Late onset schizophrenia

How did you find help? Did you need inpatient treatment in hospital?
How was / is your insight?
How are you now ?
Did you have to leave your previous career / life behind you ?
Really worried
Alcoholic sister 5 days into rehab , still delusional since before xmas

i have noticed it is seemingly harder for people who have late onset sz, they struggle with it, because they remember being normal, they remember a life before this sz.
sorry about your sister, hope she gets better soon.
take care

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Thanks darksith
I really don’t know how she will do
I think the time for meds is here, but she’s in a 2 week residential detox
Hopefully the psychiatrist there will help
1 week and a couple if days left
I hope she can stay longer
Thanks

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I agree with completely. I was so little, I don’t know any different.

@CloudDog
Is there anyway the family could talk to the doc before she is released and see if he’s even been filled in on her SZ? One of my docs when I was in rehab had no idea. I was detoxing, and that is a weird time for any brain. So he might be thinking that any delusional talk and hallucinations and all that is due to the brain trying to dry out. He might not know about the SZ.

Late onset has the benefit of experience. Its still traumatic… it still frightens you. But as an adult you’re less susceptible to psychotic self impression. There’s more capacity to categorize it as fiction… When you’re young, I suspect, you’re highly impressionable and short sighted.

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Thanks for your reply.there is no way of knowing if she has schizophrenia at the moment This is her first psychosis

Drying out can cause a lot of crazy brained thinking. My youngest brother is drying out right now as well. Some of the stuff he’s calling us with is amazing. I too know that some of that perception isn’t right. But I remember how out of whack I was in rehab. I was quitting alcohol and amphetamines. My brain was swimming far away from lucid. My brother is not Sz. But as his brain tries to think with no alcohol to keep the cells oiled, he’s having a hard time making sense.

Thanks yes that makes a lot of sense too.
More of a frame of reference compared with me a druggie teen

Thx
Best wishes to you and your family
Helpful reply

I guess I have late onset SZ. From what I can tell prodrome was from ages 19-23 but didn’t have a full-blown psychosis till 31. I was getting along okay with all hte voices and whatnot until last year when everything fell apart. Looking back I can see now the delusions/hallucinations but at the time thought everyone experienced the world like I did and did not see it as a problem as i was functional - boyfriend, house, owned a business. I had SH incident and multiple OD’s then 5 weeks inpatient last year, and 5 weeks IOP. I had to leave my career, sold my business and haven’t been able to work since, lost my boyfriend, but I have returned to school parttime and volunteer. I didn’t do the rehab. thing because the alcohol and misusing Rx’s wasn’t too much of an issue, I don’t drink anymore and have been responsible. Good luck clouddog, its not going to be an easy road.

Thanks Skimms
Yes it will be a long road
Not knowing is difficult
Congrats on the volunteering

Guess I’ late too. Had my first real episode when I was 32. I’ve heared voices since I was 15 though.

But what I miss is my brain. I was a boss over 5 ppl at work. Now I have a hard time thinking and coming up with new ideas. I do “floor work” now. No need to think at all. I think my boss sees me as a bit retarded or something. I’m not very quick in my head when he tells a joke or something. I usually sit by myself during lunch. I can’t keep up in the discussions. I’m always quiet. The complete opposite to who I was before I got ill.

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Hi,
Sorry to read n thanks
I’ve not really had a lot to lose, except getting high every now and then for one fun year .
Before that one best friend kind of useless Aspie.
Can’t imagine remembering myself different other than actually less secure as a child and happily married now
My sister on the other hand is explosively delusional and in detox
Asking about late onset for her but its all conjecture right now
Have to wait and see how she gets on

i got it when i was 28. I’m 38 now. Honestly ive struggled with it for so long now that i don’t really even associate with the times prior to the illness. That seems so VERY long ago. i still struggled with emotional issues and depression before hand. :frowning: