Schizophrenia

montrose818

Banned
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May 26, 2020
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1416
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I dont mean the evernoov kind :flipoff2: I mean really.. anyone have it? anyone deal with someone who had it? What input do you have on it after direct or indirect experience with it?

edit. its not me
 
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I dealt with people with schizophrenia while I was a home based counselor for a community mental health center.

Any sort of hallucinating is a real bitch, and trying to get people to stay grounded in reality when hearing, seeing, smelling, or feeling things that simply aren't there is a very difficult task.

Takes quite a while to find the right medication combination that works. Once you find it, don't stop taking them. Relapsing can make it harder to treat.
 
Had (knew) a female that lived next door when I was growing up that was diagnosed with it, havent seen her in almost 10 years ago but the family moved away from the old neighborhood about a year ago.

Dont think she was diagnosed until she was about 30 or so dont know how someone like that is delt with without family as her mom is about 90 so wont be around much longer.
 
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Grandmother on my mom's side lived out her days in a state hospital with severe schizophrenia. I never met her (mom's orders) but mom told stories here and there about severe hallucinations, to the point of screaming at kids/people that weren't there. She eventually just lost touch with reality somewhere in her 30's/early 40's and institutionalized. Even after she was committed and I assume medicated we would get letters to people that didn't exist, birthday cards for my siblings (I'm an only child) etc...
 
most regulars here already know Im livin with Schizoaffective disorder.. among many other mental problems

I think what most people don't know is the difference between schizoaffective and regular schizophrenia.. affective means you also have a mood disorder.. so in my case, schizoaffective of the mixed state bipolar type..

I worked at the Austin State Hospital as a Texas Certified Peer Support Specialist for 2 years (1 paid and 1 volunteer).. plus I took some courses in college, and read lots of books.. so I could type for pages, but Im feelin lazy

if anyone has any direct questions, I can help..
 
Friend from HS era is schizophrenic self medicated. his step mom seduced him at 12 got knocked up kept the baby and his whole family blamed him.

Spent 10 years in jail for minor offenses 20-30 yo, he maxed out to avoid probation, few years later he pushed some guy off a cliff in washington state. He was pretty mellow around me but did come after me once after misreading a text. Through county assistance and ssi he got a free ride to community college, laptop after pawning it ten times I gave him $100 for it, using it now:laughing: software, housing aid, student stipend most of that got turned into crack, fucking bleeding heart libs.

It's difficult to get someone back in their own control when they need it, especially when they turn on you because they think you are the enemy. He often talked about people killing him and would pull "signs" of it out of thin air.
 
A girl I went to HS with went batshit crazy in her early to mid-20s. She got diagnosed with some form of schizophrenia. You can tell when she's off her meds. She'll make FB posts followed by dozens of replies where she's arguing with everyone and no one all at once with wild conspiracy theories and delusions of grandeur. No, she's not Donald Trump.
 
My cousin has it bad. I spent my teen years growing up with him on their farm. I never understood where his mother was. Finally asked my dad. He said she was in the state mental hospital and would never get out. He was completely normal growing up other than seeming very selfish. I’ve never met someone as mechanically gifted in my life. At 14 he was building full blown race motors with no formal training. He got married and had four kids. Then he just slid into a whole different world. He drinks cases of beer a week, I think to make the voices go away. He’s been arrested for disrupting meetings, dui, threatening to kill people. You name it. I hadn’t seen him in years until I saw him in a gas station about a month ago. His only words to me was...you are still alive? :eek: He scares the shit outta me. He lived for awhile with another guy that was also scitzo. That guy went to his ex wife’s apartment and blew her husband apart with a shotgun two blocks from where we live. Hard to treat and keep on meds. I think many homeless are scitzo.
 
My ex's dad has it. He blew away some family members. Not fun shit.
 
Neighbors kid had it growing up, he was a nice guy on his meds, off meds not so much. He committed suicide in his late 20’s. It was a messed up deal, his parents were super people.
 
Both uncles on my mom's side had it.

The older one was a shut in that got worse over the years. When I was a kid he was a shut in, but functional. Had a drivers license, nice car. Used to pick me up when I was younger and take me out to the park, to get ice cream, ect. By the time my brother (3 years younger than me) was old enough to do that kind of stuff he'd sold the car and stopped leaving the house. The aunt he lived with passed later on and he moved back in with my grandma. Was the neighborhood weirdo that walked his cats, but nothing over the top. Over time got to the point he would only stay upstairs in the house if anyone came over. Really went off the rails when my grandma died and started hording cats, trash, ect. Eventually stopped eating entirely and got a huge knot in his intestines. Got bad enough I physically removed him from the house and dragged him to the doctor. Docs said he was too competent mentally for them to force treatment. Found him dead a few weeks later on Christmas slumped up against the wall holding his stomach like he got out of bed and made it to the wall and couldn't go any further.

Cleaning the house out took two years and was fucking disgusting. My grandfather and grandma owned an antique store back in the late 70s and early 80s and had a lot of nice shit in the house. Had to go through everything despite being covered in cat piss and shit. On top of that my uncle had been hoarding trash and it was mixed in with everything else. Eventually found notebooks where he'd been documenting all the trash he saved, issues with the cats, the cats preferences on everything from food to house temp, ect. Also found tons of notebooks where he'd apparently been tracking star and planetary movements and whatnot for years with extremely detailed scientific notes. He was a high school drop out and there was some really advanced math and maps throughout the notebooks.

The younger one was medicated for it for years and it completely fucked him up physically, fucked his teeth up, ect. He basically had the mental capacity of a 15 year old his entire adult life. He yelled a lot, but it was over immature shit. But he was never violent or anything. But he got to the point my grandma couldn't take it anymore and we had to move him to various adult homes for the last 15 years until he died like 2 years ago.
 
This thread is sad. It confirms my fear and suspicion, that basically anyone on this level is doomed.

Really sad. :(

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A guy we used to hang out with has drug induced schizophrenia. He’s a big guy, played college football, and is scary as fuck when he’s having an episode. He’s at the point now where’s he’s almost constantly detached from reality. We are convinced that some day he’s going to kill someone, and so are his friends and family. He needs to be locked up long term but for some reason they haven’t had any luck with that even though he’s been arrested over a half dozen times in the last few years for doing absolutely crazy shit like showing up at his parents house trying to break in to kill his mom.
He used to be a great guy and a lot of fun to be around. For some reason he fell into the rabbit hole of extreme drug use and that’s what triggered the schizophrenia according to his doctors.
 
One issue with this disease is finding the right medication combo without completely sedating them. I spent 4 years working with them and most of them were on a combo of antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, and anti-depressants.

In an instituinstitutional setting and with a court order to involuntarily medicate them it is much easier than in a community setting where you are counting on a mentally ill person to show up for appointments, pick up their meds from a pharmacy while dealing with transportation issues, and take them at the correct time even while feeling mentally better but still dealing with physical side effects. Oh, and throw self medication through drugs and alcohol into the mix.

Shocking that so many end up on the streets....
 
Tin Roof said:
A guy we used to hang out with has drug induced schizophrenia. He’s a big guy, played college football, and is scary as fuck when he’s having an episode. He’s at the point now where’s he’s almost constantly detached from reality. We are convinced that some day he’s going to kill someone, and so are his friends and family. He needs to be locked up long term but for some reason they haven’t had any luck with that even though he’s been arrested over a half dozen times in the last few years for doing absolutely crazy shit like showing up at his parents house trying to break in to kill his mom.
He used to be a great guy and a lot of fun to be around. For some reason he fell into the rabbit hole of extreme drug use and that’s what triggered the schizophrenia according to his doctors.
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That's almost same story of the guy I knew, I just didn't go into detail. Guy was smart as fuck and everyone like him and he fell into the drug world and got schizo. He was never in reality after that. There were times he would just yell at a dog that was apparently his but not even there. He had fits of rages every so often. He eventually was triggered and killed his sister and her husband in front of their parents.

Your concerns are valid.
 
PAE said:
Had (knew) a female that lived next door when I was growing up that was diagnosed with it, havent seen her in almost 10 years ago but the family moved away from the old neighborhood about a year ago.

Dont think she was diagnosed until she was about 30 or so dont know how someone like that is delt with without family as her mom is about 90 so wont be around much longer.
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Group homes and the like. Contrary to popular belief, Reagan didn't kick everyone out of Institutions and loose them on the streets. Psych care changed at the same time and didn't want mentally ill people condemned to essentially prison. Most schizophrenics are harmless with a minimal of supervision and medication. They can hurt themselves and others when untreated.

Medications changed about that time as well, newer Anti-psychotics came on the scene, so not all Schizos were zombied out on Thorazine. The age of atypical antipsychotics, you see them on TV like Abilify. That type of drug started in the late 1970s around the time Reagan came to office. The first wave was in the early 1960s when they moved away from Lobotomies.

So what happens is people, usually in their 20s, will have an incident with their family and aging parents, then go to an institution where they straighten out their meds. Then they are released and go to a group home or back home. Usually in an out until they end up permanently in group homes. Of course they are people and as they age, their hormones go down and their incidents go down in frequency as well.

Saw much of this while homeless. Many schizophrenics know they are, and struggle, mostly successfully, with paying attention to what is real and what is in their mind. And many of them do not belong in group homes or institutions, the street is literally the best place for them, and the social workers take care of them first.

So many misconceptions about homelessness in this country. You get an upper-class Karen involved and they want to cure everything with their abundance of love and altruism. Sometimes, many times, the bag lady is best off as a bag lady, known by the local shelters and workers, taken care of by the other homeless. Most homeless now are wasted drug addicts, but the core of homeless take care of each other until they don't and then you see it on the news.
 
I have a relative now in his 50s who is schizophrenic, diagnosed at 16. There were signs early on but they just thought he was a bad kid acting out, until there was a big freakout event where he thought someone was trying to kill him, the police were called and he wrestled a gun away from the cops, luckily nobody was hurt or killed.

After that he was put in a psych hospital for several years and it was a terrible experience for him and us. They made him like a zombie, felt extremely tired but could not sleep and reduced his brain function. He was an incredible artist and we still have some of his drawings, but the drugs they put him on reduced his art to stick figures and he could barely speak. Has been in and out of homes, burned down a travel trailer we got him to live in, flooded an apartment because he thought there were bugs, assaulted neighbors, attempted to kidnap neighbors child saying it was his... bad stuff.

It hurts us so bad to watch him go through this and it feels like everything we have done to help has backfired or caused damage/harm to others. He refuses help/money and prefers to be alone and live on the streets.
 
Tin Roof said:
A guy we used to hang out with has drug induced schizophrenia.... he fell into the rabbit hole of extreme drug use and that’s what triggered the schizophrenia according to his doctors.
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Just out of curiosity, do you know what types of drugs this person got into?
 
Fishnbeer said:
Just out of curiosity, do you know what types of drugs this person got into?
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my guess is anything thatll make you halucinate. I know weed has a huge impact too, if consumed regularly over the course of many years
 
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montrose818 said:
This thread is sad. It confirms my fear and suspicion, that basically anyone on this level is doomed.

Really sad. :(

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Not doomed. Just forever changed. People that are afflicted can avoid the "doom" if they are persistent in pursuing the correct med combination and discipline in taking the meds exactly as prescribed.

if paranoia creates a problem with taking meds, then monthly or quarterly medication injections are available.

the meds are really hard on the human body, and is part of the reason why people with schizophrenia typically have a shorter lifespan of 10 to 20 years, but I think that's better than the alternative, ecspecially if someone is receiving command hallucinations.
 
evernoob said:
So many misconceptions about homelessness in this country. You get an upper-class Karen involved and they want to cure everything with their abundance of love and altruism. Sometimes, many times, the bag lady is best off as a bag lady, known by the local shelters and workers, taken care of by the other homeless. Most homeless now are wasted drug addicts, but the core of homeless take care of each other until they don't and then you see it on the news.
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You do have a point. Some of the most tight knit communities i have been in were homeless tent encampments.
 
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