My husband was diagnosed with schizophrenia about two years ago. It is 'late onset' schizophrenia because, typically, the onset of the condition is in adolescence or early adulthood. Indeed, because my husband was over 60 when he developed schizophrenia, it could even be called very late onset schizophrenia.
I did not understand what was happening to him. The 'negative' symptoms presented first. That is to say, he became extremely unmotivated to do anything. He stopped looking after himself and hardly left the house.
We have not lived together for many years, but we used to see each other every day. He stopped wanting to see anyone.
Then, he began to tell me that people were coming into the house, that someone was hiding things from him, that he could hear people talking about him. This was the onset of the 'positive' symptoms- paranoia and aural hallucinations.
One morning, he rang me up and said he had taken an O/D. I called an ambulance and rushed to see him. He was very disturbed and told me that people were trying to kill him and that he had heard that our sons had died and seen their bodies. He was very, very disturbed. He was sure people were going to kill him in the hospital.
He stayed on a general ward for three days and then was transferred to a psychiatric hospital. He spent a good few months in hospital, mainly to see if the medication worked.
To see if he had experienced an isolated incident of psychosis, his medication was reduced after a while. His psychotic symptoms recurred. This led to his diagnosis. One thing that surprised me is that he can remember all his hallucinations and still refers to what he 'saw'. I had assumed that people cannot remember hallucinations, but this is not the case.
Now he is in a care home. This does not happen to everyone, or even to the majority of people with schizophrenia. In fact many people live fully and independently with schizophrenia, especially if it is well controlled. However, in my husband's case, the negative symptoms never abated, the paranoia is still quite pronounced and he cannot live independently.
I apologise for the long reply.