Schizophrenia

CHATSDALE · Oct 18, 2004

it is very complex and it hurts so many people family and pts alike...i work in a psych facility and you look at the wasted lives..it can be so sad...at least alheizheimers comes along at the end of life...schiz can come along at any time usually starts [or the symptoms become more apparent] during teen years but some toddlers have been dx .. meds help but are not a cure and not really good at control most of the time..i hope that we can find some relieve for these 'throw away' people

Nursie_Annie · Oct 18, 2004

Schizophrenia is manifested by psychotic symptoms. These people hear and see things that sound and look as real to them as you or I do to each other, but we cannot see or hear those things. (Basically because they arise from within the person's disrupted thought processes, not from reality.)

They can be delusional as well, which is like if they think the radio announcer is speaking directly to them, the TV can hear their thoughts, or that God has chosen them for some special mission. (You have to be very careful with that last one. Like that old joke. When you talk to God, it's prayer. When God talks to you, it's psychosis.)

Psychotic symptoms like this can also come in post traumatic stress disorder (generated by a specific event or set of events, for longer than six months--look that up if it is important to you), bipolar disorder (especially in severe mania) and borderline personality disorder, to name a few.

The trick is if the person hears voices and those voices sound like they are in the room with them, it's a psychotic disorder like schizophrenia. If they hear voices but the voices sound like they are inside their own head, it's still a problem, but it's more than likely not schizophrenia.

I have known a lot of families who learned to live with their mentally ill family member in a constructive way, and a lot who were just a mess all the way around. The last group weren't able to live constructively with their normal family members.

If you ask me, an illness that can be treated with medication and monitored to short circuit episodes of decompensation (regression into psychotic symptoms and not being able to do ADL's) is better than something that cannot or will not be managed in a healthy way.

But you are right, waste is sad, no matter why.

trapped_in_light · Oct 18, 2004

I think it's kind of wrong to refer to this as a "waste"

It just is

Jo Dirt · Oct 18, 2004

I think it's kind of wrong to refer to this as a "waste"
It just is

My cousin is schizophrenic. She is also 6 ft. tall and it is very scary to be around her.

My uncle was schizophrenic. He died in his 40's and it was very sad for my family to see him this way. Once in while his old self would come through and my grandmother would ask him, "Why can't you just try to stay yourself all the time?" and he would tell her, "Mama, you don't know how hard I try." I can only imagine the agony he suffered. He was extremely intelligent (in the mental institution the staff would know they could depend on him to be like a walking dictionary, if they couldn't remember how to spell a word they alwasy knew they could ask him), and maybe I am a cold person to say this but I do feel like this disease wasted his life.

My great-grandfather was also schizophrenic. He was a very smart man as well.

Someone told me schizophrenia does not run in families but I guess mine for some reason has a huge coincidence of it.

trapped_in_light · Oct 18, 2004

The disease does waste a persons life

I just meant that it would be wrong to say that about a person with it

hypnotic_nurse · Oct 18, 2004

I think if you have a sibling who is schizophrenic you are at higher risk than the average person (but it's still a small risk -- one of my patients was an identical twin, he had schizophrenia and his twin didn't -- so it's not solely that sibling link). Otherwise I don't believe having a parent or more distant relative puts you at any higher risk. Babies born in spring also have a greater incidence of developing schizophrenia later in life than babies who were born at other seasons.

One of the docs I worked with had me think about my hand, how it felt, how it's always been on the end of my arm...then said, "The way you feel about your hand, that's how someone with schizophrenia feels about their hallucinations and delusions. That's how real they are to them."

No one knows why schizophrenia happens, although (of course!) there are hypotheses.

CHATSDALE · Oct 18, 2004

there are degrees to mental illness just as there degrees in physical illness ie you can have the sniffles, next person can have the flu, someone else can have pneumnia..some people have a friend who walks with them and they know that that person is not real and they do not talk with other people about their 'friend' except in therapy..some of the residents i know are scared to death of their voices..these people preceive the others to be the enemy...we have a resident where i work, sometimes when give her medicince she will hold them up and talk about whether she should take them or not...sometimes they will tell her to take them or to take certain pills or not take any at all

just a note..not all people who hear God's voice are having a psychosis episode...in some born=again congregation conversations with God is a two way steet...it all depends on belief....i remeber a lecture when i was in psych rotation in school....psycologist give lecture touched on subject:he said if a roman catholic or episcpalian tells you that God is talking with him you can make a dx....baptists and pentocolists you have to keep digging

bruinlaura · Oct 18, 2004

Someone told me schizophrenia does not run in families but I guess mine for some reason has a huge coincidence of it.

