Hello all,
My (21F) mother (52F) has been showing signs of mental illness (schizophrenia/delusional disorder/??). She has delusions that a particular person is out to get her, that her food and water are being poisoned, and that our home is being broken into at night when she is asleep. All of these are false ideations.
She cannot communicate at a high-level in Japanese. She needs scientific care and medication, but she will not voluntarily seek it out, as she believes that nothing is wrong with her.
Asking to see if anyone has psychiatric hospital recommendations, information about inpatient or outpatient facilities, therapy and counselling recommendations, and so on. This illness has consumed my family and I’m very worried for the future.
Thank you in advance.
11 comments
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My grandmother had something similar and she got diagnosed with “Lewy Body Dementia Disease”, a disease similar to alzheimer’s. Hope that info can help if it’s what she has.
OP if this is something that came on recently over the course of several weeks or months your mother needs to be evaluated not for primary mental illness, but for much more serious issues like a brain tumor. Given her age it would be highly unlikely to suddenly develop schizophrenia.
If you can, bring her to a university hospital with a good neurology department as soon as possible. I don’t mean to scare you, but this really could be something life threatening.
Spiritual attack. Downvote me to oblivion but I’ve experienced it here in Japan, it seems to be a real thing. Is your mother involved with any cults?
I think your best bet would be to Google 心療内科 + your local area and look at the results. It’s hard to recommend without knowing where you are, and even then if it isn’t where I am I’d have no idea. Good luck!
I would advise asking in r/askdocs when they come back online. I’ve seen doctors respond from rural Macedonia – it’s a very far-reaching sub, so they may have some suggestions.
Do u live near shinjuku or setagaya? Theres a one i used to walk past called Tokyo Metropolitan Matsuzawa Hospital. Its massive
Not a doctor but make sure no UTI issues or nutritional imbalances[https://www.agingcare.com/articles/amp/151547](https://www.agingcare.com/articles/amp/151547)
Tokyo Metropolitan Matsuzawa Hospital (東京都立松沢病院)
Largest psychiatric hospital in Tokyo and originally established as one.
Hachiman-Yama Station on the Keiō Line.
Graduated med student.
1. Reddit is not an answer and unqualified people here can only confuse you and give you false diagnosis.
2. Your mother experienced according to your words irregular perhaps neurological perhaps personality disorder symptoms. We can’t tell for sure.
What I can tell you are what specialists she needs to see and it is probably neurologist to exclude any tumours or dead neural tissues. The neurologist will also call a psychiatrist for consultation and this is supposed to work together.
Therefore I first would come to a general hospital to seek help. Your mother should do initial neurological examination and if neurologist will exclude his disease then go to the psychiatrist.
I can only tell medicine is never 100% accurate.
You can develop different diseases at different age the probability just changes.
The most important thing is not to panic and because I see that your mother resists to get any help maybe just to bring her to general hospital for routine checkups can do the job.
Remember there is a lot of prejudice going around psychiatry. It is totally understandable why a person will resist going to a therapist first.
She needs also to hear your reassurance that you are there to support her no matter what and that she can rely on you.
Good luck!
Hi OP – I recently had to check-in someone to a psych ward due to a psychosis episode in Tokyo, so I’m happy to walk you thru my experience.
If you’re in the Setagaya-Ku area, I’d recommend to give a call to Tokyo Metropolitan Matsuzawa line first as they can give you recommendations on where to first take your mom for an initial check-up done by a doctor. This is important because you *cannot* just walk into any hospital, even that one, and expect them to take her-in:
https://www.tmhp.jp/matsuzawa/en/areas-of-focus/psychiatric-emergency-services.html
There are a few other psych clinics that you can call and request an appointment to have her looked at if it’s *not an emergency*
-On The Medical Plaza
恩田メディカルプラザ【脳神経外科・内科・健診】
03-5726-9327
-Kokoro no shinja Sangenjaya
こころの診療所三軒茶屋
03-6805-5510
-Sangenjaya Shinkei-ka shinbyou naika clinic
三軒茶屋神経科・心療内科クリニック
03-3795-7744
-Froggies Clinic
フロッギーズクリニック
03-5779-9919
A lot of the above requires a level of Japanese to speak over the phone and explain the situation.
If you think this is an emergency (aka, she cannot be trusted alone because she’s a danger to herself or others), it is totally ok to call an ambulance and have them find a hospital for you that will take her in and evaluate her.
This is the quickest solution if you cannot afford the wait to call a few clinics and get an appointment for her first evaluation.