what do you mean?
Itās a no-brainer. Just look at the plight of people who had schizophrenia before 1950.
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Yes. The cultural differences are vast and need to be considered when talking about sz in other countries. There is a very good lecture from a professor at Stanford on Open Course Ware (probably on youtube as well) and he gives an example of a woman who was probably schizophrenic whom he encountered while living in an African village. The people in her village knew nothing of schizophrenia, of course, so it is interesting to see how they reacted to her differences.
Hmm I wonder if other groups debate the benefits of medication like we do on this forum. Do Diabetics have debates on whether they should take their meds, or heart patients? I know cancer patients do, but those drugs and their situations are vastly different than ours.
Psychiatric drugs are contested because itās based on a false premise: namely that there is a chemical imbalance in the brain that drugs correct. The chemical imbalance theory has been debunked ā studies have been done on depressed patients and schizophrenics and found levels of serotonin and dopamine (respectively) to match levels found in the general population. After ingesting psychiatric drugs, though, you do develop a chemical imbalance in the brain (which is often ācorrectedā by more drugs, creating more and more imbalances, emerging as side effects like suicidal ideation or tardive dyskinesia).
Diabetics, on the other hand, have a known (and proven) deficiency in the body and insulin corrects this. This is uncontested.
Antipsychotics work much like a sledgehammer. Brain functions are destroyed in the process of correcting a non-existent chemical imbalance. You canāt knock someone out and claim youāve cured their headache ā the logic just baffles the mind.
Unfortunately psychiatrists are arrogant and refuse to acknowledge their ignorance concerning the brainās complexity. If they did, perhaps a genuine solution could be discovered. Unlikely to happen anytime soon, though.
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for those that take antipsychotics does it act like putting a LID on your symptoms? I have never taken them so I donāt know how they would act on myself. I only know that the niacin I take is like putting a lid on my positive symptoms. it also feels like it makes me very lethargic though as well. do antipsychotics make you feel lethargic?
As far as good or badā¦ The wrong mixā¦ yes itās frustrating and I used to think they were badā¦ all the side effects and none of the promises fulfilled.
When I got the right meds in the right doseā¦ Oh yeahā¦ much improvement. Too bad that the wrong med at the wrong dose can really be nightmare.
For meā¦ I also think meds aloneā¦ Ok, but med/ CBT much better. Then I can cope with a lower dose and still feel stable.
Not as lethargic as negative symptoms. When those negatives hit me and started shutting my life downā¦ I hate the wax build-up of negative symptom.
It was when I was hitting negative symptoms that I came close to leaving this life.
For meā¦ just how my head worksā¦ I donāt feel that the meds make me lethargic. They keep me functioning.
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Thanks for the info man
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The right medicine regimen helps anyone with personal problems and mental illness. Iām happy I have my meds setup well.
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Many here at this site need them.
So I donāt appreciate people that come here to rant about how bad they are or how they donāt need them.
Go join a psychiatric survivor/ex-patient/victim website where you can can find receptive ears to how bad antipsycotics are. I see the chains and it reminds me of being chained to a bed 35 years ago with something they called a posey.
Good thing they did as I was bent on jumping out windows ASAP.
So yes I was very anti psychiatry after that.
Then it happened again and again and again and I just āgot used to itā
If you survived, just be happy and glad that you donāt have a brain disease and go on and live a happy life. If you had a bad treatment experience move on, and think about those that get no treatment at all.
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Actually thatās pretty much bunkum too. First of all, diabetes is nowhere near as indisputable as you make out. There are several types with different etiologies. Type 2 is not a shortage of insulin but a problem with insulin receptors. Secondly, both diabetes and schizophrenia have similar etiology. In most (not all) people they are the result of an autoimmune system gone haywire. In both illnesses, there is a genetic element and an epigenetic element, and in both illnesses, doctors are treating the results of the underlying autoimmune disease, simply because so far thatās the best they can do. The only significant difference is that a malfunctioning pancreas will kill you in less than three weeks. With a malfunctioning brain you may live, in more or less misery for years. But most people with schizophrenia also get other autoimmune disorders as time goes by. An interesting point about sz is that there is also a problem with insulin receptors (amongst others) in the brain. The real science on sz is not debunked, only the simplified explanations for non-scientists. The real science has made massive progress in the last couple of years.
