Is it just me or does this girl seem more AS or schizophreic

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http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster ... renia.html

Hundreds of L.A. Times readers have sent in questions and comments about Jani's story. Michael and Susan Schofield sat down recently to answer some questions from readers.

1) Has Jani been tested for epilepsy?
"She had a complete neurological work-up, an EEG, which was normal, and a sleep test, which showed she has restless limb syndrome. I would like Jani to have a complete neurological workup, but I don't want to subject her to needless tests. What tests Jani has had are largely controlled by the insurance company. It refuses to pay for a lot of tests. . . . That said, is a neurological problem the cause of her condition? No."

2) Could her condition be caused by food allergies, nutritional imbalances or deficiencies of some kind?
"The idea that food allergies or diet could cause psychosis is sort of outside mainstream medicine. For parents who feel their children have been cured of severe mental problems by diet or vitamins, it could just be luck." Do you use any natural or holistic therapies? "I don't trust that enough to put my child's life in the hands of holistic therapies. If it works for other people, great. But we live in constant fear of Jani committing suicide or trying to hurt herself. We are not in the position to try things and see what happens. And I'll be honest, I don't think it would work. I don't believe there is someone out there with a magic answer."

3) Do you believe prayer helps?
"Susan and I both believe in a higher power, in God. We believe that we are doing God's work. I think prayer is wonderful. But I think God's will is done through people. Prayer is not enough. God sends angels, but they are people who come to help. We welcome people's prayers. I would say to them, thank you very much. Do what you can do to make the world a better place."

4) Does Jani have any chromosomal disorders?
"As far as we know, no."

5) Isn't this Asperger's disease?
"Asperger's disease was ruled out by doctors. Jani's obsessions are psychotic obsessions."

6) Isn't this bipolar disorder?
"Bipolar disorder was ruled out by the doctors. In bipolar, the psychosis is the result of emotional swings, while in schizophrenia, the emotional state is caused by the psychosis. In Jani, violence is brought on by hallucinations."

7) Does music or art therapy help?
"In the beginning, the problem was that if she couldn't do something perfectly, she wouldn't do it. She's gotten better at that. She enjoys projects at home. It gives her a feeling of success."

What is the significance of her fixation on numbers?
"Every schizophrenic has certain hallucinations. My personal theory is that when Jani's illness was becoming acute, she was learning a lot at the time. She was learning about animals and numbers. At 13 months old, she knew her numbers to 20, and she always loved animals. And I think that is the form her hallucinations took."

9) Why did you decide to make your story public?
"I'm tired of trying to explain it to people everywhere we go. We can't hide. . . . Also, the only way to make this world livable for Jani is to explain to people that she is not a bad kid. She has the most severe mental illness known to mankind. We want to help the world understand this."

* Jani Schofield attended only a few weeks of first grade last year. Age-wise, she is in second grade this year.

You believe the parents? His own blog stated that he's had several doctors tell him before it was aspergers but that DAD was the one who ruled it out and kept trying until he got the one he liked. Notice how many times he refers to her as "psychotic" "psychosis"?

I've been sent to bed before without food when I was a kid too because I refused to eat certain foods. I woke up puking. In Jani's case she's gone two whole days. What makes you think they won't go for more?

Anytime there is any problem what so ever with Jani including physical, they ship her back to the mental hospital too. It's no wonder she has imaginary friends. She's probably scared that if she flat out complains about being treated poorly she will be punished.

I don't get people who stand up for abuse and treat it as though it's a good thing especially if the child isn't thought of as "normal".

So it's also okay to hit a little 5 year old?

Oh he just had anger issues in the past and he's on drugs now so it's better right? Pfft, whatever. Sometimes those drugs increase rage but you don't remember doing it either. Doctors have also turned Jani away after the father brings her back to the mental ward and he blows up acting as though he knows more than the doctors.

I'm telling you, something isn't right and these parents should be ashamed of themselves. If they don't want Jani, put her up for adoption. Now that they have the little boy that they've always wanted (notice how Jani started getting "violent" after he was born), maybe someone else can have the patience Jani needs to give her a better life. The problem is, I bet the parents would get pissed off if their daughter actually got better. Look at how much attention they are getting, book deals, putting their daughter up for childhood schizophrenia tests (which they were declined for some reason), discovery health channel, Oprah (who was a complete b***h).

The girl has no say in all of this meanwhile these smirky narcissistic a**hole of parents have no problem accepting their victim status meanwhile their own daughter is the one who is really the victim.

