Reading “When Panic Attacks” by pdoc Dr David Burns and he is pretty revolutionary saying anxiety disorders are inventions. That although anxiety and depression are real, the names of diagnoses are just illusions. And that even though sz and bipolar are caused by brain imbalances, for the most part the labels are arbitrary as well. And meds are also an illusion and placebos have the same effect as antidepressant meds etc. My husband agrees with all he’s saying. Says I don’t need meds it’s all psychological.
So it got me thinking - maybe there’s nothing such as sz or sza. I’ve been living a lie and if I just think positive then I won’t need meds or get ill. After all, I came off meds in 2007-2012 so why not again? I’m presently on half my dose of amisulpride and olanzapine and things ok so far. Want to learn CBT and that can help in place of meds.
If schizophrenia is purely psychological, how does one explain the heritability of schizophenia? About 1% of the general population has schizophrenia, but monozygotic (identical) twins separated at birth (they grew up in different environments) have a 40%-50% concordance (probability that a pair of individuals will both have a certain characteristic, given that one of the pair has the characteristic) rate for schizophrenia.
What if one hasn’t got any sz genetics? There’s no one in my family except me that has sza (or sz).
And psychosis? Did I even experience any truly? Or did I just make it up? Psychosis is such a tricky word! Aren’t voices and delusions arbitrary and subjective?
I’ve wondered before if I in some way “chose” to be psychotic. Not that I chose to go through everything I went through but that it was a thought experiment gone terribly wrong. The reason I say that is because there was at least one time where I decided to act “as if” something was true and then I started to believe it.
Most people aren’t paranoid, delusional, hear voices, isolate etc. When a large group of people does all these things and they all have these in common to the point where it severely disables them then they had to call it something so they call it schizophrenia.
So using this doctors theory, the millions of people who had (or have) psychosis for months or even years since schizophrenia was first recognized, it was all just one big illusion?
Damn, I spent 8 months in the hospital because of something I made up? Silly me, my mistake.
I’m sorry guys if I sounded insensitive. I guess I’m just doubting my own psychosis. It was there but it didn’t disable me or interfere with my life much - so was it really psychosis then? The crippling symptoms I have had were more depression and anxiety and avolition. But my psychosis was mild so I was wondering if it really was. Even though it was there.
Are you kidding me what research was he drawing off of that says meds aren’t any different from placebos? The FDA doesn’t even allow meds on the market if they don’t show a marked improvement in symptoms over placebos. That part was just idiotic and uninformed. Based entirely on opinion.
As for the labels bit, I have been told by a number of professionals that labels are not really important they are just for insurance purposes. Really what is important is your symptoms and finding what helps manage them.
God doctors should lose their licenses for publishing stuff like psych meds don’t work. I’m pretty sure a doctor would lose their license if they said normal medicines like antibiotics didn’t work. That is just stupid.
You can have SZ without anyone in your family having it. Its still genetic. Studies has showed that SZ is 80% caused by genetic defects that can arise in anyone due to environmental factors like infections during pregnancy. Family can also be carriers of inactive mutations which can become active in the offspring when the required mutations are complementarily mixed in the offspring. The other 20% cause is from drugs like weed, cocaine, alcohol, etc Stress isn’t a significant factor alone. I took many biology university courses before my diagnosis. I have SZ and no one in my family has any mental or physical illness
Its called advertising to make money from non-prescription supplements and books. I didn’t fall into that trap and my psychiatrist told to never believe what others are saying about SZ.
