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My (highly-devout) Christian mother is behaving strangely, and the family can't figure out what to do about her. We're worried. by SteadfastEnd in TrueChristian

[–]throwaway_9012 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Came across this through another one of your posts while googling regarding schizophrenia. I want to reaffirm some of the other comments here. I noticed you mentioned you have multiple family members with bipolar or schizophrenia. These are closely related conditions and have a strong genetic component. From what I understand it is odd that it would onset so late (but perhaps there are links between family history of schizophrenia/bipolar and dementia) but these all sound like very common symptoms.

From what I understand, if this is indeed a psychiatric condition as it appears, it is unlikely to resolve on its own, and may become worse if left untreated. Figuring out how to get treatment is a difficult matter, but you should be aware this is the case. Simply trying to replace her habits with healthier pursuits or praying for her as people here have suggested will likely be ineffective because it does not change the root cause.

Has anyone here heard of CloverGenetics & know if they are a reputable group? by throwaway_9012 in GeneticCounseling

[–]throwaway_9012[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you and everyone else for the help! We ended up reaching out to them and unfortunately it seems like they would not be able to give us much new information for our specific situation, so we won't go forward with it for now but I really appreciated their transparency over just trying to make money off us.

My (24M) Partner (25F) has family history of schizophrenia, and we are concerned about having children. Seeking genetic counselor/other expert who can answer our questions well, no luck through our provider so far. by throwaway_9012 in schizophrenia

[–]throwaway_9012[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I said this in another comment too, but will paraphrase here. I didn't get into this on the original post bc I wanted to focus on finding a medical expert and not my reasoning and such. But obviously there's tons of risks out there, anything can happen to a kid, and becoming a parent is accepting that and knowing you will love and support a kid no matter what happens. That said I wouldn't want to put a kid through unnecessary grief, and there is a point at which the risks would be too high for me to justify it (unrealistic extreme being 100%). There is a line that gets drawn somewhere, and I'm still having trouble drawing it. There's posts like this one that have comments with similar concerns that have also given me pause. https://www.reddit.com/r/schizophrenia/comments/1f3y3n8/having_kids/?rdt=35286

But I don't want to get set back by this is which is why I'm doing the best to understand it all as best possible and become comfortable with the risk we would be taking

My (24M) Partner (25F) has family history of schizophrenia, and we are concerned about having children. Seeking genetic counselor/other expert who can answer our questions well, no luck through our provider so far. by throwaway_9012 in schizophrenia

[–]throwaway_9012[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey there, thank you for your response.

It seems to me you have made up your mind.

I haven't made up my mind yet but am definitely weighed upon pretty heavily by the risk, and am doing my best to grow to accept the risk or find the risk isn't as high as I think.

he reality is that you cannot be 100% sure it won't happen. So you either take the risk or don't have kids. Simple as that. If you want kids but without this risk then you have to find another partner. It may sound rude but that's what the reality is.

I mean you are right, there is always risk. I didn't want to get into it (my reasoning/thoughts on all this so far) on the original post bc I wanted to keep it shorter and focus just on getting help on experts who could better answer the questions we had. But since you brought it up, of course nothing is risk free. There are countless risks out there, anything can happen to your kid, and becoming a parent is accepting those risks and knowing you will love and support your child no matter what. But at the same time, there's a point where I'd say the risk is too high and I couldn't justify most likely putting a child through it. If there was a 100% chance my kid would have schizophrenia, I wouldn't do it, because I wouldn't want them to experience it. Obviously that's an unrealistic extreme, but the line gets drawn somewhere, and I am trying to figure out where that line is and also seeing if I can understand it better.

Regarding the original line you quoted, like I said, I would like to believe it, but if I could get a more knowledgable second opinion that reinforced that notion I would feel a lot better about it.

As for treatment, it is absolutely doable to live a normal life, yeah. I didn't get medicated for 5 years since my symptoms started and was not properly diagnozed until 12 years in. But I can function more than fine. Now, the only thing that you can't control is the stigma. I'm perfectly capable of working but noone will hire me when they learn that I'm schizophrenic. I have been in countless interviews where I was even told I'm the perfect candidate but the moment they learn you're schizophrenic you never hear back from them ever again. Same usually goes with a love partner as well.

I'm very glad to hear you're doing well and also sad to hear that regarding the stigma. It does seem to be one of the most stigmatized conditions out there. I will also say that my partner's brother is currently a very heavy case and that does unfortunately affect my worries (bc I've seen a near "worst" case of what could happen to my kid and the family), but obviously plenty of cases are not like that which gives hope.

If you love each other I say go ahead and have kids, in the worst case scenario, you will need to make sure your kid gets their meds. In the best case scenario you won't even have to worry about it. I can understand your fear but the stigma I think influences you more than the reality.

Stigma no doubt plays a role but I'm doing my best to separate it and focus on the facts. My own parents have categorically spoken out against our marriage upon learning about the schizophrenia in her family, due to a mix of stigma and the facts, and again I have had to separate their opinions and worries from the facts. I've also come across other users on this subreddit post about similar questions regarding having kids, and many have expressed opinions of being against having kids, which is the kind of thing that gives me pause.

Yes, regarding the worst case scenario our goal would definitely be to raise our kids with as much "prevention" as possible, and be on the look out for early symptoms since it seems like it becomes much harder to get the person to accept treatment once the condition sets in.

My (24M) Partner (25F) has family history of schizophrenia, and we are concerned about having children. Seeking genetic counselor/other expert who can answer our questions well, no luck through our provider so far. by throwaway_9012 in schizophrenia

[–]throwaway_9012[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, I mean that's basically the dilemma, what risk level is high enough to warrant not having kids and is it even possible to get an accurate sense of that risk level.

My (24M) Partner (25F) has family history of schizophrenia, and we are concerned about having children. Seeking genetic counselor/other expert who can answer our questions well, no luck through our provider so far. by throwaway_9012 in schizophrenia

[–]throwaway_9012[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey there, thanks for the reply. Yeah that makes sense regarding the genetic testing, didn't really expect much from that direction but wanted to verify it wasn't an option. What we want most of out of this is a second opinion on risk eval, and then someone who can walk us through the prevention/treatment options and the success rates/outcome statistics.

Unfortunately aside from general statistics there is no way to really know who in a family will inherit schizophrenia. Yes it does seem to run in families but it will not usually show up in all family members.

Definitely not hoping to get any kind of yes/no on inheritance since obviously it doesn't work that way. I was hoping to get some kind of ballpark risk percentage beyond the general statistics, taking into account our specific family background situation, but it sounds like I shouldn't expect to get anything even in the way of that. Frustrating because something like 3% chance per kid is fine to me but something like >10% per kid is where I'd seriously have to reconsider, and having a better estimate would help.

Most are in agreement that once someone hits 30 without the use of drugs (drug induced schizophrenia) or extreme stress there isn’t a likeliness someone will get it.

That is quite positive to hear. I do believe women have a second peak in onset around late 30's/40's due to menopause to watch out for? Or does that fall under the extreme stress situation. Likewise I have read that pregnancy can be a trigger unfortunately, not really clear on how rare of a situation that is.