I know the prevailing view among psychiatrists is that schizophrenia is a lifelong illness which requires lifelong medication. I disagree with that view, though. I believe that people can heal and recover completely without the use of medication. In fact, medication can shrink your brain, and cause a chemical imbalance. I’ve read a lot by Peter Breggin and Robert Whitaker, who argue against medication. I’ve also read about people who were diagnosed with schizophrenia who have later recovered without the use of medication. This gives me hope that one day I can be medication free, and recover completely. Paris Williams book “Rethinking Madness” is a good one. Though I don’t totally understand the theory that is presented in the book, it argues against a biological reasoning for psychosis.
So what do you think? Will you have to be on medication for the rest of your life, or will you one day heal?
i’ve read the whole page on antipsychotics on wikipedia. read other sites as well. there’s no way i’ll take anti psychotics. only to take me out of psychosis. but prolonged use, no way.
i’m 21, been diagnosed for almost 2 years now. i feel like this is who i’ll be for life. maybe i can change, but i doubt ill ever be cured, as i think its something in our brains, the imbalance, which i think after something like psychosis, no person is ever the same again.
so yeah, lifelong sentence. its a lose lose situation.
Depends what your criteria for ‘full recovery’ is. From what I read it is rare that someone with schizophrenia returns to the same level of functioning that they enjoyed before they got sick. But in my own case, even though I’ve recovered enough to be somewhat comfortable sometimes, I think that I have just lost too much in the way of normal functioning over 30 years to suddenly gain it all back. I function enough to live alone but I’ve missed too many life experiences because of schizophrenia at vital ages and never learned other crucial lessons in my years of living as an adult. Maybe other people can recover, but in my life this seems to be true.
Thank you for all of your responses. I think of getting off the meds which worked for me with another illness–depression. The psychiatrist I had would make me talk about my sister’s death and other traumatic experiences, and I would cry. She put me on anti-depressants for this. I eventually just tapered off the medication myself, and haven’t since had any problem with depression. Yes I cry when I think about sad things, but I think this is normal, and not something that should be medicated away. With the Geodon that I am taking, it comes in capsules, so I can’t taper it off myself. My psychiatrist is very against going off medication. So I can only ask him to decrease the dose. One of these days, I am planning on going off, though.
I would love to go off meds. Psychotropic meds are toxic when you really think about it. The damage it is doing to my body is apparent. but the truth is, I am going to have be on them for the rest of my life probably. I have too many SZ and BP symptoms. If the psychosis doesn’t disable me, the manias and depressions will. I hope to God (if there is a God) they come up with less harsh type medications. I mean if they can send men to the moon, come on enough of this.
meds work for me. I dont enjoy screaming at the floor while my train of though it just a jumble of extreme paranoia and hallucinations, waiting to get better.
Coming off meds isn’t really an option. I’m a long time Risperdal user, and it is excellent for general stability and sleep. I have tried multiple times to come off this drug and I feel like crap. It seems I will always be on something.
neither.
we all try the meds, we all figure out what they are and what they aren’t.
eventually we all toss them aside and try other ways.
but i don’t think we’ll ever forget our madness.
we’ll just manage it differently.
I used to do the meds off and on, still do kinda.
Off now though.
Binge drug only.
My body is uninhabitable, tortured with bugs crawling all over, biting and stinging.
so i stay outta there, that’s all.
my time garden is a mess.
like an old lazy guy who’s backyard is a wreck,
bugs infesting all the vegetables,
it’s unihnhabitable.
he’s tried roundup, and other chemicals,
and it’s way too late, the place is just a mess,
so he sits up on the ledge and just looks out the windows at it.
just a different way to manage it.
did he quit with the roundup cause it was healthy all of a sudden?
nah, just decided it was useless.
it’s sort of like a dream except for a few people. mental illness is not like a cut that heals up in time. there is always the underlying condition. I have thought many times in the past that I was well and I discontinue my medication. I have found myself in the hospital 8 times because of that way of thinking.
I think my condition is episodic and/or part of my beliefs. If my beliefs don’t change then no matter of meds is going to help. Meds are good for some people as they always say, but I don’t care for them much myself. I take them anyway as it seems to be a part of being on disability and seeing a doctor. I’ll probably go off them eventually again. I don’t think they do me that much good with my illnesses. I’ve never liked taking them and I think they do possibly harm me. Of course, if I do end up hospitialized they might make them mandatory again for me and stuff like that. I’m cooperating now and everyone seems to be happy it.
I am not anti meds. I do however feel we deserve better quality medications. The newer atypical antipsychotics need some serious fine tuning. Sure they are are a big step forward when it comes to improved EPS over the older typical antipsychotics. But metabolic health issues still crop up with these new atypicals. Diabetes, heart problems, thyroid issues, are all real issues we face everyday. We deserve better. The stats don’t favor us. Our life expectancy is greatly shortened by many ears. the so called professionals blame our unhealthy lifestyle choices - smoking, drug use, alcohol etc… You have got to put psychiatric medications on top of the list. I might be schizophrenic, but I’m no fool.
I don’t see myself coming off my meds anytime soon. I have been able to taper down the doses over the years. But it’s because of my meds that I’m not dead. I get very suicidal when I hit negative symptoms. For me…. Negative symptom is true suffering. I don’t feel human anymore. I have no reason for being alive if I have no ability to even feel alive.
Every time I’ve ever tried to get off my meds, I have ended up back in hospital even worse off then before I was on meds. I have too much to at risk to play with my meds on my own. I have my own place and a job I like and I haven’t ended up with suicidal thoughts in a long time. I’m not going to be tampering with my meds on my own.
As far as diseases and life sentences, there is more then just SZ. Muscular Dystrophy, Cerebral Palsy are also life long with no cure either.
My sis will works with some Cerebral Palsy kids at at the pool. There is this one little 7 year old girl in a wheel chair for the rest of her life and she’s working at swimming and getting through school and she wants to be an author of kids books someday. Cerebral Palsy injures and attacks the brain and the body. So she gets the brain injury fun with the added symptom of being in constant physical pain and on again off again motor skills as well. … After meeting her, I don’t complain as much as I used to.
the demon-wind - it blows harder after you initially let it,
you might call it, might stumble into it, more challenging is to withstand and conquer it, but ultimately that’s what you have to do if you already find yourself feeling the demon wind draft.
It doesn’t just go away, the universe is demon-windy, and if you open a window it’s extremely difficult to close it, i don;t want to say ‘impossible’ cause the wan wu honeycomb is the alchemy chamber/all things are possible with god, but i can’;t imagine how you’d get the mental toothpaste back in the tube.
So when you learn to smile and wave in to the demon wind,
you’re not cured, exactly,
but now you aren’t crying about the wind,
or letting it push you toward killing yourself and others,
like it likes to do,
demon wind that it is…
Wonderdonkey I think I see your point. Staying positive is better than staying negative when it comes to such a hardlined illness like SZ. I have been feeling depressed so my thoughts are negative lately, I do realize this.
It’s difficult for me to smile with the wind blowing- lets call it depression suffocating me at the moment.
I am going to try to make a positive remark. I hope latuda works out for me and I get better. If it doesnt work, my doctor tells me she will give me another antidepressant type med. Thank you for allowing me to see the reality of it all.
Well my education (psych major) told me that it’s permanent and not likely to go away or get better until I am 50 or 60 at best. If I ever improve at all…I am successfully medicated and in remission so idc