The person who told you that is misinformed. I did my undergrad degree in psychobiology and I remember my profs teaching us that schizophrenia has a very strong genetic component. obviously schizophrenia is not solely a result of genetics but there was a twin study done and the identical twins were i think twice as likely to have schizophrenia (if their twin had it that is) than the fraternal twins (identical twins have more genes in common) and the fraternal twins more likely than unrelated people.

mrdoc2005 · Oct 19, 2004

I think if you have a sibling who is schizophrenic you are at higher risk than the average person (but it's still a small risk -- one of my patients was an identical twin, he had schizophrenia and his twin didn't -- so it's not solely that sibling link). Otherwise I don't believe having a parent or more distant relative puts you at any higher risk. Babies born in spring also have a greater incidence of developing schizophrenia later in life than babies who were born at other seasons.
One of the docs I worked with had me think about my hand, how it felt, how it's always been on the end of my arm...then said, "The way you feel about your hand, that's how someone with schizophrenia feels about their hallucinations and delusions. That's how real they are to them."
No one knows why schizophrenia happens, although (of course!) there are hypotheses.

there is a new term "transfered schizophrenia" which means that they are not sure if the disease is transfered along blood lines or if it is transfered due to being around that person (enviroment). The news research is starting to show no genetic link only enviromental links.

Do not know if any of that is true just telling you what we just lerned in mental health about 2 weeks ago.

stephera · Oct 19, 2004

I have brother who is 20 years old and has been hearing voices for about 5 years but only got violent about 1 1/2 years ago. He says the voices never go away and the medicine does not work. He has a very bad problem with drugs now and I think they say that they try to self medicated themselves this way and I believe it is true. It is a very sad situation and I have found myself crying for him at times. The meds only calm them down , it does not help take away any symptoms or cure it which is really sad. It is kind of like any other disease out there - just bandaids to cover it up. Anyways , I just have to say that my heart goes out to these people all the time and I spend a lot of time praying for them.

Steph.

How do you detect schizophrenia and What are the causes?

Spazzy Nurse, RN · Oct 19, 2004

Stepn, I can understand why you feel how you feel about medications, and I can certainly see why your brother feels how he feels. But there are people out there who are completely free of sx because of the meds that they are on. I know several. That along with possibly some therapy can help a schizophrenic to live a completely "normal" (what's normal, anyway?) life. For some people meds lessen the voices but don't take them away completely---- allowing that person to better tolerate them (like on 'A Beautiful Mind'). But like CHATSDALE says, there are different degrees, and you can never predict how one person will do on a med. It's trial and error. For some people medications can work indefinitely, some temporarily, some when taken along with another one, and some not at all. Sometimes a person can't get back up to where they once were once they decompensate. It's almost as if a brain injury occured with that decompensation. I've seen some who go a little further downhill every time they decompensate. Just another reason it is SO important to stay on your meds.

I look at my clients and I could just cry for them. Mental illness is a horrible, horrible illness. I feel just as bad for the families. Some of them really work hard to educate themselves and to become involved, which can really do a lot of good in some cases. I commend those family members for showing the strength that they do. It must be awful to see a loved one going through that lifelong struggle. I can function as someone WORKING in the field, but I don't know how I'd handle having a family member where one of my clients is. Especially my brother. Hang in there, Steph.

I have brother who is 20 years old and has been hearing voices for about 5 years but only got violent about 1 1/2 years ago. He says the voices never go away and the medicine does not work. He has a very bad problem with drugs now and I think they say that they try to self medicated themselves this way and I believe it is true. It is a very sad situation and I have found myself crying for him at times. The meds only calm them down , it does not help take away any symptoms or cure it which is really sad. It is kind of like any other disease out there - just bandaids to cover it up. Anyways , I just have to say that my heart goes out to these people all the time and I spend a lot of time praying for them.
Steph.