I have been diagnosed with schizophrenia for years and recently social anxiety. My social anxiety comes from being bullied and bashed when I was young at school. This has continued throughout my adult years however in a more subtle forms often being seen as a joke and been seen as being mentally retarded with stigma attached but this could be due to the effects of medication used to treat schizophrenia. I find people who work in mental health have often been too dismissive of my concerns making my anxiety worse. They seem totally ignorant of the stigma certain people suffer from and just dismiss them as being delusional. It is almost like they donât like discussing such things. Now that I am also being treated for anxiety I am hoping that the feedback I have been getting will be better. It is often the way I handle negative criticism that causes anxiety and then I start seeing it everywhere which results in more criticism which results in more anxiety and so on and so on. The strategy I use to use was trying to be super strong and confident in order to over come it but it only resulted in more stress. Tuning into my vulnerable side is more effective but leads to feelings of isolation. I also I find that I am good at picking up on other peoples emotions quite strongly like an âempathâ that leads to over-powering experiences that canât simply be delusional. I find that what is called a delusion often has some solid basis but its over exaggerated or misunderstood causing the imagination to kick in. Any input?
I think that is what we Sz types doâŚ
Weâll take a scenario that so-called ânormalâ individuals will question as wellâŚexcept we take it to the nth degree. To the point where instead of it becoming number 1002 in our thoughts, it becomes number 1âŚall day, 24/7.
I hear ya.
How are you being treated for your anxiety? My pdoc gives me a script for Xanax. I work full time and own a business. I deal with people I donât know every day and am coping well but I am extremely high functioning.
Thatâs the kicker @matty. There is always a shred of something that sets off our delusions, no matter how insignificant it may seem to others, itâs very significant to us. It takes so much energy to overcome these delusions, for me, it becomes its own delusion.
For the bullies,
Just be you and be kind and things will eventually fall in place.
I have just been given mindfulness training and CBT. I am going to see a psychiatrist who specializes in anxiety. I have been on the disability pension for years. I have found the approach people have taken to me in mental health extremely alienating making me worse. I do plan to study Community Services however.
This why I mainly stay at www.schizophrenia-support.com im often misunderstood here and find many topics that are from low functioning.
Anxiety is one of the most difficult component to treat with SZ⌠its taken me years to get my scripts. I think its good you are going to see a doctor that treats anxiety. Usually antianxiety is the gateway to higher functioning.
I have been stuck on the disability pension for years. I would like to be more high functioning. I would like a more supportive doctor behind me to get me there. I do have a good social worker however who is supportive.
Its a constant fight, its good your getting disability I am happy that you are.
I have been lucky that I have been able to work thru out a my psychotic episodes. This is because I am an engineer and the job ive had has been very specialized. Recently I was recalled by my occupation as PE and the others in the factory had no clue as to how or what I was doing to repair the machinery. Since what I do is so specialized. I do receive a salary even if everything is working okay (kind of like disability). My situation is very specialized and similar to disability payments. Everyone works hard to keep me in a high functioning state. I live in another state from the factory im a PE if one of the machines breaks down, they put me on plane within 3 hours to the state where the factory is. I also work fulltime throughout all this. So my stress and anxiety can max out in an instant. I cant get thru it without meds.
I know many who are on disability and I think thatâs ok, I just hope I can keep workingâŚ
its good that you are working. If the symptoms are not getting worse there is no reason why the situation should change. I am going to study Community Services at college this year.
I dropped out of collage I only have one class to take and I would have my degree. I just cant take a whole semester, its one of my regrets
@Patrick and @animalchin are onto it here, @matty.
I can understand your frustration with some MHPs. Believe me, I had mine in the '90s and early '00s. I will plug in my usual batch of propaganda here, because the results of the psychotherapies usually include a lot more emotional comfort and a lot less frustration.
- Get a copy of these books, read them and have your family read them, as well. (Torrey can be a bit totalistic and unwilling to see exceptions to his ârulesâ at times, but most of his book is really worth the effort to plough through.)
http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Schizophrenia-6th-Edition-Family/dp/0062268856
http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Family-Guide-Schizophrenia/dp/1593851804/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_til?tag=schizophren0c-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=XKLY6NWSWJSQ3VYN&creativeASIN=1593851804 - Get properly diagnosed by a board-certified psychopharmacologist who specializes in the psychotic disorders. One can find them atâŚ
http://doctor.webmd.com/find-a-doctor/specialty/psychiatry and https://psychiatrists.psychologytoday.com/rms/
. - Work with that âpsychiatristâ (or âp-docâ) to develop a medication formula that stabilizes their symptoms sufficiently so that they can tackle the psychotherapy that will disentangle their thinking.
. -
Psychotherapies for that currently includeâŚ
DBT â http://behavioraltech.org/resources/whatisdbt.cfm
MBSR â http://www.mindfullivingprograms.com/whatMBSR.php
MBCT - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22340145
ACT â https://contextualscience.org/act
. - the even newer somatic psychotherapies likeâŚ
MBBT â https://www.newharbinger.com/blog/introduction-mind-body-bridging-i-system
SEPT â https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatic_Experiencing
SMPT â https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensorimotor_psychotherapy
. - or standard CBTs, likeâŚ
REBT â https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_emotive_behavior_therapy
Schematherapy â https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schema_Therapy
Learned Optimism â https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_optimism
Standard CBT â https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Treatment/Psychotherapy & scroll down
. - Get two or more of those âdown,â and one can use the skills therefrom in this way to combat delusional thinking and emotional reactivity very quickly:
10 StEP â http://pairadocks.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-10-steps-of-emotion-processing.html
. - If you/she/he needs a professional intervention to get through treatment resistance, I would use those search tools in item 2 above. Look for clinics that include intervention and treatment resistance services.
. - If you or your sz patient suddenly becomes manic: http://www.currentpsychiatry.com/specialty-focus/bipolar-disorders/article/what-to-do-when-your-depressed-patient-develops-mania/f3218a38f6603114ff2f9d9bfc21acfb.html?
. - Look into the RAISE Project at https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=raise%20program%20schizophrenia.
. - Look for mental illness clubhouses in your area (which can be hugely helpful⌠but may also pose risks). Dig through the many articles at https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=mental%20illness%20clubhouse%20model to locate and investigate them.