I knew little about sz dx

So in nursing school we just had a two hour lecture on sz. There was reading and other stuff to do in preparation for the lecture. I now realize that other than my own experience with SZ I really knew little about the disease.

When I got the SZA dx I didn’t get any edu about it and never asked questions of the proc or social worker. I learned what little I know of it from Google and this forum.

I really encourage anyone with a new dx or anyone struggling to cope with this dx to edu yourself.

For example, learned the signs and symptoms of prodrome phase. This totally opened my eyes to my own past. I think I may have went through prodrome in my teens, not my 30s. Women will peak at their onset of illness, then usually stabilize, then have major relapse about 10 years later. Then again later in life, say 50-60s. Men on the other hand typically have a more even course of illness after peaking in their 20s.

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when i was first diagnosed…
the shrink gave me my mad hatter hat :tophat:
and my life time membership to ’ wonderland ’ :rainbow:
and my medicine :baby_bottle:
" lucy in the sky with diamonds "…lol :grin:

take care :alien:

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Really, who can educate you about the SZ or SZA? You can ask your pdoc if he or she has time. Or perhaps a therapist can help you gain insight, or you can learn it from school. But really, what do you think is the best way?

Honestly, lots of pdocs and therapists have a hard time defining Schizophrenia.

I dont function as well as most other people diagnosed with bipolar disorder, so pdocs like to think that I must have a bit of schizoprenia added to the mix.

Anyone wo does not function fully, gets labeled with schizophrenia/schizoaffective.

This does not make sense to me.

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I knew nothing about schizophrenia and now I have learned lots in school, I know the feeling.

I say good for you and keep it up. Not many people know scz from the inside as well as the outside.

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We also did a lecture on mood disorders. I didn’t really learn anything new except more detail about drugs used to treat depression and BP.

Today I have this overwhelming urge to contact my college coach and give him info about detecting MI in student athletes and how to help. Because back when I was 18 and suffering I did have 1conversation and he had to have seen me struggling. If only I had gotten treatment early on my life would have been so different.

I also have the urge to contact the assistant head coach. But that’s probably a bad idea, right? See… thing is I was dating him. So he could see 1st hand my downward spiral. Why didn’t he get me help? I have to add that the relationship was toxic, he’s a narcissist and emotionally, verbally abusive. I had even tried SU and he said, “why are u doing this to me? What if other people find out how is he going to look” he’s still coaching across the country. I worry about his current athletes.

So is it a good idea?

I could send the letter/info anonymously somehow. My bf says that they were probably just young and illequipped uneducated to deal with my deterioration.

True, I would imagine it is very hard to explain sz to a new patient. Everyone has different symptoms and progression of the illness.

I start my psych clinical in 1 week at a state psych hospital. I’m really nervous. Not about the patients so much, but rather my response to them. I know I have so much empathy for them because I’ve been hospitalized before. But I’m concerned because we’ve been told that these are the worst case patients. Many of them have been there for months or years and are med-resistant, so they are floridly psychotic most of the time. There have been incidents with the other nursing students who have already done the psych rotation. I’m just worried that this is going to hit too close to home and I wont be able to cope with reality.

I’m lucky my pdoc is a county pdoc and my appt run as long as they need to. The one time I brought it up with the social worker she was skeptical because for whatever reason she couldnt find the dx in my file (which is about 3" thick). Maybe I wasn’t ready yet to learn more about SZ/SZA and now is the time. I’ve been reading a lot about it and writing down thoughts and questions to ask the pdoc or therapist. Reading 1st hand accounts of other people’s experiences helps.

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dont worry about it–you have come too far to let your own illness beat you in the most roundabout and ironic way! This just shows how far you have come and how much you can provide for others.

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