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Schizophrenia - Family member will not take his medication.

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B_TheSeeker

January 7th, 2011

Hello, my cousin is 22 this year. Still very young, and immature. He had a traumatic experience which triggered his Schizophrenia during his teenage years. It was then after that he was diagnosed with it after he showed symptoms such as hallucinations, and being very paranoid. He was then taken into hospital involuntary. After that he was fine for about a year but then he began thinking that there was nothing wrong with him and that he did not need the medication anymore so he stopped taking it. It has been 9 months since his taken any meds and refuses too. And he is back to all the old symptoms, talking to people he thinks are there. Also laughing to himself he does a lot for no reason. He also gets angry, at other boys in the family and thinks that they are trying to get with his younger cousin. He gets really bad when he has alcohol in his system. He does not recognize that there is a problem anymore so he wont do anything willingly, his mother has also visited the hospital and they said they couldn't do anything they just said to get a doctor referral to a psychologist. But I know he won't go well doing that. Is there an easy way to explain to him? I do not want to see him get taken away again, because the way it is going. It's heading in that direction.

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B_TheSeeker

caringfriendoflupus

replied January 9th, 2011

Experienced User

Hi I'm no expert but I can sympathise with your cousin. Sometimes I laugh to myself about silly things such as remembering what has happened during the day or a conversation with someone. Sometimes I also speak to myself because I live on my own and I'll wonder round the house and I had a bird and spoke to him. So don't worry about these things. But you're right to worry if he's not taking his medication. Maybe watch the film 'beautiful mind' because towards the end it clearly highlights a repeat pscycotic episode when someone doesn't take their medication. The problem is some people can reduce medication but rarely give it up completely - and even then reducing it is years after being stable on a full dose. For example the gp halved my medication because it was slowing down my metabolism too much and giving me diabeties. The pschiatrist agreed I should only be on 2mg a day but this is enough to keep me stable.
The sooner you can get him onto medication the better the problem will be to convince him. Don't worry too much about conspiricist theories such as him thinking that people want to get with his younger cousin - I sometimes think people are stopping me from getting a job - and I can justify this because some people ring me at work and neighbours chat to me for 30 mins when I'm going out the door to work (volunteer work).
Try and put him in practical situation which will make him realise he has an illness and he'll maybe want to start taking meds. I mean try not to panic him too much because my cousin took me up a steep track with steps on it and i panicked at the top I soon realised I have an illness. This perhaps is not a good idea. Maybe take him shopping or something see how he reacts and make him realise he's unwell. Only then will he see sense. If he stays inside all day and does nothing then he might be kidding himself that he's ok.

Hope this helps.

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woops

replied January 9th, 2011

Active User, very eHealthy

Yes, this has always been a problem for people like us.

Should you take a pill for this problem.

All logic tells you while you are sick that a pill couldn't possibly help with this, which I still don't understand how it is.

Do you know what is wrong with him?

I would start asking questions if I were you.

You don't seem to know what it is, only what you are told from things like television.

You shouldn't listen to such sources.

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	Tags: medication, traumatic, symptoms, angry, meds, about schizophrenia, being angry, all boys, about my mother

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