Hello, first post here, though I’ve lurked a bit. I am going to a new psychiatrist on the 30th. I have a long and rather colorful history with the mental health field, but I will simply sum it up with “I’ve never been fully honest and compliant.” However, I am now 24 years old and I am still unable to keep a job or stay in college. The fact that I stay in my room most of the day, all day, is extremely depressing to me. I bathe like once or twice a week, and while I’m ok with it personally I also don’t want to smell bad in front of people. I’ve accepted now that I need to truly accept help.
I am not self-diagnosing, nor am I asking you to diagnose me, because I know you have zero ability to. However, schizophrenia or at least something on the schizophrenia spectrum is on my short list of what I think is really wrong with me. (Although, I will ask as a side question… is it normal with schizophrenia to have never heard outside voices?) So, I am going to go to this psychiatrist with the intention of being fully honest about my symptoms and accepting of the possibility that I will be taking antipsychotics. But they’ve always scared me enough to reject them whenever I’d be given them. I’m scared of brain damage and weight gain. But I’m also sick of how I’m living now. I can’t live this way forever. How can I fully be ok with being treated for whatever’s wrong with me?
Have you ever had delusions? If you have no positive symptoms you will find it hard to get a diagnosis. I would look at positive and negative symptoms and see how they apply to you.
I don’t hear outside voices too, just in my head, I had severe negative symptoms and yet I have some, problems with cognition, speaking, reading, paranoia, gaining no pleasure out of life, pain in body and catatonia, delusions…
Try to prepare a list of your problems before going to psychiatrist, get ideas from what people say of their symptoms here, it will help alot when you go to psychiatrist,
i remember when i was in my early 20’s i had an idea that i had schizophrenia but hadent actually heard voices yet. Ive also seen some users on here who dont have auditory hallucinations. your doctors can tell you whats going on best. You may be in a good place where you could potentially develop SZ but are still able to thwart it. I’d say just follow your docs recomendations and you can avoid SZ altogether.
Yes, I agree, that’s why I’m forcing myself to take action now rather than for me to wait and get worse. Psychiatrists scare the heck out of me, and honestly I think most of them aren’t great people, but my friend lectured me the other day and made me realize they’re likely the only people who can truly help.
dont even be afraid @HaxBean , life gets a lot better! you dont have to live in a way where youre not happy. Finding the right med combo is very freeing for many people.
The best thing you can do is realize something’s going on and reach out for help. You’re doing that so you’re on the right path. As far as what’s going on with you, be open with the pdoc and let them figure it out. Take the meds as they are prescribed. That is what helps most of the people who are doing well with sz. Hang in there and take it one day at a time.
Well first of all it’s a great thing you’re seeking help finally! Meds are gonna be your best shot at finally getting you stable and functional. I was the same as you had a history of not being fully honest or compliant and then finally sucked it up. Took me quite a while to find meds that were good lemme tell ya.
To answer some concerns yes it’s ok if you dont get outside voices. I don’t get them I get visual and tactile hallucinations and inside voices that are more like thoughts that are officially termed as thought insertion. As for the med concerns, dont worry about brain damage. I have taken several pharmacology classes one being for psych meds specifically and APs actually protect AGAINST the brain damage that is caused by schizophrenia. Long term untreated sz is what causes brain damage, not APs.
As for weight gain there are certain meds more likely to cause it than others. If I were you I would start out with the newest possible meds. For example rexulti has caused me no weight gain at all. Abilify is not associated with weight gain and neither is Latuda and I have been on both of these and not gained weight. Try to avoid meds ending in pine like clozapine, quetiapine, etc. These are the ones that will make you pack on pounds. The dones, such as risperidone, paliperidone, are also more likely to make you gain weight and I gained 30 lbs on risperidone. Geodon (ziprasidone) is an exception and is actually known to cause weight loss. So that’s an option too. I lost 12 lbs on it and my friend who’s on it has lost 10 so far.
Another handy tip for avoiding weight gain, after I gained 30 lbs on risperidone that I was never able to successfully lose, I made a rule that if I gained 5 lbs within 2 weeks on a medication that I would not continue that medication. Losing 5 lbs is doable. Losing 10+lbs becomes more of a challenge and if you gain 5 lbs in 2 weeks that means you’re gaining 10 lbs a month. So when you start any new med, try to weigh yourself regularly to make sure this isn’t happening to you because being overweight or obese is a serious health concern and in my opinion is not worth staying on that med for.
You may not find the perfect med combo for you right away. Dont let one bad experience scare you off meds. Just keep pushing. It took me 3 years of horrible med experiences to finally find meds that were perfect for me, worked well and gave me no side effects. It’s doable because there’s so many meds to try so be persistent and an advocate for yourself if you are not happy on a med.