Advice for family members of a schizophrenic patient

Schizophrenia is a severe disease, incurable to the end and accompanied by serious mental disorders. Such people can harm themselves and others. This happens in cases where the patient does not turn to the clinic for help in a timely manner, or if his relatives do not react to the situation, but let everything take its course.

If a psychiatrist is contacted early in the development of the disease, effective drug therapy can be started, as well as psychotherapy to achieve remission. If you continue to follow the doctor’s advice, it can be long. This will allow the patient to return to a normal life, study or work, subject to regular check-ups in the hospital.

All this is real, because today there are all the resources necessary for the treatment of schizophrenia. There are only two stumbling blocks: the patient himself does not want to do anything, and his relatives refuse to help him. The support of loved ones is a significant factor in the recovery of a schizophrenic.

What should families of people with schizophrenia know about?

It must be understood that normal emotions do not apply to schizophrenics. They think differently, feel differently, act differently. Now the main rules of behavior with this type of people:

1. No need to try to convince them that you are right. They don’t talk like normal people. And yet, they are 100% convinced of what they say and do. No manipulations and pressures will work, and even, on the contrary, will cause a backlash: the patient will become aggressive and angry.
2. If the disease is advanced, the schizophrenic will not go to the hospital himself. This is due to critical thinking. He does not believe in his illness. He denies it and does not listen to what others tell him.
3. There is no need to feel guilty for putting your loved one with a mental disorder in the clinic. This denial is the result of neurotic psychological trauma. It usually occurs against the backdrop of a conflict in consciousness between reality and desire.
4. It is necessary to improve the relationship between the doctor and the patient. At the beginning of treatment, it is very important that there is trust between them. Otherwise, therapy may take a very long time or be completely ineffective.
5. Relatives need to ensure that the patient takes the prescribed medications. It is especially difficult with those who deny their illness. They will try to avoid taking medications, lie that they took them, pretend to take them, and then flush the pills down the toilet.

That is why in many cases, especially at the advanced stages of the development of pathology, a person needs the help of relatives. He cannot give an adequate assessment of what is happening, which often leads to serious consequences, even death.

Can a schizophrenic be given a disability?

In patients, the ability to work at the beginning weakens, and over time it is completely lost. If this happens, then the patient is assigned a disability. This happens solely on the prescription of a doctor with the provision of all necessary documents with seals and signatures. Naturally, before proceeding to such a procedure, a person must first undergo a series of examinations and pass numerous tests.

As soon as the patient is examined by a circle of medical narrow specialists, a commission meets and agrees that disability is assigned in accordance with the development or current state of such a disease, then the patient receives all the documents in his hands and in accordance with social benefits, social assistance in material terms from the state. All this is regulated by the current regulatory legal acts and the legislation of the country.