Is anyone here currently somewhat high-functioning without being on antipsychotics?
5 Likes
I take Lithium for depression but no anti-psychotics or anything else. I tried a couple of anti-psychotics, but haven’t regularly taken anything of that sort for the last 15 years or so. I am told I am high functioning by my therapist and basically no one knows I am sick but the people I tell. Why do you ask?
I was curious about people who were able to function without meds
O dear
The only cure is meds
3 Likes
Yeah I think that’s the case for me. Gotta find the right one though
1 Like
Changing around, swapping lack of menstrual cycle v no sex drive or etc cost me 3 years in and out of hospital - half that time in acute wards
The right meds is so difficult
I tried to find the best one and swapped around
I’m lucky I’m not dead
1 Like
Also that’s not quite the truth no meds caused one and high stress the other
But it’s been 2 or 3 at least episodes where I was half way through stopping and starting another
You get the idea
It’s amazing to find an effective med
None of them have no side effects
1 Like
I can function for a few hours at a time, somewhat normally, in public…want to see?
Call for an appointment and I’ll be happy to set one up for you.
Not being on anti-psychotics is certainly NOT the right course for everyone but I’ve survived it for 15 years in my circumstances. I’ve not been hospitalized and lived independently that entire time mostly while employed. Me saying so is not the same as me telling someone else to try it; people are different. I made deliberate lifestyle choices that lowered my symptoms that not everyone can make. That made a huge difference for me. I doubt very much that I am on the verge of a major mental breakdown because I’ve refused meds for most of the time that I’ve been ill.
1 Like
I am. It is certainly not the best choice for everyone. Sometimes I wonder if it is even the best choice for me. For now I am doing well.
1 Like
I can’t afford meds, the pdoc, nor a breakdown resulting in hospitalization, so here I am trying not to be a pain in everyones backside, tho probably am.
lo siento.
1 Like
I choose not to take medications, currently not high functioning,
but making progress, hope to be high functioning one day.
1 Like
Meds are a must for me, and high doses too. I am somewhat functional, live with my parents and take online classes. My functionality is declining because of the meds. I am forgetful and sleep all day long and never get anything done. Without meds life is a constant horror movie, so I stay on meds. Maybe in the future I can reduce the doses or won’t need them. Been sick since 2015, only recently started to improve. Was quite hopeless there for a while.
1 Like
I hope meds can lead to a point where I no longer need them but this may be wishful thinking… be nice to drive again and go to a larger venue concert or even just to the store without worrying so much…
I hesitate to respond to posts like this because the accusations and pseudo-diagnosis start flying.
But, I have never been on meds. I have suffered terribly but not as a result of not taking meds. I can’t say I’m high functioning, but I’m functioning at a level that passes for low-normal. I would never tell someone to not take meds, but it was my choice to sacrifice things in my life… I had to drop out of school and couldn’t pursue the career I wanted. I work a low-level job. I had to live with my parents for eighteen years to raise my son…
I’m lucky that at the right times I’ve had people to help me. Mostly my parents and now my husband.
It is certainly possible to function without meds for some people and not for others. It’s not an indicator of strength or weakness or disability as opposed to no disability, etc.
2 Likes
I functioned for 2 years off meds, then crashed and burned and ended up in hospital.
They’re called anti-PSYCHOTIC for a reason. They stop you becoming psychotic. Anything else is a bonus.
Psychosis can kill you, as you end up thinking you can fly and jump off a building.
Do you feel lucky?
I’ve been at the brink, lost in fantasies of suicide, cutting myself because Seraton convinced me that it was the right and good thing to do. I’ve bashed my head into walls and door frames until I couldn’t stand because I was trying to stop the noise. I’m not proud of those things and I still struggle, but I’m here in about the same level as others on here who are on meds. Yes, I feel very lucky.
1 Like
I know it gets messy. I tend to shy away myself but was apparently feeling gutsy.
I also had to make choices based on my decision not to take meds. I went to school online in part because I couldn’t hack it in a real university because of attention span issues and paranoia, though I doubt I could have really studied on anti-psychotics because I was always a zombie when I took them. I moved to the middle of nowhere because the traffic and noise in the city got to be too much. I stopped looking for public jobs because I really couldn’t do them without some kind of sedation.
I’ve been in large mental health communities in Los Angeles County and whatnot and not seen a lot of people with children, most of whom were given to or taken by the system because of the illness of the parents. I was abandoned at 12 and my mother was well. It’s nice to read that you were able to raise your son. That’s huge.
1 Like
I haven’t taken meds since 2015. I am functioning, but not at the highest. I have bad periods that I just ride out.
My only diagnosis is depression, and anxiety with psychotic symptoms, not schizophrenia.
1 Like
I had my first break in 2010. In 2011 I got my diagnosis of bipolar. They wanted to put me on like 3 or 4 different meds even though I was high functioning with periods of psychosis and unstable moods.
It also happened that I was feeling quite good when I went for that appointment. Probably hypomanic… I decided I was fine
My family is highly religious and pretty against the med route (I don’t think that way) but it shaped how I ended up not taking meds. The first psychosis episode they were minutes from taking me to the psychward.
I had seemed to have gained a tiny bit of insight (no longer thought Jesus was taking over me or me becoming Jesus repeatedly) I now thought it was Satan because my voices told me it was Satan and I was tricked.
That was enough insight for my parents cuz they thought I was possessed.
Needless to say I went another few months in panic mode cuz the “demons or devil” won’t go away.
Then over the course of the next year I turned away from any religious thinking after I had another episode.
That didn’t stop the psychosis though it just changed what it was about to aliens or other world stuff.
After about 5 years the psychosis has settled down and I rarely hear voices but I feel pretty brain dead at times. No motivation no drive. It waxes and wanes.
I decided to get re evaluated so this April I’ll see where I am at. But it seems like I have the negative symptoms primarily now opposed to psychosis.
That was a bit of a long story. But that is how I did not end up on meds.
1 Like