How Does Schizophrenia Affect Families

What Are The 4 As Of Schizophrenia

The fundamental symptoms, which are virtually present through all the course of the disorder , are also known as the famous Bleulers four As: Alogia, Autism, Ambivalence, and Affect blunting . Delusion is regarded as one of the accessory symptoms because it is episodic in the course of schizophrenia.

Would Legal Support Help

If there are concerns about mismanaging money when the person is unwell, they can sign a simple legal document giving a trusted person enduring nancial power of attorney.

This means they can handle their own money as usual, but if they become ill the person with power of attorney can manage things. Discuss this with the person you care for. Ask an understanding solicitor to draw up the document.

Will Mental Illness Run In My Family

If someone in your family has a mental illness, you might be worried about developing the same condition.

If you have a mental illness you might be worried that your children or siblings will develop the same or a different mental illness.

Most people with a mental illness do not have relatives with the same illness. But research does suggest that mental illness can run in families.

The table below shows the chances of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder being passed down through family members. These numbers are based on recent studies. But different studies can show different numbers.

It might be helpful to look at the figures in the table in a different way. For example, the chance of someone developing bipolar disorder is 1 out of 100. This means that 99 people are not going to develop bipolar disorder.

If one of your parents has bipolar disorder, the chance of you not developing the condition is 90 out of 100. This means you are less likely to develop bipolar disorder, even if one of your parents has the condition.

Other research shows that different mental health conditions, such as schizoaffective disorder major depression, and anxiety can run in the same family. However, there is less evidence to show if other mental health conditions run in families.

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If Theres Conflict In The Family

Mental illness sometimes divides family and friends just when you all need to pull together. If this happens, encourage everyone involved to talk openly. If theres conflict in the family, let things cool down before trying to work it out.

Is there something everyone likes doing together where they will be more relaxed, such as going for a picnic? Use this to help people air their problems and nd a resolution. Let everyone speak and feel they are being listened to, including the person with the illness.

If things are still unresolved, try getting help from someone outside the family ask the persons case manager or other mental health professional to suggest someone to provide counselling. Carers Associations also have counselling services especially for family and friends who provide care.

All family members have needs for attention and affection, and for respite from caring. Its easier to resolve disagreements if these needs are met.

When A Loved One Has Schizophrenia

The love and support of family and friends plays an important role in schizophrenia treatment and recovery. If you have a loved one with schizophrenia, you may be struggling with any number of difficult emotions, including fear, guilt, anger, and frustration. You may feel helpless in the face of your loved ones symptoms, worried about the stigma of schizophrenia, or confused and embarrassed by their strange behaviors. You may even be tempted to hide your loved ones illness from others.

But its important to remember that a diagnosis of schizophrenia is not a life-sentence. Recovery is possible, especially with your love and support. To help someone with schizophrenia, its crucial you:

• Accept the illness and its difficulties.
• Not buy into the myth that someone with schizophrenia cant get better or live a full and meaningful life.
• Do your best to help your loved one feel better and enjoy life.
• Pay attention to your own needs.
• Maintain your sense of humor and remain hopeful.

While dealing with a loved ones schizophrenia can be challenging, the following strategies can help you guide your loved one on the road to recovery without losing sight of your own hopes and dreams.

Tips for helping a loved one with schizophrenia

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How Do I Write A Will

A will should preferably be written with the help of an understanding solicitor. Some local councils and neighbourhood legal centres provide a free will service. If making special provisions for someone you care for, discuss these with the person concerned and those who will provide support.

This is a good time to make sure the wills of other people and yours are consistent, so the agreed form of support is assured. Its easier and cheaper if these wills are drawn up at the same time.

Ethics Approval And Consent To Participate

The Ethics Committee of Kerman University of Medical Sciences approved this study with the code of IR.KMU.REC.1398.222. To conduct this study, the participants were initially provided with some explanations about the study goals and processes. All family caregivers signed written informed consent to participate in this study. The place, time, and duration of the interviews were selected based on the participants preferences. Before the interviews, participants consent for recording their interviews and taking notes from them was obtained. Participants were ensured about the confidentiality of all personal information. They were explained that all audio files were stored securely on password-protected servers by the first author and deleted after the final report. Participants could withdraw at any stage of the study.

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Taking Care Of Yourself

Sometimes caring for someone living with mental illness can increase your own risk of mental and physical ill health. It is important to look after yourself and know your limits.

