Side-effects can eventually be overcome with time and practice. Getting moving and staying moving is more a matter of developing habits than medication. I can be dead tired and still keep going when most normies would crawl back into bed.
My ongoing recommendations for the best possible recovery are as follows:
- Take meds as directed. Stick with them long enough to give yourself time to adjust to side-effects.
- Be completely open and honest with treatment providers. Hide nothing.
- Take advantage of whatever therapy is offered or you can afford. If nothing else, do related workbooks.
- CBT. Get access to it if you can, get some workbooks and put together your own program if your means are limited.
- Set small, achievable goals. Hit them and set more goals.
- Keep a recovery journal. Make notes of all setbacks and achievements. Progress is so incremental with SZ that sometimes it takes months to go from reading a sentence to reading a paragraph. Your journal (which you may need help with at first) is how you prove to yourself you’re making progress and develop motivation to keep going.
In terms of supplements… The ONLY thing that has worked for me is sarcosine. The stuff you see advertised all over this site. I get mine from BrainVitaminz. It really does help with negative symptoms and cognition. I have a huge stockpile now to make sure I don’t run out because – at least for me – the difference is so noticeable when I’m not on it. Finally, I have diffusers loaded with rosemary oil running everywhere. Studies prove that rosemary scent improves functional memory and I still haven’t gotten all of that back (I schedule personal hygiene in Google Calendar. Seriously.)
I’ve been hearing over and over for 25 years about the next “miracle med”. While there have been improvements, the Second Coming of SZ Treatment has yet to arrive during my lifetime. CBD smells like more of the same. There are plenty of things you can be doing right now to work towards success, and they don’t involve CBD.
Sorry.