Need advice

Hi all,

First, I want to let you know that I was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2016. During 2016-2017 I was not taking medication regularly, but from 2017 I have been taking the prescribed medication regularly.

Apart from that, during the course of my studies, I’ve realized that I’m facing the following issues:

  1. Everyday, I don’t want to start studying (be it reading, watching lectures, solving problems), even though I like the idea of studying. In other words, I don’t want to exert mental effort on things. On the other hand, if I do force myself to sit and study, I cannot remain seated, on average, for more than 45 minutes and even quite less than that when I’m reading or solving questions. It’s like I get the feeling that my brain is overloaded with information and I start feeling restless and then, I start walking/pacing in my room and it becomes very hard to force myself to study again. Due to this, I can’t read more than 1-2 paragraphs at a time, can’t solve more than 1-2 programming questions at a time and can’t watch more than 30-35 minutes of computer science lecture at a time (and I’m supposed to watch 3 hrs lectures as I’m attending a coding bootcamp). This is really interfering with my studies and mental well-being.

One thing to note is that some parts of this particular issue, especially the walking/pacing part after every physics/maths question I solved, were there before I was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2016, when I was seriously preparing for an entrance exam around 2010-2011.

  1. The second point I want to tell is that I’m really unable to context switch and have to get up and walk/pace between contexts. Here are some examples as to how it manifests in my everyday life:
  • If I’ve a meeting at 2:00 - 3:00 PM, then I cannot do anything important before 2:00 PM and after 3:00 PM. Basically, I can only do one major task in a day.
  • Likewise in studying, if I’m reading a book then I cannot read paragraphs between two sub-headings in one sitting. Similarly, if I’m solving questions, I cannot solve more than 1-2 questions in one sitting. And when watching lectures, if there are different topics covered at different points in time, I cannot watch it in one go.
  1. During my studies, I also tend to read sentences more than once if I’m reading anything and also replay 2-3 minutes of lecture every 10 minutes or so. I concluded this might be due to the following reasons:
  • Whenever a new concept or term is introduced in the lecture or readings, I feel I didn’t get it properly and, this is common, I re-read or re-watch that segment.
  • This is closely related to the previous point, I doubt myself that I haven’t understood something perfectly and have to re-read and re-watch the thing.
  • Other times, it’s just I’m reading or watching but not paying much attention to comprehend it or my mind wanders off. Then again, I’ve to re-read or re-watch things.

These things happen so frequently that they cause problems in my studies.

  1. I am easily distracted by everyday noises while studying. Noises like the ringing of a doorbell, someone talking in another room, someone listening to video in another room in moderate volume, etc.

Due to all these factors, I often don’t want to study, feel frustrated, and if I continue despite all this, I take a very very long time to finish courses and books which is not ideal.

I talked with my psychiatrist about this he says it’s only symptoms of schizophrenia and some OCD. But he doesn’t take into account my condition years before I was diagnosed with schizophrenia. I told him that these might be symptoms of ADHD but he disagrees.

I wanted to consult some other psychiatrist but due to COVID-19 I’m not able to visit them physically right now.

Any advice or a point towards right direction would be very helpful. Studying is very important for me to get a job because I don’t have a great support system for me and I love programming and data science and can never imagine not doing them. But due to above mentioned issues it takes too long to do anything that requires mental effort.

I want to know whether I’m misdiagnosed and may have ADHD also. Have anyone of you have been feeling same way. To the community and moderators, please advice and if possible point me to the right direction as to how to tackle these symptoms and what can be done to remedy this.

Thank you.

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Welcome to the forum.

Definitely talk to your doctor about these school related issues and see if you do have ADHD.

I had similar issues studying in school.

Still managed to get my degree, though it wasn’t easy.

Some people on the forum have asked their schools for special accommodations to help them with balancing their illness and school.

Maybe you could talk to your school and ask for extended study times or whatever they offer disabled students.

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Classic negative symptoms. I feel the same.
Anyways tell your psychiatrist what you told us he should know if its negative symptoms or ADHD.

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ADHD is treatable, negative symptoms aren’t.

Negative symptoms can be treated with therapy and hard work.

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Don’t turn this thread into another about negatives.

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So it can mean you aren’t being diagnosed yet, it could mean that they trying medication on you so that you can be comfortable with one. Then what I say about being comfortable becomes real because p-doc isn’t suppose to give you meds you don’t want. Also I would like to say that they might still be diagnosing because it happen to me in the process of taking meds. Try and tell them what you want, I’m sure they will here you.

I am surprised nobody mentioned “akathisia” yet.
It’s a form of restlessness induced by some antipsychotics. I used to have it on amisulpride and risperidone, but not on aripiprazole.

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I had this restlessness before starting the antipsychotics.

Patrick Rothfuss, an accomplished writer, has recently been diagnosed with ADHD. So even if you have it, you can still succeed.

While waiting for a diagnosis, there are things you can try by yourself. Such as deep breathing to calm down.

Oh and your first post is well structured which leads me to believe your mind is working properly.

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Ok, this is what I meant. This isn’t thread about @Aziz and his negatives. Cleaning up this thread to respect op and their questions.

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@slok Better ask your Dr than asking random people on the internet. All our opinions aren’t professional. No one is a Dr here.

@anon4362788 Its a possibility. No one is a Dr here, I told him to ask his Dr in my first post lmao

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You are experiencing symptoms of cognitive issues which is the first phase of negative symptoms. To be specific its working memory issue. For me also its the first symptom I noted long back in my school days. Math, logic related ones must struggle while memorizing subjects tend to get easy. The reason is in math, logic subjects we need to think hard and it requires working memory more and due to less available space in working memory quickly distracted and thus puts off easily. Its not ADHD. In classical ADHD you are restless doing one thing then jumping to next etc etc and there is another kind inattentive ADHD or ADD in this you seem to remain on one thing for very long periods and seem to day dream etc. Either way what differentiates between negative and ADHD or ADD is that the symptoms appear much early like less than 5 years or suitable as its a developmental disorder while in negative symptoms it appear gradually and gets worse while in the other its stays almost same.

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Many of us are handling them just fine.

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I have the exact same issues. I even underwent neurological testing and deficits were found in executive functioning and working memory. I think with accommodations you can pass school, but it will be hard to hold down a job. You may have to pick something less stressful and not time pressured.

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You are lucky, you can study at all on ap’s. If you love programming, maybe you’ll manage.

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Is @anon6551389 a bot? She only ever replies with exactly one sentence.

No. I don’t usually say much of what I really think, because people would have a fit, and have had. It would end up being a long disturbing rant.

@anon6551389 I am very impressed with how much effort you have been putting into keeping your comments supportive. I am aware how much work it is for you, but you have been very helpful to others.

Welcome to the forum. I think you could look for a psychologist who does adhd testing and get tested. But make sure to disclose your schizophrenia so the psychologist can try to differentiate between the two.

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