Hello, I just wanted to ask some of you that received the same diagnosis as myself.
Last year I received the diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective. While I know it’s just a label, I read some stories that leave me feeling a little hopeless. Even though I have done better in the past few months, I am a little fearful of the what’s ahead. Anyone else want to share their experience?
Schizoaffective depressive type here.
I find I still have a good life, I have a safe home, a loving fiancé and family, and have my basic needs under control.
It’s hard everyday, working to keep healthy, but it can happen.
Sza bipolar type.
I live a pretty good life, except for the winter and early spring time. I don’t have any hallucinations, but I have paranoia and delusions. My med cocktail does a pretty good job at keeping my symptoms at bay. Stress tends to make them noticeable again. It’s tough at times, but I have learned to accept the illness.
I’m schizoaffective, bipolar type, and I have a great life because of my family. I think a lot of it is about support. I’m very fortunate.
I admittedly don’t always get out of bed and sometimes become depressed or go on wild spending sprees, but my husband is patient with me, and my doctor helps me adjust my meds. Even though it’s not idealic, it’s still a good life.
I wouldnt define it as ruiner, I would call it a daily obstacle.
That depends on you. You can choose to learn everything you can about your illness and work with a psychiatrist to control the illness rather than letting it control you – or not.
The current understanding of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders proposes that the neural pathways in such individuals is altered to some degree from that in the normal population, such that they process data in a different way. No reason to think your life is ‘ruined.’
Schizoaffective bipolar type.
I was unmedicated most of my life, yet I have been married 18 1\2 years, together with my husband for 19, and mother of 6 wonderful children.
I had a semi-successful career as a freelancer writer, authored a decently received novel, and supported a family of 7 for years until my symptoms both mental and physical made me have to stop writing. We’re poor but basically happy.
So yes, you can have a good life! I have a lot of rough spots, though they are like anyone else’s and temporary.
There are setbacks for me but it’s a good life. I spend more time on my relationships whereas in the past I was more focused on ambitions. I go to support group and made some great friends and work on therapy for things like grief in a day treatment program. I’m looking for a partner. I am on ssi but starting next month I’ll try to go back to part time work as a tutor. Sometimes I like to sit in a cafe or hike or borrow a movie from the library. I’m high functioning and don’t have anhedonia. I think a good way to start getting back on your feet is to do a little work or volunteering. That’s how I started, by getting a job.
With the right meds, I now have a good life. Before that, I was disabled. They finally got my med cocktail right 3 1/2 months ago (Zyprexa/Lexapro/Lamictal) and everything changed for the better. Now I can do the work of getting my life back on track. I just celebrated my 16th wedding anniversary, I drive and do errands on my own, I am volunteering twice a week, losing weight, and looking for a full-time job.
It is possible to have a good life. I’m schizoaffective depressive type by the way.
I went from eyes on law school to fully disabled. Now I try to squeeze enjoyment out of each day without any major career accomplishments to speak of.
It’s definitely disabling, but I’m nowhere near as crippled as I was when the disease started. It’s like I got shattered, picked up the pieces and am finished gluing them back together. I can do most of the stuff I used to do but I’m not 100% the same as I used to be.
Definitely makes you reevaluate your life and live within your means. I’ll try to work in a year or two but I don’t ever expect to be the spot-on focused young man I was before the disease started.
Hello @anon59642972.
For me life was much easier at the prodromal phase.
Now my life is very difficult.
I would not call it a good life, but I have success.
It’s definitely a case of life giving you lemons and having to make lemonade, but it can still be happy at times. There’s always a chance you will get better too or better functioning so you have to keep your hopes up. Support is important.
you can have a good life, i was able to keep a small business going for the last 8 years till i sold it last year. it kept me afloat as it was established before i got ill and i only had to do it part time. Now i am on to the next challenge of trying to go back to school for some new stuff. its an uphill battle so far.
this illness is an uphill battle but you can find good in it.
@anon59642972, I have a diagnosis of sza bipolar type. I suffered terribly for a total of 33 years because the medication technology and information available to psychiatrists wasn’t advanced enough to help me until the year 2016 when my pdoc placed me on a total of three atypical antipsychotics at once. That was the year when all of my psychosis disappeared. I finally live a near normal life today.
