Multiple Personality Disorder, Schizophrenia, etc.

_Crazy_Mary_

Have any of you had a family member or friend diagnosed with any serious psychological disorder? What were they like before the disorder was evident? How did it come about?
I'm beginning to wonder if my daughter has one of these and any info would be great. Thank you!

Claireack

I had a step-dad with schizophrenia when I was 15. I didn't see that much of him at the time as wasn't living with my mum then, but when I did see him prior to his diagnosis, there were a few things I remember noticing. He was in his late 20's when he got sick, it was felt at the time that the shock of his father dying suddenly had triggered it. What I remember most was that he used to stare at me in a very peculiar way, he was generally quite placid but there was a darkness in his eyes that was quite scarey. He wouldn't say anything but be kind of zoned out and just staring at you. Other than that all I noticed was that he used to say things out of context sometimes and just not be mentally with us as if consumed by something else. I think things were a lot worse when I wasn't there, I know my mum had a pretty horrible time.

Sorry can't be more help. Good luck.

Who Princess

_Crazy_Mary_ wrote:

Have any of you had a family member or friend diagnosed with any serious psychological disorder? What were they like before the disorder was evident? How did it come about?
I'm beginning to wonder if my daughter has one of these and any info would be great. Thank you!

How old is your daughter? Mental/emotional disorders usually appear differently in children and teens than in adults.

Elusive

How old is your daughter? What symptoms are you seeing? She'd have to be in adolescence to see prodromal symptoms of schizophrenia and/or bi-polar disorder. Dissociative Identity Disorder is not very common, especially in children...really only occurs if there has been some serious abuse/trauma. PM me if you want, I happen to be a child therapist.

_Crazy_Mary_

Elusive wrote:

How old is your daughter? What symptoms are you seeing? She'd have to be in adolescence to see prodromal symptoms of schizophrenia and/or bi-polar disorder. Dissociative Identity Disorder is not very common, especially in children...really only occurs if there has been some serious abuse/trauma. PM me if you want, I happen to be a child therapist.

She's 13. It's a long story, but to make it short:
Her dad (my ex-husband) alienated her from her family (me, my parents, my husband, her two little sisters), groomed her for well over a year & molested her. Now she refuses to see me, she says I've abused her her whole life, she's in foster care. But the part that makes me think she is schizophrenic is she's told me that God talks to her (in a "I hear a voice" sort of way and not I feel God with me). The things that make me think she may have a split personality are:
* she does her homework, but doesn't turn it in & can't answer why (Personality #1 must have finished the homework & put it away)
* she's says she's allergic to walnuts (she never was when she lived with me)
* she says wrestling is her favorite sport (she's never wrestled, we never watched it on TV, and when the social worker asked her what she likes about it, she looked at the social worker like, "what are you talking about?!")
* She refuses to see her little sisters, hasn't seen them in 6 months! (maybe her new personality doesn't even realize she has sisters!)
* When the social worker asked her about the swim lessons I took her to for 3 years, she said she doesn't remember that.

pandora

schizophrenia presents late teens to early twentys and is more common than you think.I have it in the family and it is made worse with recreational drug use at least thats my experience. Its really a break with reality not being able to extinguish reality from thoughts made up. When you told us about your daughters claims with her Dad my first instinct was perhaps she was have delusions or manipulating. I guess hoping that was the case over the trouble with her father in that way.
Get her help asap. My sister was suicidal and back in the day they would not admit her to a ward without her actually trying to commit suicide. I was 9 years her junior trying to get her help. Then she was in and out of wards her short life and passed from cancer a few years ago. Keeping them taking their meds is the hardest as they believe they are fine.

_Crazy_Mary_

pandora wrote:

schizophrenia presents late teens to early twentys and is more common than you think.I have it in the family and it is made worse with recreational drug use at least thats my experience. Its really a break with reality not being able to extinguish reality from thoughts made up. When you told us about your daughters claims with her Dad my first instinct was perhaps she was have delusions or manipulating. I guess hoping that was the case over the trouble with her father in that way.
Get her help asap. My sister was suicidal and back in the day they would not admit her to a ward without her actually trying to commit suicide. I was 9 years her junior trying to get her help. Then she was in and out of wards her short life and passed from cancer a few years ago. Keeping them taking their meds is the hardest as they believe they are fine.

