First signs of schizophrenia in teen?
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Anonymous
| If you have a child with schizophrenia, can you share how it started/what the first signs were. Really appreciate it. |
Anonymous
| This was 30 years ago but my brother disappeared for 2 weeks when he was a freshman in college. He was always very smart and a little quirky. I think the first sign was his disappearance. It was so scary. He was found sleeping on the street in Las Vegas. |
Anonymous
|
The foster parents of my best friend in HS found him standing in front of the bathroom mirror with a bloody nose, smearing blood all over his image in the mirror. He didn't know where he was.
The week before, we'd all gone to a concert, and he was panicking whenever he lost sight of his girlfriend. But we didn't know whether we should tell an adult or not. Somehow it seemed concerning, but not that big of a deal. He was a great guy, very creative and kind. |
Anonymous
| Increasing paranoia. Started off as something grounded in reality or at least plausible. Within a week or two, the story was implausible and impossible to follow. Within a week or two, the “evasive” steps he was taking were a crazy overreaction even if the implausible story were true. I will say that there were only about two weeks of symptoms where I wasn’t 100% sure something was wrong; after a month, I was almost sure what was wrong (though hoped it was drug or physical issue induced rather than “standard” mental illness). |
Anonymous
| Hallucinations. Attempted suicide at University of Chicago. |
Anonymous
|
Few months of increasing ADHD. Loss of appetite and stopped eating. Room a complete mess. No showers.
Then paranoia and delusional thoughts. Hallucinations. But during pandemic kid had to stay at home. In some ways we’re lucky that meds worked right away, and kid knows that meds needed. |
Anonymous
| Not my child but my old friend from HS had schizophrenia and they had really bad paranoia and they started talking to themselves. They got really suspicious of everyone. It seemed like they made up stories but that was their delusions. Occasionally would have these odd lashing out episodes at their friends. Later they were disagnosed paranoid schizophrenic with delusions. It has been an eye opening experience to say the least. |
Anonymous
| Disappearing. Lashing out. Fixations. |
Anonymous
|
Most of the symptoms folks are listing are signs of full schizophrenia. The proximal phase, before full onset, can look like depression or anxiety but often includes isolation and strange thoughts and behaviors.
It is important to get a psychiatric evaluation quickly because early treatment can slow the progression of schizophrenia and lead to better life-long outcomes. |
Anonymous
| Sorry spell check. Prodomal not proximal. |
Anonymous
|
When talking to Mom about her little brother who had schizophrenia first signs were smart, quirky and talking to himself.
She specifically mentioned quirky as in he was different than most males of his age bracket. |
Anonymous
| Childhood ADHD. There is a significant link. |
Anonymous
The vast majority of children with ADHD do not go on to develop schizophrenia. ADHD in childhood is not an early warning sign of schizophrenia. |
Anonymous
There are actually genetic tests you can do now. For some kinds. And research shows smoking weed before 18 actually lays a track for the disease to run on. It’s super interesting research wise. |
Anonymous
| ^also childhood trauma. |