What are some coping strategies and things that you do to help get you through a psychotic episode besides meds/med adjustments?
It’d be great to hear what you’ve learned from your experience, and what has helped you get through these periods of increased symptoms.
I don’t know. I get through it alone. Staying clean and sober is important for me. My mind just gets knocked back in order or if I’m too angry some meds to put me to sleep. If I’m mad at noise I use my headphones and music.
My mantra helps too.
Glad to know I’m not the only one who gets mad at to much noise
My mum does, family 
Nothing helps.
I suffer alone.
If I recognise the episode,
mostly it would be in the evening time,
I would have my med’s and sleep it off,
else if its in the day time,
I would go out for a long walk and take a shower.
And yeah while I walk I wont listen to music,
as I have tried both and I feel better with out music, while at walk.
I try to do something immersive, like reading, watching a movie, working on a guitar, practicing, I used to walk a lot before my leg got all screwed up, but I still do some walking
I gotta listen to some soothing music, if I’m feeling bad. Frank Sinatra or something. He’s not my favorite artist, but his music (and others like his) help keep me grounded.
when I am its very hard to control myself, so I like to be alone. It helps if people are around, to have friends or fam. to reality check whats happening…I was told that it was anxiety, not “psychosis” that I have generalized anxiety and when I have panic attacks my body is having a sympathetic response making me feel stuck in that place of fight/flight. I was told that if left untreated, anxiety could have led to the paranoia and schizophrenia could be a result of other illness left untreated…like trauma and anxiety.
so it helps me not to think instead that I have this lingering evil within–this “schizophrenia” but moreso a collection of symptoms that have been insufficiently treated over time, that have evolved into something more complex, like a fixed belief or paranoid delusion or even the thought of schizophrenia itself that bothers me. Thinking that no matter what I do, there’s something about me thats going to get worse…without proof of this thats a mere statistic and I could be an outlier.
so not taking things so extreme. Learning to simplify, not catastrophic big-picture thoughts, not end-of-the-world thoughts, but simple solutions one step at a time…noticing the beauty and recognizing my own success no matter how trivial it could seem to another.
and keeping up on physical health, becoming more active–quit tobacco products–less caffeine and sugar–going to get a CT scan for my lungs and to see if I have any brain damage so that will be peace of mind hopefully i Have recovered from the blood clots…we shall see…
Listening to music, journalling, talking to hubby, hugging him, coming on here
Nothing is more healing of an episode for me than getting a lot of sleep and eating well. If I feel my symptoms coming up I try to stay at home away from the world and focus on getting good sleep. It’s good if I recognize that I’m in an episode. If I can realize what is happening to me then I’ll do something about it. Usually a med change happens soon after an episode.
I’m confused by the phrase “episode”? If you are schizophrenic are you always psychotic or do you just have episodes?
It’s not quite black and white. Most of us have symptoms every day, or that get more noticeable on stressful days.
Episodes refer to time periods where the symptoms are way more severe than usual, and the person is more or less psychotic.
For an example, I have some daily hallucinations like a faint sound of someone trying to talk to me or saying my name.
When I get episodes, it’s like all my thoughts tumble around in my brain and all I can gather is that I’m hearing someone sing very loudly that I’m going to die. I get so distressed I can’t focus, can’t sleep, and I seem very confused and distressed to others.
medication is the only way out of a severe episode
I usually end up having to take a high dose of my prn and just sleep for 14 hours. Usually I sleep for maybe 8 on a good night.
Sleeping helps a lot.
Yep an episode as @Pikasaur said, a period of highly intense symptoms, more so than usual.
I’m going throuh an epsidoe right now. I met with my pdoc and we upped my meds, I’ve been sleeping all day, keeping the lights dim, and just trying to get thru it. I still have a lot of homework to do and working on that now. It sucks, it’s been really hard. This thread has really helped me with practical advice, and just remember we aren’t alone in this. You’ve all been through this and you’re strong people.
A lot of what got me through it was mandatory medication after an involuntary commitment. I’ve been able to avoid a commitment for a few months before, but I inevitably messed up after a while. I once heard a guy in AA talking about “Not being on the beam, and not knowing you’re not on the beam, because you are not on the beam.” There were times when it felt like I was on the beam, and everyone was trying to push me off of it.