Fortunately, since she is in foster care she has all the resources in the world right now. At our last court date, I requested a psychological evaluation and the judge ordered it. I do believe her dad sexually abused her because the police officer who arrested him said, "I can tell he did it." And they recorded three conversations between my daughter & her dad with her confronting him and he didn't deny any of it. Plus, in the police investigation he referred to her breasts as 'tits' and in my book that's all I need to hear.
I remember her dad telling me a few years ago about God talking to him, so I think he's schizophrenic, too. He said things like, "The Lord told me to move to Nebraska and then while I was there I learned what he had sent me there for, so that's why I was able to come back three weeks later."
What if 'the Lord' told my daughter, "it's time to be with your dad now." Or what if 'the Lord' told my ex-husband, "hold her down on the bed & grind on her."
Ugh, it makes me sick to think about what she's been through.

katellis

--

_Crazy_Mary_

Ok, the "latest" is that my daughter may suffer from seizures. Seizures that are practically undetectable, but it would help explain her disconnect from reality.
Anybody ever heard of something like that?

Thoughts_Arrive

My brother in laws step brother has it.
I remember when he was fine then in his mid-late 20's he developed schizophrenia.
Over the past 10 years we've seen him deteriorate.
Sad, he is far from the man he once was.
He just randomly leaves the house and goes for a walk to nowhere or drives interstate.
He sees bugs and tigers in his room.
He needs injections which don't really help.
Once he was sitting next to me and was growling whilst watching tv, like went all psycho at it, I was concerned.
He doesn't seem the same when he talks, cannot function, hardly eats, doesn't make sense.
He had a genetic disposition to it and his heavy drug taking lit the fuse.

Stella

i dont know where you live, but in australia there is a service called parentline (its like the adult version of kids helpline). they can't diagnose but they can help you figure out what's going on, coping and communications strategies and give you referrels. there might be a place like that where you are? They are very helpful.

iluvcats

_Crazy_Mary_ wrote:

Ok, the "latest" is that my daughter may suffer from seizures. Seizures that are practically undetectable, but it would help explain her disconnect from reality.
Anybody ever heard of something like that?

I'm sorry to hear that your family is having problems :( I don't know if this is true medically but recently on a new hospital drama called "Mercy", a guy about 15 put a bomb on a bus. He said God told him to do it. Then sometimes while he was in the hospital bed (he was injured in the crash), he would stare for a few moments. It turns out, he was having seizures. They did a test on his brain and he had a form of some disease, maybe epilepsy and was put on medication.

Claireack

I think I must know too many people, but I posted in this thread earlier about a different person. A friend of mine was having weird disconnect spells, she would just suddenly stop and be staring into space, then after a bit come round. It was eventually diagnosed as a epilepsy.

Franny

_Crazy_Mary_ wrote:

Ok, the "latest" is that my daughter may suffer from seizures. Seizures that are practically undetectable, but it would help explain her disconnect from reality.
Anybody ever heard of something like that?

Yes. My cousin has a son who has a form of epilepsy exactly like this. He just zones out. At first it was just a couple of seconds, and they thought it was just "normal" early teenager behaviour and exhaustion as he was a really active kid, in school swim teams, band, choir etc. Then the "zone outs" started getting longer, to the point where his behaviour before the fit would be very erratic and near manic, then he would just zone out for a couple of minutes, then the scary one was when he started walking in circles and drooping all down one side of the body like he'd had a stroke. So he has been medicated, but it only helps a touch, last I heard from her was that they were having to stay at the hospital for a couple of weeks so that he could be thoroughly monitored and have testing done.

get her checked for epilepsy, it comes in all forms not just the "normal" fit we all assume.

_Crazy_Mary_

Well, we had the psychological evaluation done on my daughter. The psychologist was leaning towards Asperger's Syndrome, as she has many of the characteristics, but was unable to diagnose her with it due to lack of time & history. He did diagnose her with major depressive disorder, adjustment disorder with anxiety, learning disorder and characteristics of compulsive personality. I was able to see her for the first time in 8 months on Thursday! She is so tall & beautiful & she looks like she may be more like her old self now that her psycho dad is no longer a part of her life.

tinkerbell

I'm really sorry that your daughter has had to go through all of this (and you too) it's hard enough to be a teenager without having to go through her ordeal!