autism and schizophrenia

[Guest guest]

As many of you know my daughter Marcy is not only autistic but she

also suffers from schizophrenia or more correctly schizoaffective

disorder. This is because she also has depression and also some

symptoms of bipolar disorder along with the schizophrenia. Because of

her autism it makes it more difficult to treat.

She was just at a parents autism meeting where she gave a 20 minute

speech on what it is like to be autistic and all the things she went

through. After her speech several parents mentioned that their kids

besides being autistic are also bipolar.

I was wondering if anyone else is going through this problem. With

Marcy her meds work for a short time and then they stop. I know she is

taking them because I give them to her and I see her swallowing them.

She also develops some of the more unusual side affects of the meds.

We know from our experiences with her that when she is stressed we see

more of the autism and more psychotic behavior. Even though she is

almost 26 she tends to hover over us when we are doing something and

rocks while standing. She will sometimes lose her language and it

comes out like " word salad " all jumbled up. Because of her

schizophrenia she thinks, sees and hears weird things. She says she

doesn't hear voices all the time but she gets thought insertion instead.

Right now she is having one of her episodes but she is still managing

to function. What brought this newest episode on is that she found out

I am going to have back surgery next month. This will be surgery #21

for me. 2 years ago when I had shoulder surgery I almost died twice

but there were other factors involved then that we know about so I am

feeling good about it. I even told her that I had lap band surgery

last year (lost 90 pounds) and that went real smooth. However she

tends to see more negative than positive. Her psychologist is working

with us on this so I am hoping she will snap out of it soon. Another

factor that has her stressed is that my son is looking for a job in

the game and simulation programming field and it means he will

probably be moving. They are very close even though they tend to fight

all the time. So she is afraid she will never see him again even

though we tell her that isn't the case. A lot of stress for someone

who still has a hard time with change.

Still despite all this we make sure she keeps focusing on her art and

trying to get her business off the ground. If anyone gets Dog Fancy

magazine look at the Feb. 2009 issue that just came out. She is in the

Happy Endings section.

Robin

www.crittersonthings.com

Marcy's website