I want more improvement

It has not even been a year, since my hospitalisation and diagnosis and I want more improvement. Since a year ago I have picked up smoking and gained weight. I have also moved to a new school and picked up computer programming. The meds have been with me for three months and I want to say that they have helped me, but only to deal with the bad things. My psychosis has not receded and is just as bad as it was a year ago. Tomorrow I will plan on quieting smoking and start on a diet. What I am asking is for someone to tell me it will be okay and maybe give me advice on how to quit my vices. There are ups and downs with my illness, but I think it has been a blessing for me. How do you deal with everyday life and your illness getting in the way of that?

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I reassociate things in my head. I go through my problems. I think about them. I try to trigger myself. And then I think about something nice or funny or beautiful. Science has always been reliable for showing me beauty in all things. Problem solving, finding alternatives. This is what drives me. Iā€™ve been hurt but a lot of times i ask myself, ā€œwho cares?ā€ and it sounds bad, but it usually shows me a bigger picture that nobody is hurting me. I feel better every day and my only wish is to pass that life changing formula onto others. So donā€™t give up, understand that SZ/A is complicated and you can find solutions to whatever is causing your problems.

If youā€™re doing computer programming youā€™re probably headed in the right direction. Iā€™d just try and be patient.

The key to quitting smoking is to never give up.

Secondarily you gotta imagine your life without cigs at every moment you can. Donā€™t be intimidated by it. You donā€™t need the cigs in any way. Youā€™ll find yourself less stressed when you donā€™t have them once you get there. There is a certain confidence that comes with being a smoker who quit.

Fall in love with that vision.

Itā€™s not just nicotine that is addictive. There is a dopamine release that the mind values even more. Youā€™ll find yourself caught in the cycle of dopaminergic need if you are a heavy smoker. This means you will want to eat or drink or do anything. Boredom will be a total pain.

It might help to get a bicycle and find some good routes that take 20 to 30 minutes to complete. Exercise does wind up satisfying and the bike is a good way to do a lot of physical work without realizing it.

It takes me about 3 days to fully revert back to that non-smoking mentality. Even while you are still smoking you can do a lot to break down the craving triggers. Like not smoking in your car, or not smoking in your house. You have to have the environment where you spend most of your time free of triggers.

Quit smoking right after you eat. Learn to let the food eventually satisfy you. It only takes about 5 minutes of patience. Nicotine just rushes the process.

Good luck man. Youā€™ll be able to do it. Donā€™t stress about quitting, be curious as to why you do it and let the negative slant on the nature of tobacco products dominate. They stink, they are unhealthy, the extort the poor, they are waste all aroundā€¦ to bad the ā– ā– ā– ā–  still tastes good at times.

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for me quitting smoking was easyā€¦my then GF told me that for every cig I smoked after Xmas was one week with no sexā€¦the first week sucked, the withdrawal from the cigs was awfulā€¦but after that it got easierā€¦going cold turkey is never funā€¦

As for the rest of it? Go with what has already been said, its good advice :smile:

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If your psychosis has not receded, you might not be on the right meds.

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There is no overnight cure. It took me and many others here, months or even years to show improvement. Recovery is possible to a degree. Some people show more recovery than others, but at the beginning of our disease we could not tell how well we would recover.

I got diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1980 when I was 19. My case was severe and very disabling. In my first two years of psychosis, there was no sign that I would ever get better. I had nothing at that time. I had no friends, no money, no car, no job, no girlfriend, no college, no independence and last but not least, no sanity. My life was torture and my whole life revolved around schizophrenia, it invaded every aspect of my life.

I spent the eighties in hospitals and group homes. Sounds bad, right? Well, its been thirty years since then. I have worked almost steadily the whole time, I have attended college and I only need four more classes for my degree. I have driven my own car since 1996, I have lived independently since 1995, although theses last 5 months I have been in a boarding house, which technically is independent living.

But yeah, my story is that in the beginning my case was hopeless. No one could do anything to help me. But I have listed my accomplishments. You wanted people to tell you it is OK? Well, thatā€™s why I wrote all this. I canā€™t tell you how much you will recover. But looking at my case I was just like anyone else with schizophrenia. The point Iā€™m trying to make is to not give up, miracles happen.

You may do as well as me, or you may not. But thereā€™s a lot of ground in between. And thereā€™s hope. The most important thing in your recovery is to keep taking your meds, talk to a psychiatrist, and when people try to help you, listen to them carefully and take what they say seriously. Cooperate with doctors and therapists. Donā€™t isolate or do drugs.

Other things you can do is to eat right, get plenty of sleep, exercise if possible, build a network of support which can be your parents, friends, therapists, etc. There are many good things you can do for yourself.

Thereā€™s people who want to help you. You might want to read up on schizophrenia just to get some general information that might help you and tell you what to expect. like I said, thereā€™s no overnight cure or no overnight recovery, but itā€™s not hopeless.

Iā€™ve never smoked but I did try a couple of diets and I lost 65 pounds. How do I deal with everyday life? The motto for Nike shoes is what I like to use, ā€œJust Do Itā€. Itā€™s very simplistic but I just do what I can with what I got. When something comes up like running errands, taking my car to the mechanic, going to the store I donā€™t overthink it, I just do it.

I love accomplishments, even small ones. If I make an important phone call that needed to be made it makes me feel good. Keeping yourself busy is one way you can get your mind off of your disease. If you can work or go to school it will help in your recovery. Anyway, I hope you get something from this. Thereā€™s a ton of information about schizophrenia out there but this is my story and Iā€™m sticking with it. (thatā€™s an old catch-phrase from some sitcom I saw on TV that I liked, lol). anyway, good luck.

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I like this one a lot @77nick77ā€¦ It can be tough at times to see the helping hands that reach out to us, and then to trust and work with them. But this is not a given, it is one of the problems that come with schizophrenia that we need to work on.

I have often found myself thinking things like ā€˜theyā€™re just saying thatā€™ or ā€˜whatever, that wonā€™t workā€™ in response to those gestures of help towards me (and ofcourse, when needed I would find arguments for such thoughts). Coupled with thoughts such as: ā€˜they donā€™t know what it is likeā€™ and the non sequitur ā€˜therefore they cannot help meā€™.

What worked for me may be very difficult, or seem even irresponsible to someā€¦ but it helped for me to take leaps of faith when it comes to people reaching out to me. Almost blind trust. This is scary, for sure, and difficult, indeed, for I cook up all kinds of reasons why things may not work out etc. But for me this negative skepticism was the very problem that needed to be taken care of. It is paralyzing, for we can never be entirely sure about everythingā€¦ to demand such unattainable certainty, this itself is the problem to me. People who go about living their lives fairly smoothly donā€™t have it eitherā€¦ yet things seem to work out pretty fine for them. There can always be exceptions to the ruleā€¦ where trust is betrayed. But I think it is important to see what is rule and what is exception hereā€¦ Maybe one needs to have hit rock bottom in some sense to not care about the possibility of trust getting betrayed.

A very remarkable comment from you, 77Nick77. :relaxed: