I don’t have schizophrenia but my family member does. Since taking on the responsibility of caring for this family member, it has been and still is a learning journey.
I want to share my experience of living with someone with schizophrenia so that it can help to share some light/relief/knowledge to anyone seeking such information. I didn’t have anyone helping me understanding this mental illness except the internet and this is my way of giving back. It’s more sharing my experience of living with someone who has schizophrenia, and I will touch on more about the mental illnesses later on.
This family member has suffered from schizophrenia close to 30 years. The person’s sister, who was a nurse, told the family the clinical diagnosis was depression, until a medical emergency last year revealed that the condition was actually schizophrenia.
For many years, I believe the family member suffered from chronic depression as the symptoms spoke for itself: withdrawal, lack of self-care, excessive sleeping, weight change, loss of interest in life generally and hoarding (a co-morbidity). The situation seemed to improve after a few years of in-patient psychiatric treatment, regular medication and follow-ups, and working a low-level admin job for some years. The family member never fully recovered (even till today) but there was some semblance of a normal person’s life for a while.
Then came job retrenchment and the subsequent passing of the family member’s mother. Things didn’t go downhill immediately but it did when this family member stopped taking medications for the past two years; paranoia, severe withdrawal and lack of self-care and general hygiene and cleanliness kicked in. There were also incidents of lying, which I took them to be some form of self-defence mechanism or a habit (not a symptom) that arose out of schizophrenia.
This family member has since restarted medication and attends an elderly daycare for five days a week. The social interactions and physical activities will keep the mind from wandering too much into what I term “the darkness”.
I know this doesn’t sound like the symptoms of schizophrenia that most know of. Schizophrenia exhibits two types of symptoms: positive and negative, and this family member (by my own observations and research) exhibits a majority of the negative symptoms and a few positive symptoms.
Despite knowing the conditions, it’s a struggle and exercise to come to terms on daily basis that this family member, despite being in a better condition now, will never be able to manage self-care, personal hygiene and cleanliness. Mental clarity/recovery will be rare or almost impossible. And at times, I feel despair and frustration at this family predicament.
Yet like a lot of what’s going on in the world right now, whether it’s dealing with with a global pandemic or racism, it all starts with us on how to handle and share the knowledge and extending our support to those in need. And it’s my eventual hope that this site achieves that.
Until my next post, which I hope I won’t take too long to write, please stay safe and healthy, physically and mentally.
Hands to Heads 