Today I read that the onset of schizophrenia for women can be from age 30-40, as opposed to teens/early adulthood for men. With my grandmother having had it (and committing suicide, presumably because of it), and my prior misconception that it'd have manifested in my teens or early twenties....now I'm worried.
Hey there, schizophrenia is ALOT more treatable in this day and age than during your grandmother's generation.
The fact that you know you're pre-disposed to it gives you another huge advantage IF it does manifest in your life, and that is EARLY DETECTION.
A good friend of mine is schizophrenic. It hit him out of nowhere because in his family, like many (mine included) the concept of
"mental illness" was considered absurd and no one bothered trying to make each successive generation wiser than those before them as such.
But, even though he had to do his initial therapy/counseling inpatient, he has been diligent with his meds and also very good at keeping his overall life stress below a level that is discomforting to him, and thus has not had to re-admit himself. His initial onset of schizophrenia was 10 years ago.
Does anyone else have biological relatives with mental illnesses? What kind?
Two are prevalent in my nuclear family:
(1) ADD/ADHD runs rampant in my family. I'm not talking
"slight cases" - more like, we're all basically bat shit.
(2) Also, my Mom, Dad, and myself have OCD.
Do you worry about getting it, or do you already have it?
Oh, I've got'em both!
I didn't worry about them because my family also was oblivious to recognizing "mental illnesses" as part of any of their lives.
In military families PUSH-UPs are considered the
"Ultimate Therapy." I'm not kidding. My Dad said that ALL THE TIME whenever any of us (me, my Mom, my brother, and even my niece) were having a hard time mentally with anything. Whereas when he was having a bad day, it was simply a matter of "The whole God damned world is fucked up!!!"
It's good to be the Colonel, I guess.
So, I had both for quite some time before I moved out and started living on my own.
A friend of mine is a social worker, and she flat out told me that I was the ADHD and OCD poster child.
Then she asked me to clean her kitchen. :yim_rolling_on_the_
Tough love!
It took me years before I saw anyone about it.
I take meds for the ADHD (Adderall) but don't take meds for the OCD.
I did not react well at all to SSRIs, they really fucked with my brain.
Zoloft made me feel like I was freaking wasted on speed.
My pupils got massive and black when it was in my system, and my friends pointed it out to me, and said
"by the way, you're acting strange too, you might want to switch meds." They were right. Then I was prescribed Lexapro, and I felt like a zombie. Seriously, I felt dead. I would rather suffer with OCD than be on Zoloft or Lexapro. That's just me. I've gone to a good bit of counseling for it and learned coping strategies that work for me when it is really acting up off the chain. I basically have to manage my stress and also re-direct the OCD when it hits into things that need to get done, instead of letting it take me off schedule and fuck up my life. Also, I'm big on lists, because they help me manage my ADHD and OCD. When I have all things on my daily list crossed off, I can relax, and just be myslef and all is well. Watching me do it all is kind of fucking terrifying to alot of people, but that's not my problem, LOL!
-Alex
-Alex