Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even pot, especially if taken in the form of Delta-8 and/or overused, can cause aggression and paranoia.

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Agreed, drug use can cause psychosis. I also think most psych hospitals have unfortunate expertise in telling the two apart. There’s a lot of drug abuse out there. So if OPs child was diagnosed, I’d give the diagnosis a lot of credibility. And many with mental illness are self-medicating with illegal drugs.

Because I’m my kid is stable and doing fairly well, I am not using CSB services. However the kid is backed by strong family support network. But I do find it pathetic that they’re not helping all residents with the severe mental illnesses.

Many homeless people on the street come from loving families who could not cope with the illness and its effects. But local CSB officials want to wait until the mentally ill are in terrible shape.

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP.

My husband is diagnosed schizoaffective. His mother hospitalized him involuntarily in 2001 when he was 19. He is 41 now. I've heard that the condition chills out with age and that seems true in DH's case. He lives a generally normal and peaceful life, even if more intense than most people. Definitely now DH is in the realm of eccentric rather than out of control. Your DC is not doomed to a terrible, chaotic existence. That said, I wanted to share some from DH's experience that may be useful to you:

- The involuntary hospitalizations can be an extremely traumatic experience. Many people argue that this cure is worse than the disease. True for my DH. I would suggest you tread lightly here. For many, many people the harm from hospitalizations/psychiatry has been severe. You'd dowell to consider their experiences. See "Inner Compass Initiative" and Mad in America for in depth on this. Not that you must agree with them, but they are also speaking from very much experience and are worth listening for more informed decisions.

-DH says that when his symptoms are acting up, oftentimes these are distress signals that are drawing attention to some underlying physical condition. For example, when without symptoms, he loves coffee. With symptoms, he gets bad indigestion from coffee, among other physical changes at time of a mental flare up. This mind/body connection may be worth looking into for your DC.

- People with a mental illness are far more likely to be victims of abuse than perpetrators. Along this line but less obvious is that when a person has a diagnosis like schizoaffective, it's too easy for family to treat them like second class citizens, to dismiss their concerns, that their hostility or disagreeableness is a symptom of disease rather than a legitimate reaction to hard circumstances. Probably in most cases, this will make the interactions far worse. Try your best to hear your child and to understand them.

- Do not underestimate the impact of your actions on your child's reactions and behaviors, try not to confuse their dismiss their real, legitimate frustration as symptoms that must be numbed and silenced.

Anonymous wrote:Even pot, especially if taken in the form of Delta-8 and/or overused, can cause aggression and paranoia.

Anonymous wrote:In Virginia the local CSBs offer the “gold standard” schizophrenia care—but are understaffed and my local one wouldn’t take my adult kid—because he did not have Medicaid.

If you want legal guardianship I would call the Arc of Nova. They’re organized more for childhood disabilities but have a lot of great lawyers and advice on guardianship. And services are fairly cheap for disability trusts.

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP.

My husband is diagnosed schizoaffective. His mother hospitalized him involuntarily in 2001 when he was 19. He is 41 now. I've heard that the condition chills out with age and that seems true in DH's case. He lives a generally normal and peaceful life, even if more intense than most people. Definitely now DH is in the realm of eccentric rather than out of control. Your DC is not doomed to a terrible, chaotic existence. That said, I wanted to share some from DH's experience that may be useful to you:

- The involuntary hospitalizations can be an extremely traumatic experience. Many people argue that this cure is worse than the disease. True for my DH. I would suggest you tread lightly here. For many, many people the harm from hospitalizations/psychiatry has been severe. You'd dowell to consider their experiences. See "Inner Compass Initiative" and Mad in America for in depth on this. Not that you must agree with them, but they are also speaking from very much experience and are worth listening for more informed decisions.

-DH says that when his symptoms are acting up, oftentimes these are distress signals that are drawing attention to some underlying physical condition. For example, when without symptoms, he loves coffee. With symptoms, he gets bad indigestion from coffee, among other physical changes at time of a mental flare up. This mind/body connection may be worth looking into for your DC.

- People with a mental illness are far more likely to be victims of abuse than perpetrators. Along this line but less obvious is that when a person has a diagnosis like schizoaffective, it's too easy for family to treat them like second class citizens, to dismiss their concerns, that their hostility or disagreeableness is a symptom of disease rather than a legitimate reaction to hard circumstances. Probably in most cases, this will make the interactions far worse. Try your best to hear your child and to understand them.

- Do not underestimate the impact of your actions on your child's reactions and behaviors, try not to confuse their dismiss their real, legitimate frustration as symptoms that must be numbed and silenced.

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP.

My husband is diagnosed schizoaffective. His mother hospitalized him involuntarily in 2001 when he was 19. He is 41 now. I've heard that the condition chills out with age and that seems true in DH's case. He lives a generally normal and peaceful life, even if more intense than most people. Definitely now DH is in the realm of eccentric rather than out of control. Your DC is not doomed to a terrible, chaotic existence. That said, I wanted to share some from DH's experience that may be useful to you:

- The involuntary hospitalizations can be an extremely traumatic experience. Many people argue that this cure is worse than the disease. True for my DH. I would suggest you tread lightly here. For many, many people the harm from hospitalizations/psychiatry has been severe. You'd dowell to consider their experiences. See "Inner Compass Initiative" and Mad in America for in depth on this. Not that you must agree with them, but they are also speaking from very much experience and are worth listening for more informed decisions.

-DH says that when his symptoms are acting up, oftentimes these are distress signals that are drawing attention to some underlying physical condition. For example, when without symptoms, he loves coffee. With symptoms, he gets bad indigestion from coffee, among other physical changes at time of a mental flare up. This mind/body connection may be worth looking into for your DC.

- People with a mental illness are far more likely to be victims of abuse than perpetrators. Along this line but less obvious is that when a person has a diagnosis like schizoaffective, it's too easy for family to treat them like second class citizens, to dismiss their concerns, that their hostility or disagreeableness is a symptom of disease rather than a legitimate reaction to hard circumstances. Probably in most cases, this will make the interactions far worse. Try your best to hear your child and to understand them.

- Do not underestimate the impact of your actions on your child's reactions and behaviors, try not to confuse their dismiss their real, legitimate frustration as symptoms that must be numbed and silenced.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First of all it's a disease, don't blame your child and who cares what their GPA was or is. stop with expectations. Recovery is possible but you also have to change. with that said this sounds just like one of our kids. Is there substance abuse? It sure sounds like it especially with the
psychosis. They need to want to get better and you have to have strong boundaries and not enable which is extremely difficult because you don't want to see a child go through this.

Seeing they are over 18 your options are limited and they will drain you of yourself without the boundaries.

Seek help for yourself if they are not going to get help, heck, even if they do get help, get some for yourself. therapy is a good things and don't shame this situation.

I am typing this fast and lacking sleep for days together. So I am not eloquent and may have miscommunicated. I do not care about the GPA or blame DC for the disease. I am just feeling hopeless with the lack of support system for seriously mentally unwell AC who are expected to decide about their own healthcare. Mental sick patients lack the capacity to make self-preserving decision and yet out healthcare burdens them with the decision! How do parents let kids wither away?

I am attending NAMI classes and trying to educate myself fast. Yet I find this whole situation lacking solution. Is there any experienced parents who know any other way than letting adult mentally ill child languish?