I read somewhere the life expectancy for someone who has sz is 20 years lower. Is this true? Am trying to give up smoking but if the above is the case I don’t think I will bother.
I think love will keep us alive… hope hope hope…
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I think the 20 years lower part is for people that refuse help and live on the streets.
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Having observed a lot of severe mental illness in community mental health settings (as well as in the VA Health System which is pretty much the same thing), I’ll suggest that katwomansz is barking up the right tree.
It doesn’t look to me so much like sz is the “killer” at all, though injudicious use of meds for it add a lot of stress to various organs including the liver and the lining of the entire digestive tract. (The latter can be attenuated considerably by drinking a lot of water.)
What it does look like is the lifestyle that so often goes along with sz. So many of the pts used to slip unnecessarily into “victim identifications” that led them into (understandable) self-pity, sadness, remorse, grief and depression, as well as anxiety about their futures in a world that didn’t seem to understand them, let alone be supportive.
Owing to that, many drank and/or drugged to excess, became addicted, and spent too much of their disability money on trying to block their emotions. (Alcohol adds hugely to the liver stress caused by the meds, too.) I probably would have myself if I hadn’t already given up booze and drugs and found an odd sort of “home” in AA and NA a decade before I began to crash into semi-psychotic, bipolar depression again, and again, and again. Fortunately, I had just enough support to get through those nine years.
But I did attempt suicide twice. So I understand the reason for the statistics on a personal level.
My point is that the same REBT, CBT, DBT, ACT, MBSR and other psychotherapies I’ve had to do (mostly with inexpensive workbooks I got on amazon.com) to get a handle on the genetics and stressors that got a hold of me have pulled me way up out of the victim identification and what the AA people call the “pity pot.”
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The life expectancy for people with my heart condition is 40. I’m 46. Figure I’m good for a while longer still.
Every average has an above average. Aim high.
10-96
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Hey! It doesn’t mean that every single schizophrenic will die young. There’s exceptions. Eat healthy, exercise, quit smoking, have good sleep habits and you will beat that rule.
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Nope - quitting smoking is a good idea. Its one of the key reasons for the shorter lifespan.
"The results show that people with schizophrenia had contact with the health service over twice as often as people without the condition, but they were no more likely to be diagnosed with cardiovascular disease or cancer.
“Yet we saw an opposing pattern of death from these diseases. It is clear that the health service is failing to diagnose cardiovascular disease and cancer in these patients,” says Jan Sundquist, general practitioner and professor at the Centre for Primary Health Care Research at Lund University.
Women with schizophrenia were 3.3 times more likely to die of cardiovascular disease and men 2.2 times more likely. Women with schizophrenia were 1.7 times more likely to die of cancer while men were 1.4 times more likely, compared with those without schizophrenia. Only 26.3% of the men with schizophrenia who died of cardiovascular disease had been diagnosed before their deaths, compared with 43.7% of the men who did not have schizophrenia.
Source:
New findings on mortality of individuals with schizophrenia
You can check this thread out
15 to 20 years. But I reckon our generation will make better choices hopefully. I’m in my mid 30s.
Many so called experts say that we live 12 to 15 years shorter than the average.
This is not set in stone. Staying on lower doses of an effective antipsychotic can help, staying away from cigarettes and booze, drugs can help.
Eating healthier and engaging in some form of exercise or movement helps.
Seeing your family doctor regularly and getting regular blood tests helps.
We can have a normal life expectancy - its just a matter of maintaining healthier habits.
Living on the streets and high suicide rates are other factors that shorten life expectancy
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another reason to stay off the smokes and hit the gym, that punchbag is my enemy, nothing else.
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Off-topic: Lovin’ your new avatar @daydreamer – it rocks!
10-96
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There’s a statistic where 5-13% of people with schizophrenia kill themselves. That’s anywhere from 5-13 times greater than the avergae person. That could make up for the age difference as well.