How successful were you before sz

I have a hunch a lot of people on here were successful before you got sz. Were you normal, successful, or very successful? Or did you have mental illness during your childhood. I was very successful before mental illness hit.

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How do you measure success @Jake ?

I probably earn a bit less now than before but I’m a better person now than I was before. Or at least I hope I am.

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Whatever makes you successfull. Just look up the definition of success, and see if you had a lot of success before mentall illness struck.

Not me. I had gotten my chef’s ticket, but was still working for crap wages and overextending myself on credit while working extra jobs and using drugs and booze heavily. I was not someone who could have been used as a good example or called successful.

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Before sz I was acing school and wanted to get in med school.

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I was pretty successful. I almost always had a girlfriend, lots of friends, on the track and field team in puiblic/highschool. I graduated High School with an A average, I was accepted into one of, if not the best University in the Country for STEM. I have had a job since I was about 12. But then I got struck down with schizophrenia and became a total failure.

It’s taken me 17 years and some med changes to get to where I am now. I work part time and am a lot happier than I have been in a long time, but I am still not nearly as successful as I use to be.

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What does STEM stand for?

Science/Technology/Engineering/Math

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I was racing vs my best friend in studies. He’s now a cardiologist and stopped talking to me when I stopped my meds bcz of my erratic behaviors and bcz I insulted him when he told me to get back on my meds. He’s lucky to not have any illness.

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I did as you suggested. Seems to be “did you achieve what you desired” and “are you rich and famous”.

Before my illness my flat affect was severe and all I desired was to be left alone and to die. Since my illness I have been desiring and achieving things, so I guess I am much more successful now. shrug

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I do believe my prodromal stage started in high school. Around 14 years old. But then it got bad at 19-20. I couldn’t hide it anymore. But previously was unsuccessful. Lots of traumatic setbacks.

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I’ve had symptoms since childhood, so no onset to compare it to.

Despite that,

I’ve enjoyed lots of success.

Got through school and liked it,

Got through college and liked it,

Held some nice jobs that paid a lot,

And have been married for eleven years.

Still successful, in my opinion.

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I was doing well. My job was paying a living wage. I did martial arts almost everyday after work. Had shitty roommates but I accept that now.

Now I have several serious interests so all in all I am content. Sza is always going to be a challenge but I am a survivor.

-S

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Mental illness struck when I was 15 years old. So I had success early in my life. In elementery school I was the most popular person in the school. I was the best athlete in the school. I broke a record in the shuttle run that hadn’t been broken in 7 years. I was good at math,(basic math). I got first in my class, with multiplication with numbers. Not the whole grade, just in my class. I aslo played soccer for my city. I played up a year so everybody was older than me. My team won the state tournament twice. I remember scoring the winning goal to win the state tournament. Oh, and also a lot of girls liked me. Bragging bragging sorry. What is interesting is I have never been on a date.

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Before sza I was stressed all the time because of a relationship I was in. I fainted fractured my jaw… had a falling out with a friend… was unable to finish my finance degree. Was living with a friend because I moved out of the place I shared with the main source of my sadness and stress. And kept asking the universe for a break… I got a break… literally.

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sometime successfull sometime a bit failure
but after illness , i become very failure

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I only had a life for 2-3 years at community college back in 2007ish-2010 (3 years basically). Best time of my life. Getting into a good school meant something back then. Other than that years 0-18 were hell, and years 22-31 were worse than hell/living nightmare. I did good in school for 2-3 years and achieved a 3.89/3.9 GPA with good extracurriculars…that’s it. I dropped out of college due to mental illness, and the difficulty, really.

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I was a much bullied,very unpopular, under achieving & undiagnosed autistic teenager

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Not at all. When I first got sick at age 19 I pretty much had nothing going for me. When I got out of high school at age 17 I got a string of mostly minimum wage jobs. I was smoking pot and drinking with a few friends a lot. We got our first cars and we got around. But my last job pre-schizophrenia was at age 19 as a security guard. I got so I couldn’t hold a job but I was doing a lot of yard work regularly for about 10 clients. Then I had to stop doing even that. IDK, the months leading up to being diagnosed I was mainly staying at my parents apartment laying on the couch and watching TV all day. No job, no school. At least I wasn’t using drugs or drinking.

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At 17 I was working a full time job in day labor. I had a girlfriend that wanted a future with me. I was a hard working young kid but then I got my first psychotic break and that was the end of all that.

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