I had a brother, and now a nephew that remind me very much of Elliot, and it is scary to contemplate

[bettyellen]

44. I know they speculated about emotional trauma possibly being a trigger...

They thought perhaps his favorite uncle dying when he was 11-12 had "sparked" it.
But no one really knows.

I have a close cousin too who lost her sister in traumatic circumstances when she was 19 and she very rapidly deteriorated and was hallucinating and all in less than a year. She had, however been acting increasingly withdrawn and hostile the year before. That one took the moms by surprise because every family member that had suffered from schizophrenia was male.
She came and stayed with us for almost a year because she was calmer around my mother than her own. That was scary, having another suicidal person on the house just five years later. Poor girl grew up in suburbia and the clinic she was referred to was in a very rough neighborhood. She was very vulnerable and not at all streetwise. They gave her meds once that had the side effect of asking her eyes roll up compulsively. I remember seeing her walk back from the subway like that and it was heart breaking. She has never recovered fully. Her mother eventually became her FT caregiver. Even with meds her hallucinations were bad for many years.