my grown kids

[taylor2]

well-i feel better.i just found out my 34 yr old son is bi-polar II. the reason i am feeling better is "it explains alot".he is very religious and will not take any medications.i already know this.the other son is schizophrinic/and bi-polar.now the daughter is next.she calls alot and says something is wrong with her.when i told her of her brother-she was depressed cause she knows this means she has some of it too.she is always questioning her self...and such.so she has no insurance and will need meds and the 34 yr old has no insurance.but it will not matter.he won't take meds/ so now i have to find alternative ways to help him.any clues?maybe some kind of natural herbs or something.he is just so wild-he can never sit or sleep or anything...always wildly on the go.talks on the phone every second and talks and talks.so i don't know the route i need to go to help these grown children that i love so mcuh.taylor2

[Matthew Shea]

That's a very tough dilemna. Mentally ill people will rarely take medication for their condition willingly. The disease effectively perpetuates itself in that regard by twisting a person's thought processes in such a way that they're convinced there's nothing wrong. Also, a lot of psychiatric medications have the effect of spacing you out. No one really wants to feel that way, even though the medications do work for what they're designed to treat.

Is there anyone in your son's life in a position to ensure he takes his medication daily (i.e. force him to take it)? Also, could he possibly be eligible for Medicare, to get him some help with his prescriptions? Given the amount of quackery and false claims from purveyors of herbal remedies, I very much doubt you'll find help there for something as serious as what we're discussing here. Even if you found something that was guaranteed to work, I very much doubt your son would take it willingly.

Whatever happens, I wish you the best of luck and I hope all your children find something that works to help them overcome their illness.

[Baltar]

Originally Posted by Matthew Shea

Also, a lot of psychiatric medications have the effect of spacing you out. No one really wants to feel that way, even though the medications do work for what they're designed to treat.

The side effects of psychiatric medications can be terrible. Some (certain schizophrenia meds I think) cause symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease. Our understanding of the brain and the sophistication of medications we have for psychiatric disorders are extremely primitive right now. I personally would not have the heart to force someone to take medication knowing all the kinds of awful side effects the medication would have.

I myself suffer from occasional depression for many years now, but I would never take medication to treat it. Exercise and diet have helped me significantly, and although I'm not cured completely I'd still prefer to have the occasional depressive episode to losing the power of my mind (the thing I value the most about myself) in favor of emotional stability.

If possible it's always best to avoid medication. I don't know how much can be done for schizophrenia without medication, but I'm pretty sure that bi-polar (which consists mostly of depression, with occasional manic episodes) can be improved with diet and exercise. They say that depression causes changes in the brain. Well, they also say that exercise causes changes in the brain. Perhaps that's why it helps so much.

[taylor2]

thanks so much for your responses.I would never take my schizophrinic son off his meds. it has been too dramatic and horrid to finally get a diagnois and to just get him half ok.the medications are always being fine tuned.the one boy does not know it-when he had to go to couseling-he went to a christain counselor.they said he ahd bi-polar.i told him he did.he can go and go and never sleep and well-i went thru this already.where i live-u do not have to take meds. even in prision .they can not make u.but-i have to have a way with my middle son to give him help that he will accept.he is constantly in law trouble.he is not suppose to get into any fights and he just recently jumped out of a 3 story condo-and hurt his feet so badly.nothing broke but blew his feet out.he is a commercial fisherman.he goes fishing anyway-then his feet are huge and swollen and black.he is by law-not to get into one scuffle.well-he was in a bar the other nite and some guy came up and head-butted him.he then got jumped by 3 guys and they re-hurt his feet.he is continually a risk taker and always in law trouble and always talking religion and paranoid and i am very concerned about him.he is also going thru a divorce.he is actually a handsome and charming guy-big big liar on everything.i think i will try to talk to his lawyer and he is the one that made him go to counseling...so they could plead he is bi-polar and he is.i am going to talk to his lawyer some more to maybe pass on more to my sons counselor.i guess this is all i can do.thanks taylor