I recently had a short stay at a psychiatric ward. I broke down with a kind of psychosis and suicide ideation because I had troubles living my life sober (since 9 th of august).
A psychiatric nurse at the ward told me that “intellectually gifted people like you should be able to care for yourself.”
After she left me, I became so mad at her, I left the ward in anger. I called my regular pdoc and he raised my cariprazine from 1.5 mg to 3 mg and two days later, most of the stress and pain left my body.
I’m still a bit angry at that nurse, but try to let it be… and i’m still sober!!
A basic question I would ask is ‘How well do you do in life in comparison to what could reasonably be expected given your IQ?’
Ideally it’s a question that needs to be answered by those who only have sz/sz-a and not those who have additional diagnoses like ASD,or who have unmedicated ADHD.
I would expect that collectively those who have sz/sz-a underperform in life in relation to what could reasonably be expected given their IQ.
Interesting, I never thought of that. Probably being smart helps in certain areas. Some people might have more energy on meds than others, and meds affect people differently, so it’s a mixture of things.
I kinda agree that being smart could help your prognosis. There was a list of traits or things in the book surviving schizophrenia that were predictors of a better outcome. Intelligence may have been on there.
i think its the opposite. i feel like over the past 20 years i lost a lot of iq points and my thoughts only got weirder and weirder the dumber i got…the dumber i got the less i understand and the more my mind can create meaning in things that might not be there
I put no. I was a math major (not sure why) and developed schizophrenia. If I had to guess, my IQ was 120-130 and I’m a college drop out now. I’ve been sick for 13 years now and feel like I lost 10-20 IQ points. I can’t seem to move forward in life or work and I feel average now or even below average. My delusions make me feel miserable and stupid.
Sometimes, I feel like my IQ is below average now like 90-100. I never had any issues before I got sick.
I was briefly diagnosed with Asperger’s, but the doctors diagnosed me with schizophrenia and finally schizoaffective disorder – bipolar type.
I think if you are more creative, then it is possible the voices can find more creative ways of messing with you.
Well, the reason I survived college despite delusions was probably because I was smart, but what happened is that, I went unmedicated for a prolonged period, and during this time, my cognition, especially focus and memory, declined considerably. Now, everything is fixed on medication, except the cognition which doesn’t allow me to work in a capacity as a professional, perhaps as an Actuary.
But, I trade stocks, I don’t remember much about my strategies, so I write down notes in notepad which I save, etc.
In a sense, being smart doesn’t help with schizophrenia as you could go undiagnosed for a long time, and perhaps, become a harder case to treat/recover.
I genuinely believe that creative individuals will have sz rough because voices will find creative ways to torment them.