Hello how are you doing?

[shellys12]

Hello just wandered has anyone made any progress?
me I have been on clozaril for around 10 years but still have the hell of residual symptoms
I manage very well going to college and succeeding but it really restricts my life mostly the social side. I have no social life at all and hate weekends. it is hard enough to meet new friends at age of 41 but this illness is what is causing my lack of friends. anyone else can relate/

[SzAdmin]

Hi, and welcome to our forums.

Yes - the problems you’ve identified are common topics on these forums - as I’m sure others will add here. Here are some recent conversations on the topic:

Making new friends

I am doing well, my meds have recently put me in remission, and I am making A’s in school, but I haven’t made any new friends. I joined the anime club, it was enjoyable, there was actually a guy from my NAMI group there so maybe I will make friends with him. But other than that, I dated a girl a few times last semester, but she quit responding to my calls for apparently no reason…which was weird because we seemed to be going fine, I kissed her goodnight and stuff. But anyways, how do you guys deal with being lonely? I have a workout buddy, he’s one my three friends. One of my friends is a user, he does uppers and weed and alcohol and that’s all he talks about. The other is an EMT, he i…

Do you actually have friends?

I really doubt my friends making skill,I just don’t have even one long term friends,I can’t make a lasting friendship,I am disappointed about this matter Do you have friends who you actually sees for three years or more?

[anon49185775]

Ive actually made a fair number of new friends since that post! And rekindled old friendships

[anon49185775]

I had very few friends when I first got on meds. I had two, and they like to drink and smoke pot so there was a problem there. I started dating girls and none of them really were successful, each stopped responding after a month of dating, then I made friends in my honors psych program by talking to people and giving a presentation on schizophrenia and saying “I have paranoid schizophrenia” when the abnormal psych professor asked the class what we knew about schizophrenia. People came to me after that. My old friends heard about me cleaning up the alcoholic thing and getting on meds and working out, some of them came back around, so thats been good, I even have come back in touch with my ex girlfriend from my onset, she wants to hangout, we went on a coffee date and she said she has an open-ish relationship with her boyfriend so I asked permission before kissing her, and she was totally cool with it. I met some people and had sex buddy relationships in this past semester, two of those back to back, but now I have that out of my system. Im seeing a girl for coffee tomorrow actually.

I also joined a competitive powerlifting team, and they are a bit of a cult so yeah thats that. That’s a big deal, they hangout together on the weekends and we workout about 18 hours a week. I just joined a week ago. The team is gonna go see Godzilla this friday. They have a private facebook group where they dick around and post stupid funny ■■■■ and make plans for hanging out as well as important powerlifting stuff.

[Gtx1990]

Hey there,I am quite different as in I still had no friends but I am at least doing ok with my current meds,contend,if I do not make friends so be it,I just stay this way and just hope not to deteriorate into the depression or psychosis again…I already accept my illness but I really hope no more depression or psychosis.

My psychiatrist told me,life is up and down,I hope I already dropped deep enough to not drop deeper,and can climb abit up the ladder,alone

[Comatose]

I have one close friend who I can talk to about anything. She knows me well, even better than my husband I think. She works as a nurse at the psych hospital. But not where I’ve been.

I have another good friend, a neighbor. She is 86 years old. We see each other several times a week. We talk about everything too. But she is not as close as the first friend. She is my children’s “granny” because their real grandmother died. She said she would love to be their granny.

My “problem”, if it even is a problem, in relationships is that I find friends much older than me. My best friend is as old as my mom. Ppl my age are so self occupied and are out partying every weekend drinking and making fools of them selves. I don’t drink anymore. I have kids and pets. I value other things in life. It is strange that my best friend’s children are my age.

[darksith]

thought i would say hi.
take care

[SurprisedJ]

I’m working on getting better, and during all this time, I have just gotten two friends. I have one friend who has returned into my life, and one who is new.

All the rest of my friends are my family.

It’s very hard to meet and trust new people. But little by little, it can happen.

[Gtx1990]

Great positive thinking,I really need to learn from you

[Trigger]

I’ll be your friend

I relate to the social issues. I’m working on them myself.

[Gsunnmoon]

I also relate to this, I have zero friends. I’m 30 and I haven’t had a real friend in years that wasn’t using me for money. I’d rather have no friend than friends who are only using me and ripping me off all the time.