So, I’m Tyler. I’m new here and this is my first post… I’m having some severe symptoms and I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to figure out what may be wrong with me… I used to take Zyprexa 20 MG for help with sleep and possible bipolar disorder, but I fear the bipolar diagnosis may have been wrong due to recent negative like symptoms usually associated with schizoohrenia… I was a mess. My hygiene was poor and I had a lack of self awareness… I wasn’t very in touch with my own body or emotions… I stopped the Zyprexa cold turkey due to feeling emotionally numb a few years ago and I was thrown into a tailspin of psychosis… It started out with an inability to sleep, and when I did sleep I never felt refreshed in the morning… I started to become engrossed in daydreams, often laughing hysterically at my own visions. I had persistent paranoid delusions and I started to forget who I was… Euphoria set in and it lasted for two years or more… During that time I was hyper aware, I felt like I had great insight and I felt so alive, my hygiene and grooming habits became great. ABNORMALLY good hygiene and motivation maybe. I turned heads everywhere I went because I dressed great, and I had infectious energy and confidence. started working out and I was on top of the world, but something was off… I felt like someone else… What I’m most curios about, is my heightened awareness and good hygiene… I’ve often heard about how people with schizophrenia tend to have bad hygiene, but has anyone heard about the opposite, especially during euphoric psychosis in someone with schizophrenia? I crashed hard recently and now my hygiene is back to naught, I’ve attained ptsd and I barely have the energy or motivation to look myself in the mirror and realize that I actually still exist, much less do my own laundry… Please help
Before I was medicated I had periods of months where I was high functioning and high energy/infectiously entertaining energy but I never really accomplished much with grooming-my style was kinda odd. I miss the charisma or whatever it was I had before but being medicated on low doses seems to keep me more stable and definitely less wreckless.
Hey, first of all welcome to the forum.
Second, when I was psychotic I was highly functional and my hygiene was great. I was psychotic but smelled nice. I cleaned the apartment almost everyday, I had a lot of energy to do stuff. Then the hospitalization happened and the sz diagnosis and I fell into depression. Difficulty to shower, and to this day, I have to schedule my cleaning days, usually once a week at sundays so I won’t fall off track. So I can relate. It’s a tough one to crawl out of but it’s possible, I’m doing it. I’m on medication and starting to become fully functional again. I go to class everyday, shower every other day, I’m starting yoga this week. I’ve been too tired for cleaning but I’m adjusting to the new situation. It will be back on track in no time.
The best course for recovery is medication with therapy. Also, you can learn a lot from being here, so stick around, this is a great community.
Thank you, Minnie… And I hope you continue to improve… Yeah it is tough… But the worst part for me is not knowing exactly what disorder my symptoms fall into… Everywhere I look on the Internet in my obsessive haste to get more info, I can only seem to find generic information… What I really need is first hand testimony from people who are sick like me… Could you possibly go into more detail about your euphoric psychosis? How long did it last for? Did you feel abnormally aware? Any kind of description would be helpful… Thank you. And good luck.
Thank you, Mesa… Could you maybe go into more detail about the “charisma” you mentioned? We’re you experiencing persistent euphoria? And did you feel abnormally creative and confident? Any kind of description of what you went through would help… Thank you and good luck.
I felt ultra confident and focused and had so much energy. I worked part time went to school full time and partied like a rockstar and aced all my classes. I felt popular and interesting and enigmatic. It was like I was in a bubble of greatness that popped and unravelled.
And what was your specific diagnosis? And when youre “bubble collapsed” did negative symptoms set in? If so what we’re the negative symptoms like… I’m so sorry you deal with this.
My correct diagnosis is schizophrenia. I have had all combinations of symptoms since I was 16. After the bubble I progressively became more paranoid-looking back over the years…but the paranoia was maybe in check at that point partially bc I lived in an underground sort of root cellar-I felt very safe in there.
My psychosis lasted for years, I was completely delusional for about one year to two years. I was aware I was different and delusional, but some of my delusions were conforting so I held on to them. I didn’t want help because of it, then my family forced a hospitalization and I ended up getting better so I stuck with the medication. I had nervous tics in my face that were bothering me, anxiety all the time, I thought people were trying to kill me, extremelly paranoid, and obsessed about this one guy I was seeing a year before, kind of internet stalked him for a while there… Did a lot of things I regret, but well… that’s how it goes.
It begs the question, is there such a thing as normal symptoms? I’ve had paranoid schizophrenia for 35 years.