My psychologist tells me I am currently in the stages of acceptance and while going through this stage I find it hard to have hope with paranoid schizophrenia. I’ve been told I will never be who I used to be. That my life is forever changed. That there is no cure and this will be an uphill battle for the rest of my life. That my hallucinations can be managed but never cured. The truth hurts and it leaves me with not too much to hope for. I dream of having a family and a good career, but now both of those seem out of reach. I would like to hear of some things others with schizophrenia have accomplished. Then maybe I could have some hope for the future.
@ParanoidAndroid look at @mortimermouse 's topics etc, he had schizophrenia and is 90percent recovered. Going to college getting straight A’s. I went from being a delusional person speaking complete gibberish, visually hallucinating like crazy, hearing voices literally out of my mind. Now I have literally no delusions, (except the one about being possessed and going to hell I only think when I have extremely high anxiety). My auditory hallucinations have improved, and my visual have completely disappeared except seeing little dots of color every now and then. I got my GED and start college in August. Looking to buy my first car, and have my social life I lost when the illness first began. Don’t let anyone tell you what will happen, nobody knows what the future holds.
I was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in1980. I was in several hospitals and a group home from1980-1983. I got out and started working in 1983. I’ve worked almost steadily since then albeit, mostly part time. I also started college in 1984 and now I need 5 more classes to get my AA degree. BUT, no one can tell I have schizophrenia. I’ve had friends over the years, I’ve flown across the country a few times in my illness (in a plane!! lol) I was best man in my dads wedding in Las Vegas. in 1992. I haven’t had much luck with women, I hate to say. I have dated a little, I had a few one night stands, one steady girlfriend for awhile. Fooled around with a few others. That’s it. But I have lived in dependently since 1995. I have lived alone in a nice apartment for the past 5 years. I own and drive a car. I handle my own money and all my own business, appointments,errands, phone calls… Today I got out of the house and visited my parents who live two hours away. I went with my sisters.
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You guys are amazing,I achieve little,although I am still young but I am learning things from work and been socializing a little now,although sometimes I still feel
Distant from people but at least I am
Moving one step forward each time
I work for 12 hrs a day,and it’s been 8 years although my work is fine but in actual fact I still need to meet more people to gain experience from people
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I’m 29 and it’s taken many years true, but life is finally getting on track for me. I have a job as a gardener. I love it, it’s flex time, low stress and never boring. I am starting school again. My sister and I split rent on a place of our own while she starts college too. It’s taken a while, but a friend of mine has become a girl friend. I still have hallucinations and other problems.
In fact something is happening with me that I just can’t put my finger on but I don’t feel 100%. But I’m not going to stress. That just makes it worse.
But yes, it may take time, and you have to find a different path to your goal, but you can reach your goal. The hardest part I think it patience. Having the patience with ourselves to heal and catch up is a very hard thing to do.
Good luck.
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ah, hope…I believe hope is vital to living…without hope, you have nothing…I find hope in doing things I like to do, like painting art and playing instruments…I also love to cook…if you have little hope…try to motivate yourself by just taking walks, looking at nature…talking with people helps…I wrote a book and my royalties give me hope that one day the book will sell much more…it has been selling more and more each year finally…(it’s been nine years since it was self published). It is about my experience of being ill…or to better explain…it is what I went through while ill…(OUT OF IT - an autobiography on the experience of schizophrenia…available on amazon.com) anyways…good luck finding hope…hope is where you find it…it could be just watching your favorite movie, anything…as long as it makes you feel better…it is hope…
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Hope is where you left it.
Think of your doc’s words as a worst case scenario, rather than a blueprint of your actual future.
Do your best to prove him wrong.
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**Love this…I think everyone in this life has to deal with dashed hopes and dreams at some point. **
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You never know what you’re capable of until you try. I wish you well on your journey and hope you are able to succeed.
You will learn to ignore the symptoms eventually. Do not talk to yourself aloud or follow orders from the voices.
You may find your symptoms to be situational, aggravated by a person or group. Sometimes these people will try to scare a new ‘friend’ to use for abuse or illegal acts, you should not talk to any of these kind of situations again. Do not return phone calls, emails or texts or answer the door to them. If stalking begins, you must tell them you want no contact. Some of the nutty folks just want the rise from the stalk…learn your local stalking laws but restraining orders are usually worthless. Move and you will probably see the social problems below. I would not hang around these kind, if you suspect you have PTSD and pdoc tells you it is ‘false memories’…PTSD happens for a reason and you will be harmed if you stay…There are stories on this board about this and girl was sex assaulted, pdoc told cops she was mental for returning to group so charges were not allowed…md showed it was likely she was assaulted. It was possibly given a drug to pass her out then attacked but no evidence exists…I met a similar group of abusers bragging about this kind of crap so it can happen and cops don’t give a damn as the group has good attorneys and enough experience to play the cops bad enough to go after victims.
If you ignore the crazy stuff from strangers, do not talk aloud to the voices or follow orders and you cut ties with your problem people, sometimes the voices stop in 2-3 years…but there is no guarantee.
Social problems will start for you. This is a ‘nut radar’. A lot of closet schizos will follow orders from the voices like it is God to verbally harass specific strangers about something private called Gang/cause stalking. This form of coping leads to vandalism, trespassing, using work to ruin customers/coworkers and dating with intent to harm someone/battery…Your symptoms will never stop if you do this crap but even some church people will do this and their pastors suggest acting in this manner. You will meet a lot of screwed up people, it is nothing about you that causes this but know