Anyone with a brain and common sense can see that she is speaking in code because she is afraid of what would happen if she actually flat out mentioned what really is troubling her.

Did anyone else here speak in numbers as a kid or in code when it came to an emotional subject that you had difficulty expressing? I did. Nobody ever figured it out.

It makes me glad that Oprah is going off air, soon.

So angry at the system and sad for this little girl ...

But, to put only a few of my thoughts here.

Removing ANYBODY suddenly, or lowering a dose, of psychiatric medication, especially a HIGH dose of psych meds, can cause withdrawal symptoms. It is no surprise to me that she was "crawling off the walls" within hours. This is pitiful. This is not right. And it just confirms my personal belief that 98.75% of psychiatrists are clueless jerks bribed by pharmaceutical companies and who medicate patients until they are nothing but walking zombies, shells of human beings, without a soul and no purpose to living.

And, btw, if all she will eat is mac and cheese, this signals to me a *possible* issue with gluten intolerance, which should be explored. I know the issue is passionate on both sides, but I see a dramatic, dramatic difference with even a small amount of gluten and eating it regularly causes me all kinds of physical and mental symptoms. And surely, wouldn't it be better to at least TRY it for 4 weeks (especially in a hospital environment where she can't sneak any food) before putting the poor kid on clozi?

ok, 1 more thought.

Boy the husband and wife are photogenic and look good on TV. They almost could be actors.

Edited to add another: Jani's friend says, "I hate people. I hate them!"

When you have a child with a mental illness like schizophrenia or a mood disorder, you do what you need to do to help them be safe and okay. No parent wants to just put their kid on lithium for the fun of it. If they need the medication to keep them from being a danger to themselves, then they need the medication. It's more of a travesty when people refuse to give their kids the medical help they need. If I took my son off of his mood stabilizer medication, that would be child abuse. I don't think people can really understand that until they've lived it.

I wouldn't be so quick to assume that someone told the child she was bad because she has schizophrenia. I think sometimes parents say things like, "You've been a bad girl" when what they mean is "Your behavior has been bad." And there was probably a time when her parents didn't know what was wrong, and thought it was a behavior problem rather than a medical problem.

I read in the blog that the voices tell her she is bad. I assume that's where she got it from.

To a child, if they do things they aren't supposed to do, they're bad so I figured that's why she viewed herself as a bad girl and I thought that was sad for her. I used to think of myself as a bad girl because I was always getting yelled at and into trouble and that's what you get when you're bad right? That's how a child views the world.

When Jani lost seven pounds, they stopped the method. A rational child would give in and eat what their parents made for dinner because they can't stand being hungry. Jani didn't do that so they saw it wasn't working so they gave in. The parents were told to do that to her by a doctor and when they saw the method wasn't working, they stopped.

I was spanked as a child. I know some people are against spanking but to the state it's not considered child abuse while some people view it as abuse.
I was spanked at 5 years old and then it was less by the time I was six because my mother believes by the time a child gets to kindergarten they understand the rules now and they don't need to be spanked for whenever they don't listen. Instead she only did it if I was really really bad so it was rare when I be hit. Even two year olds get spanked. I was spanked at that age and so were my brothers.

The father admits he and his wife made mistakes because they followed the wrong advice people give them about their child. Now they don't listen anymore and they follow their hearts now. They know now their child is sick and she can't help the stuff she does and even she doesn't like it either. She also doesn't like her violent behavior. The medicine she is on makes her less violent.

It looks like you are making assumptions and ignoring the facts because you choose to believe the parents are lying. How you view the situation, others may not be viewing it the same way as you. What you may be speculating, others may not be speculating the same. What it looks like to me is the assumptions you make and the speculations you make, you take it as the truth you see and see it as the facts.
You even admitted in one of your posts that you have an impression about the dad wanting his daughter to be a schizophrenic. See, you admitted it, it gives you an impression you said.

Whatever you view as abuse may not be viewed as abuse to other people or to the state. Heck if I told you the mistakes my mother has made with me and what my dad has done to me, you would probably think I was also abused. But I had loving parents who cared about me and wanted me to grow up and be an independent adult, my mom took me to lot of doctors and I had therapy growing up. I was fed and given clean clothes and I was included in family activities.

Heck there are some people here who think it's wrong to take things away from your child as a punishment. There are people here who think it's wrong to take your aspie child's obsession away as a punishment.

