Friends, Family & Carers Forum

[Faith-and-Hope]

You too @Sunshine888555 .... 🌷

There are a number of people with schizophrenia challenges on the LE-Forum connected to this one. If you go into the Home page and click on Lived Experience you will be on what is fondly referred to as "the other side" and this side is to them as well ... 😏 There are a number of us who joined as carers who spend a lot of time on the LE side of the forums. The wonderful people you meet there have so much to teach us, and give .... nothing teaches like Experience, and the intense experiences produce intense compassion as well, and the honesty to tell it like it is. Learning from others who battle schizophrenia for themselves can provide tremendous insight, and a voice of experience that your son may not yet have to be able to articulate his way forward through the muddle and confusion he finds himself in.

Some LE people are self-carers and you will find them on C-forum too. There is a different form of intensity here, and some LE people "rest" here a little. Carers are generally gentle,big-hearted folk nursing their own pain over their life circumstances and the fears and challenges they face, which brings understanding to the table here too.

Along with branching from the Home page, the Search bar will be helpful for you too, but the searches only bring up results from the particular side of the forum you are on .... C or LE .... although there are some community threads that may be open to both,such as Friday Feast - everyone shares about what they are having for dinner, and chat about raised topics in a similar way to a social gathering, and it's in "real time".

I am in the west, as are others here, so you will notice different activity owing to time zones too .... westerners are generally "later" in the mornings, but we also flit around "later" st night as well.

💜🌷

[Former-Member]

@Sunshine888555 the main contributors to this thread are:
@Grasshopper3 cares for her son on her own, she started this thread is away on holiday overseas with her son and we are all waiting with bated breath to see how they got on.
@Former-Member is also away overseas, her son went interstate, has restarted contact but is quite unwell
@patientpatient also looks after his son on his own (I think the only dude) his son is relatively stable at present
@Former-Member has a brother who lives a distance away that she supports through phone contact.
I joined in for a while as my husband had psychosis but BPii is his likely Dx but I do like to see how the "Colgate men" are going - the code name we have for Sz.

[Former-Member]

Hi @Sunshine888555, welcome to the forums, I have a brother with Complex Illness - Paranoid Schizophrenica diagnos d and his last 10-12yrs needing CTO for monthly antipsychotic injections. He went off his med for a year there but readmitted to hospital last Nov and stabilised back into meds. They help his emotional state a bit - but the delusions are still strong after all this thine. Maybe he has a resistant psychosis because most people I meet are who suffer this benefit a lot from treatment, have occasional relapses with stress (so keeping stress down is important) but staying positive, calm and supportive will help a lot.

I really admire you for stepping up to help your son, even living with him. I son live with my brother, couldn't because he does drugs and gets aggressive, so I take my hat off to you. A couple others here on this discussion thread have adult children with Sx at home. Oh, if youre reading the threaf, sometimes we use the word 'Colgate' instead of Sx, someone else can explain why.

I myself have c-ptsd (anxiety/depression) and usually float around on the other side (Lived Experiences).

Give yourself time to get use to the forums, practice makes perfect.

Take care 🌷🌿💜

[Sunshine888555]

Thanks heaps. Yeah it's a little confusing trying to work out the threads ect. Anyway thanks for your friendship. Best wishes to you.

[Faith-and-Hope]

@Sunshine888555 .... good morning ... 🌷

You will notice people using the @ symbol ahead of someone's user name.  That is what creates the email notification that connects you to the post they "tagged" you into.  Just an FYI and part of learning to navigate .... this is the only forum I have ever been on, and others showed me the ropes as I went along.

If you scroll to the top of the page you will see a discussion topic - in this case it's "our stories", followed by the thread title for the thread we are on, "Re: Son 22 with schizophrenia".

Depending on which device you are using there will also be "Home" there somewhere .... or "Carers Forum", and if you click on that it should give you the Home page.

On that home page you will find "Our stories" listed along with other discussion topics.  "Threads" are the collection of a set of posts under a sub-category where forum users choose their own title (such as Re: Son 22 with schizophrenia).

The Search bar, which is either at the top or the bottom of the page according to which device you have, will give you a list of threads that contain whatever word or phrase you type in, across all the discussion topics .... but the discussion topic is still listed as the first part of the title if you click on any of those threads.  It's an organisational guideline to help you know where you are.

eg.

Looking after ourselves > Re: Hot Chocolate Anyone ? 

Looking after ourselves > Something worth a smile ....

Our stories > Feeling alone

Something's not right > Eating Disorder - Need a shoulder ....

I hope this helps.

[Sunshine888555]

Thanks for the heads up. I will hopefully have more time to send on the site once thing settle down. At the moment I am in the process of selling our family home after 26 years and I am trying to figure out the next step. I need to try and find a place for my son and I to live as he is currently practically homeless but camping out in my place I just sold. He has a little doggy and I am in a tiny bed sit that doesn't allow pets. So it's all very uncertain and I'm just trying to stay positive and take thing one day at a time otherwise it's too overwhelming. I know it will all work out. Just need to continue to move forward with dignity and grace and reassure my son that it will all be ok. I know it will. 🌈💗🙏🦋
I'm grateful I can share here. Even if I'm just bumbling alone with the posts for now. Love and best wishes to all. I want to get insight and understanding and it will come in time. First things first at the mo!!

[Faith-and-Hope]

All the best with those nuts and bolts @Sunshine888555 ...... yes, insight will come to you, and we are here when you need us .....

Take care ....... 💜🌷

[Former-Member]

@Grasshopper3 @Gemima @patientpatient @Former-Member @Former-Member @soul @Shaz51 @Marit @Sunshine888555

Doing a quick check in to see how you and your Colgate men are getting along.

Hope you are all managing to get some self care in.

Sunshine - Grasshopper will probably be able to help you when she gets back from leave as she did a similar thing - found a place for her and her son.

Here are a couple of links that might help:

60 tips for helping people who have schizophrenia from schizophrenia.com

http://www.schizophrenia.com/family/60tip.html

I was really helped by this one that patientpatient recommended
when MI enters family.

https://youtu.be/NRO0-JXuFMY

This article on grief and loss for carers might also help you

https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.carersvictoria.org.au/Assets/Files/an%2520unrecognised%2520grief-web.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwiF_v_rk7rTAhWOQpQKHTLrCDYQFgg7MAg&usg=AFQjCNExa6-f1Pct_HqzbFgmgUTX7aFLIw&sig2=j-fPVwCwS2K6LLWJlaQ2qQ

[Sunshine888555]

Thanks so much. Hopefully I will get to all that information sooner or later. I'm very Grateful. Cheers

[Former-Member]

@Grasshopper3 @Gemima @patientpatient @Former-Member @Former-Member @Marit @Sunshine888555

Checking in to see how you wonderful carers are going.