Just to clarify, I meant information, whether it is hopeful or not-so-hopeful. We of course don’t encourage bad information. Sorry for any :dubious: I may have caused.
I don’t know much about schizophrenia, but I do know one thing: If she starts smoking, don’t try to stop her. Almost all schizophrenics find nicoteine helps them, and I think in that case all the health risks would definitely be worth it.
Since most of my remaining friends were made when I was locked in for PTSD-induced suicidality, I know not one but several schizophrenics who smile, who live fulfilling lives, and in the grand scheme of things would probably do better without treatment than I would. Your daughter can still be as happy as she always was- just not immediately.
Since family support has already been addressed, I’ll mention the other important thing. If after weeks or months she doesn’t smile or doesn’t smile as often as she did, demand the doctors consider changing her medication. Some schizophrenia meds will do this (and in my opinion, should be thrown out the fucking window) and some, with the advances that have been made in medicine, will not.
This is vital. If the doctor doesn’t listen to you (or to her, depending on her recovery) when you bring up concerns about the meds flattening out her emotions, go to another doctor. In the vast majority of cases a doctor who doesn’t give a shit about this particular side effect is worse than no doctor. Seriously.
I don’t know what it’s like there, but where I live those with mental illnesses absolutely must be their own advocates (or their families, depending on the situation) if they’re going to get anything resembling competent treatment. Read everything you can about schizophrenia. You will find that there are completely non-medical things which will improve things with or without medication (family support is a damn good example of this).
And when things calm down a bit- and when you’re ready- I would advise learning a little bit about how schizophrenia is seen by the anti-psychiatry movement. Don’t believe everything you hear or read (you don’t even have to believe most of it, or a lot, or any of it) but read and hear from multiple perspectives. Place more weight on clinical and scientific information, but find out about the other stuff anyway.
With the right medication, therapy and a supportive family I’m pretty sure your daughter will be alright Dutch. We’ve come a long way since the 1950’s when it comes to dealing with schizophrenia. I have a cousin who has it, she’s living a happy life as long as she takes her meds.
First, my heart goes out to you and your loved ones, Dutch.
That has to be so horribly scary.
One of my neighbor’s (good friends) son was recently diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Great young guy, about 20 or so.
It is still early in his treatment, but it looks like they have a handle on it.
I wish you the very best of luck.
Having worked on mental health units, I have met countless schizophrenics. I absolutely agree that having a caring, attentive family makes a HUGE difference in the outcome for someone with schizophrenia. Just having someone who can help them remember to take their medication will make a major difference. Many schizophrenics act very normal and are as happy as anyone else when they’re stable on the right medication. Unfortunately, for various reasons, it is very common for someone with schizophrenia to end up in a pattern of “Get out of the hospital on meds, go off the meds, then back in the hospital” and I think that’s the source of so much of the suffering these individuals experience.
If your daughter will allow it, I would definitely recommend staying in close contact with her psychiatrist. You know her better than anyone else, and telling the doctor what you’ve observed can help a lot with making sure she has an accurate diagnosis as well as helping to coordinate her care so nothing falls through the cracks when she leaves the hospital. You may also want to get in touch with your local chapter of NAMI since they have support and resources for families :
http://www.nami.org/
I’d echo other comments that its a wait and see moment right now. There’s so many medical conditions that can cause delusions and paranoia.
The OP has gotten his daughter the best possible care. Hopefully they’ll find the cause and develop a treatment plan soon.
Best of luck Dutchman. You’ll be in my thoughts and prayers.
It runs in my family.
I have two mutually exclusive diagnoses right now. One places me on the schizophrenic disorder spectrum. One on the other spectrum that gets talked about all the time. Don’t know what to think, really. So I kind of keep both labels in my back pocket, depending on what the topic of conversation is!
I have learned a lot of about schizophrenia over the past few years.
Your daughter has three things going for her that offers a lot of hope: 1) the sudden onset 2) her gender, and 3) the nature of her symptoms. Women tend to come out better than guys. The thinking is that estrogen has a protective effect (consider getting her on birth control, if she isn’t already on it). Also, paranoid schizophrenia has a much better prognosis than, say, disorganized schiz. And sudden onset means that there probably hasn’t been a lot of deterioration going on in her brain. It may be more biochemical than hardwiring, in other words.
You don’t mention the presence of any negative symptoms. If they are sparse or non-existent, that’s another good sign.
Treatments are also a lot better than they used to be. There are also so many support groups now. It’s amazing to me to how many people seem to have schizophrenia or have experienced psychotic breaks before and are doing fine.
olives is right about the importance of family support. It is extremely important. I know things will be stressful for you during this time, but it is key that everyone be laid-back and keep any drama outside of her sphere of awareness. She doesn’t need to hear people crying or fighting or even be around outrageously happy people. People with schizophrenia don’t do well with emotions, their own and other people’s.
I wish you all the best.
A big thankyou everyone especially monstro. We are going to see her in an hour, and I’ll advise my other daughter and my wife to keep the emotions in check.
