Hello folks. I’ve been on here for several years. I came when I was symptomatic, but things have progressed past that point for me.
I first joined in 2008, have seen MANY folks come and go (and sometimes come back), and now that it’s been firmly established that I do not have sz, this is not the place for me. When I first came to sz.com, my illness consumed me. I was on the forums for hours at a time. Made some friends, made some enemies.
Over the past few months, my psychiatric illness was revealed to be neurological weirdness instead. I am off antipsychotics and doing well. I have energy, my memory has improved 10-fold, and my motivation has returned. I am more patient, and have a clear train of thought.
I am no longer interested in schizophrenia - for a while it was all I could think of. Now I have hobbies…building and futzing with computers, learning Linux more, and I have a renewed interest in my pet reptiles. I am purchasing a lizard next month (I’ve already put 75% of the money down on him), and will be picking up a snake too. My wife and I already have reptiles, so we are just adding to the collection. It’s cool if that’s not your thing, but it interests me, and I want to learn more. My long-term goal is to become a herpetologist (veterinarian for reptiles) in the Phoenix area, as we do not have a good doc anywhere in this sprawling metropolis, so I stand to do well financially.
This forum has a lot of good people on it, and the forums have come a long way since 2008. My best wishes to all of you here. I hope you may one day find the silver lining if you haven’t already done so. To those of you still struggling mightily, keep fighting. Never give up. I hope I have influenced people in a positive way, and I’d stay if it was fair to me. But it isn’t. Good luck to all of you, and may you all one day find peace and rest.
I hope you reach your goals at becoming a herpetologist. Everyone wants to save the cute little bunnies, but who is there for the lovely snakes and the amazing chameleons.
I hope good things come your way. Sad to see you go, but grateful for having met you. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me and the encouragement you’ve given me.
I’d feel the same if I found out I didn’t have this illness but since I have lived so many years with the same symptoms, I’d still feel a connection to those who do have it.
I feel like that often. I go through phases where I just don’t want to think about it or read about it.
It’s good to develop varied interests. I have a number of things that occupy me outside the forum. I don’t think I’d enjoy it very much if all I did was hang out here. There can be too much of a good thing.