Image via WikipediaAll over bar the shouting - heading down the hill to schizophrenia without really knowing it..
ARTICLE: First published at Fortitude
by peter petterson
My previous article concerning mental health was really a historical account concerning my grandson's problematical life in childhood, adolescence and his mental breakdown at the age of fifteen years.
Here we will hit the keys and see where we end up tonight. Do you ever get like that: Just freewheeling your way through some writing, letting you brain and fingers do the walking? Just like an advert for Yellow Pages — let your fingers do the walking!
So what do I remember about his mental breakdown? Not a lot really. In such situations I don't think you really know a lot. Who knows what goes on in a person's brain? They can quiely deterioate without anybody realising it. In point of fact the youngster cracked up, after his session of drugging, drinking and not sleeping. It was all over bar the shouting when he told his grandmother he was a 'pussy' and didn't want to fight with one of the boys anymore.I didn't even know that was what he had been doing to try and prove himself with the 'normal' teens he was associating with there in the neighbourhood. Trying to be just one of the boys in the 'Hood.
Well it happened. He went all quiet; quite a change from the hyperactive kid he had been most of his life. He was taken into the local hospital, admitted into a ward for the night from Accident and Emergency, and the next day was taken to the regional youth mental health unit, about 20 miles away. He was on his way, on a journey he will be on for the rest of his life. The controversial little pain in the backside he could often be, to the frightened little rabbit he was before he went into hospital.
He would not return as the youngster we knew, but he would return and continue developing into the schizophrenic young man he is today. All that in less than a month! He was prescribed and regularly given Risperadol, an anti-psychotic medication he would be on for a couple of years or so. And it had side-affects like other medication he was on and others he would be on in the future. Like the mood stabiliser called Lithium. He had to have blood tests every three months because it could have detrimental effects on his renal functions in time. I can't remember when he started talking to himself — was it when he came back from the mental health unit? I'm not really sure about that. But he certainly became different and difficult. He was obviously hearing the voices pretty early in the piece; but we aren't sure when he obviously began to respond to them.
But we became concerned with the side-effects of his medication in future months. We found it difficult to get our points of view through to his health professionals — doctor and social worker. We did not have a good relationship with his social worker because he did not respond adequately to our questions and concerns for our grandson's well-being. The doctor was nice enough and tried to cooperate with us when we thought he was on too much medication — but we were ignorant and inexperienced with mental health problems. The dosage of his Risperadol was a bit like a yo-yo for a few weeks as the doctor tried to find a balance in his medication.
Finding a balance in the dosage of psychotic medication is something we would learn about in future years. Side-effects are something we would also discover too. It wasn't too long before he had a relapse and ended back in hospital again. He was now well on the road to being a confirmed schizophrenic. We knew also that alcohol was good for him in only small quantities, and marijuana was a poison for him in any quantities. The latter would be confimed by other mental health patients we knew on later occasions. We would also learn that you never recover from serious mental disorders — doctors can only manage the illness through the correct dosage of the right medication. Medication had now become as important to our grandson as food and drink. Yes, he was well on the road, alright!
Published on Fortitude July 10, 2010
Copyright 2010 peter petterson
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