My psychiatrist won't prescribe me working medicine

Right now Im Abilify 5mg/day and I still constantly hear voices and see things. It helps bring back my personality from being so flat but as far as hallucinations go, its not helping one bit. Maybe its because Im only 16, so she wont give me a higher dosage, but I just want the voices to go away for at least a few hours a day. Right now they never shut up. What should I say to her/ask her?

Manā€¦ sorry to say thisā€¦ but uh the voicesā€¦ well you just get used to them. kind of,

Itā€™s been 3 years and Iā€™m just now accepting that they are there for goodā€¦ Iā€™ve tried quite a few meds a couple at max dosageā€¦ didnā€™t even touch itā€¦ just increased negatives and side effects.

Is it normal to hear them 24/7? The most they go away for is a few minutes a day. Iā€™ve been hearing them for about a year and a half.

Very strange. My psychiatrist was willing to prescribe me everything under the Sun, upping dosages and even combining max dosages of other meds in with my regimen. Sad to say, nothing worked.

Psychiatrists are all variant in how they practice medicine. Even after meds didnā€™t work, he was flatly refusing to lower dosages or stop, even though the meds were too powerful in their negative side effects for me to effectively handle.

Abilify didnā€™t work for me. I still had visual pop-ins and voice-overs occuring inside my mind. Unfortunately, psychiatrists rarely budge in their practices. I honestly canā€™t think of anything that will work. They tend to want you to trial meds for as long as a year before the adjust. My psychiatrist wanted me to stay on Abilify for several years before lowering dosages for instance. He only finally took me seriously when I wrote a letter saying I was quitting antipsychotic ā€œmedicationsā€ for good - that the damage, pain, and suffering they have caused me is not worth it anymore.

Sometimes itā€™s better to live unmedicated - about 30-40% of all schizophrenics stabilize without medication. Itā€™s ā€œnormalizingā€ that is the goal, but very few ever normalize, with or without meds.

Abilify works for me. I only heard voices a couple times anyways but Iā€™m on the maximum dosage of abilify and Iā€™ve never heard voices on the meds. I reckon if I never started abilify Iā€™d probably be dead, but if I wasnā€™t Iā€™d be hearing voices 247 at this point ā€¦but abilify 30+ mg works great for me

Mine are still ragingā€¦ when I actually get interested in something they seem to fadeā€¦ my mind has kind of started going off on its own tangents that take me away from that stage with voicesā€¦

Only time will tellā€¦

I see it more as a psychological battleā€¦ the voices each have a trigger and focus sustains themā€¦ most of these triggers stem from delusional thinking (at least in my case)ā€¦ subtle belief that people are telepathic and this was real the whole timeā€¦

It depends on the person and how their SZ affects them, I guess. I had voices 24/7 the first few years until we found med combos that worked. In some cases it took months for the meds to build up in my system and start working. A lot of SZ recovery is like watching a clock ā€“ you can stare at the hour hand for minutes and not see it move. Come back a few hours later and all of a sudden it has moved.

Iā€™ve spent day after day expecting some sort of drastic improvement in my life and then ā€¦ nothing. But then, a few months later, you suddenly realize your symptoms HAVE improved and youā€™re doing things you couldnā€™t have imagined six months ago. Whenever these things happen I write them on a piece of paper and put them in my Success Box. Itā€™s pretty big now and Iā€™ve had to upgrade to bigger sizes a few times over the years. It helps me when Iā€™m feeling down and sorry for myself because Iā€™m not seeing improvement. The improvement IS there, but itā€™s seen through the distance of time.

Hope this helps?

Pixel.

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Nothing is genuinely ā€œnormalā€ about schizophrenia. It is possible to hear things 24/7 inside the domain of the mind. In my mind, I am constantly seeing things - visual things. Characters pop-in & pop-out. They are always there, no signs of them leaving anytime soon either.

Iā€™ve learned to just deal with it. Most of them are actually conscious allies, not enemies. By treating them as real and behaving practically, I have slowly changed the outlook of my prognosis. I am trying to make ā€œus allā€ feel better, and not just seek perpetual distancing from these figures.

Tell her the minimum therapeutic dose for schizophrenia is 10mg.

5mg is used only as an add on to an anti depressant.

Google ā€˜abilify schizophrenia therapeutic doseā€™ and knock yourself out. She might as well be giving you a placebo at 5mg. Tell your parents this.

Work with your parents to fill out this form before your next doctorā€™s meeting and make sure the doctor addresses all the issues youā€™re having (at least tries to) - or perhaps get a new doctor.

Sheā€™s too hesitant to officially diagnose me with SZ wince Im only 16, but she and my therapist know thats wht it is and they hint at it but no one will give me a clear diagnosis.

Can you get a second opinion from another doctor?

The doctors have me on a really long waiting list and my regular doctor cant prescribe sz meds

Can you get your parents to pay for a session with another psychiatrist to get a second opinion. That seems to be the only option available to you if you canā€™t actually change psychiatrists.

the problem is, no one will diagnose me as schizophrenic because im so young (16) so I canā€™t exactly say ā€œI need SZ meds.ā€

Another question: Can you be officially schizophrenic without a diagnosis?

Iā€™m not sure thatā€™s true. Your current psychiatrist might feel that way. Thatā€™s why you need to have a session with another psychiatrist. Not to demand meds, but to get a second opinion on whatā€™s wrong with you.

Nobody here can diagnose you unfortunately, and donā€™t listen to anybody who tries to!

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