A mother and her son’s struggle with paranoid schizophrenia

Are you the parent of a child, adolescent, or adult child with severe mental illness? How do you feel right now? Tired? Lonely? Discouraged? Or even stronger? Some parents say that they are struggling every single day of their lives with the reality that their child, teen, or adult child is suffering from both their own illness and stigma. Other parents say they are not as discouraged as they were before they found out what their child actually struggled with. No matter how you have chosen to view your situation, I’m sure you can agree with Melanie Jimenez.

Melanie is the mother of an adult son with paranoid schizophrenia. She writes her own blog titled Understanding Schizophrenia and hosts her own facebook page for readers, parents, and families with similar struggles as her own. Paranoid schizophrenia  is a sub-type of schizophrenia characterized by delusions (false beliefs that are held to be true despite evidence to the contrary) and hallucinations (incorrect perceptions and sensory processes such as hearing or seeing things).

Schizophrenia, no matter what type the individual may have, is a very difficult condition to live with. It’s even more difficult for a parent or caregiver to deal with because understanding the disorder from the “outside” takes so much knowledge, patience, and love. Even more difficult for many caregivers or parents is finding medication and sometimes finding the right combination of medications to help a loved one. Listen to what Melanie had to say about this in a recent post on her blog:

So, last night we were back to square one. A VERY sedated Thomas greeted me at his bedroom door when I came to say good night and my heart broke seeing him like that. That is one aspect of the treatment of schizophrenia I will never get used to. We said good night and we all went to bed.

To read more about Melanie’s story, visit my sister-site: blogs.psychcentral.com/caregivers.