It can be helpful to:

• Learn as much as you can about mental illness, treatment and what services are available in your area. This also helps in understanding what’s going on for your loved one and knowing how you can help.
• Find out if there are education and training courses for carers that you can attend.
• Understand that symptoms may come and go, and vary in severity. Different levels of support may be required for yourself and your loved one at different times.
• Develop a sense of balance between your own needs and the needs of the person you care for.
• Consider contacting a support group for carers or relatives and friends of people with a mental illness.

• develop predictable routines for example, regular times to get up and eat. Introduce gradual changes to prevent boredom
• break tasks into small steps for example, discuss with the person what steps would help with daily self-care
• try to overcome a lack of motivation for example, encourage and include the person in activities
• encourage the person to make decisions sometimes this can be difficult for a person who is unwell, or they may keep changing their mind. Try to resist the temptation to make the decision for them.

Focus On Feelings Not Experiences

You might feel unsure what to say or do when someone sees or believes something you don’t but it’s important to remember that their experiences feel real to them.

It can help if you focus on how they are feeling, rather than talking about what is real or true. Instead of denying their experience it can help to say something like “That sounds really frightening, is there somebody you could talk to about it?”.

“If someone turns round and says it’s not real, it just makes you feel more alone than ever.”

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Be Aware Of The Warning Signs

It will be important to know the signs and symptoms of schizophrenia. The warning signs will help you identify potential symptoms if you are suspicious that your loved one may be suffering from schizophrenia. It will also help you rule out certain suspicions. This can be helpful in understanding the situation.

Helping Someone With Schizophrenia Tip : Encourage Treatment And Self

Encouraging treatment and self-help is a cornerstone of helping a loved one with schizophrenia. While medication is an important element of schizophrenia treatment, your loved ones recovery depends on other factors as well. Self-help strategies such as changing to a healthy diet, managing stress, exercising, and seeking social support can have a profound effect on your loved ones symptoms, feelings, and self-esteem. And the more someone does for themselves, the less hopeless and helpless theyll feel, and the more likely their doctor will be able to reduce their medication. Your encouragement and support can be crucial to your loved one starting and continuing a program of self-help.

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Can You See Schizophrenia On A Brain Scan

Brain scans alone cannot be used to diagnose a mental disorder, such as autism, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder. In some cases, a brain scan might be used to rule out other medical illnesses, such as a tumor, that could cause symptoms similar to a mental disorder, such as depression.

Dont Forget To Take Care Of Yourself

Being a caregiver to someone with schizophrenia can be stressful, and its not uncommon for people who assume this role to experience burnout. According to a 2008 NAMI survey of schizophrenia caregivers, more than 50 percent have trouble finding time to take care of their own health. One way to find support and resources is to join a caregiver support group. Visit NAMI to find one in your area.

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Goal Setting In Action

Research in 2016 suggests that exercise may improve symptoms of schizophrenia, along with overall quality of life and functioning.

So lets say your loved one is interested in exercising more as an add-on to their treatment plan. To start:

• Think of a SMART goal: This could be to do 30 minutes of aerobic exercises 3 days a week for the next 4 weeks.
• Create an action plan: This may entail figuring out what specific type of physical activity your loved one wants to do.
• Maintain motivation: To keep them motivated, encourage them to stick with their goal. For instance, you could offer to set the same goal for yourself and tag along.
• Keep things positive: Emphasize your loved ones strengths and things that are going well, rather than focusing on their limitations, setbacks, or perceived weaknesses. A positive approach can be more effective in the long run over criticism.

Stimulation Not Too Much Not Too Little

Gentle introduction of new routines, new people, new activities and surroundings count as stimulation. Make it slow and gradual – too much too soon may seem disturbing.

Timing the introduction of something new is important. Where possible, start when the person shows any interest in an activity. Be encouraging. Begin with everyday things that can be done with familiar people for example, ask them to come shopping to help carry bags, or to join in a simple game like table-tennis or frisbee. They may not seem to enjoy it at first – this often comes later, when they feel more comfortable.

Remember the balance too much stimulation can be stressful and trigger symptoms, but with too little stimulation, the person may not function as well. Encourage them to work out what makes their symptoms worse for example, late nights or noisy shopping centres so you can find ways of dealing with them.

