10 Quick Facts about Childhood Schizophrenia

I started cutting myself at 8 and having delusions at 10 and hearing satanic voices at 11, but I was not diagnosed until I was in my mid 30's.  This is because I chose not to reveal any of my symptoms -- I thought they were because I was "bad."  Or sinful.  I wish there had been mental health screenings at my school, but of course there weren't.  And as a child I didn't know what else to do but be quiet about it.  As a teen I was suicidal and depressed.  As an adult, I became manic and rode that high for a while till I crashed again.  Then I really went "off the deep end" with sz because of an abusive marriage situation.

When I finally saw a psychiatrist, I was relieved and wished I had done it much sooner.  I feel I wasted a lot of years and a lot of relationships by being paranoid.

Now, I am doing great because of Zyprexa and antidepressants.  I am feeling better than I ever felt in my life.  I am moving on, moving out from my mom's house to my own place, and am seeking spiritual direction from an appropriate source.

Thank you for your post.

Carolyn

I deveoped schizophrenia at the age of thirteen.  My condition deteriorated very rapidly. I remember the sudden onset of the illness quite clearly.  I began to experience thought insertions at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 8, 1956.  Auditory hallucinations, paranoia, delusions of grandeur, and anxiety were some of the additional symptoms that appeared by the next day.

Oddly, I was quite fortunate that schizophrenia ran in my father's family, although my father was never affected.  I was also quite fortunate that the deterioration in my condition was so reapid.  My mother recognized the symptoms immediately.  She sent me to school on Monday, which was disasterous.  On Tuesday she took me to see our minister, which was even more disasterous.  On Friday morning she took me to see my first psychistrist and on Friday afternnon I was checked into a private sanatorium and placed on medications.

My psychiatrist treated me with medications and therapy.  We tried every new drug that was introduced over the following ten years (I was symptomatic over this entire period, but at my psychiatrist's insistance, attended high school and college.) until we found a combiantion of meds that worked for me.  The therapy he provided would today be unguestionably characterized as cognitive behavioral therapy, even though this treatment modality was not deveoped until many years later.  The net effect was that beginning at age thirteen (and begining over 50 years ago) I received remarkably early intervention and was provided with what today would be called best practice treatment.  The consequences of all this is reflected in my SchizophreniaConnection Profile.

For years I have been looking for anyone my age (67 years), or even 20 or 25 years younger, who has been fortunate enough to receive similar treatment.

If anyone that reads this has received such early intervention and treatment, or anyone knows someone that has, I would like to compare notes. 

Robin Cunningham

ALSO: Look for my blogs on SchizophreniaConnection.

In an odd way

I read some of the articles of Jani (January) Schofield. It made me both laugh and cry. It was very touching. In spite of being born with sz, she has an IQ of about 146. It seems her best therapy was her activities and the information that she gets from them. I found that to be very interesting. I would also suggest that she do her best to ignore her (imaginary) "friends", even not believe they are there. That seems to be the best way to get rid of them.