Hi I use to be a computer programmer and now after being diagnosed with schizophrenia I am having trouble doing the job. I use to love to program but now due to the medication/risperidone I find it a chore. The medication slows my mind down. I think its the medication but it also could be the schizophrenia. I am also having trouble concentrating on anything logical like games. Anyone else experience this?
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I did notice that my ability to program dropped after getting on meds. I have recently lost my job from having a psychotic break and I am no longer able to work. As with everything your mileage may vary but this has been my experience. I was a professional software developer and engineer for 5 years.
Iām med free, and that was part of the reasonā¦ Iām wondering if programming has something to do with sz thinking. I notice the less I program the better my mental outlook seems to be.
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Did you stop taking meds by choice? Do you still have symptoms?
I didā¦ and the symptoms all came back, but not as strong. I started supplementing and training myself to think about things differently, and Iām almost just as well off as when I was medicated. I still do code somewhere around 7 hours a day now though. Before a month ago I was coding nearly every wake hour.
I had a trainee job programming AS/400 a long time ago. That was when I had my first psychosis and was hospitalised. Whether its the medication or the illness my mind has since never been able to rise to the challenge of programming for a living. After my hospitalisation I applied for a programming job and sat a test but I failed dismally. I have held a job in IT support for the past 16 years.
I was a software engineer. This whole thing started, it seems, as a result of someone at one of the places I worked looking to get revenge and to screw me over. I havenāt been able to write code (or do anything else) since this all started, and whenever I try to do it, everything is slow, I canāt even do the simplest things, the torture and harassment and insults and stupidity kick into overdrive, and everything I come up with is crappy, half-assed, a regurgitation of the same crap, and not worth the time I put into it.
Everyday, I get dumber at the hands of what these idiots are doing to me, and they donāt give a ā ā ā ā . It seems they get off on everything that happens to me, and canāt get enough of me being the idiot theyāve constantly tried to say I am.
Itās infuriating not being able to do what I want to do, or what I like doing, especially knowing itās because of these idiots. And I canāt believe they are not only getting away with this, but all these idiots are doing everything to cheer them on, turn all this ā ā ā ā around and point it at me, and say Iām getting exactly what I deserve.
My entire life Iāve been accused of all sorts of things, and of being all these things Iām not, and then one day somebody went there. They stooped to an entirely new low, filled themselves with all sorts of ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā as though any of it is true and as though they arenāt the exact ā ā ā ā they keep trying to say I am, then boom, there all this ā ā ā ā was. And it hasnāt gone away.
Iām currently studying for my BS in Information Technology with a concentration in Software Application Programming. I will mostly be studying JAVA. Iām still a newbie. Iāve taken classes in Alice, JAVA, SQL, and HTML. I donāt notice my illness effecting my ability to code. The only thing that has been happening recently is I get so excited about things I canāt handle the emotion and become manic. Last night I watched a lecture on programming in JAVA and got so excited I became manic. Iām not very stable right now so I am very sensitive. I canāt wait for my programming classes to start. 
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@SunGirl You too? I canāt get excited about anythingā¦ itās an immediate trigger.
How is it coding with Java, btw. Iāve read that in Javaā¦everything is an object. Iām getting a little tired of PHPās āeverything is a āmagicā functionā kind of atmosphere. Iām beginning to feel like Iām building a house out of ducktape.
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In my expierence OOP languages like Java and C# are great for large web application projects. I much prefer scripting languages like python or php for smaller projects.
For software development I have mostly only worked with OOP languages like C++ and Java.
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Oh, Iove that. Describes PHP perfectly!!!
10-96
I borrowed it from the founder of the software on this forum, Jeff Atwood. Heās also behind Stack Overflow. Heās a nut sometimes, and a bit harsh, but he pushes change which is what I like about him.
i also have problems with my concentration.
this effect my hobbies, and when i watch television or have long disscusions.
i cant seem too focus as i once used too, it becomes a big blur.
Yup. Risperdal has lots of sexual side effects a man would really find offensive like breast development, lactation, erectile dysfunction and LOADS of weight gain. It is also REALLY expensive if you use the consta shotsā¦Govt med clinics REALLY make it hard to work and get the shots due to clinic schedules & long waitā¦never on lunch hours, only during business hoursā¦No way anyone could afford to get shots administered except at govt med clinics due to HUGE costs twice a month.
You will get some relief from the voices naturally as you get used to ignoring it. Please read up on gang stalking/cause stalking/thought broadcasting thru Google to know what āsocial problemsā happen to a schizo victim. You are much better off knowing this if you use mental care. This is how some of the closet or part-time schizo deal with hearing voices, some of the churches even advocate acting this way. These churches always say they follow āJesusā, usually a non-denominational or pentacostal church and their people are verbal bullies toward other people. These groups do not follow biblical ethics either as they donāt even crack the book. These folks make up a lot of the gang stalkers in some citiesā¦ The psych doctors and therapy staff refuse to discuss this and call it delusional even, refusing assistance to schizo victims making confused go insane and even harming people/self. This is just govt policyā¦If you ever get angry with your care staff, you can be thrown in mental hospital under warrant and forced to pay for months of āattitude adjustmentā even acting normally resulting in loss of employment and even homelessness. If you donāt like the care, change doctors. It is personal choice to ignore the voices, never follow orders or talk to yourself aloud and sometimes you can get a break from the voices. It can be tough sometimes as psychopathic stuff runs a lot of people/social situations/workplacesā¦keeping your head down and working there can be hard. If you have some coworkers who are too busy being crazy harassing you to work, try to arrange a telecommute arrangement with work as an accommodation without discussing your diagnosis. (Too many distractions and ADHD could be a good excuse.)
