Nobody understands this mental illness, not even doctors.

This is a psychiatric question and will be asked on as many sites as possible until I get a good response. Sadly, it's time for me to turn to the world wide web for answers.

I am now 25 years old. My mother has been in and out of the psychiatric hospital several times within the last 23 years. She gave birth to me at the age of 39. When I was 3 years old and she was at the age of 42, she went into the Waterford hospital after acting very strangely and having very bizarre behavior. I can't remember exactly back then how she was acting because of course, I was so young and didn't understand. So the doctors put her on medication based on a chemical imbalance in her brain and after a few months was discharged from the hospital. I don't know exactly what medication she was put on at the time, but she continued on with it.

When I was 9 years old, she relapsed and had to be hospitalized again. After a few months, she was discharged and she was put on Zyprexa which I learned later in life is used for Schizoprenia disorder. As I grew older, I observed my mother's behaviour. Anxiety and nervousness, repetition of words, paranoia from time to time, uncontrolled facial movements especially in her tongue, tightened muscles in her face and back, and she seemed very socially inept with very little motivation to do much.

When I was 21 years old, she went back into the hospital again. After about a year or so, doctors resorted to shock treatment. She was discharged and seemed somewhat normal. But relapsed again, and had to be hospitalized. For over a year, she was in the same state of mind, yelling random things, clutching people's hands, and not making any sense whatsoever. Her psychiatrist put her on Clozapine, which she explained was their last resort. And Clozapine didn't work. Not one bit. However, there was this one time in which she actually did musker up some sense to call me on my cell and ask a couple of sensible question like where I am and what I'm doing at the time being. And she told me to bring her in some food. When I arrived at the hospital, she wasn't making any sense once again.

Nowadays, it seems like doctors have given up. Even her psychiatrist told me she doesn't understand what's wrong with her and that she 'thinks' she has schizphrenia. Though my mother is definitely not the hallucinating type. Every time I've talked to her doctor, I've never gotten straight answers. Another doctor who had dealt with her never believed it was schizophrenia. He explained that lately they've found bleeding in her vaginal area and that apparently she had damaged herself when she gave birth to me. He thinks that it caused brain damage. Though it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, he said they were continuing to look into it. I do know that my mom was in labour with me for 24 hours. But I haven't heard anything else on that since.

Anyway, they ended up putting her into a nursing home where she is only getting care for her condition. And where did the doctors and nurses decide to put her? In a room with a deaf person and a woman with alzheimers. My mother is very random and is in a state of mind where she seems confused. She repeats people's names for no reason and will say things that make absolutely no sense. A slight noise can disrupt and startle her. She does, however recognize me.

I live in St. John's Newfoundland, Canada. Thinking outside the box is the only thing I can do right now. My mother is now 64. A person who was once normal like me and you is now completely helpess and even needs help eating her food. I need somebody to give me some straight advice as to what I can do because I know something can be done so she can at least return to her coherent state. And of course, I need the hard cold truth about what's going on. Because I'm suspecting that medication has caused a lot of this.

The medication might have given her tardive dyskinesia (uncontrolled movements of tongue and facial muscles).

I can't tell you for sure what it is. But some of it sounds like schizophrenia. You don't always have to hallucinate to have certain types of schizophrenia. That's just the most famous type (paranoid schizophrenia). Wikipedia has a very good article on types of schizophrenia, you might want to look that up and see how close certain types are to your mother.