The illuminating thing about the discovery of the relationship between the two diseases is that it suggests that the reason various receptors are not working well is the inflammation caused by the autoimmune attack. Amongst other things APs help to reduce inflammation, and also weaken the immune system. Other things help too - fish oil, aspirin and other NSAIDs, hard physical exercise (be careful for mania, though), reduced stress, regular sleep (so APsā sedative effects are helpful). But APs do help people. No doubt about it
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Correlation does not imply causation ā schizophrenics are more likely to suffer from autoimmune disorders ā this doesnāt imply autoimmune disorders cause schizophrenia.
Cat poop has also been implicated in schizophrenia. So has gut bacteria. Just one of a number of competing theories ā the dopamine hypothesis being the most prevalent, despite widespread evidence to the contrary ā and the primary mechanism of action in antipsychotic medication.
Iāll be waiting for those $900 aspirin pills to start hitting the market. 
Yes, cat poop is one of the possible environmental triggers. The mechanism is clear, the autoimmune system reacts to it and overeaches itself. But only if the person infected has the right combination of genes. You know, you have a lot of theories about what BPD and sz are NOT, but so far Iām not seeing any suggestions that would have helped my son when he was afflicted by raging paranoia and delusions. And, for your information, before he was diagnosed and treated with APs, aspirin DID help him. It brought him out of one psychotic episode at least. He was still confused and paranoid but it restored his ability to speak and think a bit within an hour.
I have to say that in all your postings I am not actually seeing any sign that you even a basic grasp of science. Maybe you should take it up seriously, like Jane or Mortimer Mouse, then you wonāt be wasting your time ājousting with windmills.ā I mean, no serious scientist makes the claims that you keep trying to debunk, and in order to understand sz well you need a good knowledge of microbiology.
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Damn Hatty, someoneās on a mission huh?
Loving this site. I have three cats should I blame my schizo on the cats?
expecting a psychiatrist and Antipsychotics to āworkā for your āMental Illnessā is asking the Junkyard owner to fix your car by a car crusher.
Go figure.
Yes, sorry, thatās a a bit too forceful, but I get fed up with āknocking things downā without anything to replace them. This bloody illness has wrecked the last ten years of my sonās life. Ironically he had just started med school when it hit him. It has almost bankrupted us, and the meds have given him his (lovely) personality back, and weāre just starting to breathe and think about what he might be able to do in future. And I was talking to my endocrinologist today who also agrees that my son clearly has an autoimmune disorder.
And no, donāt be mean to your poor cats. It might have been your cats (or more specifically toxoplasmosis) that triggered yours. It might have been an in utero experience. It might have been a later infection. But viruses are looking like the guilty environmental agentā¦
But again, the vital question for people with sz and their families is not āwhat did this?ā but āwhat can be done about it NOW?ā
And the anti-meds crew is working hard here right now, but coming up with nothing as a replacement.
And a whole range of autoimmune disorders in this thread:
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Sorry if that was a bit harsh, but the sarcasm about the aspirin got to me. I felt like it saved my sonās life that night.
I feel itās a GOOD thing - medication, that is. I spent years making up incredible explanations for the voices I heard but somehow sensed that no one else could hear. After a āpsychotic breakā a few years ago, I was put on Saphris, which worked GREAT; VERY few side effects. So after 6 months, I declared myself āall betterā and weaned off my meds (my shrink was OK with this because I was not, at that time, honey with her OR myself about my disease). Within 3 months my symptoms came back so strong that I was terrified of being institutionalized. I came clean to my shrink and got BACK on the Saphris. Itās been almost a year now and things in my head are now āquietā. Like anything, I donāt think that ALL meds are bad - you just might not be taking the right one for you.
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In my experience I think meds are good when they control the symptoms well with tolerable side effects. However when a med isnāt working and it has debilitating side effects meds can be bad.
I can understand why antipsychotics arenāt popular (in fact in the uk they are the least adhered to meds). For years I was on many awful APs with little benefit. It was just blind luck I got a cocktail which works for me.
For the record I subscribe to polypharmacy. Not just APs but other psychotropics like anticonvulsants, SSRIs and anxiolytics. I believe treating the symptoms is as important as treating the syndrome.
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