Do you consider your schizophrenia part of you or an affliction? Follow up question

[GoldenRex]

Do you consider your SZ/SZA a part of who you are at your core,

Or an affliction you would get rid of?

• Part of me
• Affliction

Also, did you grow up with symptoms or did you have a sudden onset later in life?

• Grew up with symptoms
• Onset later in life

[GoldenRex]

Wow.

I’m really surprised more people don’t think it’s a part of them.

I though of it as an affliction until Seroquel took away all my positive symptoms.

I felt lonely and depressed.

Now I feel like it’s part of me, as obnoxious as it is.

Interesting.

[Ooorgle]

I voted in favor of being a part of me. People I am close to deserve the truth to why I can be like I am.

It makes me feel like I’m lying to them about a big part of my life, it exhausting having to fake that that side of you doesn’t exist.

I’m llama, I’m wired differently than the normal earthling. I’m a space man.

[anon64158233]

I know that professionals in mental health always browbeat into us(or just my experience) something like:

I’m ‘Mike with schizophrenia, not Schizophrenic Mike.’

Hard to absorb though when you have no friends anymore, (just to add a personal touch to it).

But like, are all my friends mistaken, or am I really (bad)(???).

Edit: I was ‘erratic’… that’s the only feedback I got… but no one should be left to think they are ‘bad news’.

Also Edit: I tell myself it’s all socioeconomic I didn’t keep up with them…

[lekkerhondje]

i think it’s part of me and i grew up with symptoms.

[Jonnybegood]

I have trouble identifying who I am as part of the illness I suppose

What I’ve noticed is I think about my symptoms a lot more when I’m using this board.

When I’m off it they’re still there but I don’t identify them as present so much

I only heard voices when I stopped my meds tho or before I took meds. So I reckon if I heard em non stop it’d be more obvious that I have the illness regardless of where I am posting or not

[Om_Sadasiva]

It’s part of who i am.
In the past i was too obsessed with it,
now not so much, but still a part of me.

[Three]

I feel like it’s part of me
I’ve always been a bit off
I struggled at first with the concept of being wrong in the brain when I am my brain…
To write of my experiences what I’ve done what I’ve said
All this stuff that happened
I can’t deny it, I can’t give it a name
I can’t other it

I do feel like I am Jeckel and Hyde really… I know it’s not split personality but it feels very one or the other
Hiding a beast inside me

[SkinnyMe]

I was obsessed with my illness and it’s symptoms my whole adult life. Now that the positives and mood symptoms are greatly lessened, I can relax and focus on other, normal things.

[anon9798425]

@GoldenRex

I’m really surprised more people don’t think it’s a part of them.

I think the answer for me is probably “both” to both of your poll questions. So I didn’t vote. It’s an external illness but there are also many parts of it that are internal to me and that have probably always been there and aren’t really symptoms of an illness at all. Without getting too specific. And I’ve had symptoms of some kind all my life but not actual psychosis until early adulthood.

[Zoe]

I think it’s a part of me.

Because even if I seem to recover, there’s no guarantee that it will ever be gone, plus I need to manage my stress levels all the time. Cos of it. So it is always present in that respect like a ghost. Haunting me.