Relationship between effortful motivation and neurocognition in schizophrenia

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Did you know belief and hope can play a huge role in recovery? I learned this in my neuroscience courses. They took people who had severe spinal cord injury, they told them they would be able to walk again and they did…in the past nearly 100% of people with severe spinal cord injury ended up not walking or living independently again because doctors used to say “there is no hope for you” because they didn’t want to be sued if they gave them false hope, so people wouldn’t even try to recover, but they changed the policy so now they are told that they can walk again and the majority of them do…

I think maybe a big reason why people with sz have such bleak lives is because they are told they will have bleak lives…this combined with medication with awful side effects that’s terrible to be on, with lack of a therapy that’s tailored to psychosis, there’s just no chance…I think with some big renovations to the system in different areas the majority of people with schizophrenia can be living independent and good lives, I really truly believe that.

-Tell people w sz “yes you have a serious mental illness but with hard work you can learn to live with it and even thrive despite it”

-Improve medications to minimize side effects by stopping drug companies from forcing them on the markets too early to make money (this actually happens I have attended lectures on it, scientists are pressured into producing products by a deadline so they rush and will actually exaggerate positive effects & minimize negative ones), providing more funding and time into creating more quality medications, having more 3rd parties reviewing who do not have profit to think about

-Design (and then promote widespread implementation of) a therapy tailored to treating sz and psychosis that is effective

Those 3 things and I swear 99% of people with this illness will live good lives.

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I’d make a list but it seems so pointless. It never ends.

@Anna
I agree. The people that treated me never said my future was bleak. Not once. When I got diagnosed, I wasn’t able to take care of myself, I rarely went outside because of anxiety and paranoia, I abused drugs, I did next to nothing because of a lack of motivation, I couldn’t remember crap, had bad mood swings and had been pretty psychotic for quite a while. I thought my life was over long before I got the diagnosis. But not once did anyone say they didn’t believe I could recover if I took my meds and worked hard, and now it looks like they might have been right.

There are a few, but they’re not that well-used or well-known. There’s CBT, of course, which can be tailored to psychosis, and then there’s the Open Dialogue, which a fair amount of people are pretty skeptical of, and there’s the token economy system, which really only works in institutions (but is actually very effective for motivation and self-care).

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Yes I did a whole project/presentation on CBT for psychosis and promoting its wider implementation. There are SO FEW people trained in this but from what I’ve read of it it seems very promising.

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I’m happy that my thread has spurred such constructive discussions :slight_smile:
That’s until Meghilla shows up and reminds us that “it’s all crap” :smile:
Just kidding.

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