Need help with diagnosing a disorder or illness in this case?

Question

Mary is a 22 year old college sophmore education major at a small private college in the North East. She has an older sister and two younger brother (twins). Mary’s parents are both educated and work in the field of medicine. Mother is a gynecologist and Father is an anesthetist. Mary’s older sister has graduated from college and moved a few states away to live with her boyfriend. Their plans are to get married within the next year. Mary’s brother are both freshmen in high school and are active in sports.
Mary has always enjoyed literature and reading. She can lose herself in books and block out all forms of distraction by reading books of poetry, novels, or writing short stories herself. At about the age of 12, some of Mary’s writing started becoming dark and gloomy. These writings were shared with parents at a parent/teacher conference. When questioned, Mary stated that sometimes she just needed to get some of the bad stuff she was thinking, “out of her head”. Parents initially saw this behavior as a prepubescent stage and told Mary she was not to write any more “of that crap” at school. Mary then began keeping journals at home and in her backpack so she could always have access to a place to vent her feelings.
Mary continued to utilize the journals the following year when she was transferred to a new school for talented and gifted students. Here Mary felt she fit in with the students at the school. Many of them had an artistic side as she did. Many saw life in a more serious manner as she did, and were more sensitive to life's injustice. Mary started to have more success at school, but more conflicts at home. Her brothers, now in intermediate school, heavily into sports, being boys, being loud and messy, aggravating their older sister on a daily basis. From the time her brothers got off the bus from school, until her parents got home there was a constant battler of 2 against
Mary soon found ways to avoid going home after school until her parents got home. Then she found ways to avoid going home until after dinner. Finally she would make up excuses to not come home at all. Mary’s parents noticed severe mood swings, changes in her hygiene habits, her unwillingness to eat,or she would eat all the time, her inability to sleep, or she would sleep all the time, staring off into space, stop talking in mid sentence, or having conversations with noone present and uncontrolled and inappropriate laughter.
Mary’s first suicide attempt was her junior year of high school. There are two camps of thought for this incident. Some do not believe she was really trying to kill herself. Some believe that she was just trying to stop the pain and the voices.
Mary has been hospitalized twice more since her junior year in high school. Both times due to her parents inability to control her, Mary’s repeated pleas for someone to “make the voices stop”, and her multiple physical broken bones and severe lacerations.
Mary is now 22. There have been 2 subsequent suicide or ending the pain incidents. Each time these occur, Mary has been off her medication and stopped seeing her counselor. Mary reports that she does not like the medication and will not take it.

Answer 1

This sounds much like the practice activities, and homework I had in school!



--- Notice especially the difference with teens ---



Schizophrenia symptoms also can be attributed to other mental illnesses, and no one symptom can pinpoint a diagnosis of schizophrenia:



--- Children -- It's uncommon for children to be diagnosed with schizophrenia and rare for those older than 45.



--- Women -- symptoms generally begin in the 20s or early 30s.



--- Men -- symptoms generally start in the teens or 20s.



(Remember, not everyone will present all the symptoms or will have all the symptoms but not all at the same time.)



Signs and symptoms of schizophrenia are usually divided into three categories:



1. positive,

2. negative, and

3. cognitive



POSITIVE SYMPTOMS

In schizophrenia, positive symptoms reflect an excess or distortion of normal functions.



These active, abnormal symptoms may include:



---- Delusions: Beliefs which are not based in reality and usually involve misinterpretation of perception or experience. This is the most common of schizophrenic symptoms.



--- Hallucinations: Usually involve seeing or hearing things that don't exist, although hallucinations can be in any of the senses. Hearing voices is the most common hallucination among people with schizophrenia.



--- Thought disorder: Difficulty speaking and organizing thoughts may result in stopping speech in the middle of a sentence or putting together meaningless words, sometimes called 'word salad'.



--- Disorganized behavior: presents in a number of ways, ranging from childlike silliness to unpredictable agitation.



NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS

Negative symptoms refer to diminished or absence of characteristics of normal function. They may appear with or without positive symptoms.



Negative symptoms include:



-- Loss of interest in everyday activities,

-- Appearing to lack emotion,

-- Reduced ability to plan or carry out activities,

-- Neglect of personal hygiene,

-- Social withdrawal,

-- Loss of motivation



COGNITIVE SYMPTOMS

Cognitive symptoms involve problems with thought processes. These symptoms may be the most disabling in schizophrenia because they interfere with the ability to perform routine daily tasks. (A person with schizophrenia can be born with these symptoms.)



These symptoms include:



-- Problems with making sense of information,

-- Difficulty paying attention, and

-- Memory problems



SYMPTOMS IN TEENS

Schizophrenia symptoms in teenagers are similar to those in adults, but the condition may be more difficult to recognize in this age group. This may be in part because some of the early symptoms in teenagers are common during teen years, such as:



-- Withdrawal from friends and family

-- A drop in performance at school

-- Trouble sleeping

-- Irritability



Compared with schizophrenia symptoms in adults, teens may be:



-- Less likely to have delusions

-- More likely to have visual hallucinations



WHEN TO SEE A DOCTOR

People with schizophrenia often lack awareness that their difficulties stem from a mental illness that requires medical attention. So it will often fall to family or friends to get them help and sometimes will have to deal with a lot of rebellion or other defiant behaviours.



HELPING SOMEONE WHO MAY HAVE SCHIZOPHRENIA

If you think someone you know may have symptoms of schizophrenia, talk to him or her about your concerns. Although you can't force someone to seek professional help, you can offer encouragement and support and help your loved one find a qualified doctor or mental health provider.



Best Wishes --

Answer 2

This could be a result of the parents trying to hide what she did to vent but that may have only been the start as she continued to keep journals can mary ignore the voices or possibly redirect them whether or not shes really hearing isnt the issue the issue is how she deals with them it seems mary needs more self esteem and confidence bad which directs us back to her parents trying to stop her poetry life is dark and upsetting she didnt choose to be here and she sees it for what it is so she did somethin to express the way she feels. Suicide I hate people doing it because they can be so much more to life like a flower that hasnt bloomed jus yet and then before the beauty comes it gets nipped at the bud brothers will be jus that i know I piss my sister off sometimes but we still love each other even though we use to fight like cats and dogs mary needs a breather too somethin to get her mind off of all this life might be dark but its the little things that count more than imaginable.

Answer 3

It sounds like she has Schizophrenia but I and no one else is a doctor so please do not go off what any of us say. Ask her or get her to ask her doctor what her diagnosis is as I am sure they will have given her one while she was hospitalised.

Answer 4

question is way too long. we dont need a family history.

If she doesnt take Sertraline or some other good antidepressent, she will end up a suicide statistic.