Late onset mental health issues (advice wanted)

[Anonymous]

My (23M) son has always had some anxiety issues but I’m worried that he might be suffering from something more extreme. He keeps rambling about a gang stalking him but he’s never been involved with troublemakers or hard drugs to my knowledge.

I don’t know where this is coming from and I’m very worried about his mental health from the way he is acting. Is there any way I can help him other than persuading him to see his therapist once a week?

[Anonymous]

OP any chance your son is a heavy mj user? Heavy mj use over many years can cause psychosis

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP any chance your son is a heavy mj user? Heavy mj use over many years can cause psychosis

This is a good question. A relative with no family history had a (serious, scary) psychotic break last year, and had been smoking a lot of weed leading up to it

[Anonymous]

This is a common age for mental illness to manifest itself, like schizophrenia or bipolar. It sounds like he should see a psychiatrist for evaluation and medication. Would he be open to that?

[Anonymous]

He needs to see a psychiatrist.

[Anonymous]

He needs to be seen by a psychiatrist asap and likely be followed at a first break psychosis clinic. Early and highly competent intervention affects outcomes in psychotic disorders. First break psychosis is a medical emergency-it’s important to use words like “new onset” and “major change from baseline.” Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a common age for mental illness to manifest itself, like schizophrenia or bipolar. It sounds like he should see a psychiatrist for evaluation and medication. Would he be open to that?

+1

[Anonymous]

Try and talk to your son and see if any other medical issue is giving him problems. He is probably not aware at all of his paranoia. However, he may be bothered by other problems—for my kid it was an inability to eat. For that reason he sought medical treatment.

I would get written notes from others close to him and try and send to his doctor, or even better, a psychiatrist. And use the words urgent or acute when speaking to staff. This needs to be treated quickly. Schizophrenia starts at about this age.

Also, most county health departments have a schizophrenia treatment group, but personally we have found them way too rigid. Do call and ask for help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Try and talk to your son and see if any other medical issue is giving him problems. He is probably not aware at all of his paranoia. However, he may be bothered by other problems—for my kid it was an inability to eat. For that reason he sought medical treatment.

I would get written notes from others close to him and try and send to his doctor, or even better, a psychiatrist. And use the words urgent or acute when speaking to staff. This needs to be treated quickly. Schizophrenia starts at about this age.

Also, most county health departments have a schizophrenia treatment group, but personally we have found them way too rigid. Do call and ask for help.

PP here. You may also see a few other signs of schizophrenia, maybe: extreme ADHD for most tasks, apathy, a fondness for making strange sounds, and an energizer bunny moving around. This is a treatable illness however with medication and social support.

[Anonymous]

Please treat this as an emergency. Mental health changes should not be dismissed.

[Anonymous]

This happened to my nephew. He eventually got a bipolar diagnosis (ruled out schizophrenia). He was 22 at first break. The first episode he was away at school and ended up arrested since police thought he was on drugs or being belligerent. He is a very good kid, never in trouble. My sister had an awful time because then he was held on a lock at hospital. Since he was an adult it complicated her being able to intervene.

He only had one other episode so far (in 6 years) and since they knew the signs he was able to get his meds adjusted and he fairly quickly was back to himself. Nothing like the first episode. I remember it taking awhile to get an official diagnosis.

Lots of stress/change complicates it. He never has had the depression, just the mania/talking gibberish. Not sleeping when it happens.

[Anonymous]

I'd see a PhD first to confirm it's delusions or psychosis before going down the long path of meds. What if he IS being stalked by a gang? What if he doesn't need meds. You see any psychiatrist, you're getting meds. Tell them you're paranoid you're being followed, might be anti psychotic meds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please treat this as an emergency. Mental health changes should not be dismissed.

I’d have to agree. It started out similarly for my relative (31/M) for a period of several months and then escalated quite seriously into full blown psychosis. Turns out it was the onset bipolar disorder - without going into details things got very bad and very scary, and when we look back we kick ourselves for not taking it (even) more seriously earlier…but the truth is we knew something was off but had no idea what, or what to do about it. We thought he was just smoking too much weed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd see a PhD first to confirm it's delusions or psychosis before going down the long path of meds. What if he IS being stalked by a gang? What if he doesn't need meds. You see any psychiatrist, you're getting meds. Tell them you're paranoid you're being followed, might be anti psychotic meds.

Literally horrible advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd see a PhD first to confirm it's delusions or psychosis before going down the long path of meds. What if he IS being stalked by a gang? What if he doesn't need meds. You see any psychiatrist, you're getting meds. Tell them you're paranoid you're being followed, might be anti psychotic meds.

Literally horrible advice.

If the parent knows it is delusional or psychotic, OK. But OP didn't say it was, she left it open ended