Whenever parents choose to go publish with their child to share their story and their struggles, there will always be a controversy about them because people will always choose to not believe them and will always make false assumptions and take what they say out of context and then there will be other people who will feel bad for them and for the child. There are rumors floating around that the father keeps changing what he wrote in his About Me page and in his blogs.

And to answer your question if I spoke out in code or numbers as a kid, no.

she most likely is, but i cannot tell whether or not she is autistic. most schizophrenic children have other problems. some even have both schizophrenia and autism (this is called multiplex develpmental disorder). i really do not think she has autism alone since, i do not know about the rest of you, but i do not recall acting like that when i was younger.

that is exactly what was on my mind. even if her parents and that dreaded show were not at all exagerrating, doesn't giving a mix of potentially lethal meds to a kid worsen things? doing so can even have long term health consequences.



i think a lot of us did, since we did not have real friends.



i do not think that sensitivity to pain can be considered a hallucination since nociception is subjectively felt. it is not like looking at an object, where everyone sees the same thing. also, even if someone feels more pain, the kind of pain they are feeling is more or less similar to the kind of pain that everyone else in the same situation would feel. i do not think that being more sensitive to touch is the same as seeing something that no one else sees. one could argue that maybe people with psychosis simply are more perceptive and sensitive to stimuli, yet to me it seems more like they just confuse their imagination with reality, which does not apply to the sensory problems seen in autism.

i think the difference between schizophrenia and autism is that the former causes social distortions while the latter just causes social misperceptions. yet, extreme social misperceptions may look like delusions if one completely loses perspective and makes incorrect judgements about people's motives.



that is a good observation. someone with psychosis has true hallucinations, while someone with autism simply interprets things differently. one could view things differently from others without hallucinating. for example, if a group of people look at the clouds to see which objects they resemble, each person will come up with something different. yet i think that everyone would agree that they do not hear animals talking to them.

http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/si ... ausen.html

Jani lost 7 pounds. Didn't you say they only starved her for 2 days? Last I checked you don't lose 7 pounds after not eating for two days and yes I do think she is being abused. The father even said it himself but later switched the term "hitting" to spanking. He even admitted to hitting his wife in front of Jani and trying to push his wife out of his car while he was driving. You are defending this man who is probably doing a great disservice to Jani.

Also, her name January. She has a theme. Her imaginary friends are days of the weeks, hours and numbers. The parents said that they taught her alot about days of the weeks, numbers, hours etc..

I do think there is some Munchausen by Proxy involved which is abusive. She's on drugs that can kill her. If you also combed through her dad's blog he says she seems happier at the mental hospital.

If you also combed through his blog, he gets furious when he hears "Aspergers" again and claims he knows more than doctors. For some reason he wants the most "psychotic" label on his daughter. I was reading facts from his own writing to base my conclusions on and frankly, I'm fed up with this blatant child abuse that is allowed to occur.

Your use of examples for what some people claim could be child abuse like taking away an aspie's obsession is very minor to what's going on with this girl.

http://www.januaryfirst.org/www.january ... try_1.html


Susan and I pushed for the diagnosis of schizophrenia. And UCLA resisted...for five months. Now she has the label. And I am happy.


How can I be happy?


Because if it isn't schizophrenia, then my daughter is just a bad kid. She is just a brat, with behavioral problems. But I have heard my daughter say she wanted to die. I have seen her hit herself in the head with a drumstick as hard as she could so she wouldn't hit a boy. I have seen her cry out in pain while rolling her wrists very rapidly which pulled on her injured fingers, but not be able to stop. I have seen her scream in pain because she couldn't stop.

I have seen my daughter starting to fall out of a window because she wasn't allowed to hit our dog.


And then I have seen her kiss and hug her baby brother. I have seen her follow directions with a smile on her face and without complaint. I have seen her try to rationalize with her own delusions, telling the rats that they can't do this or that.


I am not going to judge the Rileys. Yes, Rebecca Riley (who died of a massive overdose, aged 4) looks sweet in the photo. But so does Jani. Yes, the principal of Rebecca's school said she seemed weak and tired all the time. I got called by Jani's school last January because she had come into the school nurse's office drooling and vacant. I told her the same thing the Rileys told their principal: it is just the meds. Jani went into dystonia and had to be transported by ambulance to the local ER.)


We pulled Jani back on the meds, and five days later she went crazy at school, running through the halls and trying to throw herself through doors and windows and hiding under desks.


Only by letting the Sheriff be called did we get Jani into hospital.


