I just want to say hello to everyone. I was diagnosed with schizophrenia and began meds just over a week ago, and it’s been a wild and disorienting ride since. Now that I know about it, I can see clear symptoms since childhood, but I guess I was very good at denial and explaining things away. It’s only been over the last several months that (what I now understand is) visual/auditory/olfactory hallucinations started to change and stand out enough for me to start realizing something was definitely not right…part of what’s been so disorienting is realizing that my reality was so disconnected to others. Anyway, i’m trying to survive college and parenthood away the same time, and I’m looking for some kind of connection and community. I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone.
Welcome to the forum! I’m new too, I’ve found everybody to be kind and supportive. Hope you like it here.
It’s good you found this site. I took two years to come around before I started asking questions. This will help you a lot and this site is a great place to talk with people that have similar experiences and need to ask questions.
Being diagnosed isn’t that pleasant, but the positive thing for us is I think it promotes understanding and insight. Only thing I will say now is symptoms are irritating due to awareness however, the alternative being completely deluded and not being in touch with reality is worse…
I hope you find this community useful and helpful as I have over the last few years.
Nice to meet you. I’m an oldtimer. Just trying to remember when I was diagnosed. I think I felt relieved they knew what the problem was, and there was medication you can take for it. I’m 59 years old and been diagnosed a long time now.
Welcome Aboard!
Welcome to the forum. It is always nice to have new people around here. Sorry about your diagnosis, but i hope you accept it and the treatment for it. Hope everything has settled down for you.
Welcome to the forum! Your meds must work really well if you already have insight. That’s amazing. You’re so lucky! I hope it stays that way for you. I’ve been diagnosed but I don’t believe it. I do tend to have a paranoid personality, but the men who follow me are real so I don’t believe I have sz. And I don’t believe I had psychosis when I’ve been hospitalized for it either.
Welcome to the forum! 
It took me a while to really understand my diagnosis after I got it, this site has really helped me figure it all out.
Welcome to the community, and don’t freak over the diagnosis. It’s just a label, it’s how you wear it that counts. Take this from a fifty-year-old SZ who is married, has a kid who goes into college next fall, and does well both in his job and community.
Having SZ doesn’t have to stop you from kicking ass and chewing bubble gum – our prospects have never been better!
Thanks for the welcome.
The diagnosis was something I almost expected (if only kind of as a joke) but actually has been a challenge to everything I thought I understood…my reality is and has always been perfectly reliable. i don’t get what others want with me to change that. But then I have good moments - with or without meds (as long as i’m not full-blown delusional and everyone is hearing my thoughts and works for the system) where I can see that a lot of the things I experience risk my relationship with my kids and my ability to have free will in the world, and that I should try to handle this gracefully. Other times do not have such clarity. It was disappointing to hear from my doc that meds will help me deal with symptoms without necessarily getting rid of them.
Anyway, thanks again, and it’s really nice to meet everyone!
Well, in my case, I can get my symptoms removed completely thru meds, but this comes at the cost of having the top half of my brain inactivated as well. Too much medication shuts everything down and reduces me to a human doorstop. The trick is to take just enough medication to get the symptoms manageable and use therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to cope with the leftovers.
hi Tonic, i like your username its pretty funny
Hi. I’m new to the site too. Everyone is encouraging and fun to read about.
You will be symptom free on some days
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