Before you go and shoot me down and say this had already been made, I want to find out from those specifically that have had it the longest.
Anyways
Did you always have it like it started out with a few symptoms here and there and then had your first psychotic break in your 20s or did you live a normal life and all of a sudden you regressed with negative symptoms in your 20s and now as a result get psychotic here and there?
You don’t have to say, but mainly I want to hear from those that had the illness their entire life, and also, I do believe in my hope that everyone can recover from this illness, regardless of prognosis statistics. And dont think that schizophrenia is gonna damn you because at the end of the day we are just people, with lives to live and we have potential. Everybody.
I haven’t had it my whole life. It started when I was about 25 and I’m 71 now. When it started I had several prodromal symptoms that lasted for up to 5 years and then had a sudden full-blown break with consensual reality.
I was desperately trying to figure things out for another 5 or 6 years and then I started living the life I had been given and enjoying things about it. I’ve had episodes of apathy and anhedonia all along but no ongoing consistently negative symptoms.
I’ve had it since I was 16 but it took until I was 30 until I was formally diagnosed. I am 38 now. So I’ve had this illness 22 years. I started with a lot of negative symptoms and then the positive symptoms really took over when I was 27.
I believe despite having this illness most of life, recovery is still possible and achievable.