I like reading on this forum but there are times when I feel extreme empathy and sadness to what others may be experiencing. I happened upon the forum in my mid 30’s and did the bulk of my suffering and struggles in my early to mid 20’s.
What are the factors that differentiate someone who gets better than from someone who doesn’t? Socio-economic? education? skill? luck? What has your experience been?
It’s interesting. I can’t help but be intrigued by this also.
I hope the bulk of my suffering takes place now or has been past. 25 atm, and doing well for someone with the diagnosis as far as statistics are concerned. (Historically)
I think for me it is mostly luck. My genes and environment sure helped though. I mean we are all unlucky enough to become schizophrenic but for some reason I have been able to have some accomplishments like being able to work for more than thirty five years.
And what’s amazing to me is that I’ve read that the schizophrenics with the best prognosis are the ones who were well adjusted before they got sick. I have never been well adjusted. And it shows in some of my jobs where I don’t talk to anybody and take my breaks alone. Some jobs I talked enough and made friends but for the most part I keep to myself.
I should have said this in the beginning but after I got diagnosed at age 19 the following two and a half years were solid suffering with no relief even for a minute. I was severely Ill. First in a group home than 8 months n a hospital. Doesn’t sound like much of a success story, does it?
But this is where luck comes in. Through a series of small steps in some very good group homes and very good programs I was helped and encouraged by staff and they gave me a little responsibility , a little at a time and I succeeded until eventually, 9 months out of the hospital I got my first job with my illness. And stayed for four years through many ups and downs. And I 've been working almost steadily ever since.
My (relative) success might be summed up in three simple sentences:
Lot’s of help
Lots of hard work
Lots of luck.
At the beginning of my disease nothing differentiated me from the people I lived with in the group home and the hospital. I showed no more promise than anyone else. But then after those initial two years I started slowly integrating into society.
I remember in a supportive housing program in 1984 I had two friends and neighbors and one day they invited me out to lunch with them. I didn’t think we were allowed to or something but we went to a food court and ordered Chinese food and I was eating and looking around and marveling that we got to do this with all these “normies” in the crowded cafeteria.
Well, I evolved past that awe and wonder and over the years I have gone all over and done all kinds of things and while there’s a small part of me that still feels like an outsider, I still do a helluva a lot. All I can say is if there’s a rule that I can’t go where I want and do what I want, I never got the memo. I am just wired so that I expect to be able to work, live independently, drive a car, and go to school.
I’ll always be an outsider wherever I live, wherever I go. But usually I’m having too much fun or I’m too busy to remember it and let it bother me.
The ,genetic lottery, environmental factors,quality of support and treatment. If you’re a patient under the supposed care of a mental health trust sees you as a malcontent ,and in doing so turns a blind eye to things that affect you, then the chances of an optimal recovery are going to be rather slim .
From what I can tell the attitude of mental health professionals towards those of us later found to be on the spectrum is often rather crap, and not one that’s geared to the patient doing as well as possible.
Compliance with meds
Luck
Drive to live
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