Dealing with someone or helping someone with schizophrenia is not an easy task to do! It requires a lot of research, information, and knowledge to help someone with schizophrenia. If you’re here to help your loved one overcome schizophrenia, you might want to first gain some knowledge and basic information about schizophrenia to help them in a better way.
Here are some topics that will help with a complete overview of schizophrenia:
What is Schizophrenia and what are the different types of Schizophrenia?
Understanding the three phases of Schizophrenia
After gaining insights into schizophrenia, it’s time to help your loved one from overcoming schizophrenia. This blog will help you in understanding how to help someone with schizophrenia by finding the right treatment, building a positive life, and coping with the signs of schizophrenia.
First of all, let us understand, what to do when you find that your loved one has schizophrenia?
What to do when your loved one has Schizophrenia?
Finding that your loved one or family member is suffering from schizophrenia can be really heart-wrenching. The key to helping your loved one with schizophrenia is to become strong, well-informed, and helpful. I completely understand that you might be having emotions like anger, guilt, fear, or frustration.
You may feel helpless, however, grasping the right information and right ways to help your loved one are going to help you in building your strength and helping someone with schizophrenia.
However, it is really important to acknowledge that schizophrenia can be treated and recovery is possible with support. Before, you prepare yourself to help someone with schizophrenia, prepare yourself with these tips:
Accept and prepare to fight with difficulties
Get complete information
Do your best
Pay attention to your needs as well.
Never lose hope.
How living with Schizophrenia affects lives?
Schizophrenia is a serious mental health issue that can be more challenging for everyone. Living with schizophrenia impacts the ability to hear, listen, and think positively.
While you begin to help someone with schizophrenia that the journey of healing can be full of ups and downs, there can be good days and bad days, and you must prepare for all. A loved one’s odd behavior and emotional distancing might break you, but you have to be strong and you must build resilience.
Steps to Help Someone with Schizophrenia
this section will help you in seeking step-by-step help to process emotions, feelings, symptoms, and more of someone who is experiencing schizophrenia.
Step 1: Start treatment right away
Whenever your loved one gets diagnosed with signs of Schizophrenia, you should not wait and start the treatment right away. treatment will help in reducing the symptoms as well it will help in reducing the risks of a crisis situation.
while the first step is to begin the treatment, you might have to convince them to seek therapy as seeking therapy is related to various stigmas. Additionally, it is important to provide them with options so that they can choose the best for themselves.
Always accompany them to the appointment so that they can feel supported. if you find any suspicious behavior or signs, convey them to the therapist so that they can have a look at them.
Step 2: Monitor symptoms, behaviors, and medication
After the treatment starts, you should alert yourself to monitoring medication, homework provided by the therapist, or suggestions provided by the therapist. Additionally, you must take the side effects seriously and must tell the side effects the therapist so that they can change or add the medications.
Moreover, you must also avoid alcohol or drug usage to avoid drug interactions. Mixing drugs or alcohol is highly harmful and if there are such signs, you must call the therapist ASAP.
Step 3: Watch signs or symptoms of Schizophrenia relapse
For the effective treatment of the individual always provide medications on time and do not stop any medication before consulting with the therapist. It will help in avoiding the relapse of schizophrenia. Hence, it is extremely necessary to take all the prescribed medicines on time, it will help prevent an emergency situation.
below are some common signs of relapse in schizophrenia:
Social withdrawal
Increased paranoia
Confusion
Insomnia
Lack of personal hygiene
Disrupted speech
Strange appearance of behavior or personality
Hallucinations
Step 4: Prepare a plan for emergency situations
Regardless of your efforts and hard work to prevent relapse of schizophrenia, it might happen that your loved one’s symptoms deteriorate. Therefore, you must always keep your emergency plan ready.
To plan an emergency plan, you can note down the emergency contact information, write down the contact number of the hospital or psychiatric admission, or add the contact number of relatives or friends.
Below are the quick tips to handle a crisis situation of schizophrenia:
Watch out for signs of acute psychosis
Loved one losing control or being terrified of their feelings
Never express anger or irritation in front of them
Try to handle the situation calmly and quietly (avoid shouting)
Never use sarcastic language in front of them
Turn off digital devices
Avoid meeting casual visitors (remember, the fewer the better)
Avoid making direct eye contact in critical situations
Avoid touching your loved one in a critical situation
Sit down and encourage your loved one to sit down
Effective tips to help someone with Schizophrenia
1. Encourage for getting treatment
The first step towards helping someone with schizophrenia is to ensure that they are getting proper treatment. You might have to convince the person to visit the doctor. Moreover, you can also help them with proving options, focusing on a specific symptom, and being collaborative with their appointments. You can also look for online therapy platforms for schizophrenia.
Apart from seeking treatment, you must encourage them with some self-help strategies as well. Since it can be episodic, you can employ some self-help strategies for managing the lengths of episodes.
2. Build the Support network
To help your loved ones in an effective manner, you can begin with helping, encouraging, and understanding them. You have to become their support system and not their escape system. The more support you will provide, the journey of healing is going to be better for both of you. First of all, understand that you can’t do it all, and throughout the journey, you will need help; therefore, get help from the best professionals.
You can also encourage your loved ones to join a support group so that they can relate their feelings with others as well. By gaining their trust and by establishing yourself as a support system, you can help them with overcoming schizophrenia easily along with therapy and treatment.
3. Keep the track of symptoms and monitor treatment
After getting into the right treatment, it is really important to track the symptoms, track the lengths and frequencies of episodes, check if the medication is working for them or not, and take side effects seriously. Moreover, you can also encourage them to take medications on time and to avoid any type of drug interaction.
4. Prepare yourself for the worst situations
As I mentioned above, schizophrenia is episodic and it might happen that some episodes might deteriorate the condition of your loved one. Therefore, always keep an emergency plan and learn how to handle such situations efficiently. You can always keep emergency contact information handy.
Moreover, you must always watch the signs of relapse so that recovery can become better. Some signs of relapse are insomnia, paranoia, social withdrawal, hostility, and hallucinations.
5. Explore housing options
Recognize that people with schizophrenia need a stable and supportive place and professional advisory. Therefore, you must explore some housing options which will help in overcoming
schizophrenia. If you’re not willing to consider a housing option, you can also check for some at-home arrangements with your doctor.
While looking for residential housing, make sure you’re searching for a 24-hours facility. Meanwhile, you can also look for options like transitional group homes, foster or boarding homes, and supervised apartments.
6. Avoid blaming or judging them
Whenever you have conversations with your loved ones, don’t blame them for their situation. Along with medication and therapy, it is quite important to manage them positively. Therefore, take everything with positivity and completely avoid blaming or judging them.
I hope this blog helps you with supporting someone with schizophrenia. For more such content, connect with us on all social media platforms.
Thanks for reading!
The post A Small-Guide To Help Someone With Schizophrenia appeared first on Calm Sage – Your Guide to Mental and Emotional Well-being.