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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Cary's advice regarding NAMI is spot on-- if you can find a local or regional chapter that would be even better. (But if there isn't one in your area, you can inquire with NAMI to see if they might have a list of people who are interested in starting one, and join.)
You write about your mother's noncompliance with her medical therapy. Unfortunately this is pretty common, as is denial of schizophrenia. But you should also be aware, if you aren't already, that the antipsychotic drugs given to Schiz. patients often have pretty disagreeable side effects, especially at the higher dosages that they get, and sometimes Schizophrenics say they don't need the meds because they either have a hard time articulating the nature of the side effects they experience, or think people just wont believe them when they complain about the side fx., in part reinforced by people not believing other things they assert.
(Persons with bipolar disorder often get prescribed antipsychotics too, but usually at substantially less potent doses. The catch-all term for most of the side effects is extrapyramidal symptoms.(EPS) Wikipedia has excellent info with links about antipsychotics. See their articles about "typical antipsychotics" and "atypical antipsychotics")
Unfortunately the 2nd generation, "atypical" antipsychotics tend to be very pricey, and if your mom is on a public assistance program they're less likely to pay for atypicals for a patient with poor med compliance. If you don't know it already, I'll bet you guessed that the newer ones also tend to have less vicious side fx.
You say you experience contact with your mother as especially draining, but clearly you don't want to abandon her either. Have you thought of scheduling a weekly phone call, say for 10 minutes once a week? You could tell her that you'll call her once a week and talk to her for 10 minutes at such and such a time on a certain day, no matter what, but you don't have time for more than 10 minutes. And stick with it, so she knows she can count on you calling like you said you would.
It will still be draining at first, but you'll both know the framework, and she'll know that even if she's not happy with the time limit, at least she can count on your calling the following week.
Incidentally I used to call my mother once a week, and she died 2 days after the last Sunday evening that I called her. Her voice sounded rough, and I commented on it. She told me to mind my own business, that she was fine. JV
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
