Is schizophrenia worse or better the older or younger you get it. I was 26, which is a little older for a man to develop it but I feel I was lucky to have got it at an older age, as I had more experience and a stronger head on my shoulder. So, is schizophrenia better at an older age.
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I feel kind of glad that I didn’t become psychotic until I was 35. It started when I was 33, but I got to graduate from college so I feel fortunate even though I fell ill with schizophrenia, at least it didn’t hit me when it usually hits everybody else in their teens…
Age at Onset of Psychosis
An individual’s age at the onset of psychotic symptoms is known to be a prognostic indicator for schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders; the younger one is at the onset of positive psychotic symptoms, the poorer the outcome tends to be. Earlier onset has been shown to be associated with greater neurocognitive impairments, increased severity of functional disabilities, more severe positive and negative symptoms, less responsiveness to antipsychotic medications, and a greater likelihood of relapse and rehospitalization.[1-3]
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/724817_1
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Not sure if I have SZA but my illness whatever it is, seemed to have mellowed a bit. I was at my worst in my 20s and 30s
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There seem to be gender differences regarding the impact of aging on schizophrenia. Men with schizophrenia tend to have more severe symptoms in the initial stage of the disorder, but gradually improve as they age. However, women with schizophrenia tend to have milder symptoms initially, and progress to more severe symptoms as they age.[45]
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I knew that symptoms seem to improve with men as they age - did not know this about women - thanks for that important piece of info @firemonkey
I started showing symptoms at 18, but wasn’t diagnosed until I was 20. The timing was terrible as I had just started college.
I’m still having trouble at 24 now, but I’m better at combatting and recognizing my state of mind. I would say its worse when you’re young, but I’m still pretty young I guess.
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You ever notice that more females with schizophrenia have been married and have kids than schizophrenic males? Age at onset.
it sucks at any age…
but on the bright side i have a lot of demons as friends…
take care
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Younger - you have fewer years of psychological growth - harder to catch up on. More chronic.
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Schizophrenia is worst of you don’t take medication,that’s what I heard
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Had always heard it’s worse in children but seems a rare few that get psychosis as children. .
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I know a lot of articles etc state that schizophrenia is not common in children. I am in a couple of groups and a lot of children have it. Some starting as early as ages 1 and 2. The medical community won’t diagnose at such a young age. In some cases the parents and the doctors already know it’s SZ but the parents are told the child is to young for that diagnoses.
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I started having paranoia, sleeping problems and hearing voices when I was 15. I got really paranoid and haunted at 32. Got dx one year later.
Studies have showed that the longer a person remains psychotic the worse off they are in the long run. If a person can effectively resolve psychosis without meds fair enough , but if they cant then meds are a sensible option. The trick is to not spending your life heavily symptomatic. Being sympthomatic will cause you to make choices that will effect your long term prognosis. As well as this , on its own , being sympthomatic , causes cognitive decline , much earlier than expected. Psycho somatic problems as well eventually will cause biological significant phenomenon that will again , effect long term prognosis.
Meds get a bad rap in terms of cognitive decline and increased general illness. I would be careful with meds , in choosing the best one for you. But it was not so long ago , when schizophrenia was first classified clinically , that it was called dementia precox. Essentially ‘early dementia’. So in a med free world we had people whose motor skills , executive functioning and general cognition were detirioating rapidly at a young age.
I’ve had my psychosis my whole life (not schizophrenia, the doctors aren’t sure what it is exactly) and I actually think having it my whole life is better than just having it suddenly sprung on me. I have had a whole life time to create coping methods for myself, to try to understand and reflect, and to find ways to hide my crazy and blend in. If everything in my brain was suddenly dumped on some poor random college kid or older out of the blue I think they’d totally flip. Meanwhile it’s just common stuff to me.
Kind of like the whole boiling the toad slowly because if you drop it in boiling water straight off it’ll jump out of the pot analogy, if that makes sense.
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I’ve been pondering this one a bit…
I can see clinically how getting hit with this younger could be worse… due to not growing up and not knowing how to take care of ones self as an adult and not having some of the necessary skills develop before onset.
But also for me… I have no idea who I was or what I would have been like before onset so I have no preconceived ideal to try and get back to… I don’t say… before onset I was able to work 15 hour days… I had so many friends… I could travel all the time…
I was too young and I don’t have those comparisons in myself. So I find I don’t lament what I used to do because I was too young and didn’t even know myself back then…
Also my parents can’t say… Oh he had it all… the job… the house… the marriage… the kids… and then lost it all… Because I had none of that too lose.
So for me… I guess the early onset worked in my favor. That’s what I’m guessing for now anyway.
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my god, i hope that’s not accurate. or i hope i’m anomalous somehow. i was first hospitalized/diagnosed at nineteen, but my twenties and thirties were BRUTAL (i’ve spent over six years in the hospital, altogether and meds only go so far for me now) and i’ve been told if i can make it to forty five there’s hope it’ll be better somehow, some of the symptoms will be less prominent even with meds. now i wonder if that’s just an outright LIE been told to me to try to keep me on. perhaps. my psychiatrist and i are definitely have a talk about this one. i’m female, by the way.
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I am 41 now and have noticed in the last two years my sickness is way worse. The hallucinations are a regular for me now and so are the voices and severe paranoid feeling. I started seeing things at 12 but wasn’t diagnosed until27. This is just my experience.