I think i may could have prevented schizophrenia if I made the right choices. Well well, no point in regretting decisions I guess.
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Not likely. Most of the research I’ve read on schizophrenia suggests that, although certain things like drugs and stress can amplify or bring out the symptoms earlier, schizophrenia isn’t created by external events. It’s something your born with, although you may not show the symptoms until later in life.
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I see. I would probably be better of if I made the right choices anyway though, whether or not if I got sz. There’s so many things I would have done differently.
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You may be right though, because you’ve read research, and I haven’t. But intuitively I feel like in some cases (my own) external things contributed to at least some extent. But yeah, I may be wrong.
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If you want to learn more about sz…try picking up the book “Surviving Schizophrenia” by E. Fulller Torrey, M.D… I learned a lot from that book. You can probably get it on Amazon. Or I think you can read it for free here Read Surviving Schizophrenia, 7th Edition Online by E. Fuller Torrey | Books . I prefer to have a hard copy of the book myself so I can read in bed instead of on my computer.
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i too made some overly stressful choices which brought out my sz and brought me down for a very long time. however, i realize that those same choices taught me something important enough to help me handle what was coming my way from the sz.
i don’t believe so much in black and white scenarios. life has its greys and its colors…
hope this helps you,
judy
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It says in the preface of that book though that we don’t know the precise cause of sz.
That’s true. No one knows the exact cause of it. whether it’s a virus in the womb or genetics or whatever but things like drugs and life decisions aren’t going to be the cause, although they can bring out symptoms. There’s nothing you could have done in your life to prevent schizophrenia. There are things you can do to calm the symptoms though…like avoiding stress. There is a whole chapter on the theories of the causes.
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So you say you blew it?
It’s never too late to unblow it. Many famous people didn’t strike it big until their later years…Rodney Dangerfield…J.K. Rowling…Colonel Sanders…etc.
Maybe you’re just a late bloomer. 
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I was actually what I would call a late bloomer. In my twenties I gained a lot of confidence and my life got better, before it got worse again with sz. But yeah you’re right, good things can still happen I guess.
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I’m curious what life choices you think you could’ve changed to prevent your schizophrenia, if it’s not too personal.
I would like to say it but yeah it’s a bit personal + a bit complicated and would take long to explain. But I can say that one wrong choice I took was moving to the city, I had a lot of anxiety living in the city… I isolated myself a lot. And for some reason I kept living there for a while. I’m not saying that choice gave me schizophrenia but it didn’t make my life better. I should have moved out of the city, it was too stimulating for me with all the people and noises.
I live in the city now though and I don’t have that anxiety anymore, so it’s kind of fine now. But I’m still considering moving out of the city in the future.
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This is like telling my genetic disorder- which I had since I was 20 years old- that it could have been prevented through “right choices”. No, it’s in my genes…I’ve had it since birth.
This is same with schizophrenia. It’s an illness that cannot be prevented. There’s no vaccine nor a medicine that helps you to not get sick.
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For me this is a symptom of sz rather than a cause.
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Some say stress causes sz but I dont get what they mean. Like I had the usual life stress which was going to school, working, etc Are they saying that staying home doing nothing would have prevented my sz? Pretty sure this is not true, I also think its genetic.
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I think stress can exacerbate the symptoms of Sz. I don’t think it’s a cause…it just brings it out.
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I had a bunch of air traffic routed over my house and people at work threatening to fire me when I came down with schizophrenia. I also had chronic chest pain from something making it hard to work. There were also lots of people being really rude to me making me feel unhappy. I feel like I had a lot of stress going on when I first experienced schizophrenia. I took like 3 years for the chest pain to go away. I also had bad lasik eye surgery done which I had to pay for again at another place and have fixed. It made my reading vision worse making it hard to do my job. Now I don’t mind the lasik my reading vision is better. I will never do it again.
I think you’re definitely right. If I would have made better choices, I would have had a lot less stress in my life. There are doctors who think it’s more environmental than genetic.
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External factors can of course cause sz its not just genetic
External factors can trigger sz but the potential for it would not be there if it were not for the genetic and/or brain development issues that already exist. Sz is a brain disorder.
These external factors would not cause sz in a person that did not already have these brain issues that most believe are caused by either genetics or a brain development issue( a virus, exposure to lead paint are some guesses) in the womb or a combination of these two.
A normal person without these brain issues would not develop sz because of stress for example.