I am 40 years old. I’ve had a recent schizophrenia diagnosis.
It is impacting my mother (who is 70 years old). There is carer support groups you can join.
In my lived experience, being diagnosed with psychosis in my 20s and schizophrenia at 40, medications alone will not lead to an uplift in experience for the patient (your son).
Periods of wellness in my life have been associated to counselling (talking to a psychologist helped), learning about the brain, learning about the condition itself, physical exercise had some benefits, finding an activity as a distraction (eg. I went and did a course at TAFE as an activity when I was unwell), time (medications take time and some other changes to contributing factors also take time to have an effect).
Be kind to yourself. I have found a gap in what my Mum expects from the mental health care system (the doctors, or community mental health teams), and the service or care, I get in practice.
In a recent hospital visit I went a long time where I was unresponsive to medications. I had auditory hallucinations that caused issues with my Mum (I was hearing voices telling me not to hug my Mum when she came to visit).
I’ve had some improvement to the relationship with my Mum once I got out of hospital and I started talking about the related symptoms I was experiencing. We’re now continuing to navigate the journey together.
