people and get a telepathic response (consisting of a "feeling"). In fact he believes that these people at the day program are actually Lemurians (a mythic race that inhabits tunnels under Mt. Shasta in California). He still believes all this, but he doesn't act on it in any destructive way. His behavior is much better, and he no longer hears the voices of the spirit guides. He really isn't "normal" but his interactions with other people are much better.
Comment from: confusedsis, 25-34 Male (Caregiver)Published: September 17
My 31 year old brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia 10 years ago. He has been on several medications since then. He was in remission for about three years until a couple of years ago when he started refusing to take his medications. He insisted that the medications had too many side-effects and that he was afraid to take them. He started having problems at work, became more verbally aggressive and now he is homeless. We had him committed for treatment many times. My other brother and I could not have him live with us anymore because we are both married have young children and our spouses don't even want him in our homes. Schizophrenia is the worst disease anyone can have: it destroys not only the patient, but the whole family.
Comment from: shamiska, 19-24 Female (Caregiver)Published: September 17
As someone whose parent has schizophrenia and whom has it also. I just want to tell you that no matter how hard it may be or how guilty you feel about it, if a family member needs help make that call! I struggled from the age of 10 to help my schizophrenic mum for 6 years I struggled then it got really bad and she ended up in a mental hospital. She's out now has been for four years and she's a thousand times better than she ever was. Fight your fear and bite the bullet it's worth it.
Published: July 28
Our 21 year old son showed signs of mental illness when he started talking non stop and became very violent towards us. I believe he had smoked a lot of drugs. He thought he was Jesus Christ coming back to save humanity. Also he used to hear voices commanding him to do evil. We felt that he was suicidal too so we got him admitted in hospital. He spent about 3 weeks in hospital and when he was discharged he became very calm and quiet and hardly communicated with us. In the beginning he took tetracaine and risperidone (6 mg). But now 9 months later he only takes risperidone (1 mg). He neglects himself a lot so we still have to remind him to brush his teeth, bathe, change his clothes, etc.
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Depression is an illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts and affects the way a person eats and sleeps, the way one feels about oneself, and the way one thinks about things. The principal types of depression are major depression, dysthymia, and bipolar disease (also called manic-depressive disease).
Alcoholism is a disease that includes alcohol craving and continued drinking despite repeated alcohol-related problems, such as losing a job or getting into trouble with the law.
Suicide is the process of intentionally ending one's own life. Approximately 1 million people worldwide commit suicide each year, and 10 million to 20 million attempt suicide annually.
Bipolar disorder (or manic depression) is a mental illness characterized by depression, mania, and severe mood swings. Treatment may incorporate mood stabilizer medications, antidepressants, and psychotherapy.
Dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder or split personality disorder) is a mental illness in which a person has at least two distinct personalities. Symptoms and signs include lapses in memory, feeling unreal, blackouts in time, hearing voices in their head that are not their own, not recognizing themselves in the mirror, and finding items in one's possession but not recalling how they were acquired. Treatment usually involves psychotherapy, medications, and sometimes hypnosis.
Drug addiction is a chronic disease that causes drug-seeking behavior and drug use despite negative consequences to the user and those around him. Though the initial decision to use drugs is voluntary, changes in the brain caused by repeated drug abuse can affect a person's self-control and ability to make the right decisions and increase the urge to take drugs. Drug abuse and addiction are preventable.
Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) has many symptoms, signs, and causes. Therapy is one treatment option for antisocial personality disorder. It is closely related to other personality disorders (PD), such as borderline personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder.
Psychotic disorders are a group of serious illnesses that affect the mind. Different types of psychotic disorders include schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, schizophreniform disorder, brief psychotic disorder, shared psychotic disorder, delusional disorder, substance-induced psychotic disorder, paraphrenia, and psychotic disorders due to medical conditions.
Schizoaffective disorder is a mental illness that features schizophrenia and a mood disorder, either major depression or bipolar disorder. Symptoms include agitation, suicidal thoughts, little need for sleep, delusions, hallucinations, and poor motivation. Treatment may involve psychotherapy, medication, skills training, or hospitalization.
Mental illness is any disease or condition affecting the brain that influence the way a person thinks, feels, behaves, and/or relates to others. Mental illness is caused by heredity, biology, psychological trauma and environmental stressors.
Compulsive gambling is a disorder that affects millions in the U.S. Symptoms and signs include a preoccupation with gambling, lying to family or loved ones to hide gambling, committing crimes to finance gambling, and risking importance relationships and employment due to gambling. Treatment may incorporate participation in Gamblers' Anonymous, psychotherapy, and medications like carbamazepine, topiramate, lithium, naltrexone, antidepressants, clomipramine, and fluvoxamine.
About 5 million children and adolescents in the U.S. suffer from a serious mental illness such as eating disorders, anxiety disorders, disruptive behavior disorders, pervasive development disorders, elimination disorders, learning disorders, schizophrenia, tic disorders, and mood disorders. Symptoms of mental illness include frequent outbursts of anger, hyperactivity, fear of gaining weight, excessive worrying, frequent temper tantrums, and hearing voices that aren't there. Treatment may involve medication, psychotherapy, and creative therapies.
Brief psychotic disorder is a short-term mental illness that features psychotic symptoms. There are three forms of brief psychotic disorder. The first occurs shortly after a major stress, the second has no apparent trauma that triggers the illness, and the third is associated with postpartum onset. Symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, unusual behavior, disorientation, changes in eating and sleeping, and speech that doesn't make sense. Treatment typically involves medication and psychotherapy.
Factitious disorders are conditions in which people pretend to have physical or mental illnesses when they aren't sick. These people may lie about or fake symptoms to obtain the sympathy and attention given to people who are genuinely ill. Symptoms of factitious disorders include dramatic, inconsistent medical history, the presence of many surgical scars, and a history of seeking treatment at many different hospitals.
During the ECT procedure, an electric current is passed through the brain to
produce controlled convulsions (seizures).
Why is electroconvulsive therapy performed?
ECT is useful for certain patients with significant depression,
particularly for those who cannot take or are not responding to antidepressants,
have severe depression, or are at a high risk for suicide. ECT often is
effective in cases where antidepressant medications do not provide sufficient
relief of symptoms.
How does electroconvulsive therapy work?
This procedure probably works by a
massive neurochemical release in the brain due to the controlled seizure. Highly
effective, ECT relieves depression within 1 to 2 weeks after beginning
treatments. After ECT, some patients will continue to have maintenance ECT,
while others will return to antidepressant medications.
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My 39-year-old son was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in July of 2002 at our state mental hospital. He started being scary after 9/11/ and "got messages" that told him he was sent to save mankind. He had a terrible temper with cursing and violence toward his dad. On his second trip to the mental hospital in 2003, they were finally able to get him on Risperdal, which helped but raised his blood pressure very high. After four years, the psychiatrist switched him to Prolixin, an old drug that seemed to work better for him. He will never work again and has lost everything but his house, where he spends his days and nights alone, chain-smoking, like a recluse. He does visit his three daughters and has a cordial relationship with his former wife. I miss my youngest son the way he was before the “evil” took him away, and I cannot find anyone on either side of the family who had the disease.
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