Hidden help - please join me

[Helenbackagain3]

Hi, I’m the mum of a 20 year old son who had an acute psychotic episode 3 years ago. He was signed off from his MH team a few months ago but it’s now happened again. He may be bipolar, I don’t know yet. But it’s really difficult. He is back in the system but I’d be really appreciative of anyone else going through a similar experience of having an adult child with such immense problems. Please please share your experiences, your worries, let’s support each other.

Just bumping this in case there is anyone there.

Hi, just wanted to respond, it is difficult to find other parents going through this, so thank you for starting this thread. It would be good to support all experiencing this. I don't want to be too outing, but my daughter was admitted to hospital last year with first episode psychosis, so we are at an earlier stage to you. She is in her 20s, no previous issues with her mental health or obvious predisposing risk factors.She has made progress but I am constantly concerned she may never recover fully or that she will have to live with recurrence of acute episodes. Although she acknowledges she is unwell and is okay to discuss feelings of anxiety, any conversation about the symptoms more related to psychosis is hard for her, she just asks me to go away. She currently has declined any therapy, so I worry how far she can come without it.
How is your son getting on Helenback? It must be hard for you to have to go through this again. Do you have any support?

Hello,

I have just posted about my youngest son. However, my eldest son is 22 and currently living in supported living accommodation after three years in residential care. He has a psychotic illness (not specified).

He has learnt a number of coping mechanisms, but his MH is quite fragile. I am glad this thread has started because there is still such a lot of misunderstanding about psychosis, and as parents we do worry about the future of our loved ones, particularly as we get older.

Welcome humadum, it will be good to support each other

Wow thank you both for joining. My son has had excellent support through our local early intervention team. When it first started he was 17 so took aripripazole injections, but now he’s 20 I’m trying to get him to take the meds himself.

Caughtup - does your daughter have access to a Pier team? They are excellent. Humadum - how did you manage to get your eldest into supported living ? Sounds like you have issues with your younger son too. Must be so hard for you. X

And sorry for not replying before. Not on here all of the time, but so happy to have found some partners in crime

Hi, DB had psychosis in his early mid 20s and was dx after hospitalisation. Apart from one voluntary readmission he has never been back in or had an episode (15 years). I just wanted to give you hope.

As he stabilised he got quite a lot from doing Recovery College and WRAP planning. Bw to you all.

Helenback, my daughter is under the PATH team that must be similar to PIER. A Social Worker visits once a week and CPT also once a week, they are supportive but not sure how much she meaningfully works with them.She has been offered therapy but declined. They referred her to MIND group but she did not do more than the first session. She is functioning quite well now but she is not under any pressure
I hope your son engages in taking the medication, it is hard for them to appreciate the importance of treatment and understand how sick they are

Interested to read of all your experiences, so place marking in case my DS ever experiences similar.

Thank you for sharing your stories. Positive hope from Misty. Caughtup, what’s your daughter able to do now ? Must be so difficult for you. X

And thank you Goldengrove for taking an interest. The biggest signal in my opinion is sleep disturbance. Obviously lots of other factors, such as worries, genetic history, doing weed, but once they stop sleeping it’s a slippery slope. X

Evening.

My 21 year old is going through similar. Has had issues leading up to this since he was 14.

The MH team here has been horrific. Nobody wants to take him on.

I feel stressed to the eyeballs on a daily basis.

Helenback my daughter is not working but looking for voluntary work, COVID has made this more difficult, so she has a lot of time on her hands. She goes to different gym classes about 3-4 times a week and has started doing riding lessons. She gets together with small groups of friends as well. We go on days out and short shopping trips. She reads a bit as well. So has come a long way, especially in the last couple of months. The voices and disturbed thoughts are not noticeable, but I could not be confident they have stopped. She is very reluctant to talk about what she has gone through, which concerns me for her recovery. I need to learn to live with the fact she has this condition and try not to get my hopes up too much for a full recovery.
Do you have support or someone to talk to Helenback? It must be a rollercoaster of emotions