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Immediate family did the heavy lifting
The rest of them however, no where to be see
1 Like
My Mom is my main support but the rest of the family is at least understanding with me
1 Like
I used to get no support. But for the last 8 years I’ve gotten tons of support from my mom even though she lives very far away.
2 Likes
Birth family: Lived with both parents . Age 18-21. High expressed emotion especially from my mother. Had to pay half my benefit money towards my keep . My mental illness became another thing for my parents to argue over. Brother- neutral. Sister- resented the fact I had a mental illness., and the attention I got. Even though most of it was negative.
1978-1981: Parents separated in 1978. Father stayed in the family home. Didn’t provide any emotional support. 1981 brief stay in halfway house for mentally ill. before starting last and longest spell as an inpatient.Couldn’t stay with my mother as she was living with a school mistress who disapproved of my siblings and me. At some point during this my father went to Atlanta to be the British consul general there.
Not much support after I left hospital with my wife to be.
My daughter(how I regard her) great support. Ditto my granddaughters. They are helpful and kind It’s not always the big things that shows how much a person cares. My daughter knew It had been suggested I do colouring in as a before going to bed activity, so she got me a colouring in book,felt tips, and coloured pencils.
3 Likes
my dad before he passed away thought I should work…no support whatsoever emotionally…my mom was my angel from early on, reading to me in bed when I first got out of the hospital.
3 Likes
Lots of support in the beginning, it kind of started tapering off in 2003 but it was my own fault. When I got sick my family used to include me in everything they could. So I was invited to parties and get togethers and I was taken out to eat and to the movies and was invited to just go over their houses and hang out.
In the beginning when I was at my sickest I rejected my family; I blamed them for my illness and wanted nothing to do with them. They never gave up on me though and soon I realized my illness was not their fault and all they wanted to do was help me.
I got sick at age 19 in 1980 and I was put in a group home. I would sometimes go home and visit my parents but they would come to the group home and visit me. My dad in particular helped and supported me. He would come over at night and we would sit in his car and just talk for a couple of hours about life and his life and a lot of other stuff. Sometimes people on here make posts about “what good thing did schizophrenia do for you?” The only good thing schizophrenia did for me was it helped me to get to know my dad better. He led an interesting life; he got in a lot of fights growing up because he had a bad temper, he had a lot of girlfriends when he was younger and traveled to certain parts of the world. He was in the navy during the Korean War and did a lot of interesting stuff.
And those talks helped, I could tell him anything including all my paranoia and delusions and he was curious about all of it and tried to understand it. And he worked as a surveyor with the state of California and he was working near my group home and he would come over on his lunch break and pick me up and we would park somewhere and talk. In those early days when I was extremely psychotic I often felt hopeless and suicidal and like giving up but my dad kept me going and wouldn’t let me give up. He told me he often felt like giving up too which shocked me. He used to work on weekends and even took me to work with him a couple of times.
Those were some bad days, a really dark time in my life but I had my dad’s unwavering support. Anyways, I moved out of that group home into a long term hospital and my parents visited me every night and I used to get weekend passes to spend the whole weekend at their house. My middle sister was in Europe in the Air Force but my oldest sister used to come and pick me up from the hospital and take me out to eat. The hospital was a dark depressing place but when my sister came to pick me up at the nurses station she wa always dressed in bright colors and had a big smile on her face and she was a ray of sunshine that shone through all the darkness.
Anyways, through the years my family supported me and it wasn’t until 2003 that I started turning down invitations to social events with my family. Before that they did stuff like take me camping, take me waterskiing, to too many restaurants and movies to count, comedy clubs, barbecues, birthday parties or to just hand out at their houses. I started wanting to be by myself in 2003 and I would turn down invitations but I still did some stuff with them.
I was in a board & car home from 1990-95 and in 1996 my middle sister had a spare room in her duplex and let me move in and rent it from her. I think I paid $300 a month and I lived there three years. Eventually she wanted to live with just her two sons and I had to move. I rented rooms in peoples houses for the next ten years. My dad had divorced my mom and was living in Sacramento during that period and I used to take the Amtrak train to visit him for a few days at a time. He died in 2006 which hit me hard, he actually died on my 46th birthday.
So in 2008 I moved in to a studio by myself and I started to isolate but I still went to work and I would visit my mom and step dad once a week. They lived about ten miles away and I drove it once a week and I would have dinner with them and play cards. That lasted until 2014 when my mom and step dad moved up north past San Francisco. I rarely visited them, it was long drive.
But yeah, my family was supporting me through all these changes and my sisters were worried about my isolating so they had me over for dinner once a week. Then in 2015 my mom died which also hit me hard and I had a mini break and ended up in the hospital after stayng out for 25 years. I had to move into a board & care again after living in regular society for 20 years and then I moved into this apartment in 2017 where I started isolating in earnest .
Now my oldest sister moved to Mexico 5 years ago and my other sister is busy with her own life and my step parents live far away. I’ve been pretty much been alone for 8 years but I still go to work and take care of any business in the community that comes up. My sister is moving to Oregon in July but it shouldn’t be too big change for me, I’ve been taking care of myself for the last 8 years and barely saw her. I still have my case worker and I just got a new therapist.
I’ve recovered over the years, I’m one of those schizophrenics whose symptoms get better with age. I credit my recovery to my family, without their support I probably would not have been able to work the last 42 years like I have and lived independently and survived. I will now make due without them, my disease doesn’t bother me so much anymore and I got a roof over my head, a car and a job and I’ll just keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep living my life as it is,
5 Likes
Im going to say medium. Because my family have different levels.
My immediate family; wife, kids… fantastic.
My own parents and brother… pretty good. Its accepted but unspoken about. Thats ok by me.
My wife’s family… fcuking awful. Judgemental, weaponise, stigmatise, downright nasty.
1 Like
My family has always been there for me. There were nights when i was an adolescent that my parents took turns watching me sleep because i was suicidal and they wanted to make sure i was okay (this was before we had access to a hospital). When i was in the hospital they would visit every night, and they would take me in for weekend passes when i was in the long term facilities.
Now that i live so far away from them, they still support me. We talk on the phone every day and send each other birthday and Christmas cards. Once in a while my parents send me a box with things they’ve found for me and there’s always an envelope in there with $10-$20. I couldn’t have learned to live independently without their support, i would still be living in the group home or at Florida State Hospital.
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It looks as if I got support but truth is I didn’t .
I was molested , psychological torture, abuse , who I am taken from me eyes nature spirit etc
I was opressed
I was in invisible restraints and others acting as me and people pretending to take care of me while stealing from me and isolating and abusing and making fortune of me and jealous and malicious and cheating and lying etc
So many were in on it .
Those who know my real eyes and spirit and nature and know what they did to me and are few who not in on it know ……
I have a apartment to live in but I am bully vibed , invisible restraints , opressed , abused , isolated , stolen from etc
I’m miserable here.
They said I’m not allowed to exercise or go to beach .dont even like walking my dog because of the people and their fake light and ugliness and treatment of me etc
Only place I ever felt at home is with my x out country sa.
I don’t get to just exist .
Feel like self n so .
Cause they want to feel like me n so
My real eyes and self haven’t been in my real body hardly ever .
I miss myself so much .
I want my blue eyes back these green are not me .
1 Like