As you all probably know, my best friend has aspergers and schizophrenia. I know there are questions and answers about it. There are several of you who have been diagnosed. Here are my questions…
Is there a USA helpline for supporters?
Why does it seem like he’s negative all the time?
Any insight as to why he doesn’t take his meds regularly? He has workers who fill up his tray.
Anyone with any questions?
I don’t understand why in the UK they bother diagnosing adults when there is literally no support at all
Maybe they will get there. Are you on the autism spectrum?
Yep. I was diagnosed in May because the psychologist I was working with suspected I had ASD.
Once diagnosed, they told me about a self help book, I got referred to a charity for adults on the spectrum - but they were so busy I wasn’t even put on the waiting list and the Autism specialist failed to attend my pdoc appointment as promised
Nothing has really changed, so I am just going to carry on as I have been and ignore it as it’s meaningless to me
Maybe the reason why he doesn’t take his meds is side effects or paranoia/lack of insight? Cant know really so these are just guesses.
Thanks for the suggestions. Several years ago, he was nearly put in a group home. They started giving him a shot for sz. He’s in a program called chance for change. Workers come nearly every day.
Anyone else?
shots are great if you have issues with taking your meds, im on a shot myself
Very interesting. Do you ever forget to take your meds? If there was only one thing you could tell supporters, what would it be? Thank you.
The main reason I went on depot was a 40-50% taking of oral psych meds .That went up to about 95%,on depot, while living in Essex. Here in Wiltshire as they come to my flat it’s been 100% .
For the oral meds I have they’re delivered in a dosette box . Even so I’ll forget to take them about 3 x a fortnight .
He’s probably negative because he’s literally minded. He doesn’t read people too well very likely and feels words and people don’t match up? Might be something along those lines?
As for being forgetful. I’m the same. I’m not sure why. Till a few days ago I hadn’t touched my meds for at least two weeks. I noticed the difference but I still don’t care enough to take it regularly or to be able to create a habit out of it.
I have an Aspergers diagnosis too. Except in my case it is described clinically as “mild”, if that makes a difference?
My default mode is pessimism rather than optimism. I’d say I’m emotionally quite flat(due to meds) . I don’t laugh much.I don’t find many comedians/comediennes very funny. For me it’s a case of ‘Why is that funny?’
Literal mindness is something we’ve been struggling with for more than a decade. Maybe he’s taken a couple steps back in our friendship. Thanks.
WOW! 2 weeks without meds is dangerous. What makes you not care?
I took a step back with it too. Psychosis makes autism weirder because you stop caring about the value of words too. At least I did. And I don’t know if there is a link but it seems to make sense to me.
And yeah, it happens to me because I seem to do fine without them. The worst symptom I get is very disordered thinking, I’ve not heard or see hallucinations ever since hospitalisation - so I don’t worry about the risk too much. I feel quite in control of my condition as far as psychosis is concerned.
From my post dx appointment:
There are no current safety concerns, but you tend to take things very literal and at face value and struggle to read other people’s intentions and may be vulnerable to exploitation by others.
You said you seem to be fine without meds. Maybe he thinks that, and he’s really not. Thanks so much.
Not taking meds is very common in schizophrenia regardless of Autism. I refused meds, stopped meds on my own for 2 years of hell. I became homicidal and suicidal and catatonic until realizing that I need meds to not kill someone, end up in prison or kill myself. Hopefully he doesn’t need to go through that. My case was very severe, I caught my parents putting meds in my food and drinks. They didn’t like me being violent, homicidal and suicidal. Its actually more severe but I am too scared/paranoid to say what I did when unmedicated.