My nsme is Jess and I have Schizophrenia

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Hey my name is Jess (I"m a girl) and I have ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Schizophrenia ( originally paranoid schizophrenia, but schizophrenia thanks to the DSM 5). I"m currently employed and I plan on going to community college in the Fall. I’ve experienced command hallucinations that told me to kill myself and my family, I experienced delusions where I felt people were trying to kill me, and in the past (November 2013) and present I felt suicidal where I wanted to shoot myself or overdose on my meds. I’m taking Geodon 80mg with food and 80mg with food twice a day. I was diagnosed at 22 and I"m 25 now. I think I got schizophrenia because I was born 3 months premature, was abused by my Stepdad and my Dad, and I was born in February on the 1st. I was wondering if anybody is going to back to school with Schizophrenia? Has anyone read Elyn Sak’s book The Center Cannot Hold or watched her Ted Talk. I e-mailed her and she e-mailed me back and asked if I would like to talk with her. I also want to be a Psychiatrist and was wondering if it’s a good idea to be a doctor with a mental illness?

Thank You for reading this.
Jess

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Hello welcome! Sorry for the lack of things to add, but I will finish my associates degree next semester so you can certainly go to school with schizophrenia! Of course you can! :smiley: I’m also on the same med and same dosage as you are, and hope that goes well for you and it continues to work. I’m sorry to hear about the abuse you received, not cool. But hello and welcome!

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Hi Jess :slight_smile: Going to college and being a psychiatrist are awesome things to do! Of course you can be a psychiatrist! There are plenty of doctors with MI…they just don’t come forward, because of stigma. Talk to Elyn Saks…she could be a mentor for you! I’m so excited for you and your future! :slight_smile:

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o my gosh, she email-d you back. I tried to email her but she didn’t email back. If you feel comfortable tell us what happens.

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greetings and welcome to the sight

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Hi Jess, welcome to the forum!

I was also born three months premature and we believe this gave me some sort of pre-disposition as I’m a lonely soldier of psychosis in my family and trauma led to my breaks if you want to be specific.

I’m already completing a degree but it’s through distance learning, however I am returning to a physical college in September along side my degree as it’s a lower level and is like returning t school, because I will be taught rather than teaching myself. I will be there two days a week and studying art, I’m looking forward to it but also very nervous, mostly about the social situations/crowds and balancing work load between my two courses.

I think you can become a doctor, set your heart to it and you can do it as long as you’ve learnt to self manage and are med compliant, you need to know how you will balance the stress and the fact that psychiatry can be quite distressing. However, you have an advantage over any doctor, you have life experience, you’ve been through the system and you can understand the pain of the people you will be treating, that’s more than any qualification can provide.

I think if you really want it, you work towards it, you comply with your treatment team and work your hardest on recovery as well as your grades. Go for it, it may be once at college you change your direction, think of the journey, not the goal, do something that you like the sound of as an introduction to studying, you’ll need that, that’s how I learnt the hard way, with my degree I started off pure psychology but now three years on I’m awfully miserable and have struggled through this past year something chronic it was effecting every part of me so I’m changing pathway to a psychology and arts degree so I’ll be doing some arts modules and so I’m going to be enjoying studying again, I’m looking forward to it! But this was three years studying wth no break, I didn’t pace so my health took over. So remember things change and that’s okay, it may be that you really take to medicine and that’s what you love, I’m just saying, with schiz p, things are variable. Pacing is key.

Just go where your heart takes you (with reason of course).

Anyway, I’ve rambled enough, sorry, welcome to the forum, take care,
Meg.

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Welcome to the boards I tried going to school but I have some very distracting symptoms and failed the two classes I was taking. If your clear headed enough to sit and listen to what people say you’ll probably be alright

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Sounds like a wonderful goal, I mean journey. I think there’s a Dr. Fisher who has schizophrenia and is a psychiatrist. I myself have Paranoid Schizophrenia and am taking a class in Psychosocial Rehabilitation in the fall.

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Thanks everybody for your help, you’ve been really helpful. Thanks Meg, you’ve been very helpful and inform and informative. Good luck to everyone in school.

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@Jess…its great idea for a doctor/therapist to have a mental illness. Trust me, therapists/psychiatrists with a mental illness history are the best therapists, no doubt and the most respected. As they understand intricately, they understand the illness inside out.

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They tried to get you to kill?

Damn them.

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thought i would say hi.
take care

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Hi Jess. Good luck in school. I have a very short attention span and slow in my head so studies are hard for me. I can barely watch tv. I did try to study math for 5 months. But I was drinking too heavily to get anything in my head.

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Hi @Jess I have schizophrenia and bipolar. I did read the book The Center Cannot Hold, I liked it very much. I also learned about TED talk through here on this site. Welcome to this site, I know you will like it here, the people here are understanding and the Moderators are very cool

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Hey! Just thought I should say a word or two :smile:

I could say I studied 5years to get my high school diploma… because the symptoms then were really bad… But now… finally I’m a college student studing math and I’m doing great. I have met so many good people and I for the first time am having a normal life… Everything is too good to be true… though I have some symptoms sometimes but nothing too severe… Anyway! Good luck!! I wish I had the will to study to be a mental health nurse but mathematics is more suitable for me…

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Welcome! I hope your pursuance of education goes well for you! :slight_smile:

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You should check out the book Eden Express and his recent memoir by Mark Vonnegut, the writer Kurt Vonnegut’s son. He was diagnosed sz back in the 70’s and went on to become a M.D. but was later dx bipolar type 1. Labels aside he’s also inspiring. I’m going back to school for my degree for nursing.

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**Welcome Jess!**Hope you will come here often~

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Hi I’m recovered. I plan on going to law school or to get a degree to become an art therapist. I’m OK with children, I don’t really spend a lot of time around kids and my brother’s only 4 years younger but I protected him a lot when we were younger. I was a little inspired by therapy and recovery for children with autism because if you can teach someone good habits and skills it will lead them to a more productive life and coping. A lot of youth are lost because they have poor coping mechanisms. I’m also interested in law like becoming a defense attorney. I think I would be good at it. My scores always indicated llaw and political science. I never pursued it since my mom got burnt out on it.

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Hiii welcome Jess, I hope you find support in here, everybody is friendly, you will love it :heartpulse: