[thatdizzyedge]

I'm looking for any insight that might help me be able to understand how my mom processes information and help her go to the doctor. She suffers from untreated paranoid and disorganized schizophrenia. She had various skin wounds due to her picking at them but might be skin cancers. She is afraid to go to the doctor because she feels that she's caused this condition and she's afraid of hearing it is cancer. I've been talking to her for several hours a day to try to make her strong enough to see a doctor. Today I had her write down questions to ask a doctor if he were sitting right there. Tonight I'm having her write questions that she thinks the doctor will ask her. I have been encouraging her and praising her every step of the way...encouraging baby step while stressing the concern for her health. I just wonder if there would be a better approach. We live in different states.I have already flown to her to help her to a doctor with no success. She wanted to talk about it until I had to come home to my young children. There are no siblings or family members to help...just me and I want to do everything I can to help her be healthy in every way. I just need a little help.

Originally Posted by thatdizzyedge

I'm looking for any insight that might help me be able to understand how my mom processes information and help her go to the doctor. She suffers from untreated paranoid and disorganized schizophrenia. She had various skin wounds due to her picking at them but might be skin cancers. She is afraid to go to the doctor because she feels that she's caused this condition and she's afraid of hearing it is cancer. I've been talking to her for several hours a day to try to make her strong enough to see a doctor. Today I had her write down questions to ask a doctor if he were sitting right there. Tonight I'm having her write questions that she thinks the doctor will ask her. I have been encouraging her and praising her every step of the way...encouraging baby step while stressing the concern for her health. I just wonder if there would be a better approach. We live in different states.I have already flown to her to help her to a doctor with no success. She wanted to talk about it until I had to come home to my young children. There are no siblings or family members to help...just me and I want to do everything I can to help her be healthy in every way. I just need a little how help.

How long has she had sz. Was it late onset?

You could approach it from the point of view that her beliefs have being proved inaccurate in the past. And should her current symptoms recede , her beliefs will be proven inaccurate in the future. You could tell her that you dont want her to waste the rest of her life in a state thats confused. Tell her that life is too short to live like this.

Try to get her on meds , even a token gesture , a low dosage , could change her mindset.

But be patient disorganised sz in particular can be hard to treat , but this dx really does mean that she needs to take meds. Paranoid sz is thought to be the most treatable. Or it has a good response to treatment.

Your mothers scratching could be a response to tactile hallucinations.

I myself am sz , and what sticks most with me , is that i dont want to spend the rest of my life frittering it away.

[thatdizzyedge]

Thank you so much for your help I appreciate it more than words can say. I will try this approach. Her hallucinations and delusions became very evident in her early 30s. She had an involuntary commitment for only 2 weeks in her mid 40s. Never had a doctor, consistent care or medication. Again thank you so much.