28 replies to this topic

[thedefinitive]

This was a one hour documentary-style look into the lives of January Schofield and her family. January is one of only two children to ever be diagnozed with schizophrenia at only 5 years old. It aired on Discovery Health on July 9th at 8 pm, and does not appear to be part of a series.

I just felt such sympathy for this family, and was completely mesmerized by little Jani's behavior. Schizophrenia is an illness that I have yet to understand, and it was really interesting to hear that the common medications given to adults, often have no effect on children with the same symptoms.

I was also really curious about how most of Jani's imaginary friends (hallucinations) were numbers and days of the week, and that her IQ was found to be around 143 at age 4.

I realized how bad it must have been when the parents actually allowed police to pick her up from school after she flung herself into doors and windows, instead of go and get her themselves. They said this way they knew she would get the help she needed.

To this day, they say she has about a 50/50 chance of ever living a functional life.

[yourbabymomma]

I saw this and remember seeing her on Oprah.
So heartbreaking... On so many levels.
Her dad has a blog or two.
One thing that stood out for me was that they showed her as an infant and even then it looked as if she were engaged with hallucinations. What does an infant hallucinate!?

[QAF Rocks]

I, too, found the scene of baby January hallucinating and tracking invisible things on the ceiling chilling. I can only imagine she was seeing colors or shapes or blobs, just like a normal baby, except that the images weren't actually there. And her hallucinations as an older child (numbers, letters, animals) were so incredibly kid-like, and yet not kid-like at all.

All I could think during the show was how incredibly fortunate January is to have been born to well-educated parents who can afford to get her proper medical treatment. She's also quite lucky to have been born in the developed world at this point in history. There are many who would have believed (and in some places, might still believe) that the poor child is possessed by demons, and in uneducated hands, she would have been subjected to some pointless exorcism, or even (in less enlightened places and times) possibly put to death because of it. They're still abusing and killing so-called child witches in some parts of the world. That could certainly be the fate of a schizophrenic child born into that environment.

[dagny]

The LA Times has done a number of pieces on her story.

[affirmed]

January's mom said it is thought that her obsession on numbers and days of the week were because at the time of her illness getting really bad her development was on those topics.

Maintaining a separate residence for her? That resembles a psych ward? Yikes.

[allusion]

There is a lot of controversy surrounding her father and his methods. It even extends to the legitimacy of her diagnosis.

[affirmed]

allusion, tell us (or just me) more! I would like to see a rebroadcast of this show.

Edited by affirmed, Aug 22, 2010 @ 10:39 PM.

[QAF Rocks]

Allusion, what are her father's methods? It didn't look like he was involved in deciding the course of treatment at all. In the documentary, it seemed like everything was pretty much left up to the professionals, in terms of prescribing drugs, providing therapy, etc. Is there some sort of accusation that her diagnosis is not correct or that the parents have been misrepresenting her symptoms?

I would like to see a rebroadcast of this show.

I'm sure it will air again. It's been showing on Discovery Health off and on for the past several months. In the meantime, you can watch some clips here, and there's a profile of January and her family here.

[littleturtle74]

The documentary and the follow-up Jani's Next Chapter are airing this Friday on Discovery Health.

[Morbs]

Yikes. Now the son might have schizophenia too? I don't know how the parents manager this... I think I'd be able to do it and would opt for her being institutionalized.

[ljohnson2006]

The show aired on Discovery Fit and Health. Discovery Health no longer exists. It's OWN now.

[TedHinD]

I watched both the original Oprah piece and then these programs and thought,"I'm not half the parent these folks are because I would have collapsed from exhaustion years ago." With kids you get to see them accept responsibility as they grow and the parents' burden lessen. These two parents will be actively trying to help and protect these kids for the rest of their lives.

Michael has gotten much attention due to his first Jani's Journey blog and the comments on Amazon have been going on since his book January First was listed for pre-release. I watch Jani and Bodhi and see strong kids with so much potential and can only hope the world of medicine makes huge strides in the near future. Watching Jani swallow that heap of meds is just heart breaking.

[Diana Berry]

I watched the Oprah episodes about Jani but I don't have cable so haven't seen the documentaries. It's heartbreaking. Someone posted that the son might have the same condition??? yikes.

Question. Does either of the parents work? How do they make ends meet?

