schizophrenia Help
If you are concerned that you may have schizophrenia, talk about it to someone you trust. It is also important that you go and see your GP as getting help early gives you the greatest chance of getting better.
Your GP is likely to refer you to a health professional who is trained in psychosis such as a psychiatrist or a psychiatric nurse. It may be that because you are ill, you haven’t noticed that anything is wrong and your family may take you to get help but your GP will be able to explain any concerns that they have to you.
Medication
If you are diagnosed with schizophrenia, you will probably be offered medication that will help you. This is called ‘antipsychotic medication’ and you will probably swallow it as a tablet or liquid. The medication can be very good at getting rid of the symptoms such as reducing hallucinations and making your thoughts clearer and can stop an episode coming back in the future. It works best if you take it regularly and don’t stop and start it although it can take a few weeks to get into your system and work well. Even when you feel better, it is important to keep taking your medication to stop you feeling unwell in the future and you can always discuss this with your doctor. As with all medication, you may experience side effects so tell your doctor if the medication is making you feel unwell in other ways such as sleepy as they may be able to give you something to take to prevent the side effects, or change the dosage of your antipsychotic medication.
Therapy
You may be referred to an Early Intervention Service if they are available locally.
You may also be offered Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) which is a talking therapy and aims to help you understand your thoughts, feelings and behaviour. You have one-to-one sessions with a therapist. CBT would concentrate on the problems that you find most difficult which could be the hallucinations or feeling that people are against you. It would concentrate on how you tend to think about them – your ‘thinking habits’ and look at how you react to them – your ‘behaving habits’ and work out more helpful ways of thinking about these things or reacting to them.
If you live with your family or you are in close contact with your family, you may be offered a psychological treatment called family intervention which should last between three months and a year. These meetings or sessions would concentrate on information about schizophrenia and how best to support someone living with schizophrenia including how to deal with practical problems that come up.
You may also be offered other types of therapy such as art therapy which may help you express and understand feelings that are difficult to put into words.
Helping yourself
- Make sure you regularly do something you enjoy whether it is skateboarding, painting or street dancing.
- Avoid things that can make your condition worse such as stressful situations and getting anxious about things – don’t let worries about money or college build up, talk them through with people.
- Avoid street drugs and alcohol, they can make your condition worse.
- Join a self-help group.
- Recognise early signs that you are feeling unwell such as not washing or a change of sleeping patterns or becoming suspicious of other people.
- Do things to block out voices such as listening to your i-Pod.
- Keep a journal.
- Learn relaxation techniques.
If you are feeling unwell, talk things through with your GP.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has produced guidelines for how people with schizophrenia should be cared for (it refers to over 18s but they are currently working on guidelines for young people). NICE recommends that anyone providing treatment and care for people with schizophrenia should:
- develop a supportive relationship for people with schizophrenia and their carers
- explain causes and treatment options to everyone without clinical language and provide written information at every stage of the process
- ensure people with schizophrenia have easy access to assessment and treatment as soon as possible through all stages of care and receive an assessment by a multidisciplinary team
- work with people with schizophrenia, and their families and carers if they agree, to write advance statements about their mental and physical healthcare, especially if they have severe episodes or have been treated under the Mental Health Act
- take into account the needs of the patient’s family or carers, provide information about schizophrenia and how families and carers can help, and offer a carers’ assessment
- encourage patients and their families and carers to join self-help and support groups
The guidance is for people aged 18 and over but Nice is currently working on “Psychosis and schizophrenia: recognition and management of psychosis and schizophrenia in children and young people” and this is due to be published in March 2013.
The next section has further sources of information and help about schizophrenia.