My dad is diagnosed with bipolar disorder with schizophrenia tendencies, so this article was very interesting, especially this: Schizoaffective disorder includes symptoms of both. I hadn't heard that term before--Schizoaffective
Genes link bipolar, schizophrenia, once thought unrelated
- Thread starter alaskanseminole
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Sorry to hear, that's terrible.
Would you mind sharing some more information on this?
How long has this been going on?
Is he living at home?
Can he function at all?
I've posted a lot over the years, typically in the mental health/illness, mass shooting threads since he has legal access to guns.
Regardless, he's 75 and was originally diagnosed in the Air Force in his early 20s, therefore summing that up isn't easy. Here are some highlights:
- Original diagnosis was Paranoid Schizophrenia due to a psychotic break triggered by extreme sleep deprivation that stemmed from a "Dear John" letter he received after joining the Air Force
- AF didn't know the first thing about proper diagnosis or treatment, so he became a medication Guinea pig, later medically discharged and rediagnosed as 'Manic Depressive' (now bipolar)
- Met my mom and had another psychotic break (better termed--manic episode) which scared the $hit out of her (naturally). ...only later to be convinced by dad's mom to marry him anyway
- After years of instability (in-out of VA mental hospitals) Lithium became the ONLY medication to stable him
- Unfortunately, as many mental health patients tend to do, after years of stability, he felt there was nothing wrong with him and stopped his meds. I was five when I looked through the neighbors fence as 5 sheriff's deputies restrained my dad (after I watched him jump on top of his car punching holes in it with a crow bar)
- It wasn't until I was 19 when his worst manic episode happened that caused him to kill two people in Orlando in a traffic accident (I could write a novel just on this period of his history--very interesting all that unfolded during that time)
- After that he was ordered to be on medication by the court (he never served time, only 1-year house arrest--minus going to work--and a few years of probation). He remained stable from 1993-2016
- In 2016 he had another sever manic episode because his psychiatrist had to take him off lithium due to stage 3 renal failure (might have been 4). Since Lithium is the ONLY med that really works, he ebbs and flows through varying stages of mania with varying degrees of fallout (I could write another novel on what he does when he's manic). Fortunately, he has a wife (my mom divorced him in 2005) to keep an eye on him otherwise he'd be homeless (despite being a 100% disabled vet). Our mental health care system is beyond repair and w/o active family members, people wind up in one of two places--jail or the street.
I'm pretty passionate about mental health/illness [sorry if that was TMI]
He served during Vietnam, but did not make it over there. He was a C-141 mechanic stationed at Dover AFB.
Don't be sorry.
If you don't know someone with some type of mental illness you don't know anyone.
Very common.
The more people talk about mental health the better.
I have a (no pics) sister in law who has something similar. Thinks everyone is conspiring against her. For what reason who knows? Had her committed after thinly threatening her husband only to get released in 72 hours. Completely cut off contact with all family members. My (no pic) wife happened to run in to her at a park once and she called her a f*cking terrorist. Other than the vague threat to the husband she hasn’t been violent. Mental illness sucks…
I agree and I think what gets lost on this forum among the political and religious bickering is we're all just people (well most of us) with different backgrounds and life circumstances that have shaped us into who we are now (and who we will become in the future). Most of us could easily have meaningful conversations over a cold beer or a hot cup of joe.
Gotta love the 72-hour hold. My dad has perfected how to behave and respond to questions during that pointless 3-day period until he's released back into the wild to continue crazy.
Look up some of Creed's front man Scott Stapp's exploits, iirc he was riding a bike half naked to get vital information to the CIA (he's bipolar).
This is why I really try not to get involved in all the political talk here.
The hard left and hard right posters just seem miserable all day every day.
My wife used to be pretty close to her sister. She was matron of honor at our wedding. She always drove me nuts so I actually didn’t care for her. She was also high maintenance for my wife as she was constantly sticking up for her in their younger days. She took it pretty hard for a while, now she just accepts that she is no longer in her life…
I wouldn’t agree that the hold is useless. It can be life saving relative to suicide. Obviously, one can’t cure that kind of thought disorder so the hold doesn’t fix that.
You're correct, I only meant it in the sense of when long-term care is needed. I didn't mean to discount suicidal idealization assessments. Those can be (and often are) life saving.
