Caring for Others With Schizophrenia

My name's Lori, and I am the mother of a 28-year-old son who has a diagnosis of schizophrenia, OCD, and some ADD.

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I use to be the kind of person that wanted to do everything on my own, everything, and I did. But it's important not to take this all on and expect to understand it all overnight. It's a lifelong issue. I have to hold myself back sometimes. You can't let it consume you to the point where you're not a friend or a spouse.

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Hope is something that you can and will have with proper treatment. With my son, he absolutely knows he has Schizophrenia. He knows it is a mental illness. He's been well-educated through all the months that he spent in group. I am so proud of him.

Yesterday, he had breakfast at my place and did say, you know, I wish you wouldn't email my social worker. It's so embarrassing. Don't do that. I can do this on my own, but he knew that I was coming from a good place. Later on in the day, I got a text, a very simple text, and it said, thank you for all you do. I love you. And that made my day.

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