I have severe sz according to my pdoc. Now that the positive symptoms are gone I have the negative symptoms to deal with. These are worse in my opinion because they are more subtle and insidious than the positive symptoms. The meds help but I think the key to functioning when you have sz is to view it as a fight. When I was dealing with the hallucinations and delusions I learned coping skills and fought against my own brain daily.
The negative symptoms aren’t any different. My therapist has given me coping skills and I fight every day. It wasn’t always this way and some days are easier than others. For a while all I did day in day out was sit and smoke.
Yesterday marked one month since I’ve had a cigarette, I’ve lost 50lbs, I’ve been walking every day, I do chores every day, and I make sure to leave the house and be around people every day. My favorite is sitting in Starbucks and reading while I drink my decaf.
My point is while the meds do help you have to fight. You can’t sit around waiting for the perfect med to come out and you sure as hell can’t expect someone else to fix your life. You have to do it yourself.
No one asks for this illness and it’s the hardest thing I have ever come up against but it’s not impossible.
I hope everyone is having a great day and I just wanted to share what is working for me.
That’s great! Once upon a time, exactly this time last year, I had a plan all worked out and I was all stable and stuff and taking my meds and going to therapy and getting into routines and everything was working out. And then idk what happened but it all came crashing down around me when I stopped taking my medicines And I have not been able to get back to that place of stability since…
Because I stopped taking my medications three more times and every time I ended up in the hospital, so now I think I’ve permanently fried my brain by having so much psychotic stress.
OMG let me tell you all about my frustrations concerning this. After waiting four months to get an appointment, the doctor literally tells me “let’s try another mood stabilizer first.” Like cmon, I’ve tried so many goddamn meds and I just need an actual solution. I highly doubt the mood stabilizer will fix my depression because I’m already on Lamictal and that’s supposed to help depression most of all.
So anyway, it will be another month. If I am denied, which I am concerned will happen even though I am an excellent candidate (haha not exactly something to be proud of), I feel like I actually have no other options other than going off my meds because I seriously cannot stand to try ANOTHER medication. I am not going to run through every single antidepressant and mood stabilizer there is.
So I’ll probably just like snort ketamine to try to self-medicate and if that doesn’t work I’ll have no choice but to get the ECT since I don’t want to play the med game… If this doctor denies me, which would suck and is not very likely since he already told me if I failed this med ECT would be the best option, I would just go to another program in my area that does electroconvulsive therapy. Like, I don’t really want to get the ECT because it scares me and it is not exactly ideal, but I feel like it is one of my very few limited options.
It’s not an ideal situation. But I am actually extremely frustrated that it has taken this long for me to have even gotten an appointment. It will probably be at least another 2-3 months before I even start treatments, assuming that’s what my doctors decide is best.
I’m so sorry to hear they’re making you jump through so many hoops. When I started the treatments I just needed a recommendation from from pdoc and he was the one who recommended it to begin with. ECT actually makes you more sensitive to the meds. The APs didn’t work for me before and now they are my only treatment.
Please be patient. The treatments make a night and day difference. You’ll get your stability back. Good luck!
I had half a decade of horrible functioning with “let’s try this med, then” and then half a decade of slow improvement once I started stabilizing despite struggling with imperfect meds.
Part of the problem is meds, but the larger problem for me was unhealthy habits I developed while chronically ill that continued to keep me ill once the meds got me to the point where recovery could start. I’ve found that replacing these bad habits with good ones is where most of the effort in my recovery has gone to, and I’m STILL fighting with this. Probably will until I die.
Meds can give you a foundation for recovery, but it’s up to you to build the home that sits on your newly supplied foundation. Helluva lot of work.
My son had SZ symptoms psychosis 3 months ago. That’s scared me a lot. His symptoms were induced by weeds/spice smoking. He stayed in hospital for 8 days. Medical bills are still coming now. The prescription is 3mg Risperdal daily.
He came home and the positive and negative symptoms are still existed. The medicine help him a lot but not 100% recovery.
I started to give him Sarcosine 2mg and after 24 hours he told me that he walked out terrible feeling eventually. His Risperdal
been tapper off to 0.25mg by pdoc now and expecting off in 10 days.
The supplements he took everyday as follow but it may not work for everyone.
Sarcosine 2 mg-------CNS
Berberine 500mg x 3--------PNS
NAC 500mg x 3
B vitamin families------Gray/White Matter
Magnesium 500mg
D3
Fish Oil
Niacin 500mg
***** You must avoid all supplements which can increase/stimulate Dopamine*****
@jack168 I’d like to direct you over to our Family forum, found at:
While this forum is for people with schizophrenia and other closely related psychotic disorders, the Family forum is specifically for people like yourself, who have a loved one they are concerned about.
It makes me feel better to read your stories.
My struggle has been very tough.
Some days i think i cant handle it.
Ive tried lots of meds too… my positive symptoms are mostly gone but i feel tremendous sadness about being where i am.
I can relate to a lot of what you’re saying. If I can add one thing to what has been said is this: SZ does not define who you are, you simply are. You may feel different because of sz but the truth is you exist. You need to take care of you and do the things that you like to do regardless of sz. It is not easy, as someone said. Sometimes, I’d rather go lay down and sleep it off, but that is not the answer.
When a relapse threatens me, I try to think of the years that went by before that where sz was not an issue and where things were going well for me. My life was fulfilling and just because sz is there doesn’t mean my life is over.
I agree with you totally. It irks me to see people on this site talk about there being “normies” and than us. We have an illness but it is not who we are. We are so much more than just this illness. Good point.
Weed gave my son Psychosis when he did it.
He threw in Alcohol too for good measure.
And had a trip to jail to top it off.
Well that scared him straight or something.
He Had to go to AA to get probation or something.
Happy ending. He finally learned to drive. We never let him drive because of drinking.
Then he went to HVAC school. There is one in our town. Its very competitive, don’t believe those
stupid commercials, they just tech you the basics then you’re on your own, good luck.
And he got an apprenticship because they hire many helpers over the summer and then fire them.
BUT they told him they will send him to a 2 year internal school to be a journeyman!
OK that’s just my proud mom story of the day.
You can get psychosis from weed, but then it can go away if you stop!
And I have not been able to get back to that place of stability since…
