Splitting this out into a separate topic, because I think it’s a really important point to get across.
The exact moment when I started to recover from Sz was the moment when I decided I would recover from this condition. That I would have a positive, worthwhile life. That it was within my reach.
Sz is a negative, soul-eating thing. It’s like a spirtual vampire that latches onto your soul and sucks the joy out of your life. Which causes you to be negative and pessimistic. Which in turn feeds the vampire latched onto you and makes it stronger. The biggest threat to those with schizophrenia is the negative feedback loop we get caught in.
My challenge is this: Be positive. Be optimistic. Find something beautiful and intriguing and share it with someone else. Be kind and supportive to others as much as you’re able. Try to find a way to leave the world in better shape at the end of the day than you found it that morning, even it it’s going for a five minute walk to pick up some ciggy butts and trash. Do this often enough, long enough, and you’ll build positive habits. These positive habits will do more for your health than the meds will, although you should definitely be med-compliant if your doctor recommends it.
I think there is a lot of research to support this view.
Here are some articles:
Positive thinking: Stop negative self-talk to reduce stress
Positive thinking helps with stress management and can even improve your health. Practice overcoming negative self-talk with examples provided.
Martin Seligman became one of the most highly regarded people in the field in the late 1990s for developing his particular brand of positive psychology.
See
and
. So long as it’s a truly “logical (and empirical) positivism,” it does seem to work quite well.
