@rogueone I agree… Life for ME is impossible without meds and are not poison but a help to me… It’s the only way I live a simi normal life for me… you @Joshua1 are very lucky if you can live life without meds
Hi @Joshua1 and welcome!
I am hearing that you don’t feel ready to try medication at the moment. Do you at least have a diagnosis? With a diagnosis, you can request special accommodations at school. One of my accommodations is to have all zoom calls and lectures recorded and sent to me, so that if I don’t feel up to attending, I don’t miss important details. I also get extra time on test and quizzes, one week extensions on surprise assignments, note taking assistance, and preferential seating when classes are in person again. The only way to qualify for extra help is to have a diagnosis, and to have your doctor fill out the paperwork.
Long term, medications help most people. Psychosis causes actual, physical damage to the brain. The best way to mitigate the damage is to take antipsychotics.
There are also physical illnesses that can cause hallucinations. Sleep disorders, brain tumors, certain kinds of epilepsy, etc. Have you at least had a doctor rule out these causes for you? Hallucinations are a major sign that something serious is wrong, and ignoring them generally makes the problem much worse over time.
Oh btw I am in college also, and I really struggle with zoom class as well. I don’t feel like I am learning as much.
I would talk to someone. Early intervention helps. I dropped out and regretted it. Im over it now, but i kinda wish i had low dose meds at the time or saw a psychiatrist at the time. I didnt. I had cognitive decline and intense, ocd philosophical thoughts. They say early intervention helps. I didnt try my first med until like over a year later. I kinda regret that. Maybe i would have graduated.
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Hi @Ninjastar i don’t have an official diagnosis which has made it even more difficult to help myself. Right now seeing my GP is hard because of coronavirus restrictions I can’t bring someone for support and mental health services are over zoom (which as described isn’t the best thing for me)
It’s such a fight with myself to get help want to but you know.
With zoom calls it is of course good with bad days and lectures tend to be much shorter, which also adds to the not learning much. It’s harder when getting exams and you doubt yourself about what you know
I know it is scary to go to the doctor alone, but you might need to do it. It can help to prepare in advance. I write down what I want to talk to the doctor about, and any questions I might have. I also keep track of my diet, sleep patterns, and exercise habits,as those are some of the first things doctors will ask about when evaluating new symptoms.
For example: hallucinating is a sign that something is seriously wrong. But everyone hallucinates when they are severely sleep deprived. If you are consistently sleeping less than 4 hours a night, your doctor may want to treat your sleep first. If you have certain neurological symptoms during a physical exam, they might want to send you for an MRI to check for brain tumors. And so on.
So you can make a list of things you wish to discuss, and write down their answers during the appointment.
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I might book an appointment within the next month, that’s my target I suppose. @Ninjastar (or anyone else tbh) do you have any advice on going other than what you’ve already said? Writing stuff down to say will probably help with my head going scrambled.
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One bit of advice I have is that if you have the insurance/funds for it, agree to any tests they want to run. Odds are, they wouldn’t be suggesting the test if they didn’t think it would help. And don’t be afraid of meds if that is what they suggest. Plenty of us have taken them, sometimes for decades, without issues. And if one med doesn’t work well, try another. They are all different.
I love In Scotland so I have the national health service (NHS) luckily for me.
I want to try my best of course, my biggest fear is going in alone tbh rn, I know how bad things get when I go to a doctor
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