Mom with Paranoid/Schizophrenia

[timeparticle]

My mom was diagnosed with Paranoid/Schizophrenia at age 34. I was 7. Before this, we saw the changes growing...

She changed, as if she chose the dark side... ever presence was her watching eyes for fear that I might be the enemy. Anger and confusion ruled the household for months. My older brother and sister fought their fears, too. My father didn't know what to do. Back in the sixties, no one spoke of such disorders...

A dark disorder, it was, and a difficult health care system in California, it has been...

Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling mental illness. It affects men and women with equal frequency. People suffering from schizophrenia may have the following symptoms:

Delusions, false personal beliefs held with conviction in spite of reason or evidence to the contrary, not explained by that person's cultural context
Hallucinations, perceptions (can be sound, sight, touch, smell, or taste) that occur in the absence of an actual external stimulus (Auditory hallucinations, those of voice or other sounds, are the most common type of hallucinations in schizophrenia.)
Disorganized thoughts and behaviors
Disorganized speech
Catatonic behavior, in which the affected person's body may be rigid and the person may be unresponsive
The term schizophrenia is Greek in origin, and in the Greek meant "split mind." This is not an accurate medical term. In Western culture, some people have come to believe that schizophrenia refers to a split-personality disorder. These are two very different disorders, and people with schizophrenia do not have separate personalities.

Well, I might disagree with that last statement. Yes, when afflicted, the person has quite a different personality...

Does anyone have any questions about this? I have a storage room of hands on info on this subject.

[labelwench]

That you are now sharing this very personal aspect, Timeparticle, would suggest to Labelwench that you have some specific questions in mind.

I have known two schizophrenics, both men, neither of them well. One young man I worked with on night crew for a time and he openly discussed his symptoms and meds with me. He seemed more likely to be dealing with A.D.D. but I am not a physician and I am sure that schizophrenia manifests in many ways.

The other gentleman developed a crush on me, from a very long time ago and has gone to some extreme lengths to stay in contact with me. We were never more than bare acquaintances, but perhaps I was non-threatening and accepting of him at an impressionable time in his life.

The images you have attached to your thread starter speak to me of isolation, fear and despair.

I know not what questions you would have me ask but I shall watch this thread for whatever you may post. If you choose to PM me, I will always reply, but may be a day or two as we are going into contract bargaining and I shall have not much personal time in the coming week.

[timeparticle]

That you are now sharing this very personal aspect, Timeparticle, would suggest to Labelwench that you have some specific questions in mind.


No, not really. There are many sites on the web that help family members deal with situations like this. But, years ago there wasn't much. Those who are interested in Psychology may be interested in a non-clinical view on this subject.

There are many degrees of P/S. Some people can lead a somewhat normal life, with medication, or other aids, and others cannot. Your friend at work seems to be doing pretty well.

[austintorn@aol.com]

Hi TP,

I studied some schizophrenia. It certainly seems to be as you say. I believe there are many types, of course paranoid being a common mode.

A recent post on the topic:

http://www.toequest.com/forum/psycho...enia#post83711

How do you think this affected you, if it did?

[Unreal Zelta]

Schizophrenia and the like are not hereditary (although it can be), a person can develop mental disorders under certain conditions. Paranoia is a symptom of a range of mental disorders, it's not a diagnosis as such.

I can be paranoid about keeping the kitchen clean, what that means is I have a set of strict rules and any breach to it will result in 'paranoid' behaviors.

If your sole called paranoia consists of seeing things and the like, then it's usually a display of hallucination, which can be caused by anti-psychotics/anti-depressins (drugs) or it's a neurological problem.

regards

Zelta

[Mikal]

Dear TP….now I am going to talk to you from my heart for surely a 7 year old boy watching his mother change is a monstrous emotional crisis no different from me as a 6 year old staring down into the casket of my still father in death. It is a revolution in the privacy of our young internal life, with both our instances a collision with an inescapable loss internally painful and trying. I know what happened to my father but you have more than likely spent a lifetime of anguished wondering.

Carl Jung gave precedence to living primary experience asserting that we understand nothing psychological unless we, ourselves experience it. He said schizophrenia is the soul in crisis, and the therapist must be a physician of the soul embodying the art of sympathetic understanding of human nature.

