Need advice on switching careers/moving from home - are my doctors too optimistic?

Hi forums. Recently I had my first psychotic outbreak in the middle of my premed work. When I realized I was having delusions almost a year later, I snapped out of it myself and stopped taking medications with my pdoc’s consent. It’s been two/three months off medications and nothing has happened yet. I’ve applied this year to nearly 30 medical schools and am already getting interviews. It’s likely that, unless I can’t pass my interviews due to being too awkward, I “should” have a good chance of getting in somewhere. My doctors are very encouraging and think there’s no reason to assume I won’t be able to “control” the schizophrenia myself and one even offered to help with my application process. My parents are also expecting me to make an effort to move out of their house soon and pursue a career. However, I personally am scared of entering another delusional state while I’m on my own and wandering pointlessly for years without realizing it. I wonder if I should stay home and find a job in town where my parents can watch my back, and try to live a less stressful life. I got a part time job doing accounting for an accountant and think I it’s not too much to handle. I’m so scared of myself and of leaving home. Do people have stories of living successfully on their own and how to support yourselves? Has anyone been off medication without facing much difficulty? People with experience with schizophrenia may be the real experts. What should I do?

Wow… that is amazing… my docs were discouraging about pretty much everything and was pretty sure I’d never be able to live on my own… take any school at all… and should be happy in a group home with a box of color crayons… I was getting heaps of doom and gloom prognosis.

Maybe take one thing at a time… don’t think of moving out… and applying for med school… and trying to make it on your own… and trying to tackle everything else.

Is there any way you take it one step at a time… let your parents know that even though your trying for med school… you aren’t ready to live on your own… you can still reach the goal…

It just might take some extra time… don’t get caught up in the “time” race… slow and steady is the way to go…

If you want to be a doc… you can be a doc…

Good luck and welcome to the forum. :v:

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I have never heard of someone who has a mental illness, control their illness. How do you manage staying in reality? I know from myself, when I have a relapse, I lose touch with reality.

It’s great that you have potential and trying to get into med school. Maybe you can do that in your town? Do you have to move somewhere else to pursue this?

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Not to be a total downer, but if you only quit the meds two months ago, they are still in your system, so you have no idea how you will feel actually off them. I have been able to go off meds for two or three months just fine before everything falls apart. You might be in the group of people who only need meds for a short period of time, but you really don’t know yet.

That said, there’s nothing wrong with having big dreams. As long as you are feeling stable, you should always be trying to push yourself to accomplish what you really want in life. And if you have developed good coping skills, you will be able to recognize it if you start having a relapse. Then you can take the proper steps to get help again. And even if you do end up needing meds again, that doesn’t mean you can’t still live how you want. It just means you take meds.

You don’t have to make any of these decisions now. It will take a while between interviews and actually getting accepted to med school, and in the meantime you can just see how you are doing. In a few more months, you should know better how you will feel unmedicated, and you can make your decisions then.

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SurprisedJ Is this how you view your own prognosis? Thank you for your advice, I will try to take things slow.
@waterway I didn’t hallucinate much (which meds helped with) and mostly had crazy delusions without realizing. My brain totally failed to differentiate what was real. Unfortunately the med school within driving distance probably won’t accept me so I’ll have to move. But getting a delusion again might put medical school out of the question.
@cj9556 Thanks, I’ll probably do as you suggest by waiting to see how this year progresses.

Yes, but I do take medication.

Has anyone been off medication without facing much difficulty?

Yes, for half a year, then I relapsed. Medication may take a while to get out of the system, as @cj9556 already pointed out. I’m not sure whether it takes as long as half a year though. In my case, my doctor and I believe some other factors played a role in relapsing as well. It seems that for me it is important to have routines to keep me going. Studying can be such a routine ( i do not seem to experience stress from studying, which could have adverse effects on symptoms - I rather enjoy it.) When I dropped these routines in the holiday, I retreated into passivity and it didn’t take long for my symptoms to re-emerge. Now my case is slightly different from yours, it seems. For I do hallucinate a lot when psychotic. My relapse wasn’t like dropping into full-blown psychosis over night. Though it developed rapidly, it started small with some minor hallucinations a few times a day. I was feeling good off the meds and thought that if it stayed like this, I could handle the situation and would be happy to live with a few hallucinations here and there. Now, that was no misjudgment, but the confidence that it would stay like that was wishful thinking. Within a week or two the hallucinations were 24/7 and keeping me from sleeping, accelarating proper psychosis.

People with experience with schizophrenia may be the real experts. What should I do?

To cut a long story short: it will be helpful to be aware of warning signs that show things might go awry again. And of course to have a strategy ready for coping with them when they do show up. You should discuss such warning signs with your doctor.

Finally, you could go through med-school on medication as well, if you find one that works for you. So if it happens to be the case that you will be needing medication to keep delusional thinking at bay, that still does not mean you can’t go through med school. Depending on how anxious you are about delusional thinking returning and not being able to notice, you might even consider taking medication preventively.

I’m 40s so 20 years of work experience, first 10 was full time. Have Bachelors degree I earned while working part-time & living with parents before that. Self supported for 20 years, first 10 years was comfortable but going broke after the nervous so moved in with the parents to get by until I can land a stable job with acceptable pay & keep it.

I function okay, meds or not. Delusions are limited, just a lot of social problems I ignore sometimes…I keep the meds to help with the chronic insomnia.

My schizo was brought on due to PTSD from former friend’s family history of sex abuse. Being in the company of the woman resulted in nervous breakdown for multiple people but looks like woman knew this would happen to most people and willingly chose to do so. Scared women silly, caused nervous break and let the family sex abuser use the women for anything he could accomplish…Woman first started by bragging about illegal stuff…This type of scam is not uncommon. Worse, cops in many areas just ruin the victims and let this operate, even if some women were badly hurt and harassed for 30 years. Some of these start to tell you stories and contradict themselves in a minute or two while other people talk about Jesus…THIS MEANS YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF THERE! Living alone and remaining around someone acting wrong can result in selective amnesia (PTSD without physical trauma) for you, nervous break and then psychosis…You just quit returning contact attempts by these, do not talk about the dirty laundry, do not follow orders from voices, or talk aloud to self, and voices will eventually stop. This is REALLY common problem in colleges if you spent time with the wealthy kids in sorority or fraternity. If you have a situation like this, DO NOT TALK TO THEM AGAIN.

Second, some who suffered psychosis do follow orders from voices and will not act right toward anyone again. These stalk people to harass them about something private (thought broadcasting/gang stalking), sometimes done in small groups with all talking nutty in restaurants (guided conversations). These do vandalisms and theft too, including using their job to screw someone or screw up people in relationships. But, sometimes you meet some really helpful people this way if they just talk to you about something they shouldn’t know while other people meet all weirdos. You just have to check it out and see…Frequently, college students pick up someone doing this and it can help you both. Some churches have their people doing this and bothering people on disability payments for mental care like preach stalkers called caused stalking. IN SHORT, some people just don’t act right and they know who you are sometimes…Mental care will not help you with these social problems. Policy is to call it all delusional and refuse to give assistance, unfortunately. Just know, you can never get angry with your mental care staff or you will be hospitalized for as long as DR can justify at your own expense…(If person throws a really big hissy show about you, I would never answer. This can happen in churches too, they will throw out some people but you will be okay if you just leave quietly. EVen having anything to do with a church where you know NO one can get you run through a 3-ring healing show, wallet checked and thrown back out onto the street with more people stalking/harassing you, even at work. So, really think twice about accepting any offers for a healing…If you are ever given a rude hissy show in public at work, you may be close to being screwed by that one so better to plan exit and avoid that person…)

You may also have thought repeated in your head, as your internal voice can be hijacked. This is called thought insertion. This happens to children/old people in company of schizo and they will sound possessed. It is bad joke. NO need to even respond as person has no clue this is happening. Olders used to call it spastic.

You do understand some schools will allow the professors to act up and discriminate against mentally ill students…It is VERY helpful to just get a note from your existing psych dr and apply at Disability Support Services at the school within a couple weeks of start of class if this happens. I would just keep quiet about the mistreatment & instructor will usually stop…Do not talk to Dean unless it is unavoidable. But can be helpful to get accommodations to take tests/homework in quiet place and get alternative assignments if group assignment is not working out…Sometimes other students are disruptive or uncooperative…

YOu may be able to arrange accommodation to take classes part-time. Does not hurt to ask and feel it would serve you better…

I think you probably had environmental problem at your former school that caused your symptoms, even if you were not aware of him/her. Changing schools would be VERY helpful for you… Were you living on campus during Bachelor’s degree? BUT, some areas just have voices start for anyone who has not experienced a little psychosis yet…Do not follow orders from the voices, just leave if it starts while you are out in public and you are told to bother specific person. Eventually, voices stop.

