I think Firemonkey is right here - the data is not conclusive yet, and the difference even in the studies that do show some thirdworld countries do somewhat better - the difference is not huge.
Additionally - the trend in the last 5 to 10 years in western countries is to realize that the lowest dose of medication that still controls the symptoms is the best dose for people - so the days of “heavily medicated” people is really over. Most doctors will prescribe the lowest possible dose that manages the positive symptoms (and this approach minimizes the side effects).
Who is your doctor? Have you seen an endocrinologist rather than a pdoc? Hyperthyroidism on its own can cause psychosis. It can also be just one of a range of symptoms of an underlying autoimmune disorder, but it is entirely possible that hyperthyroidism is all you’ve got.
Finally something we can agree on!
It’s not the meds that are an issue wth me, it’s how they are prescribed and by whom.
My opinion is that there are not enough high quality prescribers- this is from experience
You know I have lived in Africa, visited Brazil and lived in Turkey for over ten years, and I am just not buying that story. I think there is a lot wrong with the methodology of that study. First of all, most people with sz in developing countries never end up anywhere near a doctor. There aren’t any shrinks at all in most developing countries. My bet is that a lot of people with sz end up dead, a lot of them are off their heads in drugs all the time (plenty of drugs available in the developing world), and some of them get pushed out of town to live in a shed on their own, where they get called “shamans” and “witch doctors” and people fro the town drop food off 100 yards from the door, and only come to visit them in groups for safety. And yes, I have seen all those things. Turkey is a bit more developed than most developing countries and still here, the solution to a lot of the behaviour induced by sz or bipolar (mania, paranoia, aggression, lack of motivation, etc) is for the uncles to come round (if it’s a guy) or the older brother (if its a woman) and administer a good beating or a few good hard slaps. I’m not kidding. Your father can still beat you in your forties here (sons, that is). And if you raise a hand back or respond verbally, that’s when the whole family comes round to deal with you. So, I very much doubt that report. I think it probably only managed to contact a very select range of patients in the upper middle classes, and it didn’t examine very deeply family “support strategies”. I mean, there is family support. There is no such thing as “social withdrawal” in most developing countries - apart from living in a shed outside town. So maybe the forced social compliance and conformity has a positive effect. I can’t see that working in Western countries, where individual autonomy is such a “political idol.”
Doctor of Mind on YouTube has a piece on Risperidone/Risperdal which is pretty boring till the end, when he says that it helps neuro-regeneration (which may mean that while you are on it, it can help to repair the damage done to your brain earlier by other APs or by the sz itself. But that would depend on your actual activities, since we only build new neurons in response to our activities. Everything in brackets my conclusion/ guess, he implies this but doesn’t spell it out.)
You may be right… and its easy to “idealize” situations you don’t actually know about (some people here think that the unmedicated in 3rd world countries live a great life).
And its well known that many just end up chained to beds in their home becaue their family can’t deal with them and don’t know how to deal with them (or in “jails” or “psych wards” where they are also chained up all day and night. Here are some well-done stories and images:
Between rice fields and coconut trees on Indonesia’s “paradise” island of Bali, a man lies chained by the ankles to a rotting wooden bed in a garden, staring at roosters tottering by.
I Ketut Lingga, 54, has schizophrenia and is one of more than 15,000 Indonesians with a mental illness who are either chained, caged or placed in primitive stocks, according to health ministry data.
They are known as “pasung” – which loosely translates to “shackled” – and are considered lost causes.
Third world countries don’t have our sedentary lifestyle either. They spend their time out in the open, so they don’t experience the depression inducing vitamin D deprived existence.
@gainesms i was thinking about what you have been saying and i thought that maybe these people in 3rd world countries that are supposedly doing better than us could just have a stronger will to survive, they have a stronger survival instinct bc they have been brought up in a lot tougher conditions than we were.
There are really not too many good ones–or maybe its not enough of them. I dont know that 3rd world countries are doing any better…sometimes those people are left to fend for themselves.
Yes-some meds can cause terrible side effects, or bring on
the very symptoms they are supposed to be curbing.
For now–what else do we have??**
Right now I’m working on a plan of action in case I relapse. I’ve already weaned myself off medication. If I relapse within the next year (which is very possible), I’ve asked my family to have my committed to a drug-free outpatient program (similar to Soteria but based on homeopathic cures).
Unfortunately all the Soteria copies are based in Europe. There’s one in Vermont but it only houses 5 people.
When the homeopathy doesn’t work will you opt for being chained to a tree and having the devil whipped out of you, or perhaps you 'll ask a fairy to sprinkle fairy dust round your head?
Don`t be so hard!
Everyone has the right to find their own path.
Everyone has to find what they can live with.
Really disrespectful to denigrate someone who may have a different opinion…
The statistics that you can’t argue are all proven on this site. Stimulant induced psychosis is temporary. I have yet to believe the statistics that you are referring to as factual. There is no proof about the bipolar and stimulants causing rapid cycling long term, bipolar 1 are already manic, so a stimulant alone is going to make them manic because its part of the disease. If I know that, I’m sure the treating PD would. But untreated bipolar does cause rapid cycling or the disease to worsen. Have you ever been in a hospital and witnessed someone that has never been medicated for 15 years? Its not a pretty site, and that is all the proof I need. It is too late for someone after that long, and that was backed by the DR. For my experience it isn’t a choice, medication you live, just like diabetes. I’m a little skeptical about folks coming here to push their agenda of antipsychiatry, not support people who are struggling with an illness. Maybee you don’t have an illness as severe as some, by all means its your choice.
I got really angry when someone suggested a shaman. We have tried the natural, went to a natural Dr, but when you are in crisis you have to stay alive.
