Hi,
I was wondering if there is anyone who manages to help their illness without meds, and if so, what do you do?
I have noticed an improvement after taking magnesium and D-vitamin meds.
I think I will always have some kind of symptoms, I am just talking about managing to a point where you can live with them.
Please share your tips with me 
Meditation, finding my favorite exercises, writing in a journal, writing poetry, singing.
I managed for eight years with no meds. I used neurofeedback. It didnāt stop the hallucinations, but it made them less scary. It also gave me coping skills for dealing with my delusions. I take meds now, because my illness eventually progressed to the point that neurofeedback wasnāt helping me enough. A lot of other folks here like CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) but it didnāt work for me. My brother loves it, though.
A big thing is recognizing the patterns of your thoughts. What kinds of thoughts lead you into bad delusional states. Iām kind of lucky in that my brain doesnāt always snap right into bad states. Itās gradual, so I learned the pattern recognition.
Antipsychotics are called anti-PSYCHOTIC for a reason. They stop you becoming psychotic, losing touch with reality and jumping off a building. Everything else is a bonus.
If it wasnāt for the psychotic aspect, then we could all manage our symptoms without meds probably. To a greater or lesser degree of success.
I was off meds for 2 years before psychosis hit out of the blue. To be fair, I was barely functioning during those 2 years.
I went the majority of my life unmedicated. Went on meds for around a year and then ended up dropping all of them because I was so sick of the side effects.
Managing symptoms off meds is an incredibly difficult and at times dangerous job. I found I managed my symptoms best when I was exercising regularly, eating right, getting proper sleep and attending weekly therapy. Even then it was very draining on me and left me with little energy for anything else.
It requires high sensitivity to your internal states, knowing when something is off, knowing what your warning signs are and getting appropriate and timely treatment for it before things spiral. Constant monitoring and reality checking thoughts. I say it can be dangerous because when episodes happen, you canāt control how bad theyāre going to beā¦youāre risking losing yourself to psychosis or suicide (in my case, since I have depression)
In all I would not recommend being off-meds unless you are high-functioning and not likely to become a danger to yourself or others during episodes. For example, I have to go back on an antidepressant because I can become suicidal/want to hurt myself during bad depressive episodes and I donāt want to take that risk anymore. But during psychotic episodes I am pretty high functioning and am not a danger to myself or anyone, so I donāt find antipsychotics imperative for myself to be on.
In short if you are not good at monitoring internal states/donāt know your triggers and warning signs, and during episodes are not moderate to high functioning or are a danger to yourself or others, you need medication. Period.
I went through a period of relative stability that I think staved off my sz for a few years. I was doing transcendental meditation, I was drinking very little coffee, I was doing fairly rigorous exercise, and I was going to AA meetings. I had a better than 3.5 grade point average in school. Then I started drinking again and everything went to ā ā ā ā .
Itās not a good idea to try to manage your symptoms without meds if you have a recurring psychotic disorder. Especially if the severity of the psychosis leads you to detach from reality and be a danger to self or others. Not to mention that psychosis is so painful and it takes years to recover from.
Iām not trying to push meds on you, in fact I am anti med myself but at some point you need to have an honest conversation with yourself and accept weather or not your illness is severe enough to warrant taking these terrible medications to prevent it from coming back. Itās a lousy trade off and in some cases the side effects seem much worse than the illness. I have to remind myself of the times that I was completely out of control and lost from reality ever time I think of coming off of my meds.
I hope that one day they make meds that donāt suck like the ones we have now, then we can all get on with our lives.
I take zyprexa every once in a while for sleep. Other than that iām a non-medder.
5 HTP is a serotonin precursor (tryptophan)ā¦ stable mood curbs anger, anxiety, depression. Serotonin overdose can occur if taken to frequently. The primary side-effects are insomnia and elevated temperature or fever (serotonin syndrome).
