Over the years my ability to hide and manage my symptoms has become more and more difficult, I’m wondering what other people’s experiences are with this
Right now I can hold onto complete reality for a few minutes at a time, enough to chat with a checkout clerk if I have to. After that it gets harder, and the longer I have to force myself to suppress my symptoms and ignore hallucinations the more intense they get
I’m unmedicated and still realising how much my psychosis affects me so sorry if this is a silly question
I haven’t been able to understand my current psychosis as such until very recently. Was medicated many years ago but they botched it so I haven’t been on APs since 2015. Hoping to try some soon as I am finally booked in for a psych appointment, I really hope they help
I can pass as normal. But I don’t really care about what people think of me , I’m sure half of all people are fake and pretend whatever they want about people with mental illness.
I am actually really good at it. The nurse at my infusion treatment commented that she’d have never guessed I have the “issues” that I do. I’m very friendly and kind of bubbly, maybe; I think this makes people wonder whether everything is true. I usually tell doctor’s offices that I struggle to leave home so that they know why I’m missing or rescheduling appointments. Many doctors are nice about it, but dentists tend not to be. Two dentists have dropped me. One was surprising because I thought they’d be good ones- they researched TD and asked me questions about MI. Then dumped me when I had issues with said MI.
That’s such a shame that your dentists weren’t understanding despite seeming like they would be. I hope you can find one that’s reasonable soon
I used to be able to hide it all the time, I’m also friendly and confident in public - but over the years it started taking longer and longer to recover from pretending, and due to the exhaustion it’s ended up that I can’t pretend anymore. Which is kind of a good thing really since hiding it hasn’t helped me
I was having the same questions in fact, dont worry heh…
Well, i am unable often to leave the house because i really feel sick, so ashamed of that too… I am a bit disabled in my body too even, because of the sz, i have a psychosomatic disorder as well, so i am not good at hiding…
For your question, i manage now to pretend to be ‘‘normal’’ for some 2 hours, then i crash tired at home… Sometimes i even cant do that so yeah, am working on it… But am also working to not boil in guilt and shame about my sz, cause i’ll have to be honest with some people one day too i think…
But my paranoia goes still very much aroudn the other’s opinions and words, which shouldnt be like that i guess… But this is hard, we are all social animals, i know
You know, i even told to some docs etc that i am a sz… I did it mainly, cause i always think, that they’ll see it no matter what and i needed to see them for my health so yeah… But this is a scary thing to do, they probably judged me rapidly with that… Just keep fighting, you are not alone heh. I hope we’ll find some peace on that too, its hard for me too on that tbh still lol.
Huggies
Define “normal”. As I understand it those with schizophrenia can be susceptible to fatigue, but fatigue isn’t confined to just those with schizophrenia… If we were to take fatigue out of the equation, I wonder what other daily struggles people have.
Mine dumped me because I’d not be for quite a while due to Covid and mobility problems pre and post the falls I had. My daughter has asked for me to put back on the list. It’s increasingly hard to get NHS dental care, and even with such dentists it can still be rather expensive.
I can pass as mostly normal or mildly eccentric for extended periods. I’ve worked with people for years and they have no clue. Many people who know me well still don’t understand how mentally ill I actually am.
Hmm, I’d define “normal” here as… Able to focus on what’s happening around you, able to hold a conversation, appearing calm/collected (even if you’re not), and not reacting to hallucinations/not being obviously influenced by psychosis stuff
Like for me once I’ve used up my “normal energy” I physically move oddly, twitch and blink way more, say things that don’t make sense or come out garbled, can’t focus and get increasingly nervous and agitated
Really good question as I hadn’t thought to define what normal meant at least for me!!
And yeah I wonder about that too. I didn’t know fatigue was part of sz I am learning a lot from this community
Oh, how hard it is!
I don’t know how I even pull it off somedays
I guess it depends on how my mood is
Many times I feel wonkerz and think everyone thinks I’m drunk or something
Just keep fighting, you are not alone heh. I hope we’ll find some peace on that too, its hard for me too on that tbh still lol.
