Mental Illness

TabbyAnn said:
Has anyone here dealt with a paranoid schizophrenic? I have a long term friend who is a functioning schizophrenic who has bouts of irrational verbal attacks on the one closest to him where he hurls insane insults and accusations that don’t make sense. Any attempts at rational response spawns a paranoid reaction that you are trying to befriend him for nefarious reasons and invade his space. This becomes insulting to me and I shut down and cease communication. We have separate homes so it is possible for both of us to disengage and retain our privacy. Inevitably after a few weeks he resumes normal contact as though nothing has happened and often he is very helpful. . However, for the first time in these many years, I feel an extreme uneasiness about continuing any contact with him. I have the vague feeling something is going to explode and I don’t want to be around. He isn’t in treatment and reacts badly to suggestions of it.
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This person sounds like he could really go off the rails at some point and if you’re close enough, you may suffer greatly. Maybe you should consider to start separating from him. Mental illness comes in all forms. Some are harmless and some aren’t, depending on the diagnosis. I think this person may require some serious therapy.
 

Tish said:
I have only dealt with Schizophrenia in a controlled environment as a Psychiatric nurse.
It's a completely different experience than dealing with one as a friend that is not medicated and has little to no psychiatric involvement and help.
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Thanks so much for posting. I did notice some changes prior to the most recent episode including increased memory loss and some illogical approaches to small everyday logical problems. But, since we have separate homes and lives, I frequently don’t see any build-up until the full blown hostile paranoid episode erupts. Over the years, I found psychiatric literature on the subject to be as confusing as the patient, with changes in symptoms and nomenclature and I quit studying it. It’s sad because he has been helpful during normal times and I would like to return the favor. But what he seems to need most during an episode is space. If anyone makes even the most casual friendly gesture toward him during this time it escalates his paranoia.
 
I am no authority on this….but no one is. It really sounds like your friend “cycles”. This is common in some forms like bipolar. This is why he is disruptive only sometimes. I do not know the guy….but manic psychotic people can be scary. This doesn’t always or even often mean they are dangerous. I would plan on confronting him when he seems normal and tell him he is fixing to lose you as a friend if he doesn’t seek treatment. People with mental illness need friends, family and homes….but but often lose all because of the sheer effort it takes to remain by their side. Good luck…believe me when i say i know from where i speak.
 

TabbyAnn said:
Years ago I heard the condition called Tourette Syndrome described as the involuntary uttering of obscene and curse words where people blurt them out at inappropriate times with no control over it. Now that I look up the definition of Tourette's I find many other definitions such as involuntary movements of the head, throat sounds and various other tics. Cursing is buried among other symptoms or is not mentioned at all..
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I think maybe the syndrome is so rare that few people saw enough of it to understand it. Obscenity probably jumped out to many people including professionals as the primary symptom. Your change in understanding very much mirrors my own. I thought it was all about dirty words at one time too. But science and knowledge changes as we discover and learn. Most of us here have lived long enough to watch great advancements in understanding, and what we know about Tourette is probably a good example.
 

"Nearly one billion people have a mental disorder: WHO​

“Everyone’s life touches someone with a mental health condition,” said WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Good mental health translates to good physical health and this new report makes a compelling case for change.

“The inextricable links between mental health and public health, human rights and socioeconomic development mean that transforming policy and practice in mental health can deliver real, substantive benefits for individuals, communities and countries everywhere. Investment into mental health is an investment into a better life and future for all.”

Even before COVID-19 hit, only a small fraction of people in need of help had access to effective, affordable and quality mental health treatment, WHO said, citing latest available global data from 2019.

