Anybody go on the Family Members / Caregivers page?

I peeked at the Family Members / Caregivers page to see what is up over there and look for a few people from when the two groups were together on one website.

I found it so sad… their stories and questions.

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It’s very depressing. Seems like the family they post about are mostly not well enough to participate here.

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I hope I don’t offend anyone. But I think we like to believe we are more well than we really are when we’re at our worst. While when we were at our worst our family thinks our healths are almost apocalyptic. Then In hindsight we realize “damn I really had it rough”. At least for myself, I never wanted to show weakness when I was going through rough times. And then now I’m well I can sit back and realize how tough it was. But family members think the world is ending when we are at our worst and it’ll never get better…not to downplay the struggles family faces but they tend to blame even “normal human behavior” anything we do that’s slightly out of the norm on our mental illness. Because they got that label so where they used to say “oh my son made a bad choice” it’s now the mental illness fault. Not to downplay anyone’s struggle. I know it’s real tough, but it’s also real tough for family to truly understand what we’re going through.

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We are the strongest and champions here on Sz.com just kidding :smile:

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Yeah, I guess each post here is really only a snapshot, of what I, or anyone else, is willing to show at the time. Not a full picture.

But I think the biggest difference for the family board is their family members mostly lack insight. And they’re often not med compliant, or if they are, they’re treatment resistant. And over here there’s usually some level of insight, and often, but not always, medication use and some response to it.

I guess what I find really scary is the stories where everything just goes to hell. Insight goes away and even though the family tries to help, they can’t get any because they can’t find their family member or they have to wait for them to become violent, and there’s just so much suffering for everyone.

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Ya true if you’re running away and don’t know you’re sz then you probably won’t be on sz.com. Believe it or not I was on that level of insight when I was 16-21. But it’s slowly improved over time. And now I have great insight. People don’t know how tough I really had it…they never will know. Only I will know. I used to run away a lot and get arrested a lot and do stupid ■■■■ a lot because of my MI. Now I have a job they don’t even know I’m MI.

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I can’t stress it enough.
We are very lucky here on this site.
Basically High functioning people exist here.
I’ve seen some Schizophrenics in the Hospital that were basically catatonic in their demeanor.
Some Schizophrenics are so low functioning that they don’t function on their own.
They need help with everything.
Some can’t even tie their own shoes.

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One other thing to consider is that family members tend to post more when they need support, or when their family member is in need of more support or isn’t doing well - so you’ll get a skewed view of things if you believe that what you see in the family forum is what its like most days for these families.

Most likely - you’re seeing only the bad times. When things are going well - family members typically don’t feel the need for support and don’t post messages.

Everyone has bad times and good times - its a cycle for most of us.

Keep this in mind if you look at the family forum.

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