i think a good insight into this disease is really helpful,
like knowing what you are up against so that you can act before its too late
at first when i was first diagnosed i didnt have a clue what was happening and i didnt want to know either.
but now that i know more i feel that i am more able to manage it, i can see the warning signs and i know what to do in emergencies.
do you think that you have good insight?
Good insight for me= untold torment.
ive studyed mental illness 13 years to try find insight into it, ive learnt quite a bit, all the learning about it i learnt did not stop a break last year
I have very good insight, I kind of obsessively self-check, so I always know what’s going on with me. It means I can identify hallucinations and delusions as being not real, but it doesn’t make them go away. Honestly, it’s mostly just been exhausting, constantly monitoring my own behavior and mental state, trying to keep on top of everything so I can function in society without seeming too “weird”. I know I’m better off than if I had no insight, and was just unaware of myself and presented with my symptoms without caring or trying to hide them, but sometimes I wish I could just turn it off, stop caring, and just act naturally without going into crisis mode and REALLY freaking out. Sure, it’d be unsettling to people around me, but I think it’d be a lot less stressful for me.
I do the same thing. I’ve used my insight to fight my illness real hard and hide it so I could fit in. But, all it did was make things more difficult and caused me to go a long time before I finally got treatment.
Exactly! I’ve had symptoms since I was 16 (though they didn’t really become prominent until I was 21), and it’s only been this spring (just before I turned 29) that I’ve actually acknowledged them and sought treatment. I spent over a decade pretending nothing was wrong, making excuses to leave social situations, downplaying the symptoms that I can’t hide, and trying my damnedest not to admit there was a problem even to myself.
Yeah, since I was 16 in the back of my mind I really knew something serious was wrong but didn’t want to admit it to myself. My symptoms got severe when I was 19 but I was 25 by the time I decided to get help, as an alternative to suicide. I tried my best to just fight it myself but looking back it was all a big mistake. We have gone a long time without treatment! I can’t believe I made it out alive.
i have insight now only when espisdoes of psychosis i dont
drewleo34: Suicide was pretty much the turning point for me too. When I started having vivid thoughts of killing myself, I knew I had to do something, and that’s when everything else came out too. I talked to a friend, she asked me some questions, and that’s what started me on the road to getting help. I’d thought about Schizophrenia before, since it runs in my family, but I hadn’t really thought I’d actually be diagnosed with it. I was worried, because I worry about everything, but remember I hadn’t quite acknowledged my own symptoms until that breaking point earlier this year.
pedro27: My ability to understand my symptoms and distinguish them from reality is closely tied to my stress level. If I get too upset, everything starts piling up and I get lost and confused, and that’s when the walls start melting and I think my friends are sending nasty messages about me to each other, and if it gets TOO bad I completely lose myself and end up crying and rocking and babbling nonsense. I’m not really that self aware at that point, though I might have a little part of me that’s still saying “oh come on what’s wrong with you”, because that never completely goes away.
I was mentally ill way back as a child. I had no real insight. (who does at 6?) But as I grew up, I knew something was wrong with me. My insight really sharpened when I gave up drugs and alcohol. It’s easy to think you don’t have SZ when your hallucinations are because of LSD.
5 years ago I tried to actively leave this life and survived. That was a huge turning point for me as well. That is the year I really took rehab seriously. With out the drugs… I got more knowledge and insight.
It’s hard to know about insight when some pdocs have said good insight,some adequate insight, and others not much insight. I think a lot depends on how much you agree with the pdoc.
i have pretty much worked it out, i know when an ’ episode ’ is coming on , i can feel it.
take care
I’m still on the fence about my SZ.
I know things just arn’t normal, but how much of it is actual real, and how much is induced?
I knew something was wrong when I was 15 and had a very angry voice following me all the time. I started drinking heavily. It got better, I don’t believe it was thanks to the liquor, 5 years later I had forgotten about the voice. Then it came back when I was 32. I didn’t even notice before it was too late and I was in hospital with lots of medicines.
Having good insight for me has been a blessing and a curse. Sometimes it keeps me objective and sometimes it makes me feel like a centipede getting confused by paying too much attention to its own legs. What step did I just take? What step am I taking now? What step should I take next? That happens especially in social situations.