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I am wondering, does schizophrenia ever have a later onset? I have heard that the age of onset is usually between 18-25 years. I have an aunt, however, who is displaying many schizophrenic symptoms, and she is either in her late thirties or early fourties.

I have not seen her since this has been happening, but my parents told me she spontaneously drove from her home in CT to our house in NH (I was at school in RI at the time). She had a big arguement with another of my aunts in CT, who wanted to have her hospitalized. She has been acting very strangely, her emotions are all over the place, my parents told me that she will be singing and screaming at the top of her lungs, and then she will just burst into tears. She gets very very paranoid. She has conspiracy theories, and she made my brother close all the blinds in his room for fear that people could see inside. She has been putting people through "tests," for example, she gave my youngest brother a ten dollar bill, which he accepted (why not, right?) Then she became very angry with him, and told him that he should never accept money without asking his parents, and that he failed the test. She tried to pour my dad's wine down the sink (he has been collecting wines lately and learning about them), she thinks he's an alcoholic (which he isn't).

I could tell something was going on with her when my grandfather passed away, she was already beginning to act sort of oddly and very inconsistent. At the wake, I went up to talk to my father, and then she grabbed me as I walked past, and just started crying (which is normal at a wake, I know). What was abnormal was that she would not let me go, and I sat there for a very long time as she just spoke to other people as though I was not even there. Anyway, it seems her behavior has been disintegrating. She keeps asking people to do big projects for her or fix things a certain way, things that make no sense. And then she completely forgets about it not long after.

I and the rest of my family all think she needs treatment, but my father said that we are not legally able to have her hospitalized or make her see a doctor. He said maybe her sons are. Her sons are living wth her exhusband (that was arranged not long before all this started happening) and they are currently afraid of her sad .

Well, is she working? Is she feeding herself? Is she capable of behaving in a socially acceptable way? Is she injuring herself?

If she isn't, she could be ruled incompetant in a court of law and committed against her will. If you are seeing a therapist, I'd say talk to him or her about it and see if they have any suggestions.

It it totally possible. There is also a really early onset too, before the age of 13, although it's only .05% of schizophrenics (Lucky me, I'm one of those)

If that's the case, then all you can do is inform her that it may be something that needs to be checked out and then let her be.



No! Though the legal system is involved with involuntary commitment, the family will not be "taking her to court." Rather, the family would report her problem to their County Designated Mental Health Professionals. They would evaluate her immediately and then place her in a hospital for 72 hours for observation if further evaluation is deemed necessary. The case would then go to the courts if she needed to stay longer, however, it would be the hospital staff and CDMHPs' perogative to do such a thing. It would be unlikely for the family to be requested to even be at the hearing unless their testimony was required to make a decision.