I recently read the post
and I was very surprised that so many people had multiple epsiodes. What trigged those relapse?
Not compliment with meds?
The severity of the illness?
Lack of sufficient potent meds?
I was wondering if there is any survey on this topic, and what can be done to prevent relapse?
A lot of my relapses usually started by a simple revisit to Dr. Marijuana and his friend Mr. Alcohol… and other drugs.
Usually once I started the drinking and drugs again… I wouldn’t take my meds…
NO meds… surviving on Whiskey… pot and amphetamines…
Relapse… big time.
I also had a short time of destabilization when my meds were getting switched up a bit… but that was a few hard days… and nothing compared to the past.
I think compliance with meds, if you have been stable for a good while and are still a first episode sufferer, is a personal choice. The meds have enough bad side effects that it is not a simple one either, and it can be a responsible, well-considered move to stop taking meds. That said, many people who should know better have also shown tendencies to go off meds, and that contributes to the number of people relapsing.
Often meds lose some effectiveness over time as the brain adjusts to their presence. Then symptoms will start to manifest, and if it’s not caught early enough there could be a relapse. Usually the dosage of meds is upped, and you wait for the brain to readjust to the higher dosage, etcetera.
For some people the drugs are not effective and they just have to wait out their episodes, possibly in hospital. They are the unlucky ones as they don’t have any control.
My relapses have two causes - either going off my meds or succumbing to big stressors. Put both together and I will most likely end up in hospital. It follows to prevent relapse I need to stick to my meds and avoid major stress if I can.
It seemed non-compliance with meds is a major reason for relapse. I was wondering, is there any people who is compliant to the meds and relapse meanwhile?
Yes, I was on meds and still relapsed last year when it was Ramadan fast. Consequently, I found out I don’t need to fast, because I have a chronic illness. It took two to three months to recover from that relapse.
Is there anyone who is stable and compliant with meds, while relapse at the same time?
My last relapse happened because I was under so much stress my mind just snapped. I think that’s what started it to begin with. When I was first diagnosed it was around the time of transferring from middle school to high school, and things got so confusing for me. The most recent one I was working 55+ hours a week in a non-healthy environment (a lot of negative people crammed into a small work space) and with constant change happening there not feeling settled with anything, or given excuses for the changes I just couldn’t handle it.
I had some stuff going on-line that didn’t help either, was part of this “tagging” group that would find pictures and tag comment lines on them…I thought it was a nice way to release my creativity…until things in the group got too stressful, the head of the group kept complaining about rules MSN was putting on the community sites and was wanting to find a new place to put the group or just cancel the group all together. I let it bother me too much I thought I’d help and tried a site but she felt like I was trying to overtake the group and basically pushed me out of the group getting everyone to turn against me when I was only trying to help.
Well all that drama at work and at home my mind went on overload and panic attacks hit, like one every night for two weeks. At one point I was even considering being admitted to the hospital but was talked out of it and just went to my doctor once a week until we adjusted my medications and since I had quit work and dropped the website crap I started calming down. Things were getting manageable for me again.
So for me Stress is a huge trigger, and I have to be careful as to how much I let myself get.
I don’t know if it’s a relapse… I like to call it a glitch…
Relapse isn’t always positive symptoms… I’ve been fighting off some negatives for the past few months… getting slower and slower… more disconnected from my family… more withdrawn… less attention… less motivation… communicating less and less…
My Latuda got pushed up… but then I was going manic… so now mood stabilizers have been added. So far I’m feeing level… Not sure what to do with this…
I was doing fine on like a maintenece dose of antipsychotic.
I was recovering ready to get up in the morning and wanting a career or job, and marriage and even children.
then sombody kept pestering me about his daughter and how he wanted grandkids and he wanted me to meet his daughter. He would not leave me alone about it and it became a full on psychosis were I thought he tapped into me telepathically and all I could feel was him and his family and all I could focus on were him and his family and all my thoughts were coming to me telepathically about him and his family.
My psychiatrist raised my antipsychotic up from a maintence dose to the highest dose he felt comfortable with me taking daily, and it helped keep me from the psychiatric unit, but I am still truamatized.