[Blacko]

Hello everybody,
I'm 19 years old, currently doing my service at the army.

About 1 and a half years ago my mom (which is 49 years old, almost 50 now) started developing some very strange behavior.

At start, she thought some vandalists are taking revenge of the building we're living in for some unknown reason (the main door broke every couple of weeks and 1 of our tires had no air in it one morning), but of course that wasn't the case. There is no man that intently trying to sabotage the building.

We didn't notice that something is really wrong until she started saying the the same "people" (from now on let's call them "Them" because that's how she calls them) are trying to poison us. She started examining any residue on the floor of the building (even gums and other regular stuff that she thought was poison).

Then the one time I realized that something is totally wrong is when she saw a woman walking near our building while I was driving the car, she shouted at me to stop the car, jumped off in the middle of the road and started chasing her. Later she explained that she is one of "them" - the one that are trying to ruin our lives..

Me and my father didn't know what to do and hoped she will just get out of it, but the situation got just worse and worse..

She started seeing signs in grafiti's around town that are telling her to do stuff - we started telling her that something is wrong with her, trying to explain to her that this is crazy.. Grafiti that has been there for the past century was made for her that she will see it 50 years later and know the someone is after her and our family - "Them".

The situation got even worse and worse the past year, untill she saw "doom" signs everywhere:
- If i put a hat, that means someone is hurting me and I'm not telling.
- If someone publishes a joke on facebook, it's somehow a sign that she has to give 20000$ to some charity or we will all get hurt.
- If she sees a sign the a cat was lost, that means she is gonna lose all of us.
and so on...

One day at the army I got my head bumped during practice and had a concussion. Then it got even worse.. "Them" got to me and that's the sign they are really acting against us, she had a proof! -.-

She became so depressed, didn't sleep at nights, nothing.
And nothing we said or done could have changed that...
Then we started telling her that she probably has schizophrenia and should take meds, that this is all in her mind, just hallucinations..

She couldn't accept it.. Got really mad how can we not see it.
After a while she started thinking that "Them" got to me and my father and they are threatening us to tell her she is crazy or else they will hurt us, of course we told her it's not true but she couldn't believe.

She started looking for listening devices everywhere, didn't wanna talk at home about this because "they" are listening and if they hear us, they will act.

We tried to convince her to go to the shrink, but she kept saying that if she does that they will act and hurt us.. Until she broke and came. He gave her some kind of medicine called Rispond, but I'm not sure.
She started taking it, still believing that nothing is wrong with her, but if she didn't take the meds "them" will hurt our entire family.. I think she never believed for a moment she is really sick and accepted it, if she told us she knows she's sick, it was so "them" will hear it from the listening devices and leave us alone.. really crazy things..

The Rispond got her a little better, but made her really fat and sick physically, she gained 20 kg in 1 month! scared from diabitis and other illnesses and heart diseases we stopped, and everything went back..

Every med she tried there were some crazy side effects that made her very miserable.. she tried over 7 types in the last 4 months.. nothing really helps..
I'm so desperate, and my concussion didn't help either since I have headaches and dizziness 24\7 ever since.. and can't even fix my self now.. brain damage

Sorry for the wrong posts, and my English..
1. Is there any chance that she was misdiagnosed? That this is not schizophrenia? Because I have read that schizophrenia comes and goes, and she keeps seeing the signs and all 24\7 none stop regardless.. and wouldn't accept that "them" don't exist, that they are all in her head, and that I'm not lying to her by saying that nobody wants to hurt us.

2. I have read that schizophrenia doesn't just appear on this age (started at 48).. She was a very happy and active woman, not totally healthy but still funny, enjoyed life. And it came all of a sudden out of nowhere..
Well, we had a theory that she started taking many nutritional supplement, like lots of them a year before, but it's just a speculation.

3. I don't know how to act, every time I tell her it's all in her head she becomes really depressed.. My father even tried once to tell her that he is protecting us from "them" and everything is gonna be alright, at start it helped, but then it got even worse.. We don't know how to act, how to behave... We're very afraid when she's driving, and up all night..

4. She is taking 1 pill everyone and a while when it gets so bad, can this make things worse?

I need a lot of sleep and to be calm in order to fix myself from the concussion, but I'm all stressed out all the time worried, waking up many times at night to her crying, moaning.. It breaks my heart.. It's terrible.. It's my mother who I love the most!!

My father acts strong but I can see he is helpless too.. He barely sleeps, maybe 5 hours at nights with breaks where he listens to her speculations and crying.. sometimes forces her to take a med so she goes to sleep.. He starts forgetting things and other stuff.. Now I'm very worried about him either..
I started waking up when she cried at night instead of him so he gets some sleep but that got my head worse and worse..

I'm really helpless, don't know what to do. I can barely recognize her face anymore.. She is stuck with a super worried face that stresses me out so bad..

I would love if you answered my questions, that maybe she is misdiagnosed and the meds aren't right for her, and maybe some advices of how I should act..

