I have been off medication since April 26th. I have been doing fine living with sz, it’s not a setback in most of the things I do. Is it worth it to get on clozaril, “the gold standard” even if I am capable of living a fulfilling life off of medication, just to hope to get rid of the occasional voices?
Based upon you recent posts on this site, you do not look at all well to me at present. Case in point, it looks to me as if your judgement is way off. I recommend you get back on some medication, and the one you mention is an obvious choice, but not the only one that I think would benefit you.
Jayster
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@jayster and what exact posts do you think my judgement is off?
I once stopped my medication, and for the first two or three months were just fine, but at around 6 months after stopping it, I got a relapse, a horrible one which got me into 9-month hospitalization. I’ve learned a lesson.
I undestand its hard to maintain long-term medication but please be careful about stopping it. Maybe you need to realize whether your medication is really necessary or not by actually stopping it. But remember that medication is not only for voices or hallucinations but to prevent a relapse.
@bananatto thank you for the advice, I’ll talk to my doctor about my options
Your welcome.
Take care
@jayster I guess you can’t understand my sense of humor, I suppose you should take a look at your “posts” page.
I think that if you weighed your options, you might decide to go back on meds. Meds prevent relapse. No one needs to be set back from SZ - a full blown psychotic break could do this to someone. Good luck to you on whatever you decide
@Wave Yeah, but off medication I had less positive symptoms.only negative thing that I mentioned to my doctor is my mindset/identity is one of a psychopath. I suppose it might be a good idea to get back on medication.
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My son stopped taking his ap’s in January. By March/April he was full blown psychotic, lost a very good friend he had recently made. By May he was in the hospital for a week.
I really think it’s a good idea to find a med that works well and stick with it. If you do have a problem with a med, confide in those closest to you so you can bounce around ideas to help you. I wish my son had done that.
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depends, i think you should ask your doc/nurse what is best for you, i am sure they will know what to do and how best to treat you.
I used to go off my meds… and land in hospital with in six months or less… sitting back in a locked ward again… A paranoid wreck, babbling and thinking there were always bugs in my hair. Oh the fun right?
Then having to make amends all over again… lost friends, lost time, lost trust. Looking at the damage I just did to my family and their trust in me.
I’m more for tapering with the help of a doc so if I do start taking a wrong path, I can up my dose, stabilize and try again to taper off.
Some people can go med free, but they have a good support system in place… a great spouse, or a therapist of some sort, or a crisis team.
Free falling with no meds and no support and no therapist… That’s how I ended up homeless. [quote=“lovemyson, post:10, topic:6882”]
lost a very good friend he had recently made.
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That’s the part I hate the most. Coming out of a bad patch and seeing the friends I’ve lost and the damage I’ve done. It really hurt. It was me, and all me, but it still hurt hard. It hasn’t happened for a while. I haven’t gone off my meds in a while either.
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I’ve had schizophrenia for about 47 years. In the community where I live, I’ve had at least four schizophrenic friends with whom I’ve kept in touch for greater than 30 years. I think I know something about schizophrenia.
I also have alcoholism and drug addiction, which is common amongst schizophrenics. I now have greater than 40 years in recovery from alcoholism, and about the same length of recovery from drug abuse.
I don’t know nearly as much about psychopaths. I do have two young heroin addicts in my life now, and from what I’ve read about psychopaths, young men with heroin addiction often seem to look very much like what I’ve read about psychopaths. That is, the two individuals for whom I care so much look very like psychopaths. But I think there is a great potential for the two young heroin addicts in my life to look much less like psychopaths in a few years down the road.
I understand that schizophrenia comes in mild, moderate, and severe. Similarly, I understand that they measure psychopathology on a scale, and some people have much more outstanding psychopathology than others.
I understand that about one percent of the population is schizophrenic and about one percent of the population are psychopaths. Without any real basis to go on, I presume that about one percent of schizophrenics are also psychopaths. If someone can give me a better understanding, that would be welcome!
When I look at myself, I presume one of the things I suffer from too often is lack of good judgement.
When I was a young man, the psychiatrist took we aside in a session and said he wanted to talk about poor impulse control. It sounded like a pejorative to me, and I wouldn’t go there. I would like to roll back the clock and hear what the big man had to say about me and poor impulse control. I think if I had been receptive to it, it could have helped me understand myself and what I was going through.
Additionally, when I was young man, I heard a fair amount from my doctor about my inappropriate behavior. Again, it sounded to me like I was being unfairly and unkindly judged, and I didn’t want to explore that subject much. It really would have behooved me to listen more, I’m sure.
It is a hard for me to go back and review your recent posts because a bunch of edits and deletions in your posts have occurred recently.
In one batch of posts where you claim later you were being humorous, a great deal of discomfort was experienced by a few vulnerable schizophrenics when you suggested you had 13 identities.
In my value system, saying things trying to be funny that ends up causing pain to others is showing lack of good judgement. In clinical terms, I think my psychiatrist would have said to me that I was showing lack of impulse control or inappropriate behavior when I did things that hurt other people.
I think you might have more acceptable behavior if you were on the right medication.
And if psychopath is an appropriate label, I guess the retort would be, “Who the firetruck cares?”
Jayster
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