Has anyone found a natural way to help negative symptoms?

Medications
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Lack of motivation, brain fog, poor social functioning, and low grade depression are my main obsticles at the moment?

Any tips, advice or suggestions?

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For me, water, exercise, and quitting cigs.

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The supplement NAC has research behind it for helping negative symptoms.

I tried it and it seems to interact with abilify and pretty much made me suicidal. Pity.

It’s worth a go unless you’re on abilify.

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Practice and patience helps. To combat my poor social skills, I practice speaking to people. There’s nothing as far as I know that helps with motivation though.

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Yeah exercise. It’s catch 22. You have no motivation to start but if you do it your motivation can increase till it becomes second nature. I found a simple fitness tracker to be the start I needed. Set some achieveable goals and go from there.

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I tried quitting smoking. I went 4 months no smokes and 2 months off nicotine. My anxiety was off the charts. There was some benefit like experiencing more pleasure from ordinary things like food and orgasm, but the anxiety was paralyzing. My doc prescribed zoloft but since th schizophrenia is new to me, i was too concerned to take it and ultimately ended up smoking again.

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Tea/caffeine, therapy, exercise, friends/social life, work or other productive activity, taking meds regularly, knowing when to rest

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Thank you for this. I hadn’t heard about it before now. It sounds extremely promising.

I also saw something about sarcosine on here.

I’m thinking about trying one and then the other to see which works better, but I want to do more research first. Also, can’t find a reputable source stating if they are safe to take together.

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I’ve been tossing around the idea of a group exersise class that may help with social functioning as well.

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I made a goal today that I will try and talk to at least one stranger per day.

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I take supplement called “5-HTP” and it got rid of my fatigue and depressive mood completely. As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t interact with Abilify which I’m taking currently. But I heard it can interact with antidepressants and other APs, so consulting with your doctor is necessary but I highly recommend to try this if you think you have a problem with levels of Serotonin.

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I tried taking 5-HTP before I knew that I had this. Everything is making sense now. Does it work for you even after a couple of weeks have passed?

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I’m in a bout of heavy negative symptoms at the moment myself.

So far this has helped, although I haven’t just “gotten over it”,

  • Swimming (excersize)
  • A good sleep schedule
  • Eating better
  • Talking with a family member
  • Caffeine
  • Music
  • Brute force

Negative symptoms truely are the worst.

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Yes it was effective since I had taken it. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Thanks for the tip! I’ve been feeling a very mild tiredness and social withdrawal and lack of concentration lately. I don’t think it’s serious enough to take meds for so I’ve got to try this!

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What’s working for me is pr-yer.

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Negatives got better for me, without trying.
I still have them, but they’re mild.
When I have prominent positive symptoms, negatives are unnoticed

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In my case, lowering abilify and doing CBT techniques to change/enliven my thought processes.
I still smoke and find it hard to exercise. But I am able to hold down a job now.

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In my case weight loss helps and getting enough sleep proper diet and planning activities ahead for whenever

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