mom who cares

Hello Koni Payton,

Your son seems to be doing well for the most part.  The trick is for him to stay on the medication so that the symptom don't occur again, or are manageable if they do.  Tell him you love him and will be there for him when he needs you.  Often men (guys/boys too) have anger as a kind of symptom of the depression.  If his father or another male could be a mentor, that would aid greatly in giving your son a positive boost.

As a mother, you could attend the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) family support meetings, held weekly at local affiliates around the country (U.S.).  Call NAMI's national hotline for a referral: (800) 950-NAMI (6264).  They are happy to help.  At the support meetings, you will find others who have been in your shoes.

The main thing is, your son needs to stay in school and get his high school diploma.  Support and encourage him in his studies.  He doesn't have to graduate with honors, the main thing is that he graduates.

Include him in family outings.  Now, or as he gets older, he could benefit from therapy.  It may not be too early for this.  I attended group therapy with two other teen girls in the town I lived in, when I was 13, for a couple of years.

Feel free to keep writing SharePosts here, and I and the others will respond to your concerns.  Know that you are not alone, and there is hope for your son.

If he is in "denial of reality," that's a residual symptom.  If he denies he has an illness, that could be a symptom, called anosognosia: the lack of awareness that one is sick.  Also, he is young, only 11 years old, so he may be confused and upset about what happened to him.  Let him know that other boys and girls have gone through this. 

Best wishes,

Chris 

get adderall as far away from him as possible..it has ruin any chance of having a normal life i had

Adderall is an amphetamine. Amphetamines have been used by researchers to mimic the effects of schizophrenia. Essentially, high levels of dopamine in the brain has been associated with schizophrenia and amphetamines like adderall increase dopamine levels in the brain, as well as levels of other neurotransmitters like serotonin. See the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphetamine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimulant_psychosis

I know its not a scholarly journal but you'll find the information in scholarly journals if you look. Whatever psychiatrist gave your child an amphetamine and then told you he was schizophrenic has potentially made a serious error. I highly recommend taking him to another psychiatrist to verify that the schizophrenic symptoms are not the result of the medications he is on.

Hi Koni Payton-

I am a counselor by nature and interested in all aspects of mental and physical health.

I read your heartwarming story and just wanted to respond.  I also read all the comments posted.  I noticed that no one seems to talk about natural means of "helping" with these problems.

It is very important to keep the diet free of caffeine, sugar, and many times I have seen food allergies trigger mental health symtoms.  Other trigger foods can be as simple as white flour, sometimes wheat itself, salt, etc.  It is very important as well to keep PH levels correct in the case of any disease.  There is a very good natural health care physican in Ft. Meyers, who works strictly with keep the body balanced.  If you ever are interested in his name or number, feel free to contact me. A friend of mine was on 14 medications, just one short year ago, and now is drug free, due to this doctor.

I have a son, who when he was young, looked like he was "on drugs" whenever he injested even small amounts of sugar of any kind.  He never had any illness of any kind, nor does he now, and he is 37.  Diet can really play a huge role in physical and mental problems.  I also had a husband for 14 years that found that his diet almost completely cleared his mental disabilities up.  It worked much better than drugs.  My son couldn't even do his school work when he ate certain foods.  At the time, I only recognized it because I was what some would call "a health nut".  But it was amazing.  It is definately tougher with a child, because they love to eat everything.  Unfortunately, it takes a lot of will power and desire to be free.

I also had a close friend, whose brother had schizophrenia.  We worked together and became close friend, through the problems.  They were able to maintain a "normal life".

I wanted to share this with you, as I noticed a lot of the comments were negative with regards to the drugs that people in general are put on.  Many of them cause the very same symtoms that they are treating.  I have studied this for years. This is true of physical diseases as well.

If you ever need to talk please feel free to contact me.  I feel deeply for anyone dealing with these kinds of issues.

I want to commend you for posting on the internet, as I am sure this is not easy.  But you are obviously trying to get all the help you can.

Thanks for allowing me to share in your life.  I spend a great deal of my time helping others and know that this is a difficult situation.

RJ

My daughter showed intelledtual decline, increasing bad judgement & other poroblems after being prescribed Zoloft.  Adderal was added for ADD, then her grades plummeted and she ended up flunking out of UCLA.  Pre Zoloft/Adderal she had been an A-B student.   

She returned home,and started doing things that showed really bad judgement, seemed not to be able to learn from her mistakes or understand certain things, she took a job as a grocery checker and did ok with the job for 8 months, then ended up being fired for increasing behaviour problems.  Shortly after this she was hospitalized  for emergency psychiatric.  In the next few months she had two more psychotic episodes requiring hospitalization.

Each time she was hospitalized she was taken off Zoloft & Addderal.  She would improve, be released and then resume taking these drugs.  I noticed that within one half hour of resuming Zoloft mental confusion & the return of psychotic symptoms would start.  I noticed this on several occasions.  Finally got the doctors to take her off Zoloft & Adderal.  My daughter is better but still is showing intellectual impairment,emotionaly unstability, is very socially insecure and depressed as she is sad about flunking out of UCLA and feels she cannot fully trust herself after having to be hospitalized against her will 3 times for psychiatric problems.  Additionally she is sad because she lost her boyfriend and several friends because of her problems.

I am not sure if she will ever get back to how she was pre Zoloft.

I consider Zoloft to be extrememly dangerous, capable of causing subtle intellectual & emotional impairment that may not be noticed or properly attributed, long term use is capable of causing full blown psychosis especially if combined with adderal.  This is a very dangerous combo for anyone with a tendency toward schizophrenia to be on.

I wish to god she had never been prescribed these drugs.  What has happened to my daughter is a tragedy.