I used to be very pessimistic about Sz people’s future. I thought they were miserable due to cognitive decline and other issues such as anxiety and fatigue. But now my view of Sz people’s life has changed. I saw the light. However you need to be very careful and patient as a schizoiphrenic. Here is my insights based on my experience of taking antipsychotics.
Firstly, the cognitive decline is preventable. After you take meds, your brain’s ability of processing information is impaired. Also your attention span is short. If you give up doing inteligent work such as reading, your brain will become rusty. But if you keep reading or learning despite the poor focus, your brain will get trained and become sharper and sharper.
Secondly, it’s very important to cope with those side effects of meds such as anxiety and poor focus. Anxiety and poor focus affects your ability to sit still reading and writing. So try those supplements to reduce the anxiety and to improve focus. Also it needs a little of patience and skill to handle the issue of poor focus. When you are to read a book or a long article, you need to break the big task into pieces such as reading one page then get a 5 minutes break, after that continue reading another page. Just don’t give up.
Thirdly, stay on the same meds as long as possible. We need to try different antipsychotics to find the best one. However as every med has its side effects we need to be tolerant and patient. When you have stayed the same meds longer than 5 years, your boday and brain will slowly get used to it, include to its side effects. It’s no good changing meds frequently.
I have stayed on Amisulpride for nearly 5 years. I still got fatigue from it. Now I realised it’s no good making a switch just for the severe fatigue. The right thing to do is to adhere to it for another 5 years.
Wish all of you find the right meds and stay on it.
I like your attitude man. I am always very reluctant to change antipsychotics. Only ever been on Clopixol injection for over two years, and now have been on Seroquel for over 7 months. Some side effects can be tolerated.
However, bad akathisia and the mental torture of that. No way can that be tolerated!!! Even Seroquel has caused me some akathisia each night I was taking it, and the dosing of it has had to be tweaked. The only side effect I get from Seroquel now is sedation each night I take it.
I had to learn to be patient with the reading since I was very young. I am very likely dyslexic and reading gets me very tired. The more tired I get, the slower and more likely I am to make mistakes. Now it is even worse, because of the concentration issues. But I’m not letting it stop me. I still read and learn new stuff.
I don’t mind my current meds side effects. I get a bit of the akathisia, but it is tolerable. I got some anxiety and depression when I started to take 10mg abilify, instead of 5mg (I think), but then I got my celexa increased and it went away.
I think over time, most of us who are well adjusted will come to accept our illness as just part of life and continue finding other ways to be happy. Anywhere you go, in China or the US, you can be happy if you have a good support system of friends and family, some dreams and good times to hold on to, work towards your goals be they big or small, and stay healthy as possible.
Hi green i take the same med as you 100mg twice a day and it seems this med was much better for me than the other one,
It does depend on what med and dose you take though i think you need to get a good balance, it has to control your symptoms but allow you to function as much as you can at the same time.
The first med i was on made me like a zombie and i couldn’t function, i was overmedicated and i just could not feel any emotion/pleasure at all so it was much harder to cope despite having less symptoms.
i take the same med as you 100mg twice a day and it seems this med was much better for me than the other one,