There is a constant stream here of those going off meds.
Pretty sure its a false hope for most.
Sure there are a few who can go without meds long term…but they are the exceptions.
No one likes to be on these meds.
I fell into the trap too.
I probably cant influence anyone to not go off meds, most have to find out for themselves, but if you take it from my experience with it…I hope you wont try.
Its a hard road once you fall back into insanity, that may even cost you your life.
There is almost a circular pattern here of someone appearing to be doing well without them, and then others following suit.
You do what you gotta do to find out, I guess. But my experience has been its not worth it.
No. I dont hear voices and the only time I have ever hallucinated visually, was at the height of psychosis. My problems are primarily delusions when I have a break.
In 15 years here I’ve seen like two people have successfully gone off meds. And I’m not sure if they stayed med-less. I’ve seen a couple dozen who claim they are off meds successfully but I don’t think it lasts. And I know people are going to read this thread and say, “Oh, plenty of people who were on here successfully went off meds so they stop posting because they don’t need this site anymore.” The argument against that rationale is that any one who has been here any significant length of time will read posts like this one here and know how rare it is that people successfully go off meds and if they are here at least a couple of years then you would think they would be itching to come back on here and share how great they’re doing without meds. You never see it though.
It’s like the myth of the full recovery. The doctors and researchers want you to believe that 1/3 of schizophrenics recover completely. Well, to me, a full recovery means no meds for a significant amount of time and no symptoms and I might add that a full recovery means functioning fully. Simple, straightforward criteria but I’ve never seen it in 15 years.
And the same argument goes, “If someone recovers fully they may not need this site anymore but you would think that someone who is on here three days a week or every day for two or three years would see all the posts about going off meds and a full recovery and see every day the infinite ways people on here struggle and if they got involved with people on here at all you would think they’d be itching to come back see and show off a full recovery.” I’ve never seen it.
I mean I’m not happy that people can’t go off meds, I wish everybody could. And I wish that someone would make a full recovery, I’d really like to see it.
My current diagnosis is depressive bipolar. Even I can’t function without meds. I am feeling better after increasing dose of AD.
There was one guy who wrote a book about his experience Living With Madness. Claims he lives without meds since they didn’t help to begin with I guess.
Living med free could be exception which proves the rule.
its possible to go off meds but only if you taper off over years and with the help of your doc. I have never seen it work not once where someone says theyre going off meds instantly. invariably 2 weeks later people end up posting about the hell theyre going thru. You cant throw away your crutches until the bone is healed otherwise you make it worse. walking with crutches sucks but its better than trying to walk on a broken leg.
The way I heard it is the more psychotic breaks you have, the greater your chances are for having another one. If you have say a postpartum psychosis, or drug induced psychosis that may just be a one time thing. But if you’ve had three or more psychotic breaks the likelihood of getting of meds successfully is much slimmer. Did anyone hear differently?
I was. I was doing well until I was destabilized by having to interact with my wife’s family. I honestly could have maintained it for years if I was single because my CBT symptom management is very effective, but there are limits to what I can cope with. Namely, in-laws.
For me schizophrenia/schizoaffective are secondary conditions that arose from the pressure and stress of being an undiagnosed autistic child and teenager. Neither sz or sz-a are the things that disable me the most. When it comes to how I was erratically taking oral meds, vs a much higher % of taking meds via depot, the difference is as follows. I don’t fly off the handle anywhere near as much as used to. Things have definitely been helped by moving near family and the support I get from them.
I’ll openly confess that for the dozen years between my wife dying and my moving in 2017 the forum ‘me’ was very different from the real life me. I was increasingly self neglectful, but can’t say that it went in line with the severity of schizophrenia symptoms.
Unless self neglect is part and parcel of negative symptoms. Self neglect doesn’t get talked about much on these forums.
Without a doubt autism related cognitive factors were a part of that self neglect. I struggled with day to day tasks, and became increasingly overwhelmed and avoidant. That having been said I think I would’ve been even worse without meds.
I dont think this works for most people either. I tapered very slowly, then got to the point that I belived meds were acidic and caused me harm through burning. So I quit them altogether. Like I said, there may be some, but I dont think most people can go forever without them once sz. I went a couple years on reduced, I think. THen had a partial break and went off completely. Then went over the edge.
Sure, you can blame them on exterior events that pushed you over the edge, like I did/do…and that may be somewhat true…but those same events wouldnt do crap to you if you were properly medicated.
I used to think like that until I tried it for myself. A couple years on reduced meds isnt worth the 6 months of hell working your way back to full sanity, IMO
And heres the kicker , IMO. I thought I was in control and able to know when I was slipping. I noticed some symptoms and took an extra dose of meds. In my mind they burned. So even though, I thought I was in control and doing what I needed to correct slippage, my correction ended up being a large part of what pushed me over the edge.
The problem is, you see situatiions that arent there when you are slipping. For example, on my way to the edge the last time, I was getting pictures of dead and dying animals on my facebook timeline. With captions like “and the ending…”. Probably just some animal rights groups appeals for animals. BUt to me, they seemed like personal threats.
When I see a disturbing post now, I just throw it in the trash where it belongs.
After not sleeping for several weeks straight it seems I also have this insomnia induced psychotic mind state whenever i get sleep deprived. That’s what worries me, im thinking of trying to taper meds but if i spiral already after only some hours of insomnia then it might not be worth it to even try. Unless it goes away with sleep. How do you deal with it?
I was off meds for three years continue, from Jan 22 to jan 25. But this year my CR and details of property was submitted to our department for my promotion.I believe in meds so much that I again started some low dose of meds for clear visibility in thoughts. If promotion happens than I will become an officer in my department.