I am a mental health nurse. Although my area of specialty has been around the aging population, I have some experience with younger adults. If you have any questions about medications, more “real life implications” than what a drug monograph gives you, either ask me here, or PM me.
And so sorry to hear about this, but a diagnosis is not a tragedy. Getting institutionalized is not a tragedy. Having someone fall through the cracks and live unmedicated, un aided, un diagnosed, that is the real tragedy.
Thanks. I’ll keep your offer in mind.
Mr. SCL is a psych nurse, and this could have been written by him. He calls them his “frequent flyers” and the main things they have in common are that they are male and lack a support system. It may take a bit of time to get her meds right, but with them she can lead a happy, productive life.
My thoughts are with you and your family.
I am so sorry to hear your news.
Wishing your daughter the best in the world.
The good news is you are there to help her and she is 21. I am 40. I am bipolar. One of my closest friends is 35 and he is schizophrenic. He could never cooperate or get along and was suspicious and had to run the whole show in his life. His bad spells the government was spying on him and following him and all of that that you hear about. He was in treatment but he tried for so long to do it his own way. He wound up costing himself years and years this way.
Now he is on some pretty heavy meds but slowly adjusting. He’s getting better. It’s been 6 months of progress. We hope that in 6 more months he can go back to school or get a part time job. If he keeps making progress he will, or so it looks.
The guy I knew 10 years ago, when he was 25 was a great guy and really smart. But he lost all that. If he would of started his treatment program correctly then he’d obviously be doing much better now. But, we can’t redo the past, can we?
My advice is just set some reasonable goals, just to get back to a semi normal life that is somewhere between happy and OK. My friend would of done so much better if he had been content to take his recovery slowly and step by step. I wish you all the luck.
What to know about visiting relatives in the hospital for these disorders:
Your family is safe and doing OK! Try the best to cheer them up but keep it pretty much low key. They are sitting there bored out of their mind all day or obsessing about their problems and how they can leave and how they can fix everything. (I was hospitalized also). Most people don’t even remember very much of what happens at the hospital after they leave. This is partly because of the meds of course but partly because people just seem to zone out there from the circumstances also.
So if she seems despondent this is ok, oddly enough. It’s a completely normal reaction to the situation.
When they get close to leaving is when most people start to look and feel a little better. As I said, I’m bipolar, my friend is schizophrenic and I have two close friends with aspergers. I also have 4 or 5 friends normal as well. And like I said I’m 40 so I’ve seen this whole process for the last 15 or 20 years.
Right now, the hospital is the best place she can be. Oh… look up that support group for NAMI. They can help give you lots and lots of info and they also have meetings for friends and family if your town is big enough. I’m sure you’re stressed out and these support groups for you can be a real help to your own peace of mind.
Also, feel free to send me a PM… if you want.
I just thought I’d add to the numbers by saying I have a schizophrenic friend who does very well.
It took awhile to get her meds right, and the episodes in the mean time were not always pretty. You might want to be prepared for tough times, but I do think she can come out on top. Right now, my friend has just finished university, is successful in theatre and just married her girlfriend. She smiles A LOT!
We talked about it all quite a bit. She said that in a way she was grateful for the life experience. You can’t have a different life, so you might as well look at what you got out of your experience. She feels she has a richer way of experiencing reality; an understanding of the way our brain filters what we perceive. It makes sense to me 
I went seriously weird about 30 years ago, but they managed to straight-up cure me with lithium (after trying a bunch of the nastier stuff). Might have had to do with the acid, though I did do it later with no bad results.
Without my family to get me through that, I might never have made it (and I do feel pretty bad about what I put them through). Good luck to you, Dutchman, stay strong and make sure your daughter knows that you love her unconditionally (which does not mean letting her walk all over you).
Have you ruled out any kind of illicit drug use. Sorry for asking but I have seen this where it was least expected.
Hang in, pal. This initial episode might be the worst of it. Accurate diagnosis is the main focus right now, along with keeping her safe. Several posters have noted that there are several likely rule-outs, including schizophrenia, a mood disorder, several possible medical etiologies, and/or a psychotic episode due to drug involvement. Count me in with the others who have offered support via PM - I’m a licensed psychotherapist with a goodly amount of inpt psychiatric experience.
Sending you all my best thoughts -
One of my cousins is schizophrenic. It popped up practically out of nowhere in his early 20s, when he was newly married with a baby daughter. He started hallucinating and had to be hospitalized. Unfortunately, his marriage didn’t survive. It was very sad for all concerned, because he was (and still is) a very sweet guy.
So here we are now, 20+ years later…he is much better controlled on meds, and although he’s on disability, he has a part-time job, lives independently, and has a girlfriend of many years (they consider themselves married, though they aren’t legally married because apparently it would screw up their benefits - she has her own mental health issues of which I don’t know the specifics).
So yeah, it’s not the life he would have had if the schizophrenia hadn’t popped up, but he does OK - with lots of family support, mostly from his parents.