My husband suffers from Schizophrenia

First of all my heart goes out to you. as a person who has been living with schizoaffective disorder I know this must be extremely hard on you. May I reccomend to you to look into some sort of support group. you might try looking into your local chapter of N.A.M.I which stands for The Allience for The Mentally Ill. Also look into the local chapter of Mental Health of America.I hope you find some help and I will stay a prayer for you and your husband.

Hello Theresa,

I am sorry to hear about what you're going through.

Does your husband repeatedly stop taking his medication?

You may want to read the book, I Am Not Sick, I Don't Need Help by Xavier Amador who talks about how to couch your words so you could influence a person to stay in treatment.

Also, as Janet said, call NAMI at (800) 950-NAMI (6264) to find a local affiliate in your town or city where you can join their family support group that meets once a week.  It's for family members whose loved ones have a mental illness.  If you are a peer, what some people call a consumer, there may also be in your area a NAMI Connection peer support group.  I recommend peer support groups.

It sounds like your husband lacks awareness that he is ill, because you say when he's doing well, he's respectful and kind and generous.  Develop a relationship of trust with him without bringing up the requirement of taking the medication, and when you feel he trusts you, ask him something along the lines of, "I have a suggestion that might help you stay out of the hospital.  Does that sound like a goal you'd like to have?  Tell me what some of your goals are.  I have ideas about how you could achieve them."

At that point, you mention the medication.

I hope this helps.  I want that you find some relief.

Best regards,

Chris

Hello Theresa.

Sorry to hear of your bad times. Hope a better one is around the corner.Just a PS.

I also have read the book Christina mentions and found it helpful. I remember one part where the author mentions that injection medication can sometimes be very heipful to maintain some patients, including his brother. I think the arrangement goes that the person turns up say once every 2 weeks and has a  med shot, given by a professional he knows and trusts and interacts well with,so in part it has quality of a regular, time limited, supportive 'social' meeting too, hopefully becoming routine.

There can be 2 advantages..early alert if medication is missed, rather than illness bursting out after a few weeks of 'running out' of tabs.

Both the person with the illness and the doc , and wife!, can agree with the target : that the strategy is a joint plan  to keep him out of hospital.

The other very important fact is that the person can actually feel more in control, freed up from the pressure to clock watch and swallow pills he may not feel he needs;several times a day, or take responsibility to renew a script , oh so frequently.So the focus can be less on his illness, more on things he enjoys when well.

Good luck,

Chris,

son with untreated sz