Hello...i'm here again...my son has been doing very well.it's even hard for me to believe that he has schizophrenia...that much that I'm thinking for him to switch to natural medicine. he keeps telling me that as much as he tries to get motivated to do something, he just can't because of the meds he's taking. I wish he could accept to see a therapist at the same time, but he doesn't want to.. I'm reading a book about how toxic the medication is, and yes, he can be stable, but has no interest, no energy, no motivation for nothing..so how really good is medication.

I see a lot of potential in him, and deep in my hearth I always had the hope that his schizophrenia could be temporary. He even argues with me saying that everybody could have an episode of hallucination , and that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia just for one time...Now,I regreted not taking him for a second opinion back than when he was diagnosed. Am I be wrong?  A lot of people that know him doesn't believe that he has this illness, instead they just think he's a shy men. What to loose if he switches to natural medicine?

Another think is how a dr. could evaluate his condition if he spents 5 minutes with a patient? he just writes a new prescription and that's it.

You know, Imelda, my family knows I was diagnosed with schizophrenia years ago and spent a lot of time going from one job to another, from one psychiatric hospital to another, one medication and another and another.  They witnessed me attempting suicide 3 times.  I lost so much that was important to me.  Yet, still, I have never heard any of my siblings mention the word "schizophrenia" -- like it is totally taboo.  They say my husband (ex-husband now) drove me crazy...even though I tell them I started hearing voices at age 11.  Once every few months my mother will say, "You don't think the diagnosis of schizophrenia is really correct, do you?"  It is really almost insulting.

Accept the fact that your son has a life-long illness that will need to be treated with medication.  Don't allow or encourage him to believe you are the one carrying all the burden of his illness, even though I understand you are burdened and concerned.  There is no magic way to end schizophrenia in your son.  The only remedy is hard work, courage, willingness to commit to taking the medication as prescribed, and to some extent, accepting the fact of schizophrenia.

It is not the medication that makes him not "want" to work.  He probably would like to work and support himself.  He would probably like to feel well without also having medication side effects.  So would I.

But that does not mean there is no hope.  Encourage your son to find hope not in naturopathic or homeopathic treatments, but in what has been proven to work by many of us here at this site who have lived with schizophrenia for much of our lives.  Medication is all that keeps me out of the hospital and off the streets.  It is very likely this will be true for your son, also.  You ask, "How good is medication?"  It may keep him from being suicidal, from having command hallucinations that would get him in trouble, from engaging in addictive behaviors like alcoholism and drug addiction in an attempt to self-medicate.

The real remedy is not to find a doctor who will disagree with or change the diagnosis, Imelda.  That will not change the fact that he has a mental illness that requires treatment.  I am not able to work now, either.  My family considers me to be lazy, slothful, unwilling to work, trying to get attention, and many other malignant character traits.  I am doing the best I can, as I imagine your son is, too.  Expect the best of him, always.  But don't set him up with expectations he will not be able to meet.  His best may not be the best of his father, his uncle, or the man down the street.  Accept him as he is, as difficult as that may be.