Advice for a new schizophrenic?

Health and Recovery
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I was just wondering whether there’s any hope. I am in so much freaking pain every day. I’m just a confused mess and i spend my days at home loathing myself. i have no friends becuase i moved then had a break. one of my friends flew out to visit but thats it.

both of my therapists say that im temporarily socially impaired. i was never like this. i always was social and a pretty funny guy. now everything is bleak and terrible. im really anxious and asocial. i dont know whats happened to me. it has to be some serious brain problem. ive been on meds for a year now and ive gain nearly 70 pounds thanks to Zyprexa.

im just wondering if ive been sentenced to life in mental prison or if things can actually be decent one day. ive been in the hospital three times for suicidiality.

sorry for the rant. have a good one

ps. i just dont feel like myself. i feel like im a stranger to myself. nothing around me seems real. its like im trapped in a nightmare. i cant even describe it.

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There is hope. Luckily, they caught me in about a month into my psychosis. Yeah, olanzapine can cause weight gain, but at least for me, it’s been a miracle drug for me. That and having other opportunities to better myself. Try a local mental health clinic and maybe some kind of drop-in or activity centre. Don’t give up.

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Find the right path man and things will only get better.

Relax. You deserve to feel good about yourself. You deserve to pursue anything you want, but for now I’d focus on recovery and learning about the illness. In general and the nature of your personal experience.

This is a great place to socialize and find said information.

Post your questions and people will answer.

I think my best tactics have been blank stating(clearing the mind) and desensitizing to triggers.

If you’re the delusional type it important to figure out how to manipulate your beliefs back to normal.

Simplify.

You can feel whatever you want whenever you want if know what you’re trying to do. When you’re in good states try to hold onto them. Do the opposite with the bad states.

As far as socializing that’ll all come back. It’s still the same world outside your head.

Don’t do any drugs. Nicotine is fine. Alcohol is alright in moderation, it’s not psycho active but it can still play into other things like emotional state.

Take your meds. If you don’t like them ask to get switched to something else. Prolixin is what I’m going to be switching to later this week.

You’ll have a better grasp on things pretty quickly. Especially if you stay connected on here.

You’re not alone. We’re all just spread out.

Try not to talk about your illness with people in real life. It’ll put it in its place and you’ll find yourself thinking like you don’t have it. That’s a good thing.

Recovery or remission are possible, don’t push it though, these things take time.

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If Zyprexa olanzepine isn’t getting the job done for you, there are a lot of alternatives you can look into by Googling “anti-psychotic medications.” Zyprexa is like all the rest of them: It works well for some, and not so well for others.

If you are not being treated by a board-certified psychopharmacologist (look that up, too), you may not be getting the help you need in experimenting with different anti-Ps until you find one (or sometimes two) that make life livable. Most people can get there if they just keep on the trudge.

Once you’ve got a good med regimen in place, you can then move into cognitive behavioral psychotherapy (see http://www2.nami.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Inform_Yourself/About_Mental_Illness/About_Treatments_and_Supports/Cognitive_Behavioral_Therapy1.htm) to clean up the errors of perception and logic that play such a big role in sz.

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I was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1980 at age 19. I was put in my first psyche ward then and after two weeks I was released into a group home.I stayed there a year and I was psychotic for literally every minute of every day that entire time. I went through hell. I had no money, no friends, certainly no girlfriend, no car, no school, no job; nothing. No sanity. I was a loner and I spent months sitting by myself in the backyard fighting to keep what little sanity I had left. It was horrible. I saw no end to my-suffering, no light at the end of the tunnel, I made no improvement, every day was a new type of misery and suffering. But I survived.

Unfortunately that house did not help me in the least and I got kicked out over a misunderstanding. Then my parents put me in a locked psychiatric hospital. More suffering and unbelievable hell. I was put on my first medication. I was heavily drugged and the side effect was that I was slowed down. I was locked up with a hundred other screwed up, suffering people, and I had no friends there ether, I ate three meals a day alone for 8 months. but I survived that too.

Well after 8 months there I got out and moved into a nice group home. Miraculously my symptoms eased up as little in the good environment. I became stable. I can’t encapsulate a 54 year life into one paragraph but eventually I got a job, went back to college, and got a car.I relapsed in 1988 and was hospitalized again and I got addicted to crack. I lost almost everything due to my drug use but I got clean in 1990. I lived in a board & care home from 1990-95 but I moved out in 1996 and have lived independently since.

In the hospital in 1981 my future looked bleak. I didn’t see one. But today, I am about to move into my new housing, I work part time, I take online classes; I need four more classes for my degree, I have a car, and a little money. I realize that not everybody is a lucky as me but I don’t consider myself special, other people recover too and make miraculous recoveries. So don’t give up hope. I came from the depths of severe mental illness and I persevered and I have a life now.You can too. Good luck.

So my advice is take your medication, see a psychiatrist or therapist, DON’T DO DRUGS, co-operate in your own treatment, become aware that the doctors are trying to help you not hurt you, get support from your family if you can, keep an open mind. Be patient, no one recovers overnight, it can take months or years. Join a support group if possible just to be with other people, look into every resource in your area. Be careful of who you chose to hang around with or be careful of where you hang out. The wrong people or places can derail your recovery.

