I wonder what you have to do to maintain a normal life with schizoaffective? I really feel like situation wise I have some good things going. I have my own apartment I love, a doctor the doesn’t hate me, my weight at a place where I go by unnoticed but I can’t get out of bed. I feel cursed. I think I could work part time in my heart but I am lacking in serous motivation. I am slowly getting my apartment decorated and organized so if I had to be out of here in a half and hour I could be. But just basic house chores is a monster for me. I think of the classic A-typical woman. She’s got a full time job, 2 kids with after school activities, house is immaculate and dinner is on the table at six. Oh yeah and she looks perfect. Its all I can do to work out 3 times a week when I use to do it daily. My instructor in college always accused me of procrastination which is true but after every small task my brain just goes dead. I am on the medication that works best for me (and I have been on them all). How are we supposed to function in a society where survival of the fittest is all that people value?
A lot of women are stressed out by “having it all”. Maybe you can put together a few months of stability on your med’s, and then a few years of stability on your med’s, so that you can get more out of life. These things take time.
Its not too bad to be able to decide for oneself when you want to get out of bed. Keep that in mind. I stil dont know if laying in bed is actually prefferable to being the A-Typical person.
Hi, for a very long time that was all I did too, I’m trying to do a bit more. But it’s making me have symptoms
Usually then I don’t know where to stop and I get unwell
I envy normal life but things are a lot better for me in some ways I’m more able to be social
It’s not procrastination it’s avolition very difficult to even do any housework
Be glad you are a woman and not a man. Everyone expects me to achieve great things and no one wants to date me. I have to make my own way, and it’s painful.
Just be glad that a whole bunch of people dont expect you to become a PhD in clinical psychology while managing chronic paranoid schizophrenia.
And no, my life is not normal. Don’t get me started.
Much respect to women who deny gender roles. So much respect. Female doctors, lawyers, business(wo)men, professors, I really respect them for denying gender roles and not being gold diggers.
I believe that I have what looks like a normal life- under closer inspection, it is not normal, certainly not normal, nope.
But it is not about a normal life- that is a foolish dream for us. We have to dream of the right life for us and pursue it, the best life that we can have that fits our individual differences. Whether it is a researcher or a part time volunteer on disability, the key to satisfaction for us is the right life, not a normal life. A normal life is not in the realm of possibilities. I’m quoting Elyn Saks- she says that it is about finding the right life above all else.
Thank you. That’s motivational. I am discovering my problem is not all chemical. Sometimes you just need to hear it going to be alright.
I have a friend who is schizoaffective also and she always says make your bed with fresh sheets and then get into it 
Hello, it is a balance, isn’t it? It is so nice to know now that it is not procrastination. I went thru papers reading only the bare minimum and using google for terminology. This is new resolve.
I have a lot of respect for people who create lives that work. And to be fair due to circumstances I have made a lot of strides as far a functionality. But where is the balance between what we need and what is to much. There is a certain amount of surrendering to the life we have been given along with our realistic potential. What messes me up is that belief that if we try a little harder we can achieve it. I can make great strides but my achievement (with the same amount of effort) falls way behind that of a sane person. Its frustrating.
Mortimer, reminds me of an old saying I first heard in the late seventies about John Elway when he was quarterbacking the Denver Broncos. To ME, (and others) he reeked of entitlement. The good looks with the blonde hair, blue eyes, tall and strong with a natural talent. His dad was a head coach of a big college football team so his family was rich. But it was his smile that was grating. Just a big toothy smug smile that said,"“I’ve got it made. And I will always have it made”. But here’s the saying that always seems to come up to me every several years: “To whom much is given, much is expected”.
Elway proved himself. And I think you have that burden too whether you like it or not, of people expecting you to do good.
I am thinking of this too-- “living a normal life”.
I just meditate for it myself that, for every success there is achievement or accomplishment, but for every mistake, there must be also a great lesson to learn from-- of both which make one’s life continuous, which in turn, we can looking ahead and moving forward.
In short, life before schizophrenia and life after schizophrenia (before and after recovery) is still our lives, in a continuous form.
life = achievement + great lesson + achievement
I hope this makes sense. This is how I made my thinking straight.