Being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia is almost like a death sentence. Taking antipsychotic medication with the accompanied horrendous side-effects and the associated stigma of being labelled and seen due to ones diagnosis as a psychopath, callous, nefarious, condemned, violent, and dangerous is painful. However to be seen by fellow service users as a shyster who is faking diagnosis is more painful.
Thank Heavens for the opportunity given to me to acquire knowledge despite all odds against me. I was informally diagnosed in 1993. I was restrained and sent to a Psychiatric hospital and I was discharged and placed on medication. I was sent back to the same psychiatric hospital in late 1993 where I was administered medication for couple of days. My official diagnosis came in 1995 when I was diagnosed with Schizophrenia (Subtype Paranoid) I was hospitalised for a long time and treated with cocktails of medication and discharged to the community and placed on Haldol Long Acting Injection (Depot). I relapsed after 2 years and I was hospitalised in 1997 and treated with Risperdal however I decided with my Consultant to revert back to Haldol due to side-effects. I was on Haldol for years until I was advised to try Olanzanpine which caused me metabolic syndrome hence my going back to Haldol however I am currently on Aripripazole 10mg which help with my positive symptoms.
Music, work, knowledge, psychological input and excellent protective factors helped me in my recovery journey. I belong to the school of hard knocks and adversity and predicament makes me blossom because I have been to hell and back. Nothing move me because I am too cold to freeze and too hot to handle. I know who I am. I have come to realise in life people always channel there negative energy to pull people down however I am shielded and immune. I am a born fighter and the warrior in me never make me loose battles. Schizophrenia and negative people cannot bring me down try at your own peril. Recently a popular UK and influential politician said we service users are marginalised and scorned because we are not articulate and no one to represent or speak on our behalf. We are seen as unintelligent and dangerous people. Typical stereotype of the mentally ill. We should be united. United we stand divide we fall.
Furthermore I do not only listen to Justin Bieber but all genre of music including County Crows, Don Williams, Metallica, Nirvana, Bon Jovi, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd etc. I am the master of innuendo and insinuation having come from old school where compressed metaphors and figurative speech were mandatory and obligatory lol. I love this Forum is an understatement. Thanks a million everyone for your support and the editorial team for sending me emails when I am unable to contribute to the Forum. A big Kudos to all the pharmaceutical Companies for making Antipsychotic medications however we need more research and new medication to treat Psychosis.
iâm sorry you have gone through so much. but you seem optimistic and thatâs good. itâs a good thing the aripripazole is helping. it took a bunch of different med combos to find the right ones. they donât help completely help
Thanks cbbrown. You are correct medication alone is not enough is good to combine it with psychological input. Three other things help me, music, work, and driving. Music is like my food. It drives the positive symptoms away. Work empowers me as well as driving. Aripripazole is really helping I take it on its own, last time it was combined with Haldol hence my palpitations and breathlessness. I am hopeful. Hope lives in me like a Citadel.
Give yourself credit - a lot of suffering and hard work by your own efforts have no doubt played a big part in your progress. Keep up the great efforts and thanks for participating!
I see a therapist every two weeks, sheâs pretty understanding and gets that I like this forum and she says its a good idea to interact with people.
my brother was on abilify he said it helped but he didnât go to therapy he was so desperate to get his diagnoses changed that they stopped going once they told him what he didnât want to hear,
Therapy is very good. I had CBT and EMDR it was very helpful. I have come to realise the more you accept your diagnosis the better prognosis. Iâm contemplating Abilify Long Acting Injection any experience with it?
I too have been hospitalized for mental illness, I just hope your experience was better than mine. I have actually signed a form that states if I am admitted to a facility against my will, I am not to be revived in the case of suicide. Being so heavily medicated you are as helpless as a new born is not something I wish to go through again.
I totally agree with this quote! We need a plan of action to demand our equal rights and some of these rights:
the right to be free of restraints
restraints should never be used on non-violent patients
use of restraints should require a warrant or some kind of court issued document suspending our constitutional rights (because that is what they are doing, might as well spell it out for the lawyers)
the right to out-patient treatment as an alternative to hospitalization
the right to more visiting hours
the right to transparency when a crime is committed within the hospital against a patient (be it staff or another patient as the offender)
the right to an attorney who explains ALL the laws and rights you are being denied before you get committed
the right to appeal the use of restraints, forced hospitalization, forced medical compliance (read, drug injections against patient willâsometimes itâs needed, but letâs make sure itâs not abused)
right to sue for job discrimination if schizophrenia gets you fired without employer giving time to get on meds
right to affordable outpatient treatment (as most schizophrenics are on disability or relying on family for income and canât afford the treatment)
right to education with accommodations
right to work in white collar professions
right to not have my HIPPAA data stored on the national crime database for non-crime related mental illness (as is the case for many states now)
Crime should be with crime and non-crime should not be labeled in crime directories
Special classes for EMTâs and police officers who are first responders to mental health crisis to train them non-violent techniques for communicating with mental patients (and how to deal with non-communicative patients)
âŚcanât think of anything elseâŚ
unite!
My first experience was callous and in humane. It was tantamount to physical abuse however the second one was done humanely and the members of staff were very friendly and empathetic. I will not wish it on my enemy however when someone is a risk to himself or herself or to others I think sectioning or treating someone against his or her will is allowed but with a caveat that. No physical or emotional abuse as well as pharmaceutical abuse were one is is deliberately zombified with medication (more than required or necessary) Please always take your medication religiously it helps to avoid relapse which precipitate forceful medication and sectioning.