[Neeney]

I really wanted to see this but couldn't figure out which channel it was on. The Discovery channel I have didn't have it listed and neither did OWN. Or, if they did, I sure didn't see it. Is there another Discovery channel anymore?

[Morbs]

Diana Berry, He is an instructor for writing courses and I think she is unemployed. They make ends meet through asking for donations online.

[ljohnson2006]

Neeney: It was shown on Discovery Fit and Health. It's not availble for Comcast customers, but I was able to see it, because the channel is on Demand. It was an interesting special. I wonder if the family will keep being followed. Especially since they're not sure if Bodhi has schizophrenia along with his autism.

[Neeney]

It's on right now on TLC and is just called Schizophrenic. Its so sad!

Edited by Neeney, Jun 20, 2012 @ 8:30 PM.

[Taleeya]

I saw this and the follow up documentary.... I really wonder if January was misdiagnosed. There just seemed to be something weird about her parents. Starting with the beginning when they were worried about her focusing on things as a baby.... it seemed almost munchausen by proxy-ish.

Other things like statements I have heard posted on the father's blog and the fact that she gets better in the hospital.... just make me wonder if something weird is going on in the household.

Juvenile Schizophrenia is supposed to be extremely rare, January is the youngest diagnosed (at age 6) and now they think their 4 year old son has it?

Did anyone else think something weird was there, or do you totally disagree with me?

[dirtyhippiegirl]

"I actually read her father's original blog - I don't know if it's still up or not - where he admitted to doing some pretty horrendous things to his daughter when she was an infant. I think his confessions were supposed to be taken as "We're normal parents, normal parents don't do these things, but our daughter was so nutso that we were forced to these extreme measures" --- when she was, like, three months old. I mean. My cousin's kid slept in thirty minute intervals and screamed a lot from the ages of birth to six months but they managed to never shake the kid, at least to my knowledge.

Whatever January's actual diagnosis is, I do think that the parents are extremely invested in the crazy/sick kid train and that's how they're making money right now. I guess we'll see whether the dad's book sells.

[walkabout123]

I watched this, and the parents' response to January seemed a little "off" to me. The whole separate apartment thing was a bit strange. I know that parents of sick children go through a lot, much more than those with healthy kids can even imagine. But their preoccupation with January's disease seemed almost obsessive. The father seemed totally exhausted, and I'm surprised the marriage hasn't collapsed from the strain.

What if January's parents couldn't afford the 2 separate residences or expensive medical care? Would she be better of worse off? For some reason, I think their constant focusing on her disease has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[CarolMK]

I'm wondering what will happen to her when she becomes an adult and her parents are elderly and unable to care for her. Will she become a ward of the state and have to be institutionalized for the rest of her life? I just can't imagine her life,at 10 years old, and this has been going on since she was born.

[jcoop13]

Whatever January's actual diagnosis is, I do think that the parents are extremely invested in the crazy/sick kid train and that's how they're making money right now. I guess we'll see whether the dad's book sells.

What if January's parents couldn't afford the 2 separate residences or expensive medical care? Would she be better of worse off? For some reason, I think their constant focusing on her disease has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Sounds like both posters are implying that magical thinking will cure Janey's problems. If the parents pretend she isn't mentally ill, then she won't be. Would you tell parents of a child with cancer or epilepsy not to focus on their kid's disease so it doesn't become "a self-fulfilling prophecy"?

What's so scary and tragic about Janey's condition is that when she becomes a legal adult at 18 she will be able to refuse treatment. Unless she actually harms someone or herself she can't be committed to a psychiatric hosptial against her will. Hopefully she will have some insight into her condition and realize she needs help, but more likely her parents will have to try to get her declared legally incompetent, which can be an arduous process.

+

[JudyObscure]

Did anyone else think something weird was there, or do you totally disagree with me?

I disagree, but I understand the tendency to see parents with schizophrenic children and think, "weird." They deal with bizarre situations and a lack of logic and reality every single day until I imagine their world begins to seem a little topsy turvy even to them. They also might seem to be under-reacting to their children's behavior as though they have a bit of flat affect themselves. This is partly because they've seen it all before and partly because they've learned that a calm, even attitude on their part helps their child.

There's also a long held, mistaken belief, nurtured by hundreds of movies and books, that bad parenting causes this brain disease, so the onlooker is conditioned to look for that.

