During my first psychosis I didn’t have paranoia but had delusions and heard voices. Is this sz or possible? My pdoc said its psychosis I was put on 10mg Abilify and no more symptoms. 3-4yrs later I stopped the meds for 2yrs went psychotic then got new symptoms, paranoia and anger issues, needed much higher med dosages to be symptom free.
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The original diagnosis before stopping meds and getting much worse was brief psychotic disorder
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I think anything and everything is possible with sz. I never hallucinated, not even on mushrooms. I’ve definitely heard going off your meds can make symptoms worse to get rid of the second time around.
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Yeah now I need higher doses and as a result my negative symptoms are worse
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I think it is possible especially if your dr said so and put you on an antipsychotic med. @Aziz
I’ve always had very bad heavy paranoia as one of my main symptoms. I still get delusions and voices but the paranoia really is bad for me. I was diagnosed with paranoid sz though so it might be different for me than for you.
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My diagnosis changed to sz after stopping meds and going psychotic. Now I get paranoia whenever I stop the meds
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The only paranoia symptoms I tend to get is people don’t like me when I’m in extreme stress, but I feel a lot of that has to do with low self esteem. Other than this I do not get paranoid…
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Schizophrenia is a strange disorder.
Different symptoms pop up here and there.
There’s nothing logical about schizophrenia
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I only have persecutory/paranoid delusions, no hallucinations at all
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The delusions I had before getting paranoia were religious hearing god, seeing angels and believing i was Jesus, after stopping meds I still believed in those but also that the mafia working with the devil is trying to kill me and that my biology teacher is trying to poison me
It would be nice to not have the paranoia, but I am used to it. It is also easier after over 30 years of it to write it off for what it is. I know well by now that nothing I am worried about happening ever happens.
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I want to know if I damaged my brain by stopping meds for 2yrs or if it was just the disease progressing naturally. But how can it progress if I didn’t have symptoms on 10mg Abilify?
I would feel really dumb if I damaged my brain on my own, my pdoc told me if I stop my meds again and go psychotic I might become treatment resistant and no meds will work, I will be psychotic for life
Im not sure but i had paranoia, hallucinations and delusions.
I think you can have sz without hallucinations as well. It really is whatever meets the criteria for the pdoc to diagnose you
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Don’t feel dumb. Everyone makes mistakes. These drugs have such bad side effects, that many people aren’t compliant with their meds. So that’s why injections can be important to some.
I’ve been on meds consistently for years, and my mind is just getting worse, slowly, like a car with rust. So, you could have a worsening condition even if you took your pills like clockwork. There’s no sense in beating yourself up for unknown stuff and mistakes. Just do your best right now and in the future.
Interestingly, I was told that if I go off them, they may not work as effectively when I go back on them. This made me even more compliant, because of the fear. Not everyone is coherent enough to remember that piece of info though. Some are overtaken with the psychosis. Stuff happens.
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From my experience, what I can tell you, according to what my psychiatrist once told me, there is only brain damage when the psychotic break is long-lasting. If you are not in a psychotic state there is no ‘‘degradation’’ of the brain. But this depends on each person.
If you have doubts regarding this, you could consult with another psychiatrist to have another perspective.
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I was psychotic for 2yrs
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I understand. But if you stop the antipsychotic, do you automatically become psychotic? or you can go a certain amount of time without taking it.
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I become psychotic after like a month
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What I can tell you is that I never had hallucinations. Just psychotic breaks with delusions. And despite this, in my medical diagnosis I have schizophrenia.
I would also suggest that you not worry so much. If you have problems with current antipsychotics. In a little less than 1 year there will be muscarinic antipsychotics.
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