I will share six aspects from early symptoms of schizophrenia (delusions, auditory hallucinations) to treatment and forced isolation.

Why did such unbelievable events of schizophrenia occur to my mother? An escape from reality that I couldn't deny—initial treatment and forced hospitalization due to schizophrenia. I will share six things about this.

✅Mom's incredible life story

To talk about illness, I will first tell you about my mother's incredible life story.

At 22 years old, I married into a wealthy family as the eldest daughter-in-law of the seven siblings' main house. I thought my first childbirth would go smoothly, but after my son's first birthday, a five-year-old girl appeared. The father had a child (the older sister) with a widow from the neighboring village. At that time, my mother fainted from shock.

Twenty years later, my mother often visited the local temple due to the shock and hardships of her early marriage, seeking peace of mind. She diligently copied Buddhist scriptures with a brush pen on the back of used copy paper brought by my sister, cultivating her spiritual discipline.

Thanks to my kind mother, I only recently found out that the older sister I mentioned earlier (the older sister) is actually a half-sister, and I learned that from a neighborhood sister.

You all knew about those difficult Chinese characters through the practice of copying sutras.

One day, after coming home drunk, my father, who didn't like my mother, burned all her books. My mother lost consciousness, laughed, and cried repeatedly.

I was so scared thinking I couldn't communicate with my young mom. I ran to the temple and asked the monk, who told me not to resent my father, but to pray with all my heart for my mom's mind to come back. I truly only prayed at that time. Leaving behind the desire to kill my father, around dawn, my mom regained her senses, and that joy was the greatest happiness I have experienced in my life so far.

And after 40 years, my mother, whom I had forgotten, developed schizophrenia and even dementia.

 

What is schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is generally known to be a biological disorder caused by abnormalities in the brain.

Biological causes, genetic factors, psychological causes such as stress, and other factors are also believed to act in a complex, combined manner.

 

✅ Initial symptoms

At first, my mom was lively, but gradually her eyes lost focus, she disliked turning on the lights, and she stayed indoors, only sleeping.

My mother was in a paid nursing home, but from that day on, the restaurant lady started taking my mom's clothes, claiming that the communist soldiers had come and she was hiding, even hiding her in another grandmother's room. The grandmother was shocked, and we had to pay for her medical expenses as well.

So I left that nursing home, and since I just retired, I decided to take care of my mother.

 

Neglect

So, we neglected her without knowing that our mom had schizophrenia. We didn't want to admit it.

It's called schizophrenia, but commonly known as schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is something that is difficult to treat and hard to believe with normal eyes.

While taking care of him, he keeps going outside, saying he received a call to come out, recalling the days of dating with his husband, whom he also dislikes thinking about. (His father passed away 23 years ago.)

Sometimes he doesn't come out from under the blanket because he's scared, and other times he says that my husband, who is perfectly fine, hits me and feels sorry for me. Even when I see my husband going to work, he says my husband is dead. My husband is a gentle man who doesn't drink, smoke, or even kill a fly.

 

✅Start of treatment

They didn't even try to talk about schizophrenia; they first received a dementia diagnosis at Ajou University Hospital.

Coincidentally, I went to see that doctor who had just opened a clinic, and later I was diagnosed with schizophrenia and received hospital treatment.

Because of dementia, there was no way to communicate or any other method.

I just prescribed sedatives to relax and frequently prescribed sleeping pills.

He also took antipsychotic medication.

I had no choice but to rely solely on the doctor's prescription.

 

✅ Isolation and improvement

I tried to take care of her, but she didn't sleep at all and kept asking her husband to come out, so I took her to the nursing home.

Since then, her weight loss has also increased significantly, and her symptoms of fear or her husband asking her to come out, possibly due to medication, have improved. The medication dosage has also been slightly reduced.