Thanks in advance, and hope you and your families will become well as soon as possible.

[ickydog2006]

I'm really sorry you're going through this. It sounds like schizophrenia to me. My dad's friend had this happen at that age and I know it is actually pretty common for it to come on full force later in life. As for her not believing she's crazy, that is very normal. The best way to help you understand is, What if I told you, you didn't have a mother and father? You'd think I'm crazy. WHat if I got two or three people to tell you the same thing, including a doctor and therapist? You'd think I was trying to trick you and that they were all in on it. What if your mom and dad told you that they weren't your parents too? You'd probably get very upset, why are they all trying to trick me. I know this is real, the proof is right there in front of me. Why can't they see it. I'm not stupid or crazy. (Sound familiar)
The best thing for other's safety sounds like medication, but yes, all of them have side effects, some or more drastic than others but basically all are miserable, there are no ideal options. It's a constant give and take. As for convincing her to take meds, the easiest way to gain compliance is have her decide what would make her enjoy life more. Lead her to wanting something to help make her not so sad or anxious. But telling her it will 'fix' her 'symptoms' will likely make her push against them, or lie about taking them. Remember, in her mind, she is not the crazy one, you and everyone else who tries to tell her otherwise are the ones trying to trick her and are conspiring against her, and at some point she may even think the enemy has not only gotten to you (as in hurt you) they have also managed to trick you into becoming one of 'them'. I hope she is able to get some help.

hey,

definetly sounds like schizophrenia to me and i can relate to it.

i bet therapy will probably not help her becuase she will probably just continue to believe what she believes.

i think she needs medication.....

thorazine took away all of my paranoia and delusions....but its sedative....

if its hard for her to take her meds everyday , you might want to try a once a month injectable medication

i take invega sustenna once a month and it is not sedative and i dont have any side effects at all exept some weight gain

but basically any medication you take has the potential to make you gain weight.

[Blacko]

Originally Posted by ickydog2006

I'm really sorry you're going through this. It sounds like schizophrenia to me. My dad's friend had this happen at that age and I know it is actually pretty common for it to come on full force later in life. As for her not believing she's crazy, that is very normal. The best way to help you understand is, What if I told you, you didn't have a mother and father? You'd think I'm crazy. WHat if I got two or three people to tell you the same thing, including a doctor and therapist? You'd think I was trying to trick you and that they were all in on it. What if your mom and dad told you that they weren't your parents too? You'd probably get very upset, why are they all trying to trick me. I know this is real, the proof is right there in front of me. Why can't they see it. I'm not stupid or crazy. (Sound familiar)
The best thing for other's safety sounds like medication, but yes, all of them have side effects, some or more drastic than others but basically all are miserable, there are no ideal options. It's a constant give and take. As for convincing her to take meds, the easiest way to gain compliance is have her decide what would make her enjoy life more. Lead her to wanting something to help make her not so sad or anxious. But telling her it will 'fix' her 'symptoms' will likely make her push against them, or lie about taking them. Remember, in her mind, she is not the crazy one, you and everyone else who tries to tell her otherwise are the ones trying to trick her and are conspiring against her, and at some point she may even think the enemy has not only gotten to you (as in hurt you) they have also managed to trick you into becoming one of 'them'. I hope she is able to get some help.

You're right, but it's still so hard to tell her that.. And she has already tried 7 kinds of medicines, current one is Seroquel which doesn't work at all.
Thanks for the reply

Originally Posted by ETPhoneHome

hey,

definetly sounds like schizophrenia to me and i can relate to it.

i bet therapy will probably not help her becuase she will probably just continue to believe what she believes.

i think she needs medication.....

thorazine took away all of my paranoia and delusions....but its sedative....

if its hard for her to take her meds everyday , you might want to try a once a month injectable medication

i take invega sustenna once a month and it is not sedative and i dont have any side effects at all exept some weight gain

but basically any medication you take has the potential to make you gain weight.

The doctor has never mentioned injectible medications. Do people use them when the patient does not react good to pills, or when he forgets taking his pills on a regular basis, or if he refuses meds most of the time?
I'd love if you could tell me more about it, thanks in advance

it does sound like schizophrenia

have you talked to any professionals about it?

that would be a good start

they give monthly injectable medications to people who dont want to take pills everyday, and to people who are not compliant with taking there medication on a daily basis.

the haldol injectable made me depressed and it made my leg shake

but ive never had a problem with invega sustenna injectable.... the first shot is the max dose 234mg for " loading" then a week later its 156mg i beleive and then the doctor picks a maintenece dosage to keep you on ... 39mg ?, 78mg, 117mg, 156mg, or 234mg.

stay away from prolixin... from my experience prolixin made me want to kill myself.

oh and invega is very similar to risperadol but , the difference is that the risperadol injection is given every 2 weeks and risperdal injection makes you tired from what ive heard from people

invega is once a month and it doesnt make me tired at all.

[Blacko]

Thank you very much, I'll ask the doctor about the injection..
Hope you well.