In Lucas's case I'd say the Abilify is for his schizo. Since you mention weight gain on the meds, I wouldn't doubt he got off them to not gain anymore weight and to drop the weight he'd gained.
A lot of people do that, unfortunately; the whole quitting meds because of weight gain instead of going back to their doctor and looking into a different medication combo that might not do that. I know if I'd dropped over 100lb then got on meds that made me start
gaining weight again I'd be very inclined to stop taking them as well (which is not a good mindset, obviously).
Most psych meds have a side effect of weight gain to some degree but Abilify's is specifically mentioned as a "call your doctor right away" as if you get the rapid weight gain it often leads to the drug inducing type 2 diabetes as well. I liked how it affected my mental health so they just had me test my blood sugar regularly and watch to see if I gained anymore weight and when both stayed stable, it was cool to stop doing the blood sugar testing.
Not stoked about the 15lb weight gain that I still haven't been able to fully get rid of but I'd rather be a little overweight and mentally stable than skinny and a trainwreck.
Lithium is also a really common one that causes weight gain but in lithium's case it's usually due to it affecting the person's thyroid, which can be treated with the same meds used to treat regular hypothyroidism if it's otherwise working and there are no other side effects.
His problem there might be being able to get a referral to an endo to test his thyroid levels since he's on SSDI or SSI, I forget which. If he couldn't get one or didn't know to ask for one (psychs not discussing potential side effects in detail with their patients is an entire novel length rant), it'd likely be
way out of the range of what he could afford.
Weight gain that's medication caused is an absolute bitch, and not the kind that won't fuck Lucas, to get rid of if you have to take those meds on an ongoing, lifelong basis too.
It's a struggle for me to
maintain my weight with being very careful about my diet and making sure I get a lot of intense exercise 5-6 days out of the week. Lucas eats like garbage and doesn't get exercise beyond walking, which would 100% make him put on a lot of weight on most psych meds.
If it's not that, people,
especially people who have symptoms that make it difficult to impossible to function without meds run into that, "Well, I feel better now, so I can stop taking them" and not stopping to realize that the
reason they feel better and aren't experiencing symptoms is because of the meds.
I've very nearly fallen into that trap many, many times before because my brain is a filthy liar, which is why I voluntarily drug it into behaving, but I thankfully have a social support system in family and friends who will remind me
very loudly that I feel better/am not having symptoms
because of the medication and if I stop it'll all come back.
He definitely
doesn't have a support system at all and doesn't seem to have any family or friends that live anywhere near him anymore and I could easily see him having quit his meds both for weight gain reasons and because his liar of a brain told him since he didn't have the symptoms he had before he was "better" and didn't need the meds anymore.
Lucas doesn't seem like the sort of person who's able to be loud about advocating for himself in any situation, let alone in a mental health or medical setting, though and he certainly doesn't have a case worker or a legal guardian that can do it for him. Not sure what kind of case worker he has that manages his money but if they don't also do regular mental health checks on him I'd agree with those SOFALAW screenshots, it needs to go back to court to get someone appointed to have the legal right to do that and make sure he keeps taking his meds before he harms someone else or himself.
Honestly, on the mental health front, I just feel bad for him.
It's not funny, it's not entertaining, it's not amusing, it's just...really sad.
Having a shit brain and mental health problems
and no social support system is a terrible combination for anyone to have to go through.
Lucas talked about his schizophrenia years ago. He was open about it back then, more recently he has denied having it and makes it a point to say he only has bipolar. His mother Has always maintained that he struggled with schizophrenia, even as recently release from his last hospital stay.
As we recently discovered, he ditched his medication a year ago. Sometime within the last year he talks about his doubt about his diagnosis, the use of medication, and the need for therapy. At one point he went on a rant saying that they wanted to test him for autism, but he knew he didn’t have it because he talks differently than them.
It's possible he's got both too. Not all that uncommon for schizophrenia to be comorbid with bipolar, and that combination usually gets thrown under the schizoaffective disorders umbrella.
Wouldn't surprise me at all if he was somewhere on the autism spectrum either, especially with his hyperfixations and lack of ability to interact with other people successfully for very long.
Looking at that one blog post in the archives that his mom made years ago, I'd be very surprised if whatever bizarre high fever-and-rash thing he had as a young child didn't cause enough brain damage to give him lifelong behavioral and mental health problems.
TL;DR: Dude's got scrambled brains that need to be on lifelong meds, which everyone in
this entire post has known for years.
Edit: Missing words. I English Good this evening.
