My daughter has Paranoid Childhood Schizophrenia. How do I help her become more independent?

She is 7 years old and believes people are out to kill her and me.

You do have a difficult situation in loving and dealing with a child with such a serious illness. By your expressed concern, I will assume that she has been tested and has a confirmed diagnosis by a trained, accredited professional in the area of Mental Health.

From my experience as a therapist dealing with an adult population, I've observed that a paranoid schizophrenic will never be and should never be totally independent. Throughout her life she will need support from many professionals in order to sustain her in the safest and best possible ways.

The primary concern will be to ensure that she continues to take the medications that are prescribed that will help her stablize and reduce if not eliminate the paranoid ideations. To a paranoid shizophrenic their thoughts and delusions are real, their reality and they will feel compelled to act upon what they feel to be real... whether a perceived threat, an act of violence, or responding to unseen others and following a command hallucination.

The trick is to help her to understand how imperative it is to take her meds. Once stabilization is achieved, often they will view the meds as unecessary, as in "Oh, I don't have a headache anymore so therefore I don't need to take anymore aspirin!" The thing to remember is that everytime they go off their meds they will lose ground each time. It will take even more meds, higher dosages or different medications to stablize them and they may never return to their previous level of stability.

Usually the first psychotic break for schizophrenics occurs in the late teens or early twenties during a time of stress or other undefined trigger. If there is a previous family history of a relative who also has a mental illness then there is an increased % that other family members could develop mental illness .

My heart goes out to you, there is a group for consumers and their families that can provide support and education. NAMI can be googled to see if there is a chapter in or near your vicinity.

keep telling her that no-one would hurt the two of you and repeat over and over again she is a good person=
Has she been to a doctor? The doctor can prescribe some medication to control her unrealistic view of life. As she grows older, she can get worse. Please take her to see a professional.
Well, I know that in certain types of abuse, people are brainwashed into believing these things and this sounds like a result of something like that happening.

To help her become more independent, you have to get on her level and see where she's coming from. Instead of just expecting her to "get better", you need to see where she's coming from and try to understand from her a little more of what happened. Sometimes these things happen when parents don't know either. So, instead of thinking that this didn't happen, get down on her level and try to understand as much as you can to what happened to her and where the paranoia is coming from.
What would be helpful is if you played with her at her age level. Sort of like play therapy, this will get her to open up more to you and build more of a trust with you. Then you can both deal with these things together. After she learns that someone is not going to come get her or you, you can let go a little more and little more and she will still have the trust bond with you.
I hope this helps.
My own childhood.
Does she hear voices? It is pretty unusual for a girl that young to have schizophrenia: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/childho...

Do you think it might be some sort of anxiety disorder, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder?

Pshchiatrists are not always right. What about the rest of the family? Is there anyone else with it?
http://breggin.com
http://sntp.net

In the interview Dr. Richardson told of her own study in which a young schizophrenic patient, who refused conventional medication, was practically symptom free after only 2 months of taking Omega 3 supplements. Both doctors agreed that this was 'quite remarkable'.
http://www.oilthecogs.co.uk/ailments/ome...

PS. NEVER EVER PUT HER IN A PSYCH WARD!!!!
IT WILL RUIN HER LIFE!!!!!!!