I don't post here very often, it usually takes all my time just to keep up with the 'Eating for IBS' board, but at the moment I don't even have time to do that. My niece is ill, very ill, and I realise now that she has been ill for a long time and I didn't recognise it. For about the last week she has been extremely agitated, often in a state of panic, seeing things and hearing things that are not there, obsessively arranging objects and performing strange 'rituals'. She sleeps very little and has a kind of frantic energy. She is often very angry and abusive and has been violent a couple of times. She believes that other people are trying to harm her with voodoo, as well as playing tricks on her, it may be one of us or it may be freemasons. Night time is the worst, but she can get sudden unpredictable outbursts any time. She is really suffering, I can't even imagine how terrible it must be to go through the fear that she is feeling.
Her husband and I are taking it in turns to sit with her while the other one sleeps so we have little time to talk to each other about what is going on. This morning we managed to get her to see our GP, who prescribed Oxamepam, which she called 'a mild sedative' and she is arranging an appt with a psychiatrist next week. My niece is convinced that none of this is necessary and that she would be fine if we just left her alone.
My sister was diagnosed schizophrenic, so I am expecting the same, or one of the related disorders, my great-aunt had the same illness and my grandmother also had some symptoms, though 'mildly' (just enough to make family life weird and frightening) and I am struggling not to give in to despair right now. I don't know what is going to happen, but I know our lives will never be the same from now on.
This topic is a million miles away from what this board is all about, but it feels to me like a very safe place to say things that are so painful and difficult. Thanks for reading this.
Josephine
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Schizophrenia
