I might have depression

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I was talking to the doctor who prescribes my meds about my lack of motivation and he said that’s a symptom of depression.

My previous doctor also talked about that I might have depression. I have some but not all of the symptoms of depression.

Has anyone here ever had depression with schizophrenia or psychosis?? Did they put you on antidepressants? Did it work?

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I have sza . I’m not sure on antidepressants. I take Lexapro. so they haven’t diagnosed you yet. Have you ever been severely depressed?

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I’m depressed 90% of the time. I have SZa. I’m not bipolar and I take cymbalta.

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A lot of doctors don’t recognize the negative symptoms of schizophrenia so they tell us that our lack of motivation is due to depression.
And they are reluctant to blame the meds.

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The lack of motivation is usually caused by the antipsychotic. There are some antipsychotics that are better for motivation, like Abilify and Geodon, that are worth a try.

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I was put on ADs before. Tried them based on my genesight testing. So far, the three I’ve tried that were approved or semi-approved for my genes didn’t work at all for depression OR anxiety.

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There is the depression where you feel truly horrible. That is one form. There is also the situation where you are dissatisfied and you don’t have any interest, and perhaps you think negatively often. I think depression seems to go along with schizophrenia. It did for me. A doctor can see the depression and may try adding an anti-depressant drug. Some doctors fear doing this because they worry about triggering the mind into another psychosis.
Anyway, in response to your question, having depression is a possibility. The anti-depressant drugs help some, over a period of time. I did not see immediate effects.

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I don’t think I’m depressed. I don’t feel sad. I just feel the same way all day every day. For me it’s normal.

My current doctor says that lack of motivation is caused by depression.

And my previous doctor said I seemed somewhat emotionally flat, didn’t look him in the eyes when we spoke. And some other things I don’t remember.

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Idk. Ask your pdoc to get you evaluate or something better.

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That might be the case but I’m also under the impression that depression can go undiagnosed especially in older patients.

I’m 35 btw, I don’t know if that makes me old.

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If u are not feeling sad maybe its the negative symptoms of the illness plus? the med.
If you mention this to ur doctor I’d be interested to know what he she would say. They are the doctor after all

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I’m not good with this. Icanrelate.anxiety

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I’m afraid to try the new Schizophrenia medications, I tried abilify and ended up in the E.R. with chest pains. They took me off of Abilify and I went back to the Haloperidol.

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Oh, damn. Yeah, these antipsychotics are tricky, sorry that happened to you.

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It is possible, how long have you been experiencing these symptoms?

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I experience the “symptoms” all the time, as far back as I remember.

But I never, ever thought of it like depression. I thought it was just normal.

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I had severe depression and antidepressants helped me. The antidepressants worked for depression, but not for the negative symptoms. So, I had no more suicidal thoughts, but still had lack of motivation (avolition). I remember it was like bearing a bag full of rocks on the back.

I remember my doctor tried to increase the dosis of fluoxetine in order to improve my avolition, but we had no results.

I’m not sure if memantine helps with avolition because, when I started to take it for negative symptoms, I had already minimal avolition. However, memantine helped me a lot with social withdrawal and the more I interacted with people the more I would be engaged with different activities like hanging out with friends (bars and clubs), taking languages classes, going to college, playing indoor football, training Kung Fu, etc.

Maybe a medicine can help you but I would make some effort to feel things again because neuroplasticity and neurogenesis will just happen if you take action.

Some traditional wisdom make sense when you want to make neuroplasticity and neurogenesis happen:

  • Physical exercises;
  • Healthy diet (omega 3 fatty acids seems to help);
  • Healthy social life;
  • Emotional intelligence;
  • Learning new things (languages, instruments, etc);
  • Noticing new things or meditation (mindfulness);
  • Good sleep;
  • Sex.
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I didn’t think that antidepressants might only take away some of the symptoms. I thought I could just take them and everything would be fine.

I see you think exercise would do me some good. I stopped exercising during the winter because it was too cold for me outside. I’ve been waiting for it to get warmer so I can walk outside with a T-shirt, it’s not long now.

But I really need to get rid of the lack of motivation so I can work a little bit.

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I’m going to see my meds doctor in the next few days. I really want to get to the bottom of this depression thing.

I always envisioned that I would be put on an antidepressant and become painfully happy and out to work more often and longer.

I say painfully happy because I hate being happy it burns! I almost can’t take the happiness when it happens. :upside_down_face:

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If I have depression it’s definitely the second type you describe.

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