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General aspects of partner conflicts

  • Frequency in families with schizophrenia: The sources emphasize that partner conflicts are significantly more common in families with schizophrenia than in comparison groups. This is often associated with a tendency to escalate.
  • Inherited patterns: Conflict patterns can be transferred from the families of origin to the partnership.
  • Emotional dynamics: The arguments are often emotionally charged, with both sides trying to make themselves heard at the same time without really listening.
  • Unresolved conflicts: Conflicts often go unresolved and repeat themselves as both partners hold on to their opinions and hope for empathy.
  • Hasty interpretation: People with ADHD tend to hastily interpret statements, leading to misunderstandings.
  • Authoritarian conflict resolution: In patriarchal structures, conflicts are often suppressed by authority, but this is not always effective.
  • Conflict avoidance: In families with schizophrenia, conflicts are often avoided or denied, leading to pseudo-unity.

Triggers and causes of partner conflicts

  • Unfulfilled needs: Unfulfilled needs for affection and support from childhood can manifest themselves in the partnership.
    • This can lead to deep-seated anger and resentment towards the partner.
  • Lack of self-fulfilment: If a partner is unable to fulfil themselves in the relationship, this can lead to frustration and conflict.
    • Women in particular often develop anger issues when their autonomy is restricted.
  • Role patterns: Traditional role patterns, in which one partner takes on the role of “provider” and the other that of “care recipient”, can lead to conflict.
  • Dependency: One partner may remain dependent on the other in the relationship and try to compensate for unmet needs from childhood, which can lead to conflict.
  • Jealousy and mistrust: Jealousy can arise from feelings of insecurity and inadequacy.

Specific conflict patterns

  • Tug-of-war: Constant pulling back and forth in the partnership, often triggered by different views on parenting or one person’s need to control the other.
  • Competition of needs: A fight over who deserves more support, with needs being projected from childhood into the partnership.
  • Distancing: A partner can withdraw from conflict situations, thus making the situation worse.
  • Overinvolvement: Mothers can be overinvolved and weaken the father in his role.

Impact on children

  • Triangulation: Children are drawn into conflicts between partners and made into a “substitute partner”.
    • This leads to disturbed emotional development.
  • Divided loyalty: Children experience a loyalty conflict when their parents argue.
    • This conflict can also persist after a divorce.
  • Feelings of guilt: Children may develop feelings of guilt when they try to reconcile their parents.
  • Behavioral problems: Children may show behavioral problems as a result of their parents‘ conflicts.
  • Mental illness: Conflicts between parents contribute to the development of schizophrenia in their children.

Conflict resolution and prevention

  • Calm down before solving the conflict: Conflicts should not be solved in the heat of the moment.
    • Both partners should calm down before trying to solve the conflict.
  • Change of perspective: Both partners should try to understand the other’s perspective.
    • It is important to listen to the other person and understand their motivation.
  • Equal exchange: Conflicts should be seen as an exchange between equals, not as a power struggle.
  • Controlling your own emotions: Especially for parents of children with ADHD, it is important to keep your own emotions under control.
  • Systemic therapy: Systemic therapy can help to understand the causes of conflicts and develop new behavior patterns.
  • Reflection on the family of origin: reflecting on one’s own family history can help to recognize recurring patterns.
  • Open communication: open and direct communication is important to avoid misunderstandings.

Special aspects of ADHD

  • Increased willingness to conflict: partners with ADHD tend to have rapid escalations and impulsive reactions.
  • Difficulty listening: People with ADHD have difficulty listening and not interpreting statements prematurely.

In summary, it can be said that relationship conflicts in families with schizophrenia represent a complex interplay of individual, relationship-specific and systemic factors. The causes often lie in unfulfilled needs, unresolved conflicts from childhood and dysfunctional communication patterns. To successfully overcome them, a systemic view is needed, as well as reflecting on one’s own family history, open communication and the willingness to embrace new behavioral patterns.

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Schizophrenia is a complex disorder with causes that include both genetic and environmental factors

https://books.apple.com/us/book/ad-h-d-and-schizophrenia/id1451739789

Schizophrenia is a complex disorder with causes that include both genetic and environmental factors. Current research focuses primarily on neurochemistry, neuropsychology, and genetics, with less attention given to psychosocial aspects.

Genetic Factors:

  • ADHD is considered a genetically predisposed condition that can lead to various mental health issues. A study with over 60,000 patients found that the same genetic constellations appear in schizophrenia, manic-depressive psychosis, severe depression, and ADHD.
  • ADHD, with a 30% genetic determination, is regarded as an inherited susceptibility to other mental disorders.
  • Individuals with ADHD have an increased sensitivity to emotions within their families and react impulsively to parental stress.

Environmental Factors:

  • Stressful family environments play a central role in the development of schizophrenia, often in the form of emotional burdens accumulated over generations.
  • Children with ADHD are particularly sensitive to emotional tensions in their family environment.
  • Chronic conflicts between parents and disturbed separation processes can lead to an escalation of emotions.
  • Stressful communication styles, such as impatience, an urging tone, rapid communication flow, an irritated undertone, as well as associative, unclear, and indirect communication, can contribute to the development of schizophrenia.
  • Double-bind communication, where contradictory messages are conveyed simultaneously on different levels, can also be harmful.
  • Avoidance of conflicts and the denial of individual perception to maintain family peace are further characteristics of family systems with schizophrenia.
  • Discrepancies between paternal and maternal parenting styles can lead to divided loyalty in children.
  • Traumatic experiences and stress can permanently alter brain structure and function.

Other Important Aspects

  • Cannabis use can be a risk factor for psychosis, particularly in adolescents. One study showed that over 90% of young adults with a first diagnosis of schizophrenia were regular cannabis users.
  • Puberty is a sensitive phase where suppressed emotions and difficulties in separation from parents can trigger schizophrenia.
  • Biographical stressors, such as unhappy love relationships, sexual issues, or conflicts in the professional environment, can also trigger a psychotic episode.
  • The role of the family: Schizophrenia can be interpreted as an expression of disturbed family dynamics, where the affected family member often takes on a functional role and reveals unresolved conflicts. The illness often serves to keep the family together, and the affected person may become a mediator or „diplomat“ within the family.

Ursula Davatz’s Hypothesis

Ursula Davatz’s model suggests that schizophrenia is a multi-stage process that occurs in individuals with ADHD and is influenced by interaction with the family context. She emphasizes the role of „emotional monster waves“ that build up over generations in families and can trigger psychosis in sensitive individuals during puberty.

The author concludes that schizophrenia is not only a disease of an individual but also the result of a failure in the emotional process within a family system.