I have a 23 year old son who is schizoaffective. He refuses to accept his illness and will not take his meds. Right now he is in jail for taking a truck. He was trying to stay warm cause I wont let him live at home as long as he wont take medications. Im sure he wont be in long as he is not a long term criminal how can I help him accept his illness what can I do I am desperate.
Does he go to therapy where a professional can help him ease into taking his medication and explain the importance?
No he refuses to believe his is ill. And because I have pushed him so much to get help he will not even let me talk about any type of treatment
I am so sorry to hear that, it's so difficult when someone doesn't want to accept the reality of their situation. Have you ever consulted a professional in order to give you guidance on how to deal with him?
dear one, my son is 29 years now and was diagnosed at 20 and refused to take his meds too. he was in jail and lived in a car for the same reason like yours. have you looked into perhaps writing the judge a letter through the public defender explaining your son's illness and asking him/her to court order your son into treatment? this worked for my son and although he has his off again on again times, him being court ordered into treatment was the crucial turning point in his life whether he believed he was ill at that moment or not. also it was crucial that i found out how my son wanted to be approached and asked to to take his meds. in his case, he wanted me to say, "here J____ is something that will make you feel better". he told me this himself and once i said those exact words to him, words i still use today, he was willing, along with the judges orders to take the meds. all the best.
I went to a therapist for about a year and after maybe about 9 months he tried to tell me I had this illness and in some of the sessions by doing recording of what I heard or taking pictures of what I seen I heard what he was saying. But probably for about another 6-9 months I fought meds. like hell. I would say I do not need them, I do not like them, I have no problem and if I did I could deal with it on my own. Even with the proof we had in some sessions I still swear up and down I did not have this illness. It took a few things to make me really realize I had it and to stay on meds. was still a challenge. So try to get him to see some one that he can talk to even if it is not for the illness itself, in time maybe he will realize it. With my therapist I only initially started to see him due to I shot a gun off in my house at some one and a friend of mine said to go talk to some one about all the abuse I was dealing with when it came to the person I shot at and been hurt by for several years. Come to find out only after about 8-9 months of sessions that I shot at no one in my house. My frined tried to tell me that a few times but I would not listen to him. I hate to say give it time, but keep on him about jsut talking to some one.
K9
Thank you k9trnr247 for relating some of your experience. The problem with my son is that he doesn’t want to see anyone, doesn’t want to talk about his issues, he has no friends, doesn’t want to go anywhere. So it’s very hard to even try to talk to him about his illness. He doesn’t believe he has an illness, and he won’t take the meds because he says they’ll do something bad to his brain. We’ll keep trying though. He also has been ordered treatment by the court but doesn’t care if he goes to jail. God bless you.
dear one, before my son went to jail i thought it was the most horrible thing and it was, but ut also wasn't. j--- was so out of control that he needed the containment and the eventual threat that comes from it you will go to jail if you don't comply, so it ended up being a good thing.i eish you well and encourage you to remember that your son has a higher and you are not it, also, his higher power has your son's best interest in heart, so God' will be done. and take care of you. stress is a killer, it almost got me and where will my sons be without me