How to survive with SZ without much in the way of support from services?

I am guessing that a lot of you have barely any ongoing support

Here for example, I speak to a case worker every so often

The pdoc is too busy to even monitor titration onto new meds, and appointments are a few months out if you need to see them

Personally I have moved to a less acute stage now, and even when I was acute the response from them was more Schizophrenic than I am!

So how do you cope?

Services are severely stretched and underfunded in a lot of places, but I have noticed a massive decline since Covid-19

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I have rehabilitation day services two or three days a week. This involves group and individual therapy. My pdoc is only part time now and it’s difficult to see him.

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I hope you’re taking meds? I talk to someone every week most of the time. It’s absolutely necessary. It’s like insulin to the diabetic.

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I have to take my meds

Because of lack of supervision, I am hooked on benzos, and my other meds never get reviewed

Insulin to a diabetic is not how it’s treated here, at all.

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My old pdoc was only at my local clinic on a Tuesday, yet he was able to afford me more time than this full time pdoc I have now.

It’s not right, but since Covid-19 they have been swamped by people getting referrals

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I have no one except my psychiatrist

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Me too. I see a pdoc every 6 weeks. That’s it.

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My access to pdoc is now just 2x a year + therapy monthly.

Weekly caseworker cut completely.

Crisis option - just hospital.

In general - all this reduced access happened over the last 6 months.

It can be done. My mental health goes in peaks and troughs. You should have at least a Duty Worker you can phone during office hours if your struggling.

I second your thought that the care I got was more schizophrenic than me. It was by far the most damaging and least helpful thing in my life, and I don’t say that easily.

I was ready to tell them to â– â– â– â–  off and get out of my life. Or actually I did.

But now I have some hope of getting good support again. I have a social worker that is superb. I see her twice a week. And my current psychiatrist and nurse are kind, even if we don’t agree on psychiatry (i think the whole way they look at people is b*llshit in its fundaments). But they wish to help. I see one of both about once a week.

I gave up on therapy. It won’t come, and they won’t understand. But they are needed to fall back on in crisis. And I hope they can help me find better ways to deal with family and create room there to let me be a mother to my child. Which is my main goal at the moment. The social worker also gives me good feedback on what I could change, and I do something with it, because I trust her/her views.

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To heal is to believe, at least 5% of my brain works and I am not going to accept any thoughts which doesn’t make any sense.
This was my only support statement in the initial 5 years of dxd.
After moved to motivational speeches and workout.
Never had a chance to think of sz or to talk about it with anyone.
I was a lonely lone loner then, but here I have happiness even though no income but happy I met you guys.

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I don’t need mental health services, I don’t have a pdoc since Jan 2021 and I am fine. They can’t do anything for negative and cognitive symptoms anyways, my Drs told me there is no treatment for those yet.

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I go to the nonprofit med clinic every three months…get my bloodwork done at my GP. I get a call from my case manager about once every month…i have been stable a long time so it’s just checking in to say I’m fine.

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I see a nurse practitioner once a month who prescribes my meds. I see her via video call in two days. What should I ask?

I’ve wanted to see someone for a long time, but every time I applied for a pdoc I got turned down. My GP is very nice, but they have limited options when it comes to my medical regime.

Not doing bad lately though. Getting out of the house for a while once a day seems to be good theraphy to me. I usually go for a walk and have a meal at a diner, maybe do some shopping.

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