I was diagnosed with schizophrenia this year, although I have been suffering from it for years. I have been on nearly every antipsychotic medication and all have given me terrible side effects. I know schizophrenia is a serious illness and many people have to be on medications to control the symptoms. Is it possible though to recover without medication? What will happen if I don’t take medication?
Yes a minority recovers without meds.
Most likely it will progressively destroy your brain. 
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My brain will be destroyed by the medication.
Yes there’s been cases of people having one episode and never another but the possibility of it being schizophrenia is not that high.
How is it possible to try almost every AP in only a few months?? For some of them, the side effects disappear after a month or two…
Zeno is right that a few schizophrenics won’t need medication. Maybe 10%…
But the rest of them will need it for life.
Delusions are dangerous if left untreated because they get harder to dismiss as time goes on.
Voices are dangerous because they can push you to do unreasonable deeds, even violence or suicide.
Paranoia is dangerous because it will isolate you from everyone who cares about you.
Have you tried clozapine?
I was on two different antipsychotics a couple years ago when I was misdiagnosed with other illnesses. Plus my psychiatrists will put me on a medication for about two weeks or so and if it doesn’t improve my condition or causes me bad side effects, they switch it to something else.
There are many side effects but I’ve never heard of this side effect. 
I don’t want brain shrinkage.
I don’t take medication,
And receive mixed results.
Taking the medication everyday an ordeal for me.
I thought it was poison, I thought it was a tracking device, I thought it purposely robbing me of sentience.
Everyday it was a struggle.
I stopped the medication because the fears about it were practically worse than the symptoms I was treating.
So, I smoke a lot of cannabis. I’ve always self medicated with it and its always been effective, although that seems to be the exception rather the rule.
I’ve done CBT and changed my life, it has done the most for me and I’ll continue going to therapy, but probably no more meds.
So is recovery possible without meds? I don’t know, I’m working on it.
Apparently, some of us can recover without meds, but for the vast majority of us, no, we cannot. We deteriorate over time; our cognitive, social, basic functioning skills all suffer.
Personally, I’d rather not gamble with my mind. My butt still hurts from the injection of abilify yesterday, and my creativity isn’t as strong, but at least I can live on my own, look for work, maintain relationships, and not think that I’m being mind controlled, etc… It’s worth it, imo
My advice is don’t go cold turkey . Talk to your pdoc about a gradual reduction of the dosage, and work with him/her to monitor for any signs of relapse. Let a friend/family member know so they can be on the lookout for any signs of deterioration/relapse that you might miss.
I decided I’ll stay on my medication because I don’t want to have a relapse. I will somehow just deal with the side effects until they pass. I’m currently on Abilify which gives me the least amount of side effects.
That should say Abilify gives me the least amount of side effects, but it does give me some that I hate such as drowsiness. I have to drink some coffee just to stay awake!
when do you take the abilify? mine is supposed to be taken before bed time