I think with time that gets better. At first, I was really terrified at first with the label. Then it got easier, I’m sure it will get easier for you too.
Be assertive with your treatment. It sounds to me like you’re doing that. Be med compliant, but if something is too hard to bear let them know, in an assertive way. There are alternatives to med’s that destroy your quality of life.
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Be careful with caffeine. If you smoke, ask your doctor before changing your smoking habits.
It’s very important to maintain equilibrium, anything you put in your body you want to keep fairly consistent, caffeine especially. Sleeping and waking up at the same time is important, you want a stable routine.
Learn to recognize your symptoms, this will help you maintain insight and communicate with your doctor. Insight is the difference between being ok and needing to visit the hospital for most people. Pick up a hobby or two, if you haven’t already. Staying occupied will help you cope.
I don’t remember what the books were, but there are certainly resources for coping skills. It doesn’t hurt to be well informed on the specifics. Don’t get in the habit of arguing with your doctor, but if you know the terminology, how the medicines work, the names and features of the symptoms, it will help you better understand what they are telling you, and it will help you better communicate the things that are going on.
How old are you, if you don’t mind? Have you been given a full diagnosis? In America that requires a complete psychotic break and symptoms for at least 6 months
This is my second psychotic episode. First time got put down to drug induced but this time completely sober. I’m 28?
So you went untreated for a time? That’s not good.
Are you female?
No I’m male.was still on risperidone and then reduced to nothing and a few months later I relapsed.
Oh ok, so you had a fairly late onset? The average age for males is 18, for women the average is 25.
Had a few traumatic episodes mid twenties and something changed
What exactly should I worry cause nicer nine caffeine?
By traumatic episodes are you referring to life experiences or psychological changes?
Caffeine is known to worsen schizophrenia, in large quantities very dramatically. Severe cases and people who are sensitive to caffeine should be especially cautious. The medications for schizophrenia generally operate on the serotonin and dopamine systems, if your medication is listed as an atypical antipsychotic, it means that it works on both. typical antipsychotics, the older medications, work only on the dopamine system I believe.
The way caffeine works is that it mimics adenosine in the brain, temporarily blocking adenosine receptors and allowing both chemicals to run amok. Increase in caffeine intake has been commonly linked to psychotic episodes.
I use caffeine during the day to concentrate can you recommend any alternatives?
As a general rule, stimulants are bad for schizophrenia.
You can use caffeine, but pay attention to the amount you use, and keep it consistent. It’s also good to keep your doctor updated on caffeine intake.
Yeah traumatic events I mean life experiences but my family noticed that psychologically I changed on that night.
There isn’t a great deal of data on the subject, but is has been put forth a few times that traumatic brain injury as well as a history of mental trauma can be associated to schizophrenia. It is also likely that this could have been your prodromal phase, do you remember feeling any different around this time?
Prodromal symptoms tend to be much, much less severe. It’s normally characterized by a withdrawal from friends and hobbies, similar to things you would expect during a depressive episode, without necessarily being depression. During this time the senses are often heightened, things may seem uncomfortably loud at times, or especially bright, thought tends to be more abstract than usual and you may have had difficulty concentrating. Abstract thinking is an important aspect in pinpointing the early signs of schizophrenia.
The first psychotic episode is when the transition to full blown schizophrenia occurs, and there are physical changes that happen at this time. Sometimes it goes unnoticed up to this point.
Yeah after that night lost my job, became a complete recluse, hardly spoke just completely went into my shell and hid from the world.
Piles of research show that sz pts tend to get “better” when they…
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Get a copy of this book and read it and have their families read it, as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Schizophrenia-6th-Edition-Family/dp/0062268856 -
Get properly diagnosed by a board-certified psychopharmacologist who specializes in the psychotic disorders. One can find them at…
https://psychiatrists.psychologytoday.com/rms/ -
Work with that “psychiatrist” (or “p-doc”) to develop a medication formula that stabilizes their symptoms sufficiently so that they can tackle the psychotherapy that will disentangle their thinking.
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The best of the therapies for that currently include…
DBT – http://behavioraltech.org/resources/whatisdbt.cfm
MBSR – http://www.mindfullivingprograms.com/whatMBSR.php
MBCT - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22340145
ACT – https://contextualscience.org/act
10 StEP – http://pairadocks.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-10-steps-of-emotion-processing.html -
the even newer somatic psychotherapies like…
MBBT – https://www.newharbinger.com/blog/introduction-mind-body-bridging-i-system
SEPT – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatic_Experiencing
SMPT – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensorimotor_psychotherapy -
or standard CBTs, like…
REBT – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_emotive_behavior_therapy
Schematherapy – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schema_Therapy
Learned Optimism – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_optimism
Standard CBT – http://www.beckinstitute.org/what-is-cognitive-behavioral-therapy/About-CBT/252/ -
If you/she/he needs a professional intervention, tell me where you live, and I will get back to you with leads to those services.
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Look into the RAISE Project at https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=raise%20program%20schizophrenia.
hi
it is not the end of the world 
have humour towards it…laugh 
don’t listen to the voices…unless it makes sense
eat healthy food
don’t do recreational drugs
don’t drink
don’t eat sugars
you want to avoid your mind/brain going on highs and lows
take your meds…( i don’t do meds…but i do lots of other stuff…)
do cbt…it helps heaps.
don’t isolate yourself
you can still work…have a career ( of sorts )
you can still find love/marriage
you can still have friends ( i don’t…but i think humans are stupid )
get educated about sz
educate those around you
have a good carer
understand your limitations
don’t be too hard on yourself…etc
know someone cares 
take care 
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I have schizophrenia. I do well.
I used to drink a lot of coffee for a lot of years. I find it hard calling caffeine the enemy. Actually, I’m free of caffeine at present, however.
Good wishes,
Jayster
Co-operate in your own treatment. Meds are the front line treatment for schizophrenia in this day and age. Most people hate them. mainly because of side-effects . But except for the rare alternative methods there are that work for a minority of people with schizophrenia, meds will help you more than anything else in conjunction with talk therapy.
Once that sinks fully into your conscousness you are on your way to recovering. You will always hear talk from some people including professional in the psychiatric community about how bad meds are for you and how they poison you and that they do not work. Well, my advice to you if your interested is to research them online. Read articles on both sides of the argument. In this day and age I can’t see how anyone can deny that they work. Thousands of people who meds have helped can’t be wrong.
But otherwise, my advice is to listen to your doctors and whoever else is trying to help you. You don’t have to have blind faith in doctors but they have years of medical school and experience with treating patients with mental illness to help them help you. Here’s some advice I learned through bitter experience. DO NOT DO ANY DRUGS. They will derail your recovery and there’s a good chance they will wreck your life. You may have friends or other people you know who do drugs and they seem like they can handle them and they seem fine with them, but we people with schizophrenia are in a different position than other people. We have a chronic brain disease that affects many areas of our lives. If you add drugs to the equation it compounds the problems in our lives. I know what I’m talking about. I got addicted to crack in the late eighties. I spent a lot of money on crack and went places I shouldn’t have been and hung out with people I shouldn’t have and I saw other people with schizophrenia doing the same thing. I barely survived my addiction but I got clean in 1990 and I haven’t drugs since then. Other people in my position weren’t as lucky and they are still out there. Take this seriously. Anyway, i hope you get something from this. Good luck.
I told my doc he looked like Charlie Brown . He didn’t respond with supportive insight. Lol. Supportive people and low stress. I find hobbies help