Schizophrenic father

@whitebell i was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder about the same time as your father. it is a form of schizophrenia and mood disorder. i am and have been on medications for some time now and the symptoms are controlled. would i prefer not to take them you bet i would! but i have promised my children that i will always take them.

Now with your father i can perfectly understand why he wouldnt want to take them the weight gain etc with meds is awful. he is an adult and as long as he isnt a danger to himself or anyone else there is nothing you can do except be there for him. he will need your support as he goes down the rabbit hole. remember to look after the rest of the family too everyone will need support during this time.

Before i forget when he is talking about delusions it is in his interest not to correct him. just go along gently with him and try and encourage him to go and see a psychologist or psychiatrist. all of this will take some time. i hope i have helped a bit. bunniekins

@Bunniekins Thanks for the reply and for sharing your experiences.

So if he says ' someone has been poisoning my food' how do I gently go along with it?

I'll try and convince him to see a psychiatrist but it'll be really, really hard. He is a stubborn man, like really stubborn. I know he gets his meds from the GP but I think its quite generic advice, isn't it?

Thanks for the reply and for sharing your experiences.

So if he says ' someone has been poisoning my food' how do I gently go along with it?

I'll try and convince him to see a psychiatrist but it'll be really, really hard. He is a stubborn man, like really stubborn. I know he gets his meds from the GP but I think its quite generic advice, isn't it?

@whitebell

I almost feel like I shouldn’t comment as I don’t have lived experience but something that really stood out to me when I did a mental health first aid course was the idea that you can empathise with how someone feels rather than directly contradicting them (e.g. “I can see how scared you are,” or “I can see how angry you are,” or “that sounds really scary”) and can then redirect them to the topic of getting help (e.g. “can we book an appointment to go together and talk to your GP about this concern?”). Not sure if that would be helpful? Hopefully, even if the GP doesn’t have specific training, they can help get him to the psychiatrist.

Here’s a link to their info sheet which explains it way better: https://www.mhfa.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/MHFA_Psychosis-Guidelines.pdf

Hope you’re also able to do things to support yourself as you try to navigate this. It would be very stressful.

thanks for the resource @Wintersweet I was having a good read of it. There's a section in there where it says it'll take a lot of conversations before they are willing to get professional help - I think that will be me.

I wonder how many conversations it's going to take as the the symptoms gets worse if its not treated early?

@whitebell

I can hear how stressful it is, wanting to get help for him, knowing it might take multiple conversations, and knowing that getting help earlier is beneficial. Is there anything you’ve found helpful for supporting yourself while you’re looking for ways to support him?

How do you feel about the kind of next steps suggested by the mental health first aid guide? Encouraging him to share about what he’s been experiencing and listening/empathising with what that would be like. Asking what support he would like from you. Asking what he thought helped when he was having those kind of thoughts before. Maybe also showing him that you really hear his concerns about medication and offering to support him in expressing these to a psychiatrist because they specialise in those kinds of medication and might be able to help.

I wonder if @Bunniekins has any further thoughts on ways to support him?

@whitebell sorry for the delay in replying for some strange reason i didnt get your notification. i do not feel qualified to give that kind of information. you really need to encourage him to see a good psychologist (they can be hard to find but dont give up). as he is an adult it makes it all the more tricky i am afraid.

For his meds a good psychiatrist is essential. he really needs proper monitoring. tbh with you i used to think my food was poisoned it took a very long time for me to understand that it was my illness. My middle son who has schizophrenia thinks he has to drink out of a particular white set of cups because he thinks it is not safe to do other wise it is a very common thing.

i hope i have helped a bit. bunniekins

@Wintersweet thank you for letting me know about @whitebell 's post. x

@Bunniekins No stress on the delay! Thanks for replying.

You mentioned there was a time where you thought your food was poisoned. How did you get out of that?

And how do we get him properly monitored? I feel like like he can turn it off and on.

I'll try and gently encourage and empathise with what he is going through, in the meantime should we hold off on him visiting the grandkids. What would you do if you were in my position.

@whitebell I’ll let Bunniekins reply too but from what you were saying before it sounds like he’s good with the grandkids. I can understand not leaving them alone with him if you aren’t sure about his state of mind. Do you have any experience that would make you think it wouldn’t be ok as long as you’re around?