GABA (gamma aburylic acid) is the brains natural neual inhibitor and can be supplemented. Itās produced in the brain. Kind of tricky as the supplements donāt directly effect the brains gaba levels. You can raise your bodies homeostasis regarding gaba levels by taking gaba irregularly. Beyond that it acts as a mild musle relaxer by reducing tension in muscles (suppresses nervous system.) reaxed body == relaxed brain.
Potassium is great. You should get 4mg a day. Thats the RDI. Itās used in the nervous system for transfering signals.
Neurological disuasion by psychological disinterest. Keep grounded. Do things in the real world. Find people who understnd who you are and try to keep the SZ crap filtered out.
Iām clearing out of the woods it seems but I suspect Iāll have symptoms until late next year. All in all though I think Iām cominng out a pretty well refined dude inside.
Feel free to pm me. I know a bunch of stuff about this sh*t and would be more than happy to share.
That is a serious and potentially fatal side effect. Be careful with this. If it ever happens to you, stop taking the supplement immediately and go to the hospital.
i understand that you can be psychotic even with meds
but how you can not be psychotic without them if you have sz that i dont understand
after risperidone and olanzapine i found aripiprazole
on which i have zero side effects
and i hope it will work for me for the rest of my life
Iām going without meds soon gonna manage it by eating right exercising reading/study being responsible no drugs minimal if any alcohol doing this because the side effects have been severe and my health has declined in a major way over the past 3 years
Iāve bee researching GABA as Iām trying to quit drinking. Foods and such but you take a supplement?
And every day or so?
The recommended regiment on the bottle says 1 three times a day with food.
Both with 5htp and GABA I just take as needed. Or Iāll take two of each for sleep support.
Serotonin syndrome doesnāt set in with just one tryptophan pill. Say a banana or something containing the amino acid tryptophan in 25mg quantityā¦ itās like eating 2 bananas to take a 50mg 5htp supplement.
Nowā¦ tryptophan is an amino acid in almost all foodsā¦ most protein sources contain 7 to 9 of the essential amino acidsā¦ Histidine and Metheonine are the ones commonly missing (depending on if itās a grain source or a non-grain source like a bean or lentil). Tryptophan is comprehensively present in all diets.
But yeah be carefulā¦ donāt overdoseā¦ and keep an eye on your temperatureā¦ I can typically tell when my temperature has spiked just due to the internal feeling of a feverā¦ that aside Iāve maybe only crossed the fever line once in conjunction with 5HTP supplementation.
I mean I think long before serotonin syndrome youāll begin to experience the bodily effects similar to ingesting a mild amount of psylocibin mushrooms.
Most people I know who try 5htp just get a sleepy effect.
Anyways yes! Be careful! These things are available over the counter and with no warning labelā¦ it is potential to develop SS but itās not common or likely and depends on your own sensitivitiesā¦
This is just me, Iām stark raving mad off meds. Iāve found that I manage best on two meduim doses of two different antipsychotics. In other words a high dose of your standard antipsychotic.
Manage my symptoms without medication?
Oh no not possible for me.
I need my meds absolutely. I take Risperdal Consta, Geodon, Seroquel and Celexa. Works like a charm for me.
But, I believe in alternative and holistic remedies also in addition to conventional medicine. The ones I use on a regular and daily basis are:
I follow this program and it works for me. I whole heartedly believe in it and I recommend it to you too.
What?
All schizophrenics need meds.
Donāt kid yourself
At some point when I lost touch with nature
The natural world
I also lost religion
Itās sad
I was asking because antipsychotics donāt work for every single patient, and for those where it does work, they can stop working.
I know people think you canāt have schizophrenia and get by without meds. But look at John Nash.
He was really bad. But at one point he stopped taking meds because he said they disrupted his way of thinking. He was never symptom free, but he said that he learned to live with his hallucinations.
No, we canāt all be John Nash.
But for us āluckyā enough to be high functioning, I was wondering if there was a way to āget byā in the case that meds stop working. Which for some, they can. There is plenty of evidence.
I am not anti-med at all. I just think that as a patient, we need a āback-upā in case meds poop-out. 
Thanks for the tips and views, I appreciate it!