I wonder if we dwell on the fact that we were diagnosed with sz instead of just moving on with our lives and not dwelling on the label. Just a thought.
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I know I dwell on the diagnosis at times. Sometimes I let it stop me.
I’ve been working on putting that part of my life second or third down the list. It’s been helping.
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It happens from time to time in the form that I dwell on how life was before the onset. Life is much different but that happens over the years. I like SurprisedJ’s positivity on the subject. It is something I try not to focus on and do not think about every day.
It fades in and out of my consciousness. Part of me almost forgets that I have it and part of always knows it’s there. Sometimes the symptoms are just in the background but most often they push themselves forward and assert themselves. I’m not a the point yet where I sit around dwelling on my bad fortune to have this disease. I wish I didn’t have it but I concentrate more on taking care of my responsibilities in life.
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The label serves a purpose , in that , it clinically establishes what’s going on , which is a relief. But yeah , definetly , move on as best you can.
From what I have read, most people go through a curve, a range of different reactions to their label. First there is usually relief, that a source of authority such as a doctor can put a name to what’s going on and hold out some hope for treatment. Then often there is chafing and anger, and eventually acceptance. Then identification with the label, and a kind of fellowship with others who have the label, often a brotherhood of misfits or outcasts because of stigma. And then you get a change in diagnosis, often due to getting a new pdoc, and in an earthquake you realise you’re not the label, that your story and symptoms are a better description of your condition than any label can ever be, and you give up on labels.
Ultimately labels are only a useful shorthand for psychiatrists, a way to roughly classify conditions which totally fails to capture all the nuances of real world mental health conditions.
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I dont have a label that I’m satisfied with - Pure bipolar disorder does not describe me, Pure schizoaffective or schizophrenia does not describe me.
I must have some sort of Hybrid disorder - I admit, I tend to focus on the label or diagnosis - Psychiatrists dont really know what is going on - this my friends is frustrating.
Next time someone wants to know about my DX, I will tell them that I suffer from some form of Brain Damage - this is what it really boils down to.
Between the psychosis, my mood shifts, the meds - my brain is fried!
Yeah, I have a damaged brain alright
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I accepted my diagnoses gladly and I still do because it explains why I think the way I do. The medications are of great help in dealing with the depression and delusions, and life goes on like you said, so just look at it as a physical disability of the brain that requires an artificial prosthetic (medications) to function more properly and so more normally.
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It’s not who I am, it’s just something I have to deal with in terms of remembering to take meds and staying positive. Honestly, though, I spend more time worrying about losing weight and maintaining healthy blood sugar.
10-96
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Me too. Also, it was actually a great relief to find out it was a mental condition rather than the delusional interpretations I had endorsed for a long time. I decided I rather wanted to be schizophrenic than being messed around with by telepathic agents or what not. I kept repeating to myself that it was merely schizophrenia. There was some irony in that thought of course, but it was also quite serious. I take the phenomena as a given. So for me it is not really about dealing with these phenomena or not. That is not a dilmma. The competing options are being a schizophrenic or a telepath. Whenever I can I choose the former.
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Another comment I wanted to make is that for a long time I let the diagnosis dominate my thought process. But I learned to realize that sz is a small part of who I am. Like Pat Deegan said I didn’t allow the diagnosis have a master status.
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You might want to check out Pat Deegan on youtube or just google. She’s a powerful speaker. She has a PhD and is a researcher and advocate for people that have had psychiatric experiences.
Very (like VERY) much agree. I had to learn the hard way to let go of the label (in my case, “PTSD-conferred compensatory bipolar with psychotic, paranoid-delusional features”) and deal with life on life’s terms.
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Very hip, from my p.o.v. I have what I have. It’s just what it is. What others think of it (or “me”) is their business. I don’t get to control what they think (or say); I get to deal with what IS in each successive moment of now in me.
I dwell on my diagnosis when i’m depressed or anxious. Sometimes i think other people who have no way of knowing my diagnosis know it and rub it in my face.
Love that attitude notmoses! Way to go.
I had many sayings to myself over the years.
I would say, “Don’t dwell on the perverse.”
You may never understand it. So you move on and don’t worry about figuring it out. It makes no sense. So don’t worry about it all.
It’s random chemical garbage in your brain.
Think happy thoughts instead of getting bummed out. These days people in war zones have their whole house blown up. So I come home and thank God wars only happen inside my brain.
I had to move on from the labeled phase…I was asocial (not antisocial, necessarily, but that too) and eventually I just got too damn tired of being well and alone. Old friends came around and have stayed. I got invited to reunion house parties and stuff with my classmates from high school, very bright people. At first they liked me because I was a heavy drinker and that’s what college kids do, then I quit that crap and now I am always the designated driver.
I never dropped out of school though, I just didnt go unless I absolutely had to and then sat in the very back. I got worse in the winter of 2012-2013, then got diagnosed and my solution was “binge drink and workout until summer, then try meds” because I was a neuroscience major at the time and knew about side effects of antipsychotics. It was actually a wise choice- I made the dean’s list, kept my scholarship and then adjusted to meds over the summer. I quit binge drinking when I got on meds, I had to.