Meet Jani, a 6 Year Old Schizophrenic :(

[Gratiot]

The parents of a 6-year-old schizophrenic search for help against daunting odds for a patient so young and a case so severe.
By Shari Roan

It's been a rough week. A few days ago, at UCLA's Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital, 6-year-old Jani toppled a food cart and was confined to her room. She slammed her head against the floor, opening a bloody cut that sent her into hysterics. Later, she kicked the hospital therapy dog.

Jani normally likes animals. But most of her animal friends -- cats, rats, dogs and birds -- are phantoms that only she can see. January Schofield has schizophrenia. Potent psychiatric drugs -- in doses that would stagger most adults -- seem to skip off her. She is among the rarest of the rare: a child seemingly born mentally ill.

She suffers from delusions, hallucinations and paroxysms of rage so severe that not even her parents feel safe. She's threatened to climb into an oven. She's kicked and tried to bite her little brother. "I'm Jani, and I have a cat named Emily 54," she says, by way of introduction. "And I'm Saturn-the-Rat's baby sitter."

She locks her fingers in front of her chest and flexes her wrists furiously, a tic that surfaces when she's anxious.

She announces that she wants to be a veterinarian.

"I'm empathetic with rats," she says.

Asked what "empathetic" means, she smiles confidently. "It means you like rats."

LA TIMES (5 page article)

[Gratiot]

[Gratiot]

Many prayers and love go out to her and her family.  Stuff like this, just brings tears to me, with sadness and anguish over their plight. 

[Chris]

That's sad when a child has to deal with something like that, even if they don't know something is wrong with them.  My father and his wife are dealing with a similar situation after they took custody of his wife's granddaughter, so I know how painful this is for that family.

[docstew]

I hope that they will be able to find some treatment for her that will give her the ability to integrate into society.  However, schizophrenia has a genetic component to it, so it may never happen.