Living with a Schizophrenic
 

My 25 year old son suffers badly from schizophrenia. In this journal I'd like to tell his story. I'd also like to share how his affliction has altered my family's lives.

Wow. Like, wow. When I encouraged you to start a journal I had no idea it would be this personal. Well done, and I'll be reading; hope things aren't too tough for your family.

It's nice to have some variation in Journaltown, but it's still sad to hear that your son is suffering from a severe mental disorder. I hope he's doing fine and that it's not causing you too much distress. I'll be following this.

My kid lives out in our garage. His choice. He's a computer genius, an amazing artist, very musically talented, extremely funny, pretty damn good looking, cultured, and a very cool hang.

Most of the time.

He's tried living out on his own 5 times. Each ending in a total crash and burn. The last resulting in him living homeless on the streets of LA for 3 months until we finally tracked him down and convinced him to come back home.

This is gonna be a bit awkward as I try to spill everything. Thanks if you choose to hang.

Ridiculously good DJ too.

One of the worst aspects of schizophrenia, is that a large percentage of sufferers also are dealing with this. My kid for sure!

Anosognosia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Is he okay with you writing a journal about him here?

Fair question. Not sure how to answer. If I asked him he'd be furious.

I'll kill this if the MB members think that's the best route.

While you have my deepest sympathies because of your difficult family situation and I understand that such a journal might be a way to cope with it, I'd say that it's not right to have a journal about a person without that person's consent, especially with photos being posted.

I don't mind that this journal is here. It's a good way for someone to get support for something that they've been struggling with. Plus, I find this sort of stuff very interesting.

I think it's kind of both ways: as his father you have a right to say what you need to, but also to protect his privacy. Hmm. If you'd said he'd be all right with it I'd say ok, but if you actually know he'd be upset then I'd say this is not a good idea. I mean, I live with and care for my sister, who's had MS for over 13 years now. I've spoken in general terms about her here, but I'm not sure I'd be comfortable writing a journal about her. You always need to respect people's privacy, especially that of your family.

My advice (which of course you're free to ignore or disagree with) would be to broach the subject, show him the journal if you want (but maybe wait till he can see that people are genuinely interested and sympathetic, and it's not some kind of freak show, which is what he may fear) and then make a joint decision as to how you want to proceed.

But hey, you know your own kid so it's up to you. It's a very valid point though, and one I admit I did not think of. I guess I assumed he already knew about this.