Max Abel, Schizophrenia

Name: Max Abel

Age: 24

Disorder: Schizophrenia

Description of disorder: Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a breakdown of thought process and by poor emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delsions, or disorganized speech and thinking. Genetics, early environment, neurobiology, and psychological and social processes appear to be important factors; some recreational and prescreption drugs seem to worsen or cause symptoms. People with schizophrenia are likely to also have other conditions, including major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders. Late adolescence and early adulthood are peak periods for the onset of schizophrenia. Those who develop schizophrenia experience transient or self-limiting psychotic symptoms and social withdrawal, irritability, and clumsiness.

Has been at LPH for: 5 years

Medicine: Clozapine (antipsychotic), Perphenazine (antipsychotic), psychotherapy sessions

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Background: As he was growing up, Adele Abel never once had the slightest inkling that her son, Maxwell, would eventually develop what eventually took the life of both his father and grandfather. Although doctos warned her to keep a close eye on him, saying schizophrenia ran rampant in families, Adele never gave the professionals' suggestions and warnings a second thought. Her boy would be just fine. It wasn't until he began his senior year of high school that Adele began to realize she might be wrong. Every morning, Adele would walk into her son's room to wake him for school. It had been the same routine since Max began preschool. It was different on one morning, though. As Adele opened her son's door, she gasped in shock at the sight before her. Max stood, clad only in boxers, in front of his mirror. He had several scratch marks over his face and incomprehensible words were written in the mirror with what she hoped wasn't blood. After asking her son what had happened, he simply shrugged, dressed, and left for school. Denial was the key to Adele's strategy. She didn't want to think her son was going down the inevitable path her husband and father-in-law had ventured down, but she subconsciously knew it was going to happen. Wanting her son to finish high school, for maybe it'd be easier for him to get a job with a degree once he was hopefully cured of his illness, Adele waited until a few months after Max's graduation. When he'd awoke one of the mornings, he found himself confined in the back of his mother's car. After asking why countless times, begging and pleading her to take him back home, Adele finally confessed the truth about Max's close, deceased relatives-- a fact she'd been keeping from him his whole life. Upon approaching LPH, Max willingly got out of the car and told his mother he'd never speak to her again. He could have better prepared himself for the disease he was unknowingly battling and his mother lied to comfort herself his entire life. Since then, he's kept his promise, and has been a patient at LPH ever since.

What you get to decide: Max's overall personality (keep his background in mind), how bad his schizophrenia has gotten or how well the medicine's working, his current relationship with his mother

Played by: Ian Somerhalder