I’m 58 years old, I was diagnosed when I was 19. I went the whole suffering route for a couple years and spent most of the '80’s in hospitals and group homes, and incidentally had a crack addiction in the late 80’s that I eventually took care of.
But I’ve had some good years and too many great experiences to count. Once the initial two years of solid psychosis eased up I started to slowly integrate into so-called “normal society”. I got a job when I was 22, I made a couple of friends. I remember living in supported housing when I was 22 and living with other mentally ill people in an apartment building and making friends with my neighbor. I remember what a big deal I felt it was when my neighbor and my roommate took us out to eat at a food court near us.
I remember feeling almost like a kid sneaking in and actually being in public and actually sitting in the midst of normal people in public. I felt we were getting away with something just eating in public. It seems such a weird feeling to look back on that attitude because since then, not only have I eaten matter-of-factly at a hundred restaurant’s since then and felt perfectly at ease, but now in the span of my lifetime I’ve been to such varied things as concerts (Aerosmith, R.E.M. Bruce Springsteen etc.) I’ve been to comedy clubs and plays and movies and felt perfectly at ease and felt like I belonged there like anyone else.
In my forties I used to take a two hour train ride to visit my dad and I also drove myself there which was about a two hour drive.
I’ve flown across the country a couple of times for vacation with my dad and step-mom to stay at my step-sisters house who was my age. The highlight of the trip was when my step-sister got drunk one night and I woke up on the couch in the living room one night to find she was laying full length on top of me, lol. Us schizophrenics get damn lucky sometimes, just like regular folk, lol! (nothing happened though).
But I’ve had many experiences both great and bad. I’ve hung around my sisters and all their friends and their husbands. I’m looking back on being almost steadily employed since i was 22. My drug addiction almost killed me but I got to see a little bit of the underbelly of society and little of the darker side and it was very interesting.
I got clean but my addiction was one of the sore points in my relationship with my dad. I caused him some trouble and he was so pissed off at me until the end of his life that just mentioning AA, CA or NA would anger him or anything else that reminded him of my drug use.
The only semi-positive comment I got from him about my drug days was when he begrudgededly said that I lived in the fast lane for four years. Which was true.
Anyways, I’ve lived on my own in the past, I’ve been taking care of myself since 1995. I’ve managed my own finances, took care of my car, made all my appointments myself and went to them on my own.
In some ways I’ve lived a very normal life through the specter of having this major mental illness has haunted me and lives in me all the time. I’ve just done many fun things though I’ve really slowed down. Unloading trucks at Sears for four years in my thirties took it’s toll and now I have a bad back. But I was about the best worker on the crew.
I think you get the general picture in my answer to your question. I’m not a fluke, keep coming to this site and you will see other schizophrenics who have done amazing things. I’m luckier in life than some schizophrenics and not as lucky as others.
It’s just a label. You can still do some things but I will never get the life I wanted back. It’s impossible you have to come up with a plan B but it can still be a good plan.
Good luck to you.
Hey hey, sza bipolar type here.
I started having prodromal symptoms around age 15, and had my first experience of psychosis at 18. I was also hospitalized the first time at 18, and started my treatment for psychosis. After many therapy sessions, hospitalizations, meds and support, I am now 27. I’m working full time. I drive, pay my portion of household bills, and help out around the house. I did none of these for years after my first psychotic break. It’s taken a lot of work, setbacks, and frustration to get here but I’m glad I’m where I am. Sza isnt fun or easy to handle, and some days are definitely worse than others, but it’s not a life ruiner or death sentence. It’s all about knowing your limitations at the current time, but also slowly pushing and challenging yourself. Recovery for me isnt a destination, it’s a lifelong journey.
Encouraging post, and well written 
Bipolar 1 disorder/SZA bipolar type
I’m like a fish constantly swimming upstream.
My journey has just started by exactly seven years ago …I am unable to drive and go out by myself independently …i am recovered 95% …but just started talk therapy recently …