It seems the negatives are coming back. I feel like I did a couple weeks or months out of the hospital. A total lack of any ability to initiate things.
For those of you with “negative symptoms”, I can take a shower, but anything more than that is like pulling teeth. I cant read one page of a book, I can’t watch a tv show from end to end… there is no way I’ll be able to manage school in this condition.
I am demonstrating all the a’s, some are more subtle than others but they are all there simultaneously.
The apathy is so bad I can’t even get up a feeling of alarm about how badly I’m backsliding.
I totally lack interest in the things which once used to occupy me.
I feel so unfortunate, yet no one around me seems to sympathize. I talk to my sister and she glosses over everything with her endless optimism. She thinks I’m trying to be “unique” and implies that everyone suffers with issues with motivation and that I should just get councelling and then I’ll get over it. It’s so insulting for me to hear that.
I feel so incapable of achieving anything in school next week. My sister has been basically guiding me all the way, “go here, answer this email” and so on, like a child. She is leaving for Thailand in early September, I have no idea how I will manage without her.
Has anyone got over a serious patch of negatives at a time when they needed to be functioning highly?
I’m sorry you are going through that! My negatives are no where near as bad. I just feel blah about everything. I can’t get excited or interested in it. Not even in the game I am playing. For me, I am trying to get over it by getting a new game. I’m hoping the newness of it will spark some interest. So far, it is so-so for coping with it.
Is there anything new that you can get into? Or perhaps something old that you used to like but haven’t done in a while? Re-watch episodes from an old favorite TV show?
Could apathy and a lack of interest be an antipsychotic side effects? I feel that this is my case. If so then maybe your situation could be improved by an improvement of your medication.
I’m not sure and I may be wrong. Just an idea like that…
Then here it is again! I’m going to use my Wikipedia quote again! So here is what the French Wikipedia page about antipsychotics says (translated to English):
“By reducing monoaminergic activity, neuroleptics (antipsychotics) decrease the intensity of emotions: fear, joy, anger, love, desire, combativity, others. They slow down the psyche, including imaginative and intuitive functions. […] Under neuroleptics, the facets of the patient’s personality can be altered.”
Yes I was struggling to do my vocational rehab class and wanted to quit at first, but got through it. I hope you do manage to finish classes. More you can look back on and be proud of as you get older instead of feeling like you’ve squandered all your time.
I know how you feel Gorrister. I am fortunately largely out of those negative symptoms as my meds working well, but when I do have negative symptoms I can’t do much either. If i can’t read it find listening to music helps a lot. TV is over stimulating but music is not as much. Music helps to distract me and elevate my mood sometimes, depending on what genre I listen to.
Listening to high bpm music can accelerate your thinking and/or following a line of melody in a piece of music
Classical music is also a sure way of expanding your analytical thinking
Try following debates on radio/TV
Caffeine pills or strong coffee can make you more alert which speeds up your thoughts (but gotta be careful not to overdo it)
Playing drums, again following fairly complex rhythm patterns to improve thought sequencing…
Give it a go!
I’m going to use my Wikipedia quote again! So here is what the French Wikipedia page about antipsychotics says (translated to English):