I've followed Jani's case as much as I can bring myself to do it. I find it extremely upsetting because the whole situation is so sad. One thing I always come away with though is that Jani's parents seem totally committed to helping their children as much as they possibly can. I read the father's blog when he had to finally ask for donations and I thought it was clear that he had put it off as long as possible and it was a case of swallowing his own pride for the sake of his children.

I'm sad but not surprised that Bodhi might have it too. Siblings are very likely to carry the same genetic tendency to get this awful disease.

What's so scary and tragic about Janey's condition is that when she becomes a legal adult at 18 she will be able to refuse treatment.

That is a worry but I think it might actually be easier to keep someone on medication that they've taken all their lives than the usual scenario, where a young person is away at college when the first symptoms stike and the family has to convince a formerly independant, intelligent young person to, first, admit they have developed a mental illness, and then get them to give themselves an unpleasant medication for the rest of their lives. There are lots of side effects. It's not a small thing to convince a formerly good looking young person to take a medication that typically causes weight gain to the tune of sixty extra pounds per year.

Edited by JudyObscure, Jul 9, 2012 @ 1:26 PM.

[Morbs]

I just read "Is there no place on Earth for me?", and the girl with schizophrenia's parents are also suspected of making the condition worse and that maybe their own self identity has become too wrapped up in their daughters illness. I think January's parents are doing a lot of right things, such as socializing with other parents who can understand their situation so they have someone to talk, but made mistakes in the beginning when they had no other idea how to handle January.

Edited by Morbs, Jul 2, 2012 @ 11:41 PM.

[canaanite2]

For some reason, I think their constant focusing on her disease has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I feel this way about disorders kids are labeled with like ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder. Sometimes kids are too quickly diagnosed and medicated. It's harder for me to believe that something as unusual as childhood schizophrenia would even be considered in the first place if they're weren't indications that it was actually a possibility.

I do wonder about Bodhi. He grew up in a household where he was greatly encouraged to establish a relationship with his older sister and he must have seen the extra attention she received with her illness. Is it possible that there is some sort of learned behavior playing a role with him?

[babypinkfish]

I don't see how you fault the parents. They are dealing with a very.bad.situation that 99.99999% of the rest of us can't even contemplate. You start to want to fault them for having a second kid when they already had this on their plate, but then you have to step back and say, really? They're raising a child who, if they can get her past puberty, will then exert her own will and most likely either commit suicide or self-medicate with drugs and alcohol to the extent that she's antisocial. Of course these parents deserve the chance to have a child who could provide them a more "normal" experience after this roller coaster ride is over.

It looks like that might have backfired on them. But you can't hate them for it.

I have a really hard time feeling antagonistic towards parents who are fighting with all they've got against a disease that makes their child, ultimately, not appreciate their very attempts to keep her alive. Do the parents have idiosyncrasies that make them less than 100% likeable? Sure. Maybe they were always a little weird. Or, maybe this is what trying to deal with this disorder mostly on your own for several years does to you. It makes for better tv than if they were just sitting there totally placid and unflappable.

[scarlett45]

I don't think anyone "deserves" a child. Further more, they had a responsiblity to the child that was here first to give her the best care they could. Which MAY have meant not having more children if they couldn't handle the special needs of their first born. Having a second child to give themselves a "normal child experience" would be extremely selfish. IMO. As someone who is living in a similar situation (severally mentally retarded sibling- mental age 18months) I feel I can relate. If I was the second born (I'm the first) and my parents KNEW my sister was the way she was I would have whole different outlook on it. I would not be here helping, doing all I do, the adult diapers, dressing, cooking, caregiving. But that's just me.

[TedHinD]

Michael's blog, "Jani's Journey" answers a lot of viewer's questions, from the schizophrenia in both Michael and Susan's families to why they made the decision to have a second child. If his book sells well they want to move to the country. I would bet that's as therapeutic for kids with mental illness as it is for adults sometimes. Watching how much energy the kids have and how well they did with equine therapy makes it seem a great idea.

What always amazes me with programs like this is how tremendously difficult it must be for the parents. How tired they must be. But especially, having to fill your own baby with a cocktail of chemicals just to try to keep the child alive. It's like chemotherapy that never ends. Jani has a sense of humor and is mega intelligent. Come on science, find a cure.

[scarlett45]

TedHDin- I think that moving to the country would be a great idea! I wish them all of the success in the world because, yes having a special needs individual in your life is exhausting and the care is never ending. I don't begrudge them their book or desire to make a living from sharing their story.