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"They aren't going to nuke the city, are they?"
by SaRafri, Jul 31, 2009 01:51PM
That was what my sister just asked me as she meandered in my room as I began writing this. I'm extremely concerned about my sister's mental health that has been rapidly de-compensating intermittently for the past 6 years. My sister was diagnosed with paranoia, and depression during her final year of high school, when a severe mental breakdown hit her and the family with a very sudden blow. A combination of academic stress and social anxieties in a new school setting (we had just moved to that town) was eating away at her mental health, and by the end of her senior year, her delusions had consumed her and she was admitted to the hospital for treatment.
In the moments that lead up to the breakdown, she had stopped taking showers, grew visibly stiff in public, and simply would not speak. Any attempts by my family and I to pry ANYTHING out of her were answered with blank, wide-eyed stares, with the occasional open mouth as if to say something, but nothing but incomprehensible stutters or a very slowly spoken incomplete sentence would emit. Endless hours were spent trying to counsel her, reason with her, understand her. My parents were obviously very distraught and confused, but did anything and everything to try to understand why she had suddenly regressed to such a state - they spoke with teachers, visited the school, and called psychologists, but no concrete answers. She eventually told us that she couldn't talk or shower because "the house was bugged," and that cameras were monitoring the family. She wrote a barely legible note to my parents, indicating extreme paranoia that the family was being watched. She was also fearful that she would get arrested and taken to jail, but did not explain why. She thought that the people on television were watching her and the family, speaking to her at times, saying things like 'get out' or 'go away.' At that point, my parents had realized that her illness was much more deep-rooted and needed professional treatment. She was prescribed to take about 6mmg of Risperdal for psychosis, and a minimal dosage of Paxil (which was soon completely dropped). Although recovery was very gradual, within a few months, she was back on track. She enrolled in a community college, + began working to support herself, although she remained the shy, timid person she always was.
Let me just say that my family has an aversion to psychiatric medicine. My paternal aunt, who suffered from a strangely comparable breakdown in her early twenties, was professionally pumped up with so much drugs that she now is so incapable and delusional, she's become a troglodyte of her messy home and the local hospital. My parents were somewhat distressed over my sister's minute dosage, so as soon as she appeared to be improving, we would lower the dosage by minimal amounts without consulting her psychologist.
She seemed fine for a while on a low dosage, but after a year or two, stopped going to work and school. Her dosage was kind of fluctuating over the years, and she began having relapses, although never quite went back to the horrible initial state. Her side-effect weight-gain was more apparent, and she grew angry. very stubborn, and unwilling to listen to our counsel. She was also angry that she was taking medication.
The past 8 years since her breakdown have been tumultuous. My father, who was always our beacon of wisdom and unwavering love and support, suddenly passed away in 2004. This was obviously a catastrophic and tragic turning point for all of us. We were all pretty much shocked into reality. As the whole family was recovering, my sister seemed to recover with us. However, she would express guilt for his death, convinced that the stress that she caused him was what caused his heart attack. She was still tame, and by 2005, her medicine was gradually lowered to .5mmg, she lost weight, and got married to a supportive husband. Everything was fine for a while.
When the same episodes revisited, her doctor raised risperdal. She gained back the weight but stabilized. She graduated from school, became more active and outgoing. It has been a cycle like this for many years, except now her side effects have grown different. Instead of expressing conspiracy-theorist fears, her latest fear is that she's going to get arrested for "molesting" me when I was little. These claims were so random that they took my entire family aback, and I have not even the SLIGHTEST idea of what she is talking about. She keeps on calling herself a loser for doing "something bad." She says she feels horrible about this event which apparently occurred about 14 or so years ago.
Again, after another cycle of stability and unstability, at 26 years old and on 3mmg, she is worse than she was when she was on a less dosage of risperdal, but not quite as paranoid since her first breakdown. Her doctor only suggests more risperdal, with an addition of Cymbalta or Zoloft. She is depressed about her weight, lies around all day, doesn't sleep, seems incapable of completing basic activities like cleaning, etc unless told to, and occasionally calls out of work for no reason. She doesn't take interest in anything, even her own mental health. She just sits somewhere in the house for prolonged periods of time. Literally just sitting, thinking about who-knows-what, never keeping herself busy to distract herself from negative thoughts while everyone else in the house is at with work/school, etc. She is extremely physically unfit with a poor diet. She has never kept up a with a regimen to help herself, despite persistence on our part for her to keep busy.
