I could drive myself to distraction trying to work this one out.
Therapists assume that genetics has nothing to do with it. With CBT especially, it’s all behavioral. My current therapist asserts that anger is at the root of all mental illness and addiction issues. This assumption drives me cuckoo because if it’s a behavioral thing then we ought to be able to cure it with therapy. But how many SZ’s have recovered by means of talk therapy?
What if there’s a genetic component, and the ratio is 50:50 nature:nurture?
CBT ignores heredity completely. Yet SZ runs in families. I swear my mother was paranoid and had tardive dyskinesia to boot. She was an undiagnosed SZ or darn close to it.
I think I will fire my therapist for giving me false hope of a cure. I will take my meds and live my life without freaking false hopes.
My schizophrenia started when my father told me that he was being harassed by the church, then it got worse when I saw on TV that was possible to read minds. I believe that you become schizophrenic when you believe that someone or something had power in your mind
Probably a combination of all three. I believe I was hard wired to hare schizophrenia but it took a lot of weed smoking and caffeine and lack of sleepy nights that switching the gene for Sz on. And once it’s on it hard to turn it off/cure it
Schizophrenia is mostly genetic but not for me. Nobody in my family has any mental illness. I think mine was environmental and stress.
Of course I really believe the government manipulated my environment to give it to me so I can’t fly anymore but that’s the delusional me talking and I can’t prove it but I can give some pretty solid evidence to support my claim. They certainly made it worse.
But on the other hand the government sure does pay me a lot of disability which is nice because I never expected it. I always thought I would have to keep working.
Here’s a truth: The illness distrupts our function in a negative manner and we develop negative habits. CBT is an excellent tool to replace negative habits with positive ones. Positive habits will carry you past negative episodes of a chronic illness (SZ!) and give your meds a power-up (you will go farther on fewer meds eventually).
Anytime someone offers you therapy that will help you correct your behavior in a positive manner, GRAB FOR IT.
Both. You have the potential to develop it and maybe your mother was sick while pregnant with you or you had drug problems or severely traumatic events.
I didn’t expect the answer would be simple and unanimous. Nice hearing from you so far… @TheNicestFreak: I abused alcohol to self-medicate SZ from the time I was nearly 18yo. Trauma: I’m a childhood sexual abuse survivor, or so they tell me when I describe to them being given an enema for punishment at the age of three.
I’d be ok with CBT if it was not something that negated the effect of personal experiences with a "Well your thinking is just faulty " approach. By all means help people to have better coping skills but this can be done without dismissing/invalidating a person’s experiences. My experiences are real. I really don’t need some half witted cbt practitioner dismissing those experiences with a “You only think that because your thinking is faulty” approach. Acknowledge my experiences while helping me to cope better with the effects of those experiences ,or to put it bluntly ■■■■.
Roughly 1%. IF 80% is genetic then solving why that 20% exists probably is the cure! It amazes me that delusions and symptoms are so similar for a lot of folk. Why is it only 1% who suffer???
Yeah it seems an environmental trigger gets hit but why so consistently the 1%???
Idt its all genetics. Imonly saying this because i was the first one to develop sz in my whole family tree that i know of. Each case is unique on how it develops but theres common relation or in other words similar symptoms idk sz/sza is pretty tricky
i believe that we are predisposed to have schizophrenia that can be triggered by environmental issues such as stress, trauma, etc.
it’s like a gene.
that we have
and it’s activated by certain events.
i think that’s why you may need a combination of meds and therapy to get better
there is no current cure (100%) because there’s not enough scientific research on the neurological part.
people say you can cure BPD with therapy.
but is it really a cure when the initial disease is still there but we are better at managing it?
Haven’t been officially diagnosed but I think drinking alot really messed me up. Then getting prescribed antipsychotics and having bad reactions to them made me even worse.
CBT could help you with the behavioural aspect of things.
Like learning to manage your symptoms better, and reason with yourself.
Or learning to not get anxiety when you have symptoms, and manage your mood.
Thanks, @Pikasaur and all of you, I’m sticking with my therapist. I recognize the truth of a lot of what she’s said so far. She is very good at what she does.
I heard that it’s OK to switch therapists when necessary. I think moving to this one was necessary. I’ve only heard her talk for a couple of sessions, one 1:1 and 1 DD group. Took a bit to sink in.
My twin and I both have schizophrenia but I have it much worse. I think it’s because she is right handed and I’m left handed. I also think it’s because even though upthrough high school we lived very similar lives she was always more calm and less worried than I was. I think it wasn’t the stimulus that caused it necessarily as much as our reactions to the same stimulus. Also I blame genes. My mom has it too but she didn’t get it until much later in life
