Talking to self all the time from inner thoughts of trauma, stress

My son had a psychotic breakdown after returning home from another state where he was doing drugs and involved with doing things he should not have. He had a car accident before that and someone had died, left his job after almost 8yrs and moved away and his life was threatened and lost everything. When he came home he was ok went to another town 3 days later and a music fest came home with psychotic symptoms he was almost 31 at the time. He ended up in a hosp. and finally got stable with low dose of Risperdone. Left and got another job for almost 2 months but drinking and not taking meds. Had a relapse and we did not know going thru withdrawals. Came home and the Dr. put him on a higher dose of meds. He did not want to get out of bed but did and worked some. He went to the Dr. and I told him what was going on he was put on Abilify witch he had a bad reaction before. He went psychotic for 2 days from Abilify I requested a drug gene test and he should not of been on this mediication because he was a poor metabolizer to these drugs. The Dr. kept switching drugs and he started talking to himself and non stop movement finally the Dr. listened when I called and said to bring him in and he was baker act to another place. He was there 17 days released worse and 1 week later another place worse and not sleeping walking around till 3:30am. He’s been to several Dr. and they just give different drugs and nothing helps. Every psychotic drug makes him more wired and does not sleep. He’s been off the psychotic drugs for 4 months not walking around as much and can think more clearly, but can not stop talking to himself about everything that happened in his life. He also disassociates talking to someone and blaming this person. These are all people he knows. Anybody had any experienced or can help. I don’t know where to turn. I haven’t found anyone who can help. Did these drugs cause some brain damage?

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Sounds about like me. I’m a rambler when stressed or excited. I think mine was caused by drugs. Only thing that’s helps me is benzos but doctors eont prescribe them. Try talking to him about it and remind him thst there are people all over the world that experience these things and not to beat himself up or think he is a bad person.

Its really rough to deal with these things.

You should join the family forum section of this website.

You’ll probably get better and more meaningful replies there.

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Your son can also join here if he is able.

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Thank You I tried talking to him and I gave him some suggestions but since I am his mother he really doesn’t listen much, plus when he is talking to himself he gets so involved and tells me he is trying to figure it out. I went to several Dr. and they spend 15 minutes with you and prescribe antipsychotics. I told the doctors that none of them help and all he talks about is everything that happened to him and this all started when the doctor put him on Risperdone, Abilify and Divalprox. The doctors do not think the meds had anything to do with it. And since he is talking to himself they consider him schizophrenia. The last doctor renewed his lorazepam and I said what else are you going to give him, he said well he tried everything what do you want me to give him. I had a prescription for Invega that he was taking and just made him hyper and walking around the neighborhood till 3am talking to himself. So now he is just taking Lorazepam 2x still talking all the time but at least can sleep. I tried looking up on the internet if there is anyone else that talk’s to themselves all the time but I haven’t seen anything.

Thank You My son can not think clearly right now he is so involved in his talking and thinking that he does not do anything else. I thought maybe someone had a similar situation that they can share, because I have not found anything on the internet with someone talking to themselves all the time from there inner thoughts. I think some of it is a habit because at one of the hospitals he was in he said I talk to myself and the therapist said that’s ok it’s a coping mechanism, but not doing it all the time. He can communicate with me better since he is not on the antipsychotics, but for a short time because he wants to go back to his talking and trying to figure things out.

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If none of the drugs he’s been prescribed work, assuming he does have schizophrenia, he could be treatment resistant. All of the drugs for sz currently work on excess dopamine. There is one drug which works in treatment refractory sz, clozapine. It works for around 80% of people if it’s used early in illness. Unfortunately this drug can have a rare but dangerous side effect that requires regular blood testing. So, if your son will do that, I would ask the doctor.

If he will not, I would check out the supplement sarcosine. It acts on different neurotransmitters than the medications. It might be particularly helpful early in illness. So might omega 3 fatty acids (1.2 g a day) and NAC. Google those plus “schizophrenia” and you’ll see the studies.

And, it’s probably important to ask if they are sure this is sz and not a drug induced psychosis, infection, brain tumor, or some other illness.

Thank you for replying they tried clozapine in the hosp. Not for long and I don’t know why they didn’t want to continue plus I know he doesn’t want to do blood work. If its from drugs how do they treat that? At first he said he didn’t do drugs now he admitted it. He also blacked out from snow mobile and has a lot of ptsd, stress. When I mention all this to the dr. They just tell me its schizophrenia because he talks to himself and had other thoughts. But now he mostly talks to himself and they just see him for 15 min. I also mention he wasn’t talking to himself or walking around untill more meds were added. When I mention this to the Dr they tell me it has nothing to do with it and, they don’t care, It took one of the Dr. 2 weeks with calls, emails before he finally told me to bring him to see him after faxing over what he was saying and remind him again he just started talking. Another Dr. I called after they increased Ability from 15-30 and my son started to see people and were yelling at them told me he has no time to talk to me (the nurse was more concerned) I later requested a drug/gene metabolizer test, and my son should not be any of these drugs. I just can’t seem to find the right help here in Florida. I don’t even know if all these psych drugs did something on the brain. Thanks again for replying back and I will check out vitamins and minerals

Of course, no one here can say for sure if it’s schizophrenia or not. It’s possible for things like head injuries and drugs to trigger someone who is suceptible. If it’s drug induced psychosis, I think they pretty much treat it the same and hope it goes away.

Was the doctor willing to try any of the meds your gene test came back with? Usually they consider 4-6 weeks to be a sufficient trial of an anti psychotic, to get an idea if it’s going to work, but many people respond faster. If they stopped clozapine after a short time, perhaps it was due to a problem with the bloods monitoring.

Another thing you may want to google is sodium benzoate and schizophrenia. It’s being trialed now, but its also a widely available, safe, food preservative that you can buy on the internet. It’s been shown to reduce symptoms by about 20%, and it does not act on the dopamine system, which might bode well for people who don’t respond well to dopamine blocking APs.

Best of luck, I wish there was a better answer.

Oh I meant to add, Abilify has a side effect called akathisia. It’s really unpleasant. Not everyone gets it of course. There are some drugs to deal with the side effects, ask the doctor about those. One of the supplements used by many here is l-theanine, an amino acid found in tea. There’s a pinned topic on it on this forum.

I like l-theanine but I also take a benzo so I’ve got extra help there. Many doctors now are reluctant to prescribe them.

I’d like to encourage you to join our forum for Family and Caregivers that can be found at:

While this is a peer support forum for people with schizophrenia and other closely related psychotic disorders, the Family forum is specifically for people like yourself, who have a loved one they are concerned about.

Also, please let your loved one know about this forum as they may find it helpful.

Best of luck,

Ninjastar
Volunteer Moderator