My intention in writing these posts is to share the experiences that I went through with my son, starting with the first manifestation of his illness and our journey through numerous subsequent episodes. It's also to provide commentary as a parent and psychiatrist on issues that these experiences bring up, such as how the diagnostic process works in mental health, and how to work with treatment providers and medication issues. My hope is that reading this may be helpful for people with mental health issues and also their families and friends.

For some patients and their families there is a terrible realization that the medicines they have been prescribed haven’t kept them well—but was this because they hadn’t taken the medicine consistently, the dose was insufficient, the time duration wasn’t sufficient to elicit a response, or the illness was particularly severe and so it didn’t respond? Each of these could be a potential explanation and needs to be explored.

In Bill’s case I was initially blindsided by his non-compliance with medication. I didn’t realize until later, reading his journals, that often he had not taken the medicine as prescribed. Or that, at other times, he was taking the medicine but it was not able to keep him stabilized and he was quietly psychotic, hiding his symptoms from me, his treatment team, and his friends and acquaintances. With illness recurrence I learned skepticism, and to trust my instincts and rely on my clinical knowledge. I had to evaluate the facts and symptoms with a critical eye. Even when told that everything was "fine," as a mom I had to learn that I couldn’t trust what he said. He wanted to be normal, or........

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