Because I don’t have them anymore. Gone. It’s bizarre though because they were a constant, regardless of whether or not I actually felt depressed. Had them for years. Since they seemed to be independent of my mood I saw them as negative symptoms. However my mood stabilizer has eliminated them. So either it was all depression, or depakote works really well for negative symptoms. Or maybe it was neither of those and it was due to the constant fatigue from my untreated narcolepsy. Hmm. Interesting either way. I’m just glad I’m functioning like a normal human being again.
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I’m happy for you Anna,
You’ve had some dark days.
Its good to hear you’re doing better.
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It’s really crazy. The changes have been so gradual I didn’t even notice until I was talking about it on here the other day. I take showers now without even thinking about it. I brush my teeth every day. I get dressed without even thinking about it. I can watch entire shows and movies with ease instead of having to stop every 5 mins to take a break. I’m playing videogames again. Reading books. Just wild.
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Depakote is Amazing!
I’m happy for you @Anna.
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So happy for you @Anna
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️:pray:
So happy to hear this honey. You deserve so much happiness!
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Oh Anna, that’s just great - like a holiday miracle.
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I am really pleased for you Anna, I am also much better since I have been on Paroxetine.
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Good luck! Life is long. 
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Anna, negative symptoms are not necessarily permanent. It’s complicated, but it’s definitely a fact that negative symptoms can get better. Maybe they were secondary negative symptoms and not primary. Or maybe you were just lucky. At any rate, it’s great that they’re gone! Mine are almost gone, too.
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I’m so happy to hear you’re doing much better Anna ! I was really worried for so long. 
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I didn’t have them at all until I was like 17/18. Then they started getting really bad to where it really impacted my functioning and life quality around junior year of college I think. Always wondered why if I’ve had psychosis (i.e. Positive symptoms) for so long why I wouldn’t develop negative symptoms until young adulthood. Though I did begin developing them right after my first major episode so maybe that was the push idk. I’m glad to be feeling normal again for the first time in ages. Geodon helped w my neg symptoms too but not to this extent.
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one wonders whether you ever had them at all, mood and motivation can be closely corellated. but there are some negative sx like alogia or anhedonia which are more tangible. i think a professional would say you never had negative symptoms at all, just mood fluctuations which imitated them.
you make me want to try the mood stabilizer route vs the ap route, i wonder how common it is for mood to fuctuate over the course of the day vs the typical from month to month.
have ur positive sx seen improvement fron being on depakote? also does it flatten your emotions? finall keep us updated on whether those negatives start to creep back in. i wanna see if these mood stabilizers are really working miracles for sz ppl.
But as I said the “negative symptoms” seemed to be independent of my mood. I could be doing pretty well no depression but for some reason have 0 motivation, mundane tasks be really difficult, no ability to focus, etc.
It is normal for mood to fluctuate throughout the day, it depends on the extent of the fluctuation. You may have many mild fluctuations based on your daily experiences but my fluctuations were extreme. A mild inconvenience sent me into blistering rage, any amount of stress could make me suddenly want to die, and then I could jump back just like that and be fine the next minute.
My positive symptoms are related to having structured activity to my day, getting proper sleep, regular social interaction and stress levels. So long as I maintain all those things my positive symptoms are quite mild and are more of a background experience when they happen. They seem to be independent of my mood as I have been deeply depressed without having my positive symptoms act up & they go on all the time whether I’m in a mood episode or not. That’s why they changed my diagnosis from MDD w psychotic features to sza.
My illness is atypical and also made more confusing by the fact that a number of my symptoms may also be explained by my sleep disorder, an anxiety disorder or a combo of the two. I wouldn’t recommend my path to everyone.
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you also had a childhood onset, right? and werent on dopamine blocking aps for a significant amount of time ever at all. i think this fits with you being an atypical case, not representative of the vast majority. the fact that you haven’t been on dopamine blockers for a long time indicates that you probably have built up coping mechanisms or some other form of natural resilience to psychosis being that you had to deal with it for so many years. the childhood brain is incredibly plastic, if it is constantly presented with challenges i have to imagine it would find ways of bouncing back, possibly faster and more dependably than your typical sz who got sick during early adulthood.
to repeat i think you have a crazy flexible brain which is able to cycle in an out of psychosis quickly and function regardless of it as a result of having had practice over many years.
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My doctor once recommended Depakote but I told her I didn’t need that because I don’t have mania. I don’t have mood swings just negatives. I didn’t know it would work for that.
So instead of the Depakote I added Latuda and that really helps. I am working again.
Maybe I should try it. What do you think? It can’t hurt.
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i would definitely consider adding on depakote, just remember, if you’re taking it alongside latuda and other meds, as my pdoc once put it when talking about polypharmacy, “it’s hard to tell what’s doing what!”.
I think depakote made me incontinent. Well, I don’t need that so I don’t take it.
Was it on here that I read Depakote can turn you into a genius lol?
Exactly and typical sz is degenerative without medication. I would have gotten worse and worse and instead over the years as I gained more coping mechanisms, gained insight, learned more about my triggers it became much easier to manage over time, fairly predictable.
@TomCat latuda is also used as a mood stabilizer but isn’t as well established as depakote. Actually according to an article on this website some trials showed that depakote may help with negative symptoms. I agree there’s no cons to trying it in adjunct to your current meds. Depakote is really a very mild med so long as you stick to a low dose. I’m on 500 mg and my only side effects are it takes somewhat longer to orgasm & if I take it too late at night (after 6 pm) I have trouble waking up in the morning. Very mild, basically nothing compared to what I’ve dealt w on APs and ADs.
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