Learned helplessness vs Negative symptoms

What’s the difference?
Doesn’t one leads to another?

I know they differ in their treatment and that negative symptoms don’t have a treatment yet.

I know I ask difficult questions but I don’t want to annoy my psychiatrist with my questions :sweat:

I suffer negative symptoms too.

I have to trick myself into showers and washing my face/brushing my teeth every night.

It’s a constant struggle to do housework and take care of my mother in law.

But I run our whole house and it looks pretty good in here,

All despite my negative symptoms.

Just because I don’t FEEL like doing it, doesn’t mean I CAN’T.

I think you suffer from negative symptoms like me, but instead of powering through, you’ve learned to rely on other people.

You need to slowly take back your life.

I don’t know what the difference is between the two, but I know it doesn’t really matter.

The only way you can treat negative symptoms is to work on it, medicines don’t help.

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I kinda miss the ‘old goldenrex’. You were always so bubbly and free-spirited.

I think your mother-in-law has taken some wind out of your sails by living with you. Can’t wait for you to bounce back at some point. :sunny:

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I miss the old goldenrex too.

After all this virus mess, we’re going to revisit some long term solutions to my MIL situation and move forward with them.

Hopefully after that I won’t be such a biitch.

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You’re not a bítch, you’re just stressed, like you say. It’s a tough situation to be in.

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not sure. I think I escape a lot. I’ve always been a dreamer.

it still takes discipline, reading, writing, coloring, or whatever.

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Negative symptoms are real. I wasn’t like that before my SZ. What changed my personality then? I was the most energetic individual doing 120 pushups and 300 setups every morning.
Now I can’t do shît. I am more than lazy, can’t study anymore and I suck in university now. My psychiatrist wouldn’t tell me I have negative symptoms if they weren’t real. Chances are that you don’t have negative symptoms as severe as me and many others. I know twins with SZ worse than me with PhDs, they bath every 1-2 months, I bath every 7-9 days, everyday before SZ. Self-neglect is a medical symptom of SZ in wikipedia.

Good news is that Xanomeline was shown to fix negative symptoms:
From Wikipedia Xanomeline

“It has been studied for the treatment of both Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia, particularly the cognitive and negative symptoms

It will take 5-10 years to be available in Canada as usual and not be covered by insurance. :confounded:

At least I will have a life before dying.

I didn’t say negative symptoms aren’t real.

I said I have them too and they are very difficult to contend with.

I’m sure you’re experiencing them too.

That doesn’t mean you can just give up,

Which is what you seem to want to do.

Every time someone tries to help you, you just make more excuses.

I was trying to help you by pointing out the fact that some of us live with the same symptoms and live productive lives.

It’s possible.

And it’s possible without some sort of special medication that may or may not work.

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I have negative symptoms. I understand how tough it can be. I used to get a lot done, took care of a house and 6 kids. Used to farm and work construction in my early 20s. Worked as a nurse Aide and also worked for over10 years from home as a freelance writer.

After my breakdown 3 years ago my negative symptoms just piled up. I do nothing most of the time and feel tired all the time. I only get stuff done if I get hypomania.

It’s hard to push through. I am working on that now and learning to do stuff again. You can, too. Take baby steps. Remember that every step forward, no matter how small, moves you forward.

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Thanks, baby steps do help and now I take care of everything tech related in our the house.
I build and repair computers for all family members. I find the best deals and negotiate prices for internet, iptv and cellphone plans.

Without videogames, tech forums, this forum and my vape I would have tried suicide again and succeeded at it this time.

So you are taking steps. Then don’t be so hard on yourself and say you do nothing. Because you are doing an important job. I’d you didn’t take care of the computers your family might need to pay for the service. You know how expensive that can be.

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Bullet Journaling has helped me to accomplish more with my day. Here’s what I said to a person on a bujo forum who was struggling with daily tasks:

Here’s what I do for not getting out of bed: bullet journaling. I have 2 journals: a dream journal, and a bullet journal. When I wake up, if I remember my dreams, I write it in my dream journal. Then I make a page for the day in my bullet journal. I put down some washi tape and stickers to make it look pretty, put the date, and put a VERY SHORT to do list for the day (example: shower, hygiene, eat 3 meals, pick 1 thing up and put it away, write a poem). At the end of the day, I check off what I accomplished, and write a personal free form journal entry beneath it about my feelings about the day or whatever I want to talk about. Try it. The to do list / bujo method helps motivate me to stay on track.

You can learn more about bullet journaling on pinterest for ideas, but it boils down to window dressing on a traditional journal, with the addition of some productivity and/or gratitude lists.

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I use notepad and alarms app on my cellphone to remember things like taking pills, psy apt, dr apt, etc I used to forget my pills so my psy recommended me this and its working great so far.

Its easy to workout with negative symptoms. Since we not able to feel emotions, pain, tiredness etc like normal we can do more reps. Force ourselves to start workout etc. The deciding factor is what we are putting out whether its laziness or productiveness? We have the ability to choose. If not make any effort then the default is productiveness. This is why we need to manually force ourself to do the needed things and it will not come automatically like normal people due to affective flattening. Just because it not come automatically does’nt mean we can’t do it.

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