You don’t need to seek out trouble or cause trouble, schizophrenia will give you all the trouble you need and can handle without trying to be slick, or get over on people. You make your own life, you create your own life, even if you have schizophrenia so make your choices wisely. Stay on the straight and narrow. I chose to do drugs and I barely survived. You don’t have to go that route. I did the research for you: drugs are no good.

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Life gets better with the right medicine. I know the weight gain doesn’t help with the confidence at a time like this. I’ve gained over 90 pounds since being introduced to anti-psychotics in 2010. I didn’t want to be any where near people and still sometimes prefer to be alone. I don’t think the feelings for me will ever go away.

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it is not the end of the world…that is rubbish . :rainbow:
you will have your good days…bad days…and ugly days.
you get used to the voices…seeing things…the paranoia…etc etc.
but remember being a ’ muggle ’ or normal person is not a cruise either.
we as sz can think that… :smiley:
take care :alien:

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Oh that sounds like me when I was in my late teens

I would get on a different medication, zyprexa is horseshit. Even my doctor hates it.

Try supplements like caffeine and ginseng and energy crap like that for negative symptoms. And sleep enough because when we want sleep we need our brains to heal not beauty sleep. Sleep deprivation makes normal people hallucinate and feel sedated, we already are and we need our sleep because of that.

Read Surviving Schizophrenia for a start. You have a hard life ahead of you, sorry. I have it too, but I am a badass. I didn’t choose to be a badass I can’t help it and if I don’t do something badass for a few days I go into withdrawal.

I was a martial artist before this crap, a fighter. I still am part animal yet I am also quite smart and have done really well in college.

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Thanks guys. it really helps to hear from you and im very glad i foudn this forum

i switched to abilify a few months back and i cant really say that i feel much better.

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It takes a bit of time for everything to level out.

Meds helped get me out of my head.

Therapy helped me cope and helped me get back into my life.

I needed a little help to get through my day, But I do have a job… I am back in school… things are better everyday…

One thing that set me back the most was turning to pot, acid, and alcohol instead of doctors and therapy.

don’t give up hope… talk to your docs… and let your family know when you need some help.

Good luck and I’m rooting for you

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PLEASE DO NOT KILL ANYONE …NO MATTER WHAT YOU HEAR.the voices suck man.

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the more comfortable you become with yourself, the easier life will be.

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Hi, I like your new haircut.

I was just wondering…would it be possible for you to get a pet?

It doesn’t necessarily have to be a dog, maybe something like a turtle.

I found my life got so much better when I got a pet, because I know she needs me, and loves me, and I feel the same way about her.

Just a suggestion.

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I didn’t read everyone’s replies just your initial posting dbranch. I got a little concerned when you mentioned “both of my therapists.” How does that work? I know when I had two for a short period of time it was dreadful. I’d get conflicting advice, i didn’t know what i told what to, it was very confusing time.

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One is very CBT minded, and one is very spiritually minded. rarely do they give conflicting advice. i find it a nice balance. one is talkative one isn’t. i find it works

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i have two corgis, one is 1 and the other is 11. thanks for the advice though!

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the abilify you’re on now I don’t think causes as much weight gain. I’ve been on abilify for a couple of years now, I think, and I gained like 10 pounds from it over the course of the first year, and then lost five pounds. The risperdal is terrible though. I would spend hours eating every day. I just couldn’t stop. I don’t know if I really have much advice. I’ve had schizophrenia for 6 years now, and been medicated and diagnosed with it for three. I know I had it when I was 19 cuz that’s when I started thinking that God was talking to me during the day time and hearing voices, and not just through dreams. I have to agree with what has already been said. Stay on your medicine, don’t do drugs, keep going to therapy, don’t be afraid to go to a mental hospital if you need to. For the first two years after diagnosis, and even before then, I spent everyday waking up thinking that life was a nightmare that I couldn’t wake up from. I really thought I was going to be successful in life before I started hearing voices. It was really hard watching all my relationships even with my family crash and burn along with my gpa and my dreams for the future. My dad keeps telling me that as long as I keep taking the medicine, that I will have a life, possibly with a job, and husband, and kids. I guess it stopped feeling like it’s as much of a nightmare when I had hope that I’d have a job again. I’m debating about whether to get married or not, and I don’t think I could handle the responsibility of having kids. At this point I’m just focusing on taking classes at a community college and trying to get a certificate. I’m starting to regain hope that maybe I can get a job, but the older I get, the less I think about having a family. I think if I didn’t already have a brother and sister, I would try harder and worry more, but I figure I already have a family, so I don’t need to get married to have a family when I get old. I try to not focus on what I have lost as much as what I have, but I still get depressed all of the time.

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run, dont stop just run dont look back run…

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Take plenty of B 3 niacin, a balance of omega 3,6 and 9 essential fatty acids that you can buy at Walmart for instance along with what meds work best for you. It is well known that it may take several tries with several meds to find the ones that work the best.

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Everything gets better in time. Healing takes time. It is easier said than done but try to be around positive people that give you good energy. Pray or meditate. You mind is a powerful thing! It believes what we want it to believe: So believe that it will get better; we will get better :slight_smile: God Bless you

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