Rebecca never went to hospital, and she died.


The Rileys kept increasing Rebecca's dose of Clonidin, going from 2 pills to 2 and a half. During the three weeks that Jani was home, we went from 25mg of Thorazine every three hours to every TWO hours.


You look at the picture of Rebecca Riley and say "How could a girl like that be so hard? She was only four!" And then you look at Jani and say the same thing. But you know better. Because you have read. This is my struggle (! !!), to articulate how a four year old could be so out of control that their parents had no choice but to keep upping the meds.

Hitting and spanking are the same thing technically. What are you doing when you are spanking? Hitting. But with spanking, it's on the butt. I sometimes say my mom used to hit me when I was little when I mean spanked. Lot of people view spanking as hitting. The dad may have changed the word from hitting to spanking because people were getting the wrong assumption about him.

Yes I did read he did hit his wife in front of their child so I can see why people would come up with that's why Jani be hitting but if they watched the video, they say it's because the voices tell her too and even she doesn't want to do it but she does it anyway because of the voices. But he admits he was an ******* and he had anger issues so he got put on anti depressants for it and it helped.

Yes I did say two days because that is what I read in the blog and the mother said all it did was she lost seven pounds and she didn't want her to starve to death so they stopped that method since she would never give in to eat other foods they make. Like I said, a rational child would give in and eventually eat what their parents made but Jani didn't do that so the parents saw it wasn't working so they stopped. It doesn't work with schizophrenics or with autistics. I don't even remember if it worked with me or not. If it didn't, I sure didn't starve because I end up eating breakfast the next day and having lunch and having new food my mother made for dinner. I can remember giving in and taking a few bites out of my lasagna at school because the lunch lady told me to or I couldn't go outside for recess and I didn't want to miss recess. I never really had food issues and was never a picky eater.

I don't like to jump to conclusions about what is going on in their lives without any proof. If I don't see any evidence about child abuse, I don't see it happening. I like to listen to both sides of the story and have an open mind and see the overall picture. I like to listen to what the parents have to say to explain their situation. I know how frustrating it is when people don't listen to me and they ignore what I say. I used to think it was because they were stupid and they couldn't understand what I am telling them when I explain my side and my intentions. But then I learned it's not that they are stupid, they probably don't believe me. It took me years to figure this out. But I still end up thinking they're stupid for not believing me. So I tell myself people will believe whatever they want.

What I read by you are opinions and speculations. By what you posted so far by the father, I didn't see any evidence of abuse and the way I saw it, the girl was suffering from her illness and it must be so hard for the parents to see their kid go through it and what they have to deal with. About the doctors bringing up AS and the dad getting mad, I figured it was because they were ignorant doctors and they don't believe a child can have schizophrenia so they doubt her condition and say she could have autism. An aspie would be mad if they walked into a doctor's office and they got told they don't have AS because they're adults. I bet that aspie would be upset about it and that doesn't mean they want to have it. That's how I saw it as. But some people would get the impression that the person wants to be an aspie so he was pissed when he got told he didn't have it.

From what it looks like to me, when parents go public about their child, some people see it as them making money off their child or them having Munchhausen by proxy because they are going public to gain sympathy from people. But what I think is it's to share their story to others and to gain awareness, help other parents who are going through the same thing. Some people get fed up by judgments, they decide to go public about it and explain themselves and their child. The father said they decided to go public because they got tired of explaining it. I am guessing that they figure if they go public, they will get famous for it and lot of people would know them and understand the situation and not make judgments and bam they get less crap for how their child acts.

We both have our own opinions about what is going on with Jani and we both see it differently. Just because I am defending the father doesn't mean I believe Jani is being abused. I don't think she is and yes they did make mistakes and I was quite shocked what I read by him when he admitted the abuse and then he clarified what be meant by starving her. The video left that part out about her and them. Same as parents hitting her as hard as they could when they lose it and them hitting her back when she hit them. I took it as they were trying to show her how it feels to be hit so they figured if they hit her back, she will stop. My mom used to do things back to me when I was growing up. It was her way of showing me how it feels so I stop because punishing me wasn't working. Like I used to spray my baby brother with a garden hose and one day mom did it back to me and I never did it again. I used to do it to other kids too and mom come out and do it to me.
The parents hitting her as hard as they could was wrong and I am not saying it was right of them but at least they admitted it. My mom used to hit me without warning because she also lose her temper and she had to work hard at it to control it. What I mean by hit is spanking. I would be sitting down minding my own business and mom come in the room and start hitting me and she be yelling at me for something I did earlier in the day. One time she hit me so hard my skin was red and it stung and it hurt like heck when I sit on the carpet. This was a week before my tenth birthday. I threw something away and it broke and my mom got furious with me so she chased me and started spanking me hard and sent me to my room.