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Family History And The Nature Of Its Relationship To Schizophrenia

Family history in general is the number one predictor for schizophrenia, and by a wide margin. Among the general population the likelihood of any particular individual being diagnosed with schizophrenia is right around one percent, but that number rises by several percentage points when family members have also been diagnosed with the condition.

When one identical twin has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, the chances of the other twin also being diagnosed are 48 percent. This is the highest correlation based on specific family relationship; here are the others:

• First cousin, uncle, or aunt diagnosed: 2 percent
• Nephew or niece diagnosed: 4 percent
• Grandchild diagnosed: 5 percent
• Half-brother or sister diagnosed: 6 percent
• One parent diagnosed: 6 percent
• Full sibling diagnosed: 9 percent
• One or more children diagnosed: 13 percent
• Fraternal twin diagnosed: 17 percent

What this list means is that for every schizophrenia sufferer in the general population, there will be six schizophrenia victims among those whose parents have the disorder, nine among those who have schizophrenic siblings, and so on.

Schizophrenia genetic risk factors are real, but they donât completely define or control the disorder. Environmental risk factors and the biological effects they cause are an important supplementary aspect in the causal chain that leads to schizophrenia.

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Action Plan For Talking To Your Loved One

It can be scary to deal with suspicions of schizophrenia in a loved one, but it does help to have an action plan for addressing your concerns for them. If you feel a loved one may be suffering from schizophrenia, follow this action plan:

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Management Of Schizophrenia Symptoms In Everyday Life

Its important to remember though, those negative outcomes tend to present themselves when the person is not being treated for their schizophrenia symptoms. Once treatment for schizophrenia is undertaken and the schizophrenic and those around them learn how to manage the illness, outcomes are much more positive.

What Causes Mental Illness To Run In Families

We do not fully understand what causes mental illness. Or why it can be passed on in families.

When a condition is passed on in families through genes, it is called hereditary.

As the table above shows, the chances of developing a mental illness could depend on you and your relatives genes.

It does seem that mental illness can be hereditary. But we do not fully understand how this works. Mental illness may be passed on in family members for different reasons, not just genes.

John is an identical twin. This means he and his brother Sam have the exact same genes. This is why they look the same. John has depression, but his brother Sam has never had any mental health problems. If mental illness only had a genetic cause, then John and Sam would both have depression.

Environmental factors, like loneliness or a stressful life event, can cause mental illness. If you have a family history of mental illness you have a higher chance of developing mental illness in these situations.

This doesnt mean that you will definitely develop a mental illness. People with no family history of mental illness can develop a mental illness too.

There are different ways of looking after your mental health, which are explained more further down this page.

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Mental Illness Signs You Should Watch For

Sometimes, despite the best care and significant progress made in treatment, symptoms of schizophrenia can flare up in response to a variety of external and internal stimuli, and episodes of relapse can occur. These recurrences, characterized by exacerbated symptoms and heightened psychic distress, are most often precipitated by a discontinuation or lapse in treatment or medication. However, high levels of stress and significant life changes can also trigger a relapse.

In most cases, there are many warning signs we can look out for that will help us to anticipate and hopefully prevent or at least mitigate the severity of relapses. An intervention may be necessary if you notice your loved one exhibiting the following signs:;

• Seeming unusually depressed and withdrawn;
• Increased trouble focusing and problems with memory
• Deterioration in personal hygiene and self-care
• Unwarranted hostility or irritability

Developing Positive Personality Traits In Family Members

Based on the findings, living with and caring for a patient with schizophrenia caused significant changes in peoples daily lives. Adaptation to these changes resulted in the development of positive personality traits in people who were living with these patients. According to the participants experiences, seven subcategories were obtained concerning the development and growth of positive personality traits in the patients family members.

Being able to express emotions easily

Based on the participants experiences, the challenges of living with a patient with schizophrenia caused them to show their emotions more openly and to react emotionally to small events. Their feeling of compassion to the patient had led them to show this feeling to others.

My heart goes out to my mother. Because of her illness, I became so empathetic to others. I have suffered so much that I become happy with good news. I think I am much more compassionate than before; watching a sad movie makes me move to tears. .

In fact, the disease caused the family caregivers to become more sensitive to life events and react to small changes:

My sisters illness has made it much easier for me to express my feelings than before. For example, if one of my stuttering students talks in full sentences without stutters, I will be so much happy and excited, so that even his mother will not show that much excitement. .

Being Stronger in the face of life problems

Making greater intellectual developments than peers

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