My brain is changing again and I fear it is not for the better. There has long been an association with schizophrenia and smoking. It has been proven by Harvard researchers and all the other smart ■■■■■ that if you are schizophrenic, and you smoke it is better that you continue to smoke.
I am on day 4 of quitting smoking. I haven’t quit entirely, but I have cut my daily cigarette intake down by 15-20 cigarettes a day. Now I am not writing about the physical withdrawls that are a ■■■■■; but the changes that I have been experiencing mentally. I have been experiencing greater levels of social withdrawl, blunted emotional and motivational responses as well as lesser cognitive function. I have also noticed erratic changes in mood and emotion, accompanied by greater levels of impulsivity. Suffice it to say, I am experiencing the early stages of an unraveling of my mind. I have been having more visual and tactile hallucinations as well, and my sleep patterns have been off, and the dreams have been intense nightmares that require much more effort to return to reality as you wake up.
I think the sensible thing to do is to up my medication for at least a week and see how I fair. I fear this may not help and I will have to start on additional medications. I do not want to do this, as when I recall the last time I tried to find medications that were right for me, it took about two years of trial and error, and everything got worse before it got better. I really think I should just keep smoking. Thoughts?
Congrats to you for lowering the amount of ciggies you’re smoking per day-- that’s a good start.
As a fellow smoker, I had no idea that smoking cessation could affect so many different facets of our mental wellbeing with this illness.
Personally, I’m a bit leery about self-adjusting meds, as those decisions seem to be best discussed with a pdoc… But if you think an increase might help, then more power to you.
Hope you start feeling better soon and good luck, @gcar!
@Schztuna Yeah it a real bummer, its so intertwined with our neurochemistry, especially for me because ive been smoking since before I went nuckin futs. But Im weary about the whole trial and error of new medications. Ive been really really stable on risperidone for the past few years and before that invega for a few years. And their basically the same drug. I honestly don’t even really have a doctor., I get my drugs from a dentist friend that can prescribe and it comes from Canada. Ive done this for the past 4 years. I don’t have a therapist either, as I am not a fan of counseling/therapy. I think as a man, you have an inert responsibility to be incontrol of your thinking and actions. Kind of been my own doctor really. But that’s the scary thing about this disease, is its like you cant see what other people see sometimes and you cant also rely on other people for cues. Your reality is distorted. So I keep a frequent journal but so far nothing interesting has popped up and I haven’t noticed any changes in my writing style so that’s good. I think Im going to try exercising more and up the dose just a little but. I also though it might be good to reach out to my support network of friends and family for cues. To see where this goes. I think im just panicking mentally cuz Im so afraid of the inevitable return of this disease, because I know it will return eventually and I have so much going for me right now. But we create our own reality and at least there is never a dull moment. lol