Awesome. I love this. I concur with all your suggestions and demands. We are treated like persona non grata (we are seen as the least in the society) my heart bleeds to see how we are been treated. We need an action plan to demand respect from all in the society. We are human beings and our fundamental human rights must not be eroded. I abhor discrimination in all its ramifications. The society need to know more about Schizophrenia and Forum like this is an excellent place to commence our fight for equality, justice, fairness, and equity.
I was admitted after I stopped taking a medication that made me gain 100lbs in just 5 months. Because I was on State insurance, I had to have monthly blood tests to make sure I was taking them. At the time when I was diagnosed my only symptoms were paranoia and hearing voices. When my blood test came back that I wasnât taking the meds the police and EMTs showed up at my place of work and someone came over to me talking all soothingly like I was hysterical or something, and suddenly there was a pinch in my thigh and everything went all fuzzy and then I was out. I woke up feeling sick as hell with my face and limbs swollen like someone had put balloons under my skin and blown them up (they used a sedative that was on my medical record as an allergy, I was lucky I didnât die) they never spoke to me other than to tell me to take my meds, and that if I took my meds on my own they would release me in just a couple days. I refused. So they had two orderlies pin me tot the floor and forced the meds down my throat. They also added more meds to the ones I was already being forced to take. I was on 15 or 16 different medications, most of them prescribed for people in the throws of a psychotic episode, and one of them considered âexperimentalâ for the treatment of violent disorders. As a result I went through male menopause at age 22, put on another 70 lbs, putting me in at over 300, and for four weeks I was wearing diapers and had to be âcleanedâ three or four times a day. The only thing I was able to do myself, was walk, with assistance, to the âshower roomâ where I was stripped down and sprayed with a hose of cold water, then stuck in a fresh diaper and taken back to my room, soaking wet, to wait for the next time I crapped my pants. I am still locked in a civil suit because they gave me medications that had only been approved for extremely violent patients, yet I had no history of violence. They also entered me into an âexperimentalâ treatment plan without getting consent from my mother. I was horribly mistreated and the worst effect of the meds they gave me, was that even though I was âzombifiedâ I remember EVERYTHING as if it is still happening, and if I go off meds, either because I am transitioning to new ones, or because my insurance screwed up and stopped covering them again, I end up freaking out terrified they are going to take me back there.
In short, yes we need to rise up. We are discriminated against by the media and the government because 90% of them have no idea what it really means to be mentally ill.
Your post has made me think Ive recovered but I hope I dont have a relapse so ive reduced my meds by half but i think im staying on my meds so i dont relapse
This is one of many reasons why I am not comfortable applying for SSI here in the US.
Iâm already receiving welfare, and I catch â â â â from state employees and the general public for it. Itâs very clear where the âbad peopleâ in this small town live, work, and shop, and to be seen outside those areas is asking for police interference. Being seen outside those areas while dealing with florid psychosis is like walking into a bear trap.
I stay at home a lot due to paranoia or lack of motivation. This looks like laziness, and believe me, the voices tell me again and again what a waste of humanity I am. I donât listen to them, because I know who I am and who I used to be, and how I used to be able to act. I am not capable of being that person anymore, because my mental illness is intensifying.
When Iâm actively psychotic, I donât know whatâs true or not. If someone from the police, the govât, a hospital, questioned the truth of my experiences, it would lead me to question them as well, and then Iâd lose all foothold on what marginal bits of reality I can still quantify.
I donât want the social stigma of being on SSI, but I also canât support my family without assistance, and weâre scraping. But Iâll continue to scrape until I feel absolutely sure there are people who can speak in my defense and on my behalf, in case I am psychotic when important questions are being asked.
I am not a shyster, and all of us deserve to be treated with basic human dignity at the very least. Which includes NOT assuming we are liars, fakers, shysters, or lazy thieves!
Is a shame to see this happen to a vulnerable person who needed support and empathy. My experiences is very horrendous and traumatic that I have to undergo EMDR a therapy for traumatic experience. Is a good idea to adhere to your medication regimen. Some medication have more side-effects than others. If you are experiencing weight gain which happened to me in the past it will be advisable to try a different antipsychotic. Please do not stop your medication never ever unless advised by your Consultant. I tried in the past to stop my medication and I suffered severe positive symptoms. I think the use of experimental drug on you without your consent is not right however maybe your insurance company allowed that in your policy. I work full time and pay to the tax system and do not go through private insurance companies. Moreover we need to send a strong message to the perpetrators of this abusive and torturous act which have no place in the 21st century.
Mental illness cannot be seen only the sufferer go through hell with all the positive and negative symptoms and we are continuously judged by people who do not know what we go through every second. I strongly believe is not an abomination to rely on the state whilst mentally ill however one should endeavour to work if possible because work help. I had state support in the past but now I work full time looking after people like myself which is very rewarding. I earn good money and pay a huge amount of money to the state through taxation and national insurance. My advise is when you cannot work and you know within yourself you will be a risk to yourself and others please ask for help. Do not care about what anyone think or say. Your wellbeing is paramount.
I have excellent protective factors and I take my medication religiously. Music and work help me too. Moreover I am a born fighter who thrive in adversity having being abused as a child.
Please do not self medicate nor stop your medication. I tried it and my positive symptoms resurfaced. Seek advice from your doctor. Is better to take ones prescribed medication despite the side-effects and be well. Iâm glad your recovery journey is going smoothly.
Thanks a million. I really do appreciate and love this forum. Is a privilege to have a forum like this which enable us to express our opinions and views as well as interact with other service users. Moreover the wealth of information here is second to none. Keep the flag flying.