My sister's son has has been a Paranoid Schizophrenic all of his life. He's 38 now, on disability and never had to work a day in his life. He's a big strapping guy, but has increasingly become very lazy, and a problem for my sister. Her husband recently passed away so it's just her and her son right now.
He only started taking medication in his early twenties. In that time he used to get very ill on the medication. As of late I found Abilify for him to take. Now he no longer suffers the bad side effects of his prior medications. He's become so much better that we even heard him mumble that the medication was working to good.
The problem with him is even though he always taunts that P.S.' are usually genius' and that he considers himself one, he acts almost retarded. He relies totally on his mother for everything. Since he's home all the time his mother asks that he helps around the house.
Unfortunately, not working all of his life it's very hard to get him to do anything physical. Living in Texas the grass grows very fast down here. All my sister asks of him is to mow the grass once a week. He gripes that because of his condition he cannot exert himself to much, or that he hates sweating, or he's going to die if he sweats to much. Living with a P.S. you all know they find any excuse to get out of something they don't want to do.
I fear for my nephews future health. I am currently disabled, I have CFIDS. I'm a firm believer of the expression, "If you don't use it, you'll lose it." Even though I may get sick for a few days, I still try to do physical things around the house so that I won't become an invalid.
How can you get a P.S. motivated? After seeing a special on CNN about football players dying from heat exhaustion now my nephew refuses to mow the grass because he swears he's like the football player who could die from heat exhaustion. This is the only physical exercise he gets in his life. I don't want to get into one his confrontational discussions. Once he gets riled up, even on medication it's hard to step away from him.
Can anyone give my sister some advice on what she can do to get her son to do something physical other than clicking a button on the TV remote??