Say somebody is dealing with negative symptoms— apathy, lack of motivation, lack of pleasure, etc., but their pdoc believes the patient to not be depressed.
Negative symptoms are the inability to feel/do things as a result of a much larger illness, but wouldn’t the inability to do and experience those things in turn make one depressed?
…How is somebody who is going through negative symptoms like that not gonna be depressed as a result of them?
It’s confusing to me trying to distinguish between the two.
I feel I often get negative symptoms but they don’t stay around they come and go.
Same— they are both very much in the same vein it seems.
Granted, negatives are usually brought on by whatever schizophrenia/SZA/psychosis is, whereas depression is usually thought to be a chemical imbalance.
There is such a thing as situational depression, though. And I can’t help but wonder if the presence of negative symptoms compounds the situation further.
what makes it even more confusing is that not all depressed people are sad or have the traditional signs of depression, basically they experience symptoms identical to sz negative symptoms but without any positive symptoms or anything that would make a pdoc think its sz.
Yea, there’s a lot of folks who fly under the radar— could be “high functioning” depression, masking, etc.
I dunno, maybe a sort of “chicken or egg” type-thing I guess.
I think there is overlap between the two.
I take an AD for my negatives.
AD’s make zero difference in how I feel post sz.
Don’t mean to come across as touting ADs as a magic cure for negatives, or saying that negatives and depression are one in the same, so I apologize if somebody reading this post is thinking that.
I guess what I’m trying to say is would it be possible for negative symptoms to cause depression— therefore making it an even more convoluted situation?
If somebody suffering both negative symptoms as well as depression were to take an AD, it seems logical that the AD would only alleviate depression, and not touch the negatives (as negatives seem to be caused by an entirely different mechanism).
I dunno, I hope my question didn’t come across as rude or insensitive— perhaps something to ask a pdoc.
I think you’re fine. Negatives and Depressive symptoms are very similar in their profiles. It’s easy to get them confused. Personally, I don’t think I have much, if any depression, as I’ve tried taking AD’s post SZ and they have no noticeable effect on me.
I used to take Zoloft for anxiety in my youth though and it made a world of difference at the time. I was not diagnosed with sz until my early 40’s.
I tried ADs and I never felt better so they said it was negs and now they get ignored
idk if my ad helps because my depression didnt really start until i withdrawed from klonopin but around the same time i started zoloft ~1 year after quitting klonopin for good, that is when things started improving for me, i had like over a year of emotional instability and constant crisis due to feeling suicidal and when i started zoloft it just kinda stopped. i still lack motivation but i havent been suicidal or had a crisis since starting zoloft. maybe it was just good timing and i finally started healing from benzo brain damage at the same time but i think zoloft is good for me especially considering I have no side effects
Sucks how when some medical professionals don’t have the answers they completely gloss over stuff or act like it’s not a big deal.
Needs to be better resources in place for that kinda stuff, IMO.
It’s creates a kind of never-ending melancholy for me, and often leads to suicidal thoughts.
@Bowens, thanks. Sorry the AD’s didn’t do too much in the way of negatives, but glad the Zoloft worked out for you in the past. 
@cigarino, glad the Zoloft helped you feel better. Helped me out big-time as well
Finally someone who acknowledges negative symptoms and yes my Drs told me there is no treatment yet here on the forum I keep getting told that they’re my fault and are basically psychological, not medical, and that I am lazy, I don’t want to improve, I am causing my own symptoms and misery etc Ridiculous as many think that.
Let see if I get attacked like before.
We’re all different and have different body chemistry.
Some improve. Some stay stable. Some get worse.
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