It’s been a tough year with 5 hospitalizations, and 4 trips to the Psych Ward. (I had a panic attack which brought me to the er for a few hours in addition to the Psych Ward visits). A lot of it had to do with the desire to get rid of the voices which I have been trying to do since the beginning of the illness 23 years ago. I have learned that I am stuck with Invega because it keeps me the most stable of all the drugs. All of my hospitalizations since I was first diagnosed with the disease have been due to an attempt to be my own doctor, or try a medicine to rid myself of the voices. During the second to last Psych Ward appointment a doctor told me that in my case the voices would always be there no matter what I took. After the last hospitalization I learned to trust my health care provider and stop fooling around with “miracle cures” since my disease can’t be cured anyway. My main problem now is keeping my weight from ballooning due to my meds. However my mood, attitude, and sleep patterns have improved considerably and I’m managing things pretty well now. Invega will always be my drug. When my Mom is unable to help me any more I may find it in my interest to come back to the Psych Ward but I will hopefully be too busy taking care of myself and managing my limited finances to go there. It will be a big blow however as she has been the parent who bothered to take care of me. A year ago I was completing an Associate’s degree and planning for more. Now I am content to survive and stay out of the Psych Ward for a very long time.
Ive been to a psych ward 12 times but i stopped fighting the treatment and now i havent been to hospital for 3 years
Congrats on staying on the outside. I’m almost 7 months out myself. Hope you never go back. Good luck!
Your story resonates with me. Like you I was looking for that magic med to make everything go away. But sadly for me that is not a possibility.
However learning to be content with my best med combo has also resulted in way less hospital visits.
Congratulations on that step… the first year is the hardest. Good luck and I hope the rest of the year goes well…
It’s been about 6 years for me… There were some times I probably should have been taken in… but the glitches started letting go sooner.
Not resisting the help… and being patient with ourselves… letting ourselves start small and heal is a hard thing to do sometimes…
You’ll get back up to getting that degree… heal first… school later… it will happen…
It took me a few years to work up to getting independent again…
Hope your today is better then your yesterday… and your tomorrow will be a little better then your today… 
Similar story for me too
In about a month it’ll be 2 years
Thanks to meds