It seems to me that the cases I see that are most severe involved some sort of substance abuse. Those who never touched drugs seemed to be higher functioning in general as well as had better rates of recovery. In fact at the state hospital I did my clinical at I don’t think I met a single adult who did not have a history of some sort of substance abuse, even if it was just marijuana. I am curious to see the prevalence here. Sorry if I mess the poll up the first time, I usually do just give me a minute and I’ll figure it out. (Also i realize this poll may be a bit skewed as obviously the lowest functioning of us won’t even be on this forum)
Yes I have have a history of drug use and my illness is very severe
Yes I have a history of drug use but I have always been high functioning
I have a history of drug use but I got clean and recovered and am now high functioning
I have a history of drug use, I got clean but my illness is still very severe
No I have never used drugs and I am high functioning
No I have never used drugs and my illness is very severe
Yes pot and acid in high school with plenty of alcohol too. Got sick at age 19. At age 26 I started smoking crack and smoked it for four years along with a lot of powder cocaine and more alcohol. Got clean in AA, CA and NA in 1990 and haven’t touched any drugs or alcohol since January 1st, 1990.
Pot through high school. Quit for awhile and started up around age 26. I had to quit when i started getting stalked from a forum i posted on. Got real paranoid and went crazy for awhile. Mostly back to normal now with depression and some voices.
Not until recent fep did I realize how much drugs I have used mostly 10 years ago or so, but still. I even used to abuse diphenhydramine(sp?) when I was a lad because I was getting drug tested at the time. Definite substance use disorder but I am clean now and hoping for the best. I still can work my job full time but I have missed a couple days since the episode.
I live in a state with legal marijuana and I feel sad for people like me who have no idea what may be waiting around the corner…
It is very promising to me to see that the highest percentage is that once people got clean they were capable of a high level of functioning. I’ll wait to see if more people respond but that gives me hope.
I have never messed with drugs, only smoked small amounts of weed once to twice. My illness is very severe, I was staying for years in bed all day everyday, only get up to eat. But I started going out with friends, driving and training since 2 days ago after upping my risperdal to 4mg and have my psychiatrist nearly yell at me to stop relying on meds and supplements for my negative symptoms. He said you have to push and force yourself into doing things.
I has surgery in a doctor’s office not permitted to do actual surgery, it should have been done in a surgical hospital but this doctor told my mom, who was 24ish at the time and I was 10 almost 11 that it’d be ok. I weighed 40 pounds, and it took 4 adult bags of anesthesia to knock me out, I woke up 12 hours later at home, I wasn’t even made sure to wake up they just sent me home after all that med and a 2 hour surgery, and I heard voices and saw just horrible ■■■■. He never told us what was used to knock me out. And when the board went after him for illegal surgical practice and a ton of violations, my records disappeared and he died during trial. So I have no idea what I can’t have if I never have surgery. And those records are gone. My pediatrician at the time just had his name, theboffice, and date of surgery and what the surgery was. But that’s all we have. The next year I ended up getting RSD and now am basically crippled, so my mom has been just apologizing more as I get worse from my sz. I got diagnosed as sz at 12 while in hospital for the RSD. I had many doctors say I was lying I had surgery until I showed them pictures of my legs both in cats, physical therapy records, and then the scars from surgery. Some took MRI’s to see if the Achilles tendons were cut, and they are, so I’m crazy but not a liar basically they have said. I never saw many of them again. Hell after being on a morphine pump at children’s hospital I didn’t have any other pain relief until I was pregnant with my 3rd child in 2006. They had me on 4 vicodin a day, then after the birth 4bpercocet a day. Few years later I went to a pain doc who had never heard of RSD so he said I wasn’t allowed pain meds at all. My GP put me on tramadol in 2009, and as of 2 months ago that’s all I’d been on now I’m on that and fentanyl patches. I’ll be doing lidocaine IV infusions once they feel it’s safe to do it at the hospital in Madison, they have a very high Covid infection there, so this pain doc is just trying to keep me safe and he knows I have kids and a husband that have lung issues.
But I have never touched drugs. Hell, when I smoked cigarettes it was 1/2 a cigarette every day. A pack lasted me forever, and that was age 13-16. John asked me to quit, I never ever smoked around him because of his severe asthma so I stopped cold turkey. And I drink maybe a total of 5 or 6 times a year, and it’s 1 drink period.
I got screwed by a bad doctor, and if we could have sued we would have if he survived his criminal trial. I feel gypped a lot because of him, he really took much of my life away.
I would say I’m moderate in terms of schizophrenia but when I feel bad and want to complain and ■■■■ I say I’m low functioning. I just want to work really. School would be nice, same with losing weight, but that’s secondary.
I misused supplements that were technically legal 5 years ago. However I was taking too many of them in a attempt to deal with psychosis, insomnia, and anxiety. I did not OD thankfully but it got me to the Psych Ward. I quit the supplements cold turkey and dried out in my apartment by playing jazz for several days and nights and finding I could sleep a little. I then decided to do what the doctors told me and accept less sleep as a norm rather than a disaster and stop fearing death from exhaustion. I didn’t answer the status of my psychosis because my voices are relatively quiet but my negative symptoms are very bad and I am stuck in a group home watching the World pass me by.
I tripped on a lot of acid in high school, mushrooms too…smoked pot my whole adult life and just recently switched to edible marijuana now that I don’t want to be smoking anything anymore…I am high functioning.
I experimented with marijuana in high school but was never really a user. I joined the military at 17 and didn’t retire until I was 42 so I never got into drugs in my adult life. Probably would have still smoked occasionally if it weren’t for that.
My illness is pretty severe but I am high functioning despite the illness.
smorgasbords, I wasn’t picky as long as I wasn’t sober and had to deal with the voices.
Rehab, IOP, therapy and medication has kept me off the street drugs. I whole heartedly admit my drug use was associated to my psychosis. It wasn’t the cause of it, the psychosis came first, but the drug use didn’t help.
Maybe if I had gotten clean earlier, or started meds sooner, I would be higher functioning.
I consider myself mid functioning now adays.
