I had a pretty interesting talk with my dad the other day.
He’s a psychologist, and a pretty smart man, so he asked me where my positive symptoms usually are on a 1-10 scale.
I told him they’re usually a 2. Then he asked where they would be before I considered getting help, and I told him they’d have to be a 7 for me to consider calling for help, and that when they reach 8, I definitely need help.
He told me there wasn’t much wiggle room from 7 to 8, and that I should consider calling someone if I reached a 6 instead.
So, we agreed that if I feel my symptoms are becoming bad, but feel unable to directly ask for help, I could text him a number, which would tell him how bad it is, and he’ll call me.
That was a pretty good idea, actually.
Where do you guyses symptoms lie on the 1-10 scale?
How bad would they have to be before you consider asking for help, and how bad before you actually do it?
I’d have to be about a 6 out of 10 on the symptom scale to ask for psych help. Any more than that and I might not even have enough insight to get help.
In terms of SZ symptoms I’m like a 1 or a 2, but my head pain is a 5.5 .
I’m usually at about a 1-2 for positive symptoms, 6-7 for anxiety (right now, we’re at 11 lol), and then anywhere from 3-7 for negative symptoms; today is about a 4.
I’m probably a 4 right now because of feeling depressed, maybe a 5 because I probably need someone to watch me. On average, I’d say I have to reach a 6 before contacting my pdoc. I let my husband know around a 5 that I need help. If I get too far past a 6, I am no longer myself, and I will not seek help- I become secretive. I have to get it while I am still in the right state of mind.
I feel the same way. At 6, I’m still able to ask for help, but the farther I get above that, the more likely I am to no longer be in control.
I’ve only once been an 8, and I dissociated so much that my response-time was incredibly delayed. If I hadn’t had someone with me in the psych emergency room, who knew me well enough to speak for me, I wouldn’t have gotten any help.
I was almost impossible to get in contact with. No eyecontact, and it took me forever to hear what people said, and even longer to react and respond.
My clinician checks in with me multiple times a week right now, but in a couple months I’ll be all on my own and this is a worry of mine. I’m really good at asking for help when I’m a 3-5, but as soon as I really need help I sort of shut down and get really isolated and independent to my own detriment. So I’m really hoping to get my meds completely sorted before having to switch clinics.
I’m either on one end of the scale or the other. Psychotic or good, 1 or 10. The problem is that when I become psychotic I usually don’t recognize I need help. Be grateful you fall throughout the scale so you can get help.
I put mine at a solid 5 cause I fluctuate a lot I go from no symptoms to the ceiling is melting in 10 seconds (slight exaggeration) but I have to be at 8 before I’ll look for assistance I tend to push myself too far before I ask for a hand.
My positive symptoms are pretty much a zero because I take a very large dose of antipsychotics every single day. my negative symptom of not being able to feel joy is like a 7. i’m constantly depressed.
as far as positive symptoms go, im about a 1 or a 2 right now. if it goes over 2 i would definitely bring it up to my nurse practitioner and if it got over say, 6 or so, i would consider a hospital visit because i feel like its a slippery slope
My positive symptoms usually range around a 3…my negative symptoms about a 4. I’m really bad about asking for help…the provider and I don’t communicate well and asking for help usually means I’m going in the hospital. Last time I asked for help I was stuck in the ER for 5 days before getting a bed on the psych ward, so I don’t want to go there, and last time I talked to the crisis line the police showed up at my front door, so now I won’t call them. So usually I won’t ask for help at all and end up getting committed by the police. The system sucks where I live. That’s a 10.
I do not really know, first of all, how much fun you have a dad, and second, I’ll call for help only if I lose control of my body again, all the other crises I learn to manage alone, or with the psychologist
My symptoms are really low today, but they fluctuate from day to day. It seems like sometimes there is no middle ground but not always. I do have 3 to 5 days. Other times, things seem to spike from low to super high on the scale. I have learned to deal with the higher symptom days by talking to my mom or a counselor and using my emergency anxiety and stress calm down list. I had was prescribed ativan for a long time to help me through times. As long as I’ve had that, I could get through the worst of the worst type of days like the 7 trough 8. I never used to be able to handle those on my own though. Also my pdoc just stopped prescribing ativan and gave me seroquel instead, and I haven’t had a terrible day since. But I am worried the seroquel won’t cut it on a bad day. 6 to 7 I can handle on my own. When it gets to be a 9 or 10 then is when the hospital may be necessary. I am just speculating a lot of this because I don’t think I can really be certain plus you know how it is when the higher symptom days arise–one may not know what is really going on or even how to get help.