I have a question for the older members, does sz or sza ever get any easier? I’m asking for myself and my dad. My dad was diagnosed after me but was sick for years before me. His illness has seemed to have mellowed but I don’t know if its cause of the liver disease/ COPD or it just got better. Good news is he is back on meds. This time Prozac and shapris ( something like that)
My dad’s oldest sister who is in her seventies appears to be getting worse but tbh she only takes valium. She accused another aunt of stealing from her. That aunt is now in charge of the sz aunt’s money.
If you go through the trial and error of finding the right meds for you then it does. I don’t think it magically gets better with age. It gets better with action.
My mother has got worse but she has been off-meds, the other medicated ones I saw and heard in real life got somewhat better and used to their illness when after the hospitalization(s) they got stable on meds.
After every psychotic episode they get worse when they are stable again, for example I heard often that story:
working part time -> psychotic episode -> hospitalization -> stable again with disability
I’ve grown more content as I’ve gotten older. I’m 59 years old. I still have my emotional binges, but I have mostly lost that desperate feeling that life is passing me by.
I’m 47 and I don’t feel like things are better for me than when this first started. The meds help though. They take away intensity. But I still hear voices and still believe people are trying to kill me
Things haven’t gotten better or easier for me and I’m 53 years old.
But it all depends.
I could be an exception to the rule.
Many older patients have said that their illness has mellowed out a bit.
My dad is 55, he is back on meds so I think that’s why his symptoms have mellowed but not on high doses. I was just curious because even though he has gotten better he still has some paranoia and hears voices but I think age and his end stage copd has made him mellow.
My dad’s oldest sister has never been on meds except for anti anxiety medication those are the only ones she will take but its obvious she is getting worse.
I’m 73 and getting better but I claim the environment is the reason, not time. I am in an excellent, flexible group home. It is difficult to adjust to as I grow older but I remind myself that that is just life. My provider says I did it all myself (became stable) but she is just refusing to take the credit. I don’t ever want to lose her.
Wow, I’ve never thought of it like that. Since my brother has been gone my dad does seem better my brother is an abusive egotistical ■■■■■■■. But I don’t expect then if environment did play a part in my dad’s recovery that his mental health will improve but decline since they are letting my brother move back in.
My aunt is alone most of the time. Her kids want nothing to do with her. She isn’t allowed to see her grandchildren. The only real contacts are two of my aunts and my dad over the phone she lives in Florida. While most of her family lives in Indiana.
I hate to say this but the people who have the best prognosis are the ones who get treatment as fast as possible after being diagnosed. This means that the people who get on medication the soonest and maybe start talk therapy with a psychiatrist and a therapist have the best recovery.
That said, it’s not hopeless. I can testify that as I grow older my symptoms are not as bad or intense as when I was younger. Some nagging delusions have disappeared too. And this started when I was in my mid-to-late forties. I can’t guarantee it for everyone but I’ve heard many other people have this same experience and I’ve heard this from different sources. And that this is not unusual to find in schizophrenia.
You find the right meds that work for you and it really does get easier. You get used to your brain and your symptoms and you learn to manage yourself better. I feel a lot calmer and saner at 47 although I still get symptoms it’s easier to manage.
I waited a few years to get help, but my dad tried to harm himself and was put for a 72 hour old but I think he lied to get out and was only put on Zoloft that was when I was 10.
My aunt’s symptoms started late around the 40s. She never took antipsychotics
I spent the first five years trying to come off meds so I was always symptomatic. I needed more meds not less.
Now I am maxed out on Geodon and also now take 40 mg of Latuda.
I think it’s a matter of finding the right meds. It took me 7 years to find that combo but it works so good I am scared to experiment with something else.
So I think with time and working with your doctor it does get better. You age while you are doing this.
it took me about ten years to finally get on prolixin generic “fluphenazine”…it makes me feel relieved that the search for the right med is over…I am still struggling with living on disability but that is temporal…so glad to hear you dad is doing better @cbbrown I love you so much…please take care.
I agree with @everhopeful. I don’t think sz/sza gets automatically better with age. I think it gets worse with age if you are not on meds. But, if you cooperate with your pdoc, and take your meds as directed by your pdoc, it usually gets better with age because with time, they finally hit on the medication or medications that will work for you.
I was all over the place when I was younger. Only recently have I felt that I that was completely myself again.
Two big factors in my feeling better nowadays is being in a good relationship, having a stable environment, and quitting street drugs. That and keeping the drinking to a minimum.
But the main factor is that I take my meds every night and rarely miss a dose. I’ve taken many meds, a lot of variety in side-effects. Overall as long as I’m medicated in some way, I do pretty well. I’m lucky in that I respond to meds pretty well, as far as the positive symptoms.
My coping skills and insight have also gotten better as I’ve gotten older, I think.