Hi guys, I am South Korean, but I am planning to go to France. I want to just talk about my life stories.haha

My schizophrenic record traces back to my high school year. and about 5 years after my symptoms appeared, I went to the mental clinic.

I was diagnosed with schizophrenia paranoid type in the beginning stage about 10 years ago, and for last 5 to 7 years, I have never skipped my psychiatric medicine. As a result, my mentality has been getting better and better bit by bit and I was able to pass an exam for becoming local government employee with the first or second highest score amongst the exam candidates.

Meanwhile, I have always dreamed of a life in many foreign countries long before I turned out to be a schizophrenic. Actually, I learned French, and English for more than a decade, and more recently, with my mentality being 99.99% normal, I decided to do a challenge for my life in order to realize my never ending dream : Trying foreign countries’ life to verify if my fantasy for foreign countries are almost the same to what I always dreamed of.

So, I chose the country, France, whose language I have been learning for no more than 13 years and where the university tuition fee is comparatively cheaper than that of other countries although it has been raised a lot compared to the past. As a result, I have left the job I acquired by passing the exam in order to make this dream.

Anyway, the preface was too long haha sorry.

The main concerns that I consider to be severe for this challenge is that I have never skipped the medicines for last half a decade, but I ā€œDO NOTā€ know what would happen to me once I skip it for any unpredictable reasons in foreign countries. I have never been to abroad. So, there would be some variables.

However, in France, there is a social security system for medical insurance called ā€œAmeliā€, and as far as I heard about that, the medical cost with a generalist doctor is not that high, while the one with a specialist doctor would be a lot higher.

In addition to that, all the three universities I applied to last year refused my application : quite confusing because I already resigned from my job as I believed that I would be accepted to at least one of those universities. For that, I just applied again to the French language institution that belongs to the university of Strasbourg, and I finally got an accordance with the entry into the university.

haha period.

Postscript : I dropped out when in 2010, which is also one of the reasons that I want to go to a university, even if I think the French one would be best for me.

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I hope the transition to life in France will be smooth. I would consider bringing along at least 6 months worth of medication, just in case they won’t set you up with a local doctor. Good luck with your studies!

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Thank you !! You encourage me !! hehe, your advice will help me a lot. have a nice day !

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I did my Erasmus (exchange program) in France (Toulouse).

At Uni they rarely use coursebooks and you have to take a lot of notes in class.

Strasbourg is a lovely city I’ve been there before.

Good luck!

A picture with me from last summer in Strasbourg:

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Ohhh you have been to Strasbourg !! wow ! then, you know how to speak French ?
Parlez-vous franƧais ?

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Oui, je parle FranƧais assez bien.

But this forum doesn’t allow to speak non-English languages.

I’m a Dutch native speaking Belgian.

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I this forum doesn’t allow to speak non-English language !! I didn’t know that.
Anyway, you look nice haha

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@PeacefulDarkness what you have done is really impressive and for sure you are a special exemple here. I hope everything turns out good for you in France. You got a goid advice to take 6 months of medicine, and just in case talk to someone to be ready to mail some more. Looks like you are onto the right ones.
Good luck to you.

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Welcome to the forum @PeacefulDarkness .

I’m South Korean too and I lived abroad for 10 years. Unfortunately, I have nothing but guilt from the experience there. I thought everything was great until I came to Korea and thought about what I did there. I’m ashamed of my time there. Personally I do not plan to return to any country abroad because of the fear of potentially ruining other people’s lives. But I know that it’s just my experience, and I hope everything goes smooth for you. 즐거욓 ģœ ķ•™ģƒķ™œģ“ ė˜ģ‹œźøø ė°”ėž˜ģš”. (I hope you have a great time studying abroad.)

I’ve been to Korea. I know kamsahamnida means thankyou.

That’s about it.

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome! I’m thinking you should find a psychiatrist in France before you move there. Ask the office about meds and filling them and about problems that may arise that you need to be aware of for en you move there.

If you have a psychiatrist in France, and begin seeing them immediately, you should be ok as far as always having meds goes.

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Inspirational!

If you skip medication for one day you can be alright. You might feel weird.

If you skip for 2 or 3 days things can start yo go south. People can skip for up to like 2 weeks and be fine before everything starts to go south.

If you have first episode psychosis and you experience no symptoms they stop you from experiencing relpases not symptoms. If you have a low symptom load this can also be the case.

Schizophrenia is statistical higher in migrant populations. This is typically also because being a refugee is linked with incidents of trauma, which is not applicable to yout situations.

When you do not speak the language well and understand the culture. Coming from a different country it is hard to wrap your head around things like different healthcare systems. These are all things people take for granted in understanding growing up in their home country. When you struggle to fit in and get around then it easy to see people as different to yourself.

When you see yourself as different to others it is easy to create a mindset where have trouble relating to your environment, everything becomes a surreal more easy. That combine with the constant stress of trying to understand everything and the pressure of living in an unfamiliar environment is the secondary cause of higher incidences of schizophrenia in migrant populations other then the trauma.

It can be hard to judge your mental state when you are continually exposed new environments. That’s why doctors don’t recommend changing your medication when you go on holidays. Routine will be important as it will help judge your mental state. You will be without a support network. You should try and wrap your head around the healthcare system first thing and have a plan if you start to feel weird.

Depending on how high functioning you are it could be useful to spend some time acclimatising and setting up base camp and figuring out the healthcare so you feel adept in your environment and have a safety net. I.e. try settling in and study a semester before you go travelling around france. That could also be a complete waste of time and way too conservative if your French is fluent/business level and you are high IQ. Just my thoughts about travelling overseas. I know I wouldn’t survive in a non native English country but then again I haven’t studied another language for 13 years. The above is my own thoughts in relation to myself if I had to live in foreign country at this point in my recovery journey, which isn’t something I wouldn’t do anyway.

You know yourself best and what applies. Congratulations on getting accepted to university, go you