Now if you focused on these details about what my mother did, you may think I was abused and I am defending my mother for it. No, she made mistakes and she fixed them. Child abusers never fix their mistakes or learn, sometimes social services have to get involved for them to change and sometimes they never change after they keep getting their kids back because they go back to what they were doing before. My mom learned and fixed her mistakes like lot of parents do. So when you look at the overall picture, you see I had good parents and she was a good mother. The overall picture is she fed me, gave me shelter, got me new news and shoes, loved me, spent time with me, took me to places. She did lot of good things and she taught me and worked with me so I grow up and be independent. And my mom did apologize to me for hitting me hard when she lost her temper. She admitted her mistake and wanted me to know it was wrong of her and what she did was not okay. She didn't want me thinking it's okay to hit when someone pisses you off. My mom even used to let my brothers and I give her consequences when she make a mistake with one of us. One time we grounded her from her favorite TV show Murder She Wrote. Am I sticking up for my parents? Oh yes but that doesn't mean I think what she did was okay or my dad. Even my mom admits she made mistakes. I don't think my dad would admit his and I have never seen him admit it or even apologize for losing his temper.

So how you interpret Jani's situation may be from where you came from and how I interpret her situation is based on where I came from. We both see it differently. You see the devils, I see two loving parents who are trying to help their child and they love her. You think the parents are lying, I think they are explaining their situation and the dad clarifying what he meant by when he said "starving" and "hitting" and explaining why he was this man who was losing his temper and hitting. Am I saying his behavior was right? No.
I also clarify what I meant when people misinterpret what I said and get the wrong idea. But sadly not everyone will believe you when you clarify to make yourself more clear. I am sure you have said things in the past and people get the wrong assumption so what would you do? Correct them by clarifying? I do this a lot when I see someone got the wrong idea about me.

I know a hell of a lot of schizophrenics. none of them have the level of consistency or pervasive, but abstract, view of reality that this child does.
Just look at the names, 24 hours, Monday, 400 etc. consistent, all measurements, Nearly all animals (well humans are animals, so all animals), live in what sounds like 'CAT' something.

I know / have known at least 6 schizophrenics. They make closer associations, e.g. all prime numbers across a broader range. My house is a prime, my birthday is ..., numberplate.
measurements are friend/enemys stinks of autism.

My friends daughter was convinced that Elvis lived under her bed etc... Kids having imaginary friends it's normal.

I didn't see the child turn round and look and following something that wasn't there and start talking to it.
Or having a two way conversation with herself. (though I've seen many kids do the latter, and the former but not like schizophrenics do)

just kind of talking and make believe, where was that thing in the pool she wasn't focusing on anything. Maybe because she doesn't focus on other people they think it's just part of the 'madness'.
That dog, gees her hallucination must be really shot away, either that or the dog was the size of a cockroach and right at her feet (at a place where she would probably not have been able to see it to know it was there)

Daddy Wednesday's still swimming. (but how did she know that, she wasn't looking at the pool or anything, didn't look at 'Wednesday')

Also, she didn't seem to be confused at all, in-fact her grip on reality (other than her 'imaginary' friends) seemed to be pretty dam good. Withdrawn, or self contented but not confused.

Also language development at 3 months old, perhaps associating as much with the language as with her parents. Seems very distressed by people, imaginary fiends are a good escape.

I know lots of people who do something emotional, and then try to make up some kind of logical reason for it. and imaginary friend telling you to hit, seems like as good a reason as any.

Meds not working, I wonder why not. Didn't work with me either. They will however seriously reduce her life expectancy.

Yeh opera, I don't want to talk to you either. How's your grip on reality?

I'm surprised social services (or whoever) haven't gotten involved. Removed her from her parents etc... placed her in more of a safe haven environment (not institutional) and seen what effect that has on her behavior etc..


"It's a shame that this little girl could die because of her dumb parents",
It's a shame that this little girl gets so much publicity, just looking the fathers own words there seems to be some quite serious abuse going on. And despite that the child has not been removed from the family and not only that the doctors are proscribing her some serious s**t that will seriously f**k her up, possibly kill her if her parents don't.

Social services have been called and they have been checked up on.