She's been having "panic attacks" at her part-time job, which have grown more frequent. Her job as a cashier is no where near as stressful as she makes it for herself. She is so fearful of death, she has fabricated this idea that somebody is out to shoot her at any moment, that she will get sniped. She would tell her co-workers that she was going to die, and at one point became so panicked that she sat in the corner of the store where she works. It seems as though now she has lost self-control when it comes to containing these thoughts and feelings; she is louder, and more aggressive when talking with other people, that she'll just rudely blurt out unrelated comments concerning her thoughts and feelings ("I'm too young to die!") She is so preoccupied with her fear of death (which probably stems from the suddenness of my father's death) that it prevents her from moving forward with her life. Its like she builds herself up into a frenzy with such an idle mind. She speaks doublespeak. If you ask her a question, she responds with a yes and no, repeating it several times. Her moods swings are more drastic. She would usually feel better when we would take her out, but now it doesn't help. She gets very loud and uncooperative in public settings.
These are all more serious symptoms of her mental condition, and we are not sure how its related to the medicine, or whether it has actually made it worse. Anxiety is a side-effect of risperdal, but she is experiencing severe paranoia, which should be tamed by the medicine. Why is it that previously she has been on a low dosage, but never had such reactions as she is now on a 3mmg dosage? Risperdal is for psychosis, but my sister hasn't had any auditory hallucinations like before. Her fears are different. In fact, she just watches a little too muchtelevision and listens to music. She showers regularly.
We are gravely concerned about her future and her marriage. We are all at our wits end. The last thing we want is a complete regression to her initial state, or something worse. Now we are reevaluating her use of Risperdal. Her doctor is often as uncommunicative, but now we may speak to him about lowering risperdal and giving her zoloft to ease her anxiety.
I'm sorry this message turned into an excessive ramble, but any advice or insight into her situation is desperately needed. Thanks.
In the moments that lead up to the breakdown, she had stopped taking showers, grew visibly stiff in public, and simply would not speak. Any attempts by my family and I to pry ANYTHING out of her were answered with blank, wide-eyed stares, with the occasional open mouth as if to say something, but nothing but incomprehensible stutters or a very slowly spoken incomplete sentence would emit. Endless hours were spent trying to counsel her, reason with her, understand her. My parents were obviously very distraught and confused, but did anything and everything to try to understand why she had suddenly regressed to such a state - they spoke with teachers, visited the school, and called psychologists, but no concrete answers. She eventually told us that she couldn't talk or shower because "the house was bugged," and that cameras were monitoring the family. She wrote a barely legible note to my parents, indicating extreme paranoia that the family was being watched. She was also fearful that she would get arrested and taken to jail, but did not explain why. She thought that the people on television were watching her and the family, speaking to her at times, saying things like 'get out' or 'go away.' At that point, my parents had realized that her illness was much more deep-rooted and needed professional treatment. She was prescribed to take about 6mmg of Risperdal for psychosis, and a minimal dosage of Paxil (which was soon completely dropped). Although recovery was very gradual, within a few months, she was back on track. She enrolled in a community college, + began working to support herself, although she remained the shy, timid person she always was.
Let me just say that my family has an aversion to psychiatric medicine. My paternal aunt, who suffered from a strangely comparable breakdown in her early twenties, was professionally pumped up with so much drugs that she now is so incapable and delusional, she's become a troglodyte of her messy home and the local hospital. My parents were somewhat distressed over my sister's minute dosage, so as soon as she appeared to be improving, we would lower the dosage by minimal amounts without consulting her psychologist.
She seemed fine for a while on a low dosage, but after a year or two, stopped going to work and school. Her dosage was kind of fluctuating over the years, and she began having relapses, although never quite went back to the horrible initial state. Her side-effect weight-gain was more apparent, and she grew angry. very stubborn, and unwilling to listen to our counsel. She was also angry that she was taking medication.
