My psychiatrist just said today that I’m in the early stages of remission. And I actually have accomplished this thing with decreased antipsychotic medication and a complete stoppage of Prozac.
How, You may ask? Well it’s the augmentation of raising and spreading out my haldol throughout the day with my caplyta at night. While stopping several other medications, this is what keeps me insightful into my illness. Then it is only a matter of therapeutic tools I’ve learned throughout six years of therapy. Part of the therapy is learning how to endure through hard times with the illness. But the most imperative aspect to my therapy is learning to focus my attention on something else other than my delusions and hallucinations.
I, as a lot of us are, are guilty of obsession over our delusional thoughts and then manifesting as beliefs later, the more time we put into it; and the more time we put into it, the more it takes front and center in our lives, consuming us to a state of delirium and obsessive compulsion. Symptoms overlap across the plethora and myriad of mental disorders, and that has been explained to me by multiple professionals and my own anecdotal experience. So, this does not surprise any of us that OCD is rather comorbid. So, the conflation of psychosis and OCD is a killer and this is a strong challenge I struggle with.
I guess what I’m trying to say without my going on more tangents, is that therapy and our own mindset are a prerequisite to remission. If I had not a recovery mindset, and only devolving into more and more delusional schizophrenia, then I wouldn’t have been able to achieve success from the illness. While I may not be very gifted at anything, I am very congnizant and grateful that I have a great support system and they push me to be better at the test of life.
I agree with you that the mind is very powerful. And if anyone doesn’t believe that the mind is very powerful, then tell me why drugs are tested against the placebo effect? The placebo group doesn’t receive medication, so why even have this group? The fact is that if you think you’re going to get better, your chances of getting better (not necessarily cured) have improved. And the converse is also true.
When I was studying psychology at university, I read about a man who was dying of cancer. The doctor decided to trick the man by telling him about an experimental drug that was showing great results for his cancer. The man said he wanted to take the drug. The doctor gave him the “drug” (saline). In two days all of the man’s nodules (bumps) on his body started to decrease in size. Two days after that they were gone. A week later they checked his cancer and it was undetectable.
He was reading the newspaper one day and read that the experimental drug he was taking (what he thought he was taking) failed FDA trials. Soon after his bumps returned, his cancer was back, and he died.
I heard of a young man who worked in a grocery store. He wanted to be rich. He made his phone screensaver a photo of a Bugatti (a very expensive car). He bought a used Gucci wallet and used Gucci shoes. He went to yacht shows and networked with rich people. He has done very well financially, but he always visualized that he’d be rich even when he was poor.
I’m not saying that schizophrenia is the result of negative thinking. I’m not saying that a person can think their schizophrenia away, but I am saying that the mind is very powerful.
Not for me sadly. I have found that therapy lets me go a long way on a much smaller med regimen, but it is more a case of handling the symptoms myself rather than expecting the meds will do everything for me. That’s where the tools from therapy come in, they allow me to carry more of that load myself. I can live without remission as long as I am functional enough.
I define remission by level of functioning, not being completely off of meds.
Look at you: you’re a husband, you’re a father, you have a full-time job, you’re a homeowner, you have many hobbies, and you’ve dedicated so much of your time and effort to this website.
I guess maybe remission might mean different things to different people. What my psychiatrist and I were referring to is being able to be a functioning adult in society, not necessarily being able to have zero symptoms. I like what you said about therapy, as that has happened to me as well. I still have voices and delusional thinking, but I choose to focus on the positive and not so much about my own delusional thoughts. Plus, living in the present helps, too.
Man, that’s interesting. I think maybe my OCD and psychosis are linked and feed one another. I’ve been fighting for a long time and hearing your remission story is really inspiring.
I feel like time will tell if I will have an experience similar to yours or Shutterbugs, but one thing is for sure. I can’t let this illness win man… anyways…good luck and keep going man!!!