From the other thread a lot of people had a very different definition about recovery and what it meant to them.
For some it was the ability to get their old life back, or to be completely symptom free.
For others it was to be independent and self managing
By some standard’s I guess I’m in “recovery” But since I still need my meds and I still have my voices and I still have my disorganized thinking and I still slide into my word salad when I’m stressed and once in a while I will still slide in to a deep apathy… I don’t considered myself “recovered”. Not like how I recovered from my alcohol and drug addictions.
I beat those and I haven’t looked back. But I haven’t beaten my SZ. I’ve just figured out how to live with it and get through my day and manage my head circus.
So I don’t feel confident enough to call myself recovered. But I’m pretty happy in remission.
I personally dont like the term recovery or recovered when it is applied to schizophrenia - But many people afflicted with SZ accept this term in their lives, so I do understand now. I personally am on the same page as J - I prefer the term remission. I am not fully “recovered” or functioning, but I am functioning at a higher level than I was in the past.
Im getting by - this is a giant step forward for me - the price to pay for my mental stability is damage to my physical health, and this is unfortunate and unacceptable to me
Remission is actually about functioning, not being recovered, to be technical. I was in remission (not letting symptoms guide my behavior) before being recovered (symptom-free). I have been symptom-free for about 6 months but in remission since September of last year. When I got on a little higher dose of Geodon and xanax and propanolol, I became symptom-free. Before I still had some paranoia and hallucinations now and then during the day before I got on all three meds, but the thing is, I was making straight A’s and never cut class or got drunk, which was the opposite of what I had been doing the last semester (cut class two whole days a week, got drunk every night and made 3 B’s and two A’s).
Now I am both in remission and fully recovered, I function physically, socially and academically (all A’s, lots of time with different friends and powerlifting).
The thing is, recovery and remission don’t mean the end of the whole story- I am prepared for a spontaneous relapse, I keep in mind that it is very possible for my meds to quit working. However, I take it day by day and don’t get myself into overly stressful situations and live a balanced lifestyle, so I dont exactly expect a relapse, but I have been close- for example, if I try to lift too heavy I get some psychosis for a minute due to the stress, and if I feel overwhelmed with work I also get psychotic for an afternoon, but I avoid that by not taking too many upper division classes at once.
For example, I was performing an exercise wrong and panicked a little and the for 30 seconds, the people in the gym were all talking about me. Another example- I bought the textbook for a class which had a terribly rated professor, a syllabus the size of a book and a lab. When I bought the book, I started hearing voices and returned that book and dropped the class immediately.