For example, more than 70 per cent of those suffering from psychosis worldwide, do not get the help they need, the UN agency said."

https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/06/1120682
 
I think I have dealt with a Schizophrenic, but I missed all the bad stuff because it often does not appear until the late 20s. Years ago, I worked with a young guy in his early 20s on many occasions. He was unusually dedicated and knowledgeable, but when our work ended, I lost track of him for many years. I met him again years later, and he was still a warm and friendly person, but he had been in prison. I later found out that he had a "mental illness," and the court sent him to prison for "not taking his medications," which seem overly heavy handed for the court system. But still later I heard that his neighbor had been murdered in an unsolved bloody axe murder, and a lot of evidence suggested it was done by my friend, but there was not enough solid evidence for a conviction. But they could prove that he was failing to take his meds, and he was sent away for that. When I met him later he was taking his meds and outwardly he was the same guy I had known before. Maybe a bit less spontaneous.
 
When I was symptomatic I was not able to socialize or function well enough to have responsibilities such as employment.
For 30 years I was this way and as if a miracle occurred I knew exactly how to put my life together again.

I started volunteering, got a job, graduated with honors from community college, founder/president of first mental health education awareness chapter activeminds@tc3, published 3 essays, followed childhood dream of becoming a minister, 2 years Bible college, transferred to SUNY Empire University, graduated Bachelors degree Human Services.

My complaint and sorrow remains the loss of productivity and living to mental illness and the lack of time and ability I have left due to old age.

There are no guarantees in life but I was cheated out of the best years of my life and now I’m too old to start a career, get a doctors degree, travel my body is in pain at least I can think.
 
Been There said:
Is it true that dentists have more suicides than any other occupation?
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I heard this same statistic. Many years ago, my dentist did. The last time I had seen him, he had lost a lot of weight, later attributed to personal problems.

Another dentist told me he felt sick to his stomach every morning on the way to work. No suicide, but he changed specialities and was much happier.
 
One of my step sons was schizophrenic but his father and I married when he was an adult and I didn't have much personal contact with him. He was in and out of institutions and we did visit him in a sanitarium several years back. Sometimes I'd see him at my husband's store. My BFF is good friends with a woman I classify as a good acquaintance. "A" is a talented musician and we've gone to see her play several times. Even my husband and I have gone, both alone and with my BFF. But she is often not compliant when it comes to taking her meds and has been quite a handful for her sister, who she lives with. I feel so sorry for the sister. She's clever at hiding her mental illness when she needs to be too. Once the police were called to their home and she convinced them that she's a working musician holding down gigs, so there must not be anything wrong with her. They didn't take her in.

Just last week my BFF told me that "A" sent an alarming text in the middle of the night, at a time my BFF wouldn't have been up. "A" said that someone was out to kill her and that my BFF should notify the FBI. If she (my BFF) didn't do so immediately, people would find her ("A") dead. My BFF called her the next day and she didn't speak with urgency but felt someone was doing something to her food (that's been going on for years). It's so sad to see such a talented, nice person go through what she's going through. But some of it falls on her because she periodically stops taking her meds. I think part of the issue too is that she can no longer afford therapy.

TabbyAnn..As the saying goes "Follow your first mind". If you feel it will no longer be safe to be around him, go with that. And after you've removed him from your life, it would be best not to open the door if he shows up at your home.
 
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" I have a long term friend who is a functioning schizophrenic". That kind of says it all. Everything you mentioned is very typical with the diagnosis. Without treatment, there's no real hope of a dramatic change in his symptoms, and his being totally adverse to any treatment is extremely common. Given the closeness of your friendship, both as a friend/observer, and as the object of his delusions, plus your anxiety over his behavior; do you really believe a continued relationship is beneficial to you?
 
Diva, Bella & Tish hit the nail on the head with all of their suggestions.

You've tried to help him for years, but you can't help it that it didn't work. You know him well enough that your instinct is telling you to stay away because something bad is about to happen. If you're not able to end the relationship suddenly without setting him off, then do it slowly, but just do it.

No one here wants to find out that you took the full brunt of a violent episode.
 
Shalimar said:
No, there is no reliable scientific evidence to support this claim.
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Have you heard that tale before? Has there ever been a scientifically conducted survey done as to which occupation has had the most suicides? Is there any ‘one’ psychotic illness that has been tagged as it being more likely to commit suicide compared to others?
 
