When the Body Attacks the Mind

My mother was diagnosed schizophrenic at around 38 yrs old. She was hospitalized after every relapse, probably a dozen times. Each time she relapsed, it was at least a month, if not several months before we were able to get her in to treatment because of her refusal. It would take an incident with the police to initiate the process. My mom is now 62. She's medicated, happy, and perfectly normal. She hasn't had a full relapse in about 10 yrs, there were moments when hints of it would return, and she would be aware enough to self-correct and continue medication. The only problems she says she has is that she doesn't feel as quick-witted as she used to be. As for the memories, she occasionally has a hard time distinguishing real memories from invented memories. Most of the voices were obviously fake to her, now that she's clear headed and can reevaluate what happened. There were occasions where one of the voices she had was her sister's, and she now has a hard time reconciling real memories from false ones in that situation. She tends to avoid talking to her because when she hears that voice, painful memories come back and she gets stressed. Stress is a major factor in relapses, so she sadly tries to avoid it. At least in my mom's case, this anecdotal evidence suggests it's definitely possible to recover after being "gone" for months at a time. Not enough families are able to cope with the trauma this causes and fight this disease and, instead, let their family member "do what they want." Which usually means they become homeless and lost until they die. Happens a lot here in LA (skidrow). I personally know people that couldn't cope with the trauma it caused their family so they let them wander off to whereever they wanted. Almost without fail, they end up in skid row. Strangely enough, we have a history of auto-immune disorders in my family: Hashimoto's (2) and Alopecia Areata (2). Depression and bipolar as well (most likely every sibling, diagnosed or not). It's an area of study I've recently been interested in because it seems promising in preventing schizophrenia and maybe curing our depression. There's so much great research going on in this area, from anti-virals, immunosuppressive drugs, to even dietary changes and fasting (something I've recently piloted on myself). It seems promising. In my case it's already yielded results in that I'm no longer constantly sleepy. Hopefully we'll have this fully sorted and cured in under 15 yrs. I think it has the potential to be revolutionary on a global scale.

Except thar I recently read that some are thinking that PTSD is the result of concussion from being near explosions. PTSD may well be mechanically induced.

IIRC, actual combat hours have increased, a lot. Soldiers were doing front line combat duty for a few weeks during WWII, for months during Vietnam, for years during Iraq. That duty will scramble your brain, sooner or later. With longer combat duty, it's becomes ever more likely.