Hello, I am new here. It seems like a really nice environment you have all created and I think I might feel brave enough to share something and ask a question.
I had a bad year last year and for about seven or more months was going through a psychotic episode. I am schizophrenic. A lot of it was frightening, but not all hallucinations are frightening. I had bear which I think was a dog but I never saw it properly, who used to stay by my left leg for protection. But now he is gone. And I think Invega took him away. I know Invega took away the shadow man who possessed me and stopped me from feeling anxious and he played me songs on the radio. I wish he was back too. But there are a lot of other things I am pleased have gone thanks to Invega.
Anyway, like I say I’m on Invega I have just been put up to 12mg from 9mg because my psychiatrist says I am going through a relapse. Well my question is how can I have a relapse if I am on medication? Have you done that? Did my body get used to 9mg of Invega and decide it wasn’t enough? I guess it is a bit like having a heart attack on heart medication.
I was ok for a few months, maybe only two months, at the end of last year and now I am seeing things like swarms of rats, a man in blue, the grey man in the garden again (he is truly terrifyingly awful) I couldn’t figure out whether I was made of steel the other day and I’m 99% sure I am not today. Numbers keep hammering me from everywhere. Also worms keep crawling under the skin on my face and I just want to peel off all the skin on my face and dig them out.
But even in the months I was sort of alright, I still had heaps of paranoia. Why didn’t the Invega stop the paranoia?
I am sorry if this is a bit of a ramble. I don’t want to change from Invega because I know what it does to my body as far as side effects go and also it looks like a tiny ceramic fuse.
I had more relapses early on. Part of it was finding the right med combo and part of it was unlearning destructive habits that undermined my stability. Was talking to the wife and realize my last psych ward admission was when we were dating – nearly 17 years ago. I’ve had some rough patches since then, but nothing requiring a hospital stay.
Yes, I was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1980. I spent much of 1981 locked up in a psychiatric hospital, it was in the hospital that I was first put on medication at high doses. I got out and moved directly into a nice group home. I was still on medication.
By 1983 I was working and living semi-independently in mental heath housing and I became stabilized on medication and I figured I would never be hospitalized again. Well I worked at the same job for 5 years. By this time I had a car, I was going to college, I had a few friends, and I was living my life. Then disaster struck in 1988. I relapsed and I had to be hospitalized. It was a major relapse and I was in and out of the hospital several times.
It took me a year to recover and get back to working and school. And I had been taking my medication faithfully since 1981. My last major hospitalization was in 1990. I stayed out of the hospital until just three months ago when I had a mini-relapse.
Yes, medication can stop working for a person suddenly. You might need a different dose or a whole other new medication.
It can take a while for the pdoc’s to get the right med’s at the right dose for you. I think there is a certain amount of trial and error in it. It’s good that you’re being open about your hallucinations. Let the doctors know.
Thank you. I hope you are feeling better. Is hospital scary? I have managed to talk my way out of it and got daily visits from the mental health team instead (I live in Australia).
I wish I knew what caused it. My psychiatrist says it’s just the chemicals in my brain and that’s fine. But is there something I am doing that is aggravating those chemicals? Who knows. And what is a relapse? I went years, almost ten years of being virtually fine and without medication because the only doctor I saw many many years ago thought I was bipolar and gave me lithium but I knew that wasn’t right so I stopped taking it and stopped talking about it. I went many years almost symptom free until last year.
He also said that every time a person with schizophrenia goes through a psychotic episode, those episodes are usually worse each time and get longer to recover and harder to recover so maybe I am not finished this episode yet?
I relapse and have episodes come here and there and if I was not on medication I would be hospitalized or in extreme psychosis that takes over me.
Schizophrenia with me comes and goes somtimes for no reason it hits hard constantly propably would be same situation if I were not on meds.
I think staying on a maintenece dose or the highest dose that does not put me at risk for Tardive diskeneasea helps when my schizophrenia acts up regardless of if I am on medication or not it always acts up many times a year.
Some hospitals I’ve been in are scary, some aren’t. Unfortunately the one I was in three months ago was scary. But I was only in it for two days. Stress can cause a relapse, sometimes a person is very stressed out and doesn’t even know it, which happened to me. There are certain steps you can take to minimize the chance of a relapse such as eating right, getting regular good sleep, having a good support system of doctors family and friends, exersizing,and for most people, taking your medication reguarly. You can look up “relapse prevention for schizophrenia” online for more tips.
I relapsed a couple of times on meds. I have upped my Abilify from 5 to 25 mg and added 300 mg Seroquel. I have been stable for more than 6 months on this combo. I don’t know if my relapses have been worse than my first episode. My first episode lasted 2 years. I am very much self aware and when I get in contact with Jerek, my guardian angel I know I need to see my pdoc.
the worse relapse I’ve ever had was while I was on meds. I went to this pdoc and he put me the same exact dose and meds that I was on in the hospital two years ago. They didn’t help anymore. His idea of a cure was to go for a walk, his words not mine.
Hi! I have severe paranoia with Abilify but no hospitalizations since like 2008. Abillify took away the hallucinations, but my paranoid thoughts still remain. I try not to trigger them (i.e. reading about snowden and stuff), but it’s always there, regardless of meds.
I still think I am being brain monitored etc… the meds do allow me to not panic over this. I no longer see things or hear things like I used to.
I still think the same though, and I can’t figure out how to stop the paranoia that is like ingrained! I try rationalizing everything, like looking for evidence that I’m wrong, stuff like that. Then again, that’s not from the actual medicine, that’s just me trying to problem solve, so yeah I’m in the same boat!!!
I found it boring. The last time I was in there was no WiFi, no Netflix, and only one TV. The “talk show hens” had the remote and wouldn’t watch anything interesting, like STAR TREK.
For me, scary, I got assaulted a few times. AND the dudes there kept watching football and wouldn’t let any of us watch anything else during TV time.
I finally got through to an inmate who was there on suicide watch with a bunch of officers in the TV room with us, and she got them to put it on that show, what is it called, Prison Break? The funniest/disturbing thing, though, she got all riled up during a scene when the guards were being held hostage and she started screaming “kill em kill the pig kill the pig!” right there in front of everyone and the rest of us patients were trying to contain ourselves since the cops were just sitting there like “keep talking, you’ll see what happens…” and then I burst out laughing and so did a lot of other people and then the cops were like “enough.” to ALL of us and I got scared and went into my room. True story!
No but very boring when you start feeling well. My first months I hardly recognized because I was so occupied in my head. I was hospitalized for 6 months.
Thank you for all of your replies. This is why I like this forum, because for the first time I feel like I am not the only person going through this. I feel like I don’t have to keep myself on mute. It is reassuring to know that other people have had rough times on medication. And also for sharing your hospital experiences too, no star trek would be devastating.