How much of negative symptoms could be artificially created by the fact that we believe in them?

DX'd - Sz/SzA
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I sometimes wonder if some of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia could be artificially reinforced by our knowledge of the fact that we are supposed to have these symptoms. I sometimes wonder if some of it is mental.

I know that they are a real thing but could some of these symptoms be artificially created by the fact that we know that we are supposed to have them? In other words, could some of it be mental or all in our heads?

This is part of the reason that I wonder if CBT could potentially help some of the symptoms.

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I had negatives before onset.
I didn’t know about negatives back then.
Now i understand it.

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I understand that some of these symptoms are real…but I am wondering that if some of the symptoms like lack of motivation(or avolition) may be worsened by the fact that we believe in them and therefore tend to just give up and figure something like “Oh well, it’s my negative symptoms, there’s nothing that i can do.”

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That could be said about depression too.
Maybe it’s made or exaggerated by our minds.

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Maybe it a placebo reaction. I get a buzz drinking alcohol free beer.

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I think it’s a grey area. What are negatives, what is just being lazy. There is also some overlap with depression. It’s not clear cut.

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@Bowens What do you think? You really improved your negative symptoms psychologically using CBT?

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In what did you improve?

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I have only read one chapter of my book because of the small print so my question isn’t really related to my knowledge of CBT at this point. Just posing a question. I’m just wondering if the knowledge of these symptoms may be making it worse than what it really is.

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I don’t think so as its a medical problem.

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Knowledge is power

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Exactly. Maybe some of my negatives are not as bad as they seem to me. Maybe some of them are reinforced by the idea that “I can’t do it because of my negatives”.

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This seems like philosophy and not science imo

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Psychology is recognized as a social science and this is what we are talking about here. It’s not a philosophy.

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I mean its not medical. Sz is medical and not psychological.

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Anyways, psychology and therapy was crap and did nothing for my negative symptoms. I don’t need someone to tell me what to do, I already know what to do lmao

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I mean I personally don’t believe it has any particular benefit in simply degrading your self as “negative symptom” and stop trying.

But I believe that these so called negative symptoms aren’t a disease on its own. What I mean is that I don’t think it only occurs ONLY in schizophrenia or depression.

It’s a deficit in the neuro dynamics of the brain… I can’t move or think clearly without medicine.

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It was so ridiculous my therapy lol Like I told the psychologist I want to work then he says you can work go ahead. Like wtf are you serious. I can’t work bcz I have negative symptoms, having someone tell me what to do doesn’t help, I am not a kid, I am an adult.

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My negative symptoms are much less off meds or on low dose meds or on Abilify so it must be medical and there must be a med to fix them.

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On Abilify I had part time jobs, went to gym everyday, hanged out with friends everyday etc Now on 6mg Risperdal I can’t even get out of bed, I feel physically disabled.

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