Been There said:
Have you heard that tale before? Has there ever been a scientifically conducted survey done as to which occupation has had the most suicides? Is there any ‘one’ psychotic illness that has been tagged as it being more likely to commit suicide compared to others?
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I heard that same thing about firmer combat soldiers and cops. I think we are all a little nuts. I went to a house on a welfare check because her husband who traveled for business said he tried to contact his wife for two full days and couldn’t get a hold of her. We had to call him and get permission to take down the door and he was OK with that. Once inside, we found his wife in the tub, no water, but she sliced her wrists. She had been doctoring for schizophrenia for some time. Her mother died the same way. She was dead at the scene. Hard to believe a.47 year old mother of two adult children and no problems would do that, but I don’t know much about mental disorders. Anyone that ells you that seeing something like that doesn’t bother them, they are either lying to you, or they have a heart of stone.
 
I've never known anyone in my personal life with schizophrenia. I have dealt with people due to the work I do.

I had a co-worker married to a diagnosed man. She's still married to him but has moved away. She'd work the shift after me. Sometimes she'd come to work and say she'd had it with that (expletives), but always worked it out it seemed. She said she'd talk to him on her break and he'd hear others in the break room and think she was at a party, not at work. I'd say 'where the ef does he think your paychecks come from?!
 
Been There said:
Is there any ‘one’ psychotic illness that has been tagged as it being more likely to commit suicide compared to others?
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I just asked Google and it took me to a study that says schizophrenia was the mental illness most likely to result in suicide. I remember reading once that fully 80% of people with schizophrenia try to kill themselves at one time or another. Psychosis is horrifically painful.

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Just imagine living in a world where you had trouble determining what was real and what was not. You would hear voices that seemed to come from outside your body, coming from the closet or the back seat of the car, telling you, you were horrible and you should die, that you were a danger to your family and you should kill yourself to protect them.

Imagine feeling afraid all the time, with an overwhelming sense of impending doom.

Imagine thinking that crimes you saw reported on the news were committed by you.

Remember the worst nightmare you ever had and imagine if you woke up and turned on the light and the nightmare was still there.
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Doctors were once asked what they thought the worst disease was and they agreed it was schizophrenia. The disease fills our streets with sick homeless people trying to self-medicate with street drugs. It fills our prisons with sick people who weren't aware they were doing anything wrong.

Yet we do nothing about it. We give every year to the March of Dimes, we have annual drives for heart disease and relays for cancer. We give more money annually to research for tooth decay than for research to cure schizophrenia.

We have pity for sick children and old people but none for the schizophrenic who struggles every moment of the day and all night long. Him we just fear.

Instead of helping him we get angry at the schizophrenic for having this brain disease. We ask him to think logically when the hormones in his brain are sending mixed signals through the wrong receptors and his fear is much larger than his logic.
 
I had a psych professor years ago who said that Paranoid Schizophrenic was the worst diagnosis anyone could have. I didn't know much about disorders at the time, and he didn't go into detail why that would be the case, but it gave me a chill.
 
911 said:
I heard that same thing about former combat soldiers and cops. I think we are all a little nuts. I went to a house on a welfare check because her husband who traveled for business said he tried to contact his wife for two full days and couldn’t get a hold of her. We had to call him and get permission to take down the door and he was OK with that. Once inside, we found his wife in the tub, no water, but she sliced her wrists. She had been doctoring for schizophrenia for some time. Her mother died the same way. She was dead at the scene. Hard to believe a.47 year old mother of two adult children and no problems would do that, but I don’t know much about mental disorders. Anyone that ells you that seeing something like that doesn’t bother them, they are either lying to you, or they have a heart of stone.
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I was reminding another former Trooper about this call we were on and he reminded me that when we got into the house they had a Bullmastiff and he wasn’t liking strangers coming into the house. There’s a memory for you.
 
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