Question
Asked by kay1990
What To Do When Someone With Schizophrenia Refuses To Go To The Doctor?
I think my brother has schizophrenia. he showed almost all the symptoms but refuse to go to the doctor. he is almost 26 years old and causing a lot o trouble to my family. my questions is how do I get him to the doctor ? he lives in Saudi Arabia and I am living in the United States right now. unfortunately I can't go to him any time soon. I want to know what good ways to help him out and where he can go for help in Saudi Arabia.
回答
你好Kay1990，
I'm sorry your in such distress.
First I will address the fact that your brother is in Saudi Arabia. If that's anything like some of the other Middle Eastern countries, there might not be a very good mental health system in place that offers options like a day program. Should you be able to get him to see a regular medical doctor who can then refer him to a psychiatrist that might be one way to go after the items I'm going to list below.
我几乎每个月都会得到同样的问题，尤为担心他们所爱的人的家庭成员有精神分裂症，拒绝服用药物并保持治疗。
由于各种原因，包括耻辱和害怕被标记为疯狂，一个人可能不想让他如此拼命地获得帮助。
你可能会面临的最大障碍之一s that your brother has anosognosia, or in plain English the lack of awareness that you have an illness. Anosognosia affects upwards of 60 percent of the people diagnosed with schizophrenia. So if you don't think you're sick you won't take medication.
我推荐如果你怀疑你的兄弟有一个空心果，你会看到LEAPInstituteresources. Its founder, Dr. Xavier Amador, Phd wrote the classic guide to helping a loved one get treatment and stay in treatment: I Am Not Sick, I Don't Need Help (Vida Press 2010 version is the best version).
如果您完全与您的兄弟联系，无论是通过Skype，常规电话，电子邮件还是Facebook私人信息，都知道您可能能够影响他去看医生即使他的决定并没有立即来或快速。
Continue to dialogue with him in his preferred method of communication. Read the Amador 2010 book. The key is to keep open a relationship of trust so that when the time is right for you to suggest he get help he will be more willing to consider your option.
Telling him "You're sick so you need help" won't do the trick. Tens of thousands of family members have lost this war in endless futile attempts to convince their loved ones they are sick.
Helping your brother see that taking medication would enable him to achieve a life goal or solve a problem he is having (like insomnia) is often a better way to go about persuading him to seek help.
Instead of giving your opinion whe he hasn't asked you for it try the Amador LEAP technique outlined in detail in I Am Not Sick, I Don't Need Help. You will be able to know when the time is ripe for you to ask your brother if he would like to hear what you think.
Amador suggests phrasing it in terms like "So, can I give you my opinion? Because it sounds like we might have a misunderstanding," When you do give your opinion, be humble and phrase it like this: "I could be wrong yet . . ." Then say something like "I might be wrong yet since you ask I think the medicine will help you stay out of the hospital (insert the goal your brother might have if he hasn't been in a hospital yet)."
Above all, refrain from arguing with your brother or battling with him. Always, show and tell him you love him and are concerned about him.
I spent the better part of close to the last two years exchanging private Facebook messages with a guy I love more than life itself. About five months ago he finally committed to sticking with his medication and getting treatment.
So remember: the goal is not to get your brother to admit and recognize he is sick. The goal is to get him to accept treatment and take medication.
Focusing on how taking meds willl enable him to achieve a life goal or solve a problem is a better use of your time than telling him he has schizophrenia when he might not believe it.
I hope what I've written is good information.
问候，
克里斯蒂娜