The past 8 years since her breakdown have been tumultuous. My father, who was always our beacon of wisdom and unwavering love and support, suddenly passed away in 2004. This was obviously a catastrophic and tragic turning point for all of us. We were all pretty much shocked into reality. As the whole family was recovering, my sister seemed to recover with us. However, she would express guilt for his death, convinced that the stress that she caused him was what caused his heart attack. She was still tame, and by 2005, her medicine was gradually lowered to .5mmg, she lost weight, and got married to a supportive husband. Everything was fine for a while.
When the same episodes revisited, her doctor raised risperdal. She gained back the weight but stabilized. She graduated from school, became more active and outgoing. It has been a cycle like this for many years, except now her side effects have grown different. Instead of expressing conspiracy-theorist fears, her latest fear is that she's going to get arrested for "molesting" me when I was little. These claims were so random that they took my entire family aback, and I have not even the SLIGHTEST idea of what she is talking about. She keeps on calling herself a loser for doing "something bad." She says she feels horrible about this event which apparently occurred about 14 or so years ago.
Again, after another cycle of stability and unstability, at 26 years old and on 3mmg, she is worse than she was when she was on a less dosage of risperdal, but not quite as paranoid since her first breakdown. Her doctor only suggests more risperdal, with an addition of Cymbalta or Zoloft. She is depressed about her weight, lies around all day, doesn't sleep, seems incapable of completing basic activities like cleaning, etc unless told to, and occasionally calls out of work for no reason. She doesn't take interest in anything, even her own mental health. She just sits somewhere in the house for prolonged periods of time. Literally just sitting, thinking about who-knows-what, never keeping herself busy to distract herself from negative thoughts while everyone else in the house is at with work/school, etc. She is extremely physically unfit with a poor diet. She has never kept up a with a regimen to help herself, despite persistence on our part for her to keep busy.
She's been having "panic attacks" at her part-time job, which have grown more frequent. Her job as a cashier is no where near as stressful as she makes it for herself. She is so fearful of death, she has fabricated this idea that somebody is out to shoot her at any moment, that she will get sniped. She would tell her co-workers that she was going to die, and at one point became so panicked that she sat in the corner of the store where she works. It seems as though now she has lost self-control when it comes to containing these thoughts and feelings; she is louder, and more aggressive when talking with other people, that she'll just rudely blurt out unrelated comments concerning her thoughts and feelings ("I'm too young to die!") She is so preoccupied with her fear of death (which probably stems from the suddenness of my father's death) that it prevents her from moving forward with her life. Its like she builds herself up into a frenzy with such an idle mind. She speaks doublespeak. If you ask her a question, she responds with a yes and no, repeating it several times. Her moods swings are more drastic. She would usually feel better when we would take her out, but now it doesn't help. She gets very loud and uncooperative in public settings.
These are all more serious symptoms of her mental condition, and we are not sure how its related to the medicine, or whether it has actually made it worse. Anxiety is a side-effect of risperdal, but she is experiencing severe paranoia, which should be tamed by the medicine. Why is it that previously she has been on a low dosage, but never had such reactions as she is now on a 3mmg dosage? Risperdal is for psychosis, but my sister hasn't had any auditory hallucinations like before. Her fears are different. In fact, she just watches a little too muchtelevision and listens to music. She showers regularly.
We are gravely concerned about her future and her marriage. We are all at our wits end. The last thing we want is a complete regression to her initial state, or something worse. Now we are reevaluating her use of Risperdal. Her doctor is often as uncommunicative, but now we may speak to him about lowering risperdal and giving her zoloft to ease her anxiety.
I'm sorry this message turned into an excessive ramble, but any advice or insight into her situation is desperately needed. Thanks.
Member Comments (1)
by ILADVOCATE, Jul 31, 2009 03:37PM
To: SaRafri
If she has episodes of depression they you should ask what her full diagnosis is as schizoaffective disorder such as I have is schizophrenia with a mood disorder. There is more information on anti depressents at the website "Depression Central". As for antipsychotics see if she has been tried on all available options. Schizophrenia.com is a good website. I have been documented as having made a full recovery from schizoaffective disorder. The antipsychotic agent I am on is phase II FDA study (for more information google "Dr. Javitt, glycine"). I am the first person to recover with it by itself as in the conventional study its used alongside a conventional antipsychotic. If she has tried every known option and didn't respond or can't tolerate it (as I didn't) a trained psychopharmocologist might think of that.
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