Sudden Onset Paranoid Schizophrenic Symptoms at age 50 (diet, therapy, paranoia)
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From my experience, there is no such thing as a "sudden onset". I would guess that many of the signs of paranoid schizophrenia were already there, but well hidden or masked by the person.
I thought the OP stated that the sister had never shown any signs of mental illness previously. BTW, one cannot "mask" schizophrenia. It's a thought disorder, not a mood disorder, and is one of the most severe mental illnesses that exists.
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All I can say is be prepared for heartbreak. The paranoid delusional has nothing wrong with them, and the issue is with the rest of the world.
What do you mean by a "paranoid delusional"?
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If you can get them institutionalized, they are usually regulated with meds, which makes them good enough to be released. Then, when in the community, they quit taking their meds (because they are not the problem, it is everyone else who is out to get them, and taking the meds may be part of this), and eventually need to be institutionalized again.
I disagree. If the sister actually is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, the right medication can greatly affect her ability to function. Her belief that she hears voices may be attributed to other factors. Another mental disorder that can cause one to hear voices is clinical depression.
...I disagree. If the sister actually is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, the right medication can greatly affect her ability to function. Her belief that she hears voices may be attributed to other factors. Another mental disorder that can cause one to hear voices is clinical depression.
Modern medications for Schizophrenia and other forms of psychosis do indeed work well. Just ask people such as John F. Nash, PhD or Pat Deegan PhD. However, it is often hard to convince people who have psychosis that they need medication. Medication non-compliance is therefore very problematic with individuals who have Schizophrenia and other forms of psychosis. This is especially true in cases where paranoid is present. This is why many people who have psychosis quite taking their medication after they are released from a psychiatric hospital.
My dad's first formal diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia was around age 50. He had what we thought of as a very complex fantasy life before that...when he traveled, he insisted people were following him across the country, he thought he could make women fall in love with him just by making eye contact, he thought he could predict when people would die, etc. But he didn't get too crazy to function as a stockbroker until after his mother died. At that point, he decided 200 cop cars were following him everywhere he went, he called the FBI to ask why they wanted him, he called the cable company to ask why they gave the aliens (the outer space kind) access to his modem, and finally he took every pill in the house and ended up in a mental hospital for a month. After that he started taking anti-psychotic meds and they work pretty well, but my mom keeps deciding they make him too calm and then she gets his shrink to lower the dosage.
My dad's first formal diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia was around age 50. He had what we thought of as a very complex fantasy life before that...when he traveled, he insisted people were following him across the country, he thought he could make women fall in love with him just by making eye contact, he thought he could predict when people would die, etc. But he didn't get too crazy to function as a stockbroker until after his mother died. At that point, he decided 200 cop cars were following him everywhere he went, he called the FBI to ask why they wanted him, he called the cable company to ask why they gave the aliens (the outer space kind) access to his modem, and finally he took every pill in the house and ended up in a mental hospital for a month. After that he started taking anti-psychotic meds and they work pretty well, but my mom keeps deciding they make him too calm and then she gets his shrink to lower the dosage.
Update - the "voices" intensified over the last few days, telling her to not speak, not write anything down. The family said she only nodded her head. Then she tried to hurt herself and my brother intervened just in time before a catastrophe, he won't even tell us what she tried to do. They were able to get her to a local hospital with a mental health center and after reviewing her case, sent her off to a neurological center across the state. My brother said they will be running tests for at least a week. They figured out the voices were telling her to hurt herself so she would be taken away and not hurt anyone else.
Family history - a distant relative, great aunt possibly, also heard voices and killed herself after killing her children. Her side of the family won't talk about it. While my brother is hoping for a cure, I told him he should focus now on just keeping everyone safe.
Despite what CA4Now wrote, this is an experience I've lived through...
So have I. Our family member was diagnosed in his early 20s.
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Originally Posted by ScooterMcTavish
And nothing you do can help in any way, as they are prisoners of their own mind, something we cannot touch. Unfortunately, the disease is so gripping that even "trump cards" such as grandchildren or children have no value.
I could not disagree more. I'm sorry about your parent, but to say that all people with this diagnosis are unable to be helped or treated with medication seems unfair.
I am sorry for your families troubles. All I have to add is that I got migraines for the first time during menopause. They seem to have decreased since I 'came out of the other side' of it. Now I think I am having either increased smell episodes or episodes of phantom smells, not sure which. With no formal diagnosis (doesn't seem to be a big concern to my GP) I am wondering if this is also hormone related, even if I'm not supposed to have many at this point. I've not had any issues of any kind before menopause.
I don't think the whole hormone thing is very well understood by modern medicine. I can only hope that maybe your relative will get better or at least the severity of her symptoms will lessen in a few years. Better scenario than some. Good luck.
At one point in my life I was clinically depressed, and I had a psychotic episode, where I thought my neighbor could hear my thoughts, and I thought I could hear my neighbor singing songs about - and yelling things to me about- wanting to kill me, and none of it was really happening.
I was going through an enormously stressful time, as well. Part of it caused by this neighbor (who was also a tenant of mine at the time), hence the psychosis involving things about the neighbor. But, although things were hostile regarding this tenant, there was no reason for him to become such a huge fixation regarding the paranoia and psychosis I was experiencing. I think the stress and depression just focused for some reason on the neighbor. It wasn't rational, with regard to the severity of the problems between me and the tenant.
Nothing like this had ever happened to me before, and not since. Fortunately, the worst thing I did was call the cops, telling them my neighbor wanted to kill me. Of course, the cops wanted to take me to the psych ward. I knew my rights and had enough sanity left to realize that something was terribly wrong, but told the cops that I wasn't hurting anyone in my own apt and calling the cops to take care of things, showed a measure of sanity. I sat in my apt and called the cops, as opposed to hunting down the neighbor with a knife or something lol!
At any rate, I spoke with my doctor and she first but me on Abilify, which made things worse. Then Olanzapine, which worked. I was so afraid of it happening again that I kept taking the Olanzapine for over a year after that. Went off it with my doctor's approval and I've been fine.
That was about 8 years ago, when I was 50.
So, as someone else mentioned, it could actually be caused by severe depression, aggravated by stress, that can be successfully treated.
She finished all her neurological tests and all came back normal, the doctors believe it is psychiatric (schizophrenia) so they sent her as an inpatient to a gerapsychiatric ward of the local hospital for 1-2 weeks of observation, small group therapy, checking meds. The meds have stopped the voices & anxiety. She is getting her ovary checked out this week, they saw some sort of cell cluster, she has high levels of testosterone.
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