Okay, this is inspiring. I’m on year 4 from onset and I’m hoping to be rid of this disease or at least medicine by the 10th year.
Disclaimer of course that you should NOT go off your medicine without consulting your doctor first!
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I’d like to try life without meds.
Thanks for the post.
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I have been without antipsychotic for one year plus,my mental health is doing ok.I am not telling people to stop using the medicine as people’s situation varies…some do better on meds,some like me get worst being on meds.I took antipsychotic from 2010-2018
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Recovery statistics. Bleh. It’s going to always depend on the source and it also depends on what constitutes a “complete” recovery to a professional or to a schizophrenic person. It can mean different things to different people. Opinions vary.
I guess a couple of factors to look at are “loss of symptoms”.
Another factor is degree of functioning.
It gets confusing because conceivably someone’s symptoms may “disappear” but that person may not be able to hold down a job. Yet, someone with symptoms still plaguing them may hold a job or go to school. I’ve heard more than one person state that they are fully recovered because they have no symptoms, but they still need medication. Does that constitute a full recovery?
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Paging any of these people. Are you out there?
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I
In the study, many of the worst suffering patients did not turn up for follow-up interviews.
So 30% who turned up for interviews had made a complete ‘recovery’ without meds? That paints a somewhat different picture.
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The only problem with going off meds is that in doing so you risk ending up a teeny tiny bit dead by suicide.
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I have never taken meds & have actively experienced symptoms for around 2 years now. I define my “health” by how much I can function. For whatever reason, my brain does ok with keeping one foot in reality & one foot in psychosis-land. The key is to not spend too much time in the latter (otherwise my functionality drops considerably). I see a psychiatrist & a therapist regularly, neither of which think medication is necessary if I don’t.
All this being said, I’m not “anti-medication”…I know it helps so many people who are seriously plagued by their psychoses. I guess at the end of the day, though, I don’t really consider “symptom free” to be a necessary indicator of mental health.
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İ m more than happy with medicines. İt gave me a lot. Before medicine i was simply a broccoli with dress😄
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Mixing meds with alcohol and psychedelic drugs and stimulants at the same time ■■■■■■ up my brain it clinched that I need meds 4 life.
https://sci-hub.tw/10.1016/j.schres.2016.10.030
Findings:61% of the patients from the original cohort attended the 10-year follow up and 30% of these had remis-sion of psychotic symptoms at the time of the 10-year follow up with no current use of antipsychotic medication.
61/100 x 30= 18.3. It being reckoned the worst suffering patients didn’t turn up for follow ups.
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This is another example of a dangerous clinical study. I’d also like to know how the people are now who got off meds and didn’t show back up! How many are in jail/prison or worse?
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I think it’s important to know what factors can result in discontinuation of medication without a relapse. The problem is with the quality of the research undertaken in this area. There’s often a ‘Meds are bad’ mindset in those promoting/pushing such research, and a desire to beef up the results of people discontinuing meds.
Yeh you have to be careful going off meds. Psychosis isn’t fun.
I wouldn’t say I’m completely recovered but I believe I cope pretty well med free.
And disclaimer: don’t go off meds without doctor approval and supervision
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I mean no disrespect, but I have gotten the sense from you (from a few posts) that you have a rather narrow idea in your mind of what people with psychosis-spectrum disorders are like. Like we’ve all got this dangerous not-to-be-trusted monster inside of us.
My understanding of it, and perhaps it’s just because I got in at a really lovely research clinic that abides by this philosophy, is that it really is a spectrum much like autism. Some people are high-functioning & do well in the world, whilst others are very much debilitated.
I’m not trying to say this is a good research study, or advocating people go off their meds, but I do get frustrated by people who are not mental health professionals (or who have never experienced psychosis) weighing in like this. It’s not like we’re not all aware of the stigma surrounding the “schizo” label…kinda sucks to be told we’d “end up in jail” etc etc.
(again, I am NOT anti-medication, just pro-destigmatisation)
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bahhh…so sick of anti med posts…this is rubbish…schizophrenics need their meds !!
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I don’t believe this is anti-meds, @jukebox. It’s pro-options. If it’s not an option for you to go off of meds, then it’s not an option for you, but under supervision and care it certainly is proven to be an option for some percentage. Even if it’s a low percentage, it exists.
As understanding for this disability grows, there are inevitably going to be new ideas, etc. I think keeping an open mind is important. We wouldn’t want to still be stuck in the days when lobotomy was considered standard treatment.
If we move towards least invasive treatments, if they are effective and useful, it’s progress.
Also, I have suffered immensely at the hands of sz. It’s not something I sought out or that I wish I had, etc. It’ been the most prevalent and real experience of my life (unfortunately). However, I have stumbled through the years, not committed suicide, stayed vigilant in working towards function and have survived and improved without medications. I actually don’t recommend it, but here I am, alive and functioning…
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If you don’t need meds to recover, then I’d more readily believe that you’re just not schizophrenic than that you just miraculously got better with no help. I’m not saying it’s utterly impossible to be schizophrenic and not need meds, it’s just, if you were functioning so well, then why were you diagnosed sz in the first place? What happened that was so bad you were diagnosed sz, but not bad enough for you to be put on medication?
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i dun think it is possible to withdraw frommeds , i hv been off meds for4 months now and now it is hell , i cannot function at all, i am really crazy now, it is like hell…for those recommend not to take meds, take ur own responsibility if u can do so