Because can’t you always slip back into a schizophrenic episode or just deal with symptoms everyday? If so then what is recovery?
I’ve been diagnosed for 2 years now and not a week has gone by where I haven’t experienced some symptom, and it seems to get worse as time moves on. I mean I guess I had a period of less symptoms but I wouldn’t call that recovering, I’d call it a temporary relief.
What’s your recovery been like if you have recovered or are recovering?
I rely a lot on what other people tell me, and also I try and be focused on my own progress.
They tell me I’m doing great, much better than when I was off meds or undiagnosed. I feel better, in a lot of ways, I’m a better person even.
The thing is I also have this issue. I still feel symptoms mostly every day, here and there for about half an hour in the morning usually, and I break concentration in the classes I’m attending. It’s been difficult but manageable, I think I’ll be able to do the full course, all five years of it.
I mark the decision to take that degree as the first step in my recovery, I refused to stay home and be depressed about the illness. I’m exercizing three days a week and I’m returning to the swimming pool and starting a yoga class. This past week and a half I’m not doing much because I strained a tendon in my leg and I feel my moods shifting a lot, I was more stable doing more exercise…
I also feel that breaking free from learned helplessness is making up a lot of my mental time, and that’s less time focusing on symptoms and more time focusing on recovery.
Don’t let the little symptoms bum you out. You’re doing really good.
I received my diagnosis 5 years ago. Am i recovering? Yes, i think I’m. Gradually though. A friend of mine is a professor in psychiatry. She advised me to count recovery in terms of years. The first year post diagnosis is the worst.
The first two years i think I’m talking to the voices a lot of time. I seem to can’t tell what is real most of the time. I want to know but I’m confused. I have some periods of remission, where voices were gone for a year or so after some reality testing with people i trust. Life is easier when I’m living inside of my head. I have a hard time walking out of the psychosis when the voices were all gone and i have to face the reality.
For the past two years, I began to take up part time job and go out on my own. I gradually find myself capable of managing more. I can manage social conversation better. I am quite certain my voices are unreal and i dont talk to them most of the time.
I still have psychotic break every year but i think i’m coping with it better. Over time, I made it clearer that they cannot be real. I dont lose contact with reality and can manage work life. I was not hospitalized and i recovered from the psychosis spontaneously. I’m not so into it and I haven’t done myself any harm. I think that it is more under controlled. I can still act quite normal despite the voices. I got to know they are unreal faster.
Will i walk into a psychosis again? Probably. But i think I’m learning to live with it. The content and intensity of the voices change as i think of them differently. For the past months, voices are minimal. I’m also working on some goals.
I think my recovery came when I felt “Want” again.
I wanted… and that gave me some motivation to get to what I wanted.
I’ll always have my head circus… I’ll always have some break through symptoms… I’ll probably always have some glitch days…
But being able to have what I want despite the head circus to me is a from of recovery.
When I could manage the symptoms enough to work and go to school again… to start to connect to others again… to get my motivation back… those were milestones.
The second milestone was also getting out of that learned helplessness. I had docs in my past telling me how bad my prognosis was… I had to get past that too.
Plus I had to get back into the routine of living. It’s a process…
Good luck and I hope you feel better soon.
I guess its when you can start to think positively about the future , or start making plans towards some positives goals
[quote=“FranzKafka, post:1, topic:35441”]
What’s your recovery been like if you have recovered or are recovering?
[/quote]There is no recovery hope for me. My energy levels have been slowly plumetting since my diagnosis. My physical vitality is greatly decreasing, meanwhile my mind is growing ever stronger. A rapidly dying brain & body, but a brightening mind - it’s not too bad of a trade-off.
You can recover, but it’s usually measured in years when you have serious damage to your brain. Don’t take anti-inflammatories unless you have to as some imflammation is needed to heal the brain.
Even if you just got off of drugs… it’s really surprisingly possible for the young immune system— but it takes like three years probably.
You don’t ever fully recover. Symptoms will come and go. Old ones will fall away. New ones will come up. As you get older, positive symptoms might be replaced by negative ones. You mellow out. You come to a point where you can accept your symptomatology. You may find you have episodes every decade or so. When you can function well in society and do things with well people, then you know you are making progress. You don’t recover due to medication. Medication facilitates normal behavior. Thinking might clear up. You will probably suffer from agitation alll your life. Only you know these things.
Hello,
I’ve been in recovery for about 4yrs now and whats kept me sane and going strong is my support system and believing in them and some other things about how to look at the circumstances I’m in and what I can do to improve the overall quality of life for myself and not let my mental health symptoms get in the way because at times the schizophrenia can have power (punishments and rewards to change a desired behavior) if you can learn to be powerless it helps some or it has for me in my recovery.
Its different strokes for different folks and recovery for some may last a life time while others it might be different ball game.
Everybody has baggage its how you handle it.
Have a good day!
Intounknown
Just think back to how things were a week or a month ago… I’m continuously noticing a lot of improvement especially on the month scale.
I can almost forget about my concerns at will. They are largely centered around other people… So I just forget those people are out there… boom new frame of mind… took a few months of isolation to get to that point.