In his eyes, schizophrenia was a person caught in the psycho-spiritual dimensions involving the creative and destructive ambivalence of powerful energies at work deep in the psyche. It is to live with an overwhelming inner life. It is a mode of perception and consciousness that is in nature, feminine, irrational and bearing the polytheistic energies of the soul. He said the schizophrenic state is powerful, vivid, chaotic, disturbing yet brilliant, insightful and shrewd. It is a person living with irrational psychic scattering, multiple focuses, an inner sense of dismemberment that is intensely personal and hyper-empathic involvement with the world and unconscious. It is a person in extreme introversion.

What has happened to the person in schizophrenia? THE SELF-PROTECTIVE DAM OF UNIQUE PERSONAL IDENITY HAS COLLAPSED. The conscious self or sense of distinctive self has been over-whelmed by powerful forces from the collective unconscious which has swamped consciousness leaving a person with a fragile, damaged ability to distinguish inner from outer reality. The person has a fragile, fragmented, dead or lost ego or CONSCIOUS PERSONALITY STRUCTURE. The normal ego-enforced boundaries between self and world have broken down until there is identification with everything within their sense of perception.

Moreau of Tours 1845, said schizophrenia was a decrease in the unfolding of small parts of the developing psyche’s activity and a decrease in intellectual functioning. Further studies in the ensuing years are revealing the schizophrenia as PROLONGED ADAPTATION STRESS, a violation of natural disposition as a result of external influences which leave the physiological organism in an acute state of exhaustion where the brain is forced to function from areas requiring greater expenditures of energy….

Life has always held crisis and trauma but the cultural complexities of modern day enculturation are dumping a majority of people out into the world as psychically damaged where the natural flow of developing consciousness has been interfered with and culturally invaded.

Because my heart ached in childhood….I feel your aching heart….

Sincerely Mikal

[labelwench]

There are many degrees of P/S. Some people can lead a somewhat normal life, with medication, or other aids, and others cannot. Your friend at work seems to be doing pretty well.

In fact, the young man, although personable, did not remain with night shift for long.

Night work is challenging enough for those whose genetics pre-dispose them to the hours, and who are in relatively good health. Between the Schizophrenia, the medications, performance expectations and a personal life, the young man soon chose other employment opportunities.

A better choice for him and he seemed quite alert and conversant when last we met.

Regards,

Labelwench

[timeparticle]

Thanks for the feedback and questions.

My mom passed away about a year ago, so I have had some time to reflect.

I realized, from watching my mom change from her normal self to her darker, fearful and angry self, many times throughout her life, that we may all have a lighter and darker side to ourselves. Acceptance of these different sides grew easier as I grew older.

Her dark side was really dark... maybe evil. She would use her heightened sensitivity and physic awareness to, seemingly channel the darkness into her. She would use this extra sense to demean and knife slice anyone's weakness, as a tough love demon would criticize faults of unaware prey.

She brought people to tears from this assault. I felt ashamed and embarrassed for her. I protected people, my friends and family members, from her. I began to hate her evil self. I wished I had another mother....

Her medications would help, somewhat. She would eventually become afraid of taking them and revert. Sometimes, over some years, she would do pretty well, taking her meds. and working at a full time job. The doctor she had thought the meds. could be reduced, because mom was doing so well.....
That was a bad medical decision. She became very ill, very quickly.

Medical insurance only allows a patient like my mom to remain in the hospital for 2 or 3 weeks, unless a doctor overrides it. My mom would always fool the doctors into thinking she was ok. She would live in the grey area, apparently not really being a threat to herself or anyone else. The doctors would always let her go too early. She needed 3 months in a care unit, not three weeks. It was a constant battle of her well being and the healthcare systems logical, rational, limited resources.

It was like one of her purposes on this earth was to push that grey area to it's limits, stretching family ties and the help healthcare could possibly give her.

[labelwench]

My condolences for your loss, Timeparticle.

Your imagery and the description of your mother's condition and circumstances are very enlightening.

I realized, from watching my mom change from her normal self to her darker, fearful and angry self, many times throughout her life, that we may all have a lighter and darker side to ourselves.

Observation of the effects of extended graveyard shift under duress would incline me to agree with your statement, quoted above.

Regards,

Labelwench

[Graybeard]

My condolences too, Timeparticle. You seem to have handled your situation in life very well.

I can be paranoid about keeping the kitchen clean, what that means is I have a set of strict rules and any breach to it will result in 'paranoid' behaviors.

I have this one. I think my girlfriend has given it to me, she is worse than me.

Sometimes I say 'lets leave the dishes for one night, just pig out, and we will do them tomorrow. But we never make it, sooner or later one of us gets up and cleans up.

cool bananas ... greg