Other times, there is a person who seems to make your symptoms worse. For women, frequently someone came onto us and started to make threats right before the voices started and these men began to stalk or sexually harass us at workā¦Then social problems from the gang stalker start if woman gets upset and sometimes vandalisms or worse things happen to belongings. If woman did not have a relationship to shack up with or marry, these women were frequently caused performance problems at work and released from employment, especially if they got any mental care as the care tries to cause the women a nervous sometimes if lady is really scared. So, if you met someone OFF before you started to hear it and person is running into you or flaunting whatever around you some of the time (this can be an office competition or college rival who hated you is usual reason for male), if you quit talking to this person by never answer calls, email or cell and avoid them, you can have a little relief from the voices. You may even need to leave your employer or transfer offices but things can get better for youā¦but the gang stalkers will introduce themselves to you in new city and you may suffer vandalisms if you say much back. Donāt buy much for a while except the basics and keep the money in the bank to get through thisā¦You have to almost completely stop talking about everything that led up to your symptoms starting to get any reliefā¦
Now, medsā¦Insomnia or depression or low libido for male can affect your concentrationā¦Seroquel may be a nice drug to try if risperdal side effects bother you or you get no relief from symptoms. This drug has fewer side effects. It is generic. It doesnāt cause much weight gain either. This also has a sedating effect so you can take the drug at night (pills cut in pieces) and sleep nicely. YOu can also pair an anti-depressant with any of the anti-psychotics and sometimes you may feel better after 2 monthsā¦ Wellbutrin doesnāt cause a lot of weight gain issues but some of the anti-depressants will cause weight issuesā¦
Regular exercise helps concentration ā¦ Spending your breaks walking the halls or parking lot at work may wake you up better than sugar rushesā¦
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Warning about college - a lot of people with psychosis symptoms can be bullied out of college by the instructors and troubled students in group projects. If you got student loans and gave up, you will have to pay it all back immediately if you drop classes. I strongly recommend you take 2-3 classes somewhere and pay cash before you accept student loans at any school. One college I tried and I mean moved hours to attend, had instructors who admitted they had been sued for mistreating disabled students unless they were registered with Disability Support Services. (And this instructor was best behaved at the school, much worse went on & students were very disruptive & borderline illiterate as a ruleā¦) Mental care in this city was so bad, I couldnāt even get a good psych doctor noteā¦Doctor who would cooperate tried to ruin my credibility so school would call her to schedule an appointment if āanything needed explained to meā and I have 10 years of full-time work experience plus a Bachelorās degree with good GPA. I got Bachelors in useless area and had to pay MY OWN CASH because Vocational Rehab here will not pay to re-educate people on SSDI who already have a degree but Dept of Labor office will pay for 65 year old with Bachelors to attend college. ??? Iām 25 years younger??? !
Some cities have very bad gang stalking/cause stalking/thought broadcasting problems so know if you move for college. You need to get doctorās note for accommodations through Disability Support Services from your previous care provider. You may not even want to use a psych doctor in some of these cities and you need to know that some cities are running such a bad stalking problem for some folks on SSDI, you wonāt want to stayā¦Online education to just get some piece of paper plus self-study in your subject area may be the choice to avoid a lot of debt, ruined academic record & relapse into symptoms.
You also need to know some of the IT professors will send out dirty files containing virus to annoying students who try to ask for too much help. If you cannot debug your own code, you shouldnāt work in programming. Web design plus graphic design or engineering may serve you betterā¦Keep the computer backed upā¦
I was studying web too as field of my original degree requires it nowā¦
I worry about security of my websitesā¦I switched to lots of content and basic sites, then working on technical writing/digital training materials. Still pays really wellā¦
Java is object oriented programming. I have to read up on what exactly an object is. I like Java, but thereās still a lot to learn. Iāve only taken two classes on it. In the last class we learned how to make pop up windows come up to order a pizza. The first one would welcome you and then one would ask for your name, address, and phone number. I was able to build constraints in where when the user would enter their phone number it would only take ten digits otherwise an error message would pop up explaining it would only take ten numbers.It was fun.
Guys I love you all for sharing your experiences. Iām sick of doing customer service. Iām now looking forward to studying a degree in ICT. I hope I do well. Iām sorry that some of you find it hard to concentrate. I feel that way too because of the meds. Itās basically hard to stay motivated for a long period. It is just such an effort. Many people have told me not to do the degree as its very stressful. I dont knowā¦I still feel like studying ITā¦mainly software developmentā¦its not a piece of cake but it will atleast help improve my badly damaged self esteem due to past events.
Hi @Sumi_Flowers. Typically, we like to leave inactive threads alone and just start a new thread instead. This is different than how some forums are run, but we do it this way because it frequently upsets users to have old topics revived when they are no longer relevant. It can also be frustrating to the person who revived the thread when they donāt get a reply, because the original poster is no longer active or no longer finds the topic relevant. Feel free to start a new thread on this topic.
Thanks,
Ninjastar
Volunteer Moderator