If you lived at home during your Bachelor’s degree, I’m not sure you are really ready to live independently. ‘Drama’ is stuff that happens at your residence while you are away…Most are encouraged not to discuss it. There is no way you could ever file a police report on any trespassing unless everything is stolen and you need to file an insurance claims. Warranties on electronics are only way to get broken electronics fixed, renters insurance will never help. It helps to always wear Rx glasses when you leave, take your wallet/cell phone and never leave any money in the place. Many went to minimalistic lifestyle & very limited number of possessions so they don’t go broke or crazy dealing with this…No amount of lock changes (especially renting), burglar alarms or camera systems will ever help. I can highly recommend you NOT share walls if you can help it because sometimes neighbor goes psychotic and will blast you with music all the time or do cooking fires to mess with you. At very least, NEVER talk aloud to yourself or psychosis does start for others sharing walls with you. (This may not happen but it can.)

I REALLY recommend you keep seroquel, tradazone or ambien RX so you can cope & keep functioning if you get hit by insomnia.

It’s hard alone as a female. There are also some roommates who are psycho + it can be catchy, so can be best arrangement to get smallest place you can possibly afford and get by alone. I’ve seen increasingly disruptive and destructive harassment by the under 30 crowd towards schizo including some situations where women who moved alone were ruined so badly they became a prostitute. Cops were so dirty, none could leave the place…For best results, it is recommend you only move to new place as female alone if you know a local…Or you have a lot of money so you can leave if you need to. I have personally abandoned 3 living situations that turned out to be unsafe or too many disturbed, disruption people for me to function…

Hope this helps. I agree to take things slowly. Maybe move this fall, then start school in spring…You need to avoid most activities except just one focus at a time to avoid an overload. Lots of the socializing can end up excrutiating and increase stress level/anxiety anyway. Social situations/causes can turn out to be thankless demands for your time, so better to avoid any of it except work-related networking after you have been functioning okay for 6 months at least. (If you suffer a relapse, excuse yourself from the work networking to avoid disclosing any of your mental treatment or worrying aloud)…

Completely forgot another thing you may need to know, unfortunately. Some of the people in psychosis who move will be bothered for a couple months by the new area’s psychotics doing thought broadcasting or gang stalking. If you do not talk to yourself aloud ever, this is usually not a problem. Some talk back to the people while others just keep quiet. You may be told some really helpful things to know about working in the area by people sitting at next table talking about you or someone alone who walks past you talking aloud to himself.

Things go best if you choose the expensive place you can afford in middle class suburban neighborhood. The stuff that happens in the hood could get you hurt. If you encounter gangs of kids stalking adults and threatening them about being psychotic, this is called gang stalking. Some of the poorer neighborhoods do this to anyone really, even military, just as an initiation. If you respond angrily, military was scared so badly they got ran out of the neighborhood. But, if you ignore this a couple of times, neighborhood may take you okay but these poor neighborhoods have some creepy drama they pull on people including busting all the window latches on you…I just recommend you walk around a neighborhood and see if anyone says anything weird to you before you choose to rent there. If you find the gangs of kids bothering people, area could even be unsafe for you much worse than just damaged stuff in your place so would even buy my way out of lease if I saw gang stalking.

If there is something about the area that is not working for you, I would lie about whatever it is when you leave like your parents need you for a while as family member is sick. Some people who did ‘take this job and shove it’ dances or got confrontational about anything may even be targeted for ruin in next job like theft of all their work equipment for new job OR WORSE STUFF…Need to be mellow and just watch the dynamics of the group to figure out if someone is top dog and rest are servants. This can become obvious if women are being victimized which does happen in some cities when females have their jobs ruined even to land new relationship. Bad sign place will screw you and saying much about reason for leaving will screw you worse…I see no need for assertiveness training as the good ones will treat you right if you refrain from insults/sarcasm, only use assertiveness in form of negotiating to fit job offers or haggling situations…

Most will not discuss any of these abuse situations/slave networks when you encounter one. Frequently, you may be trapped into helping out no matter what result on your employment which is good reason to not get involved with much when going to challenging college (except business networking organizations). Coming across the work sociopath has same rules and would even keep the wife away from the place if she is mouthy one…Is best to only discuss these situations with a spouse and decide on any changes to course you may wish to take as a result…Really, the borderline sociopath kinds think something bad will probably happen to most people who do move to some cities and he is really doing them a favor by latching onto them. New slaves are offered some job/work preferences in exchange for doing favors which could REALLY result in problems if you work in a job that could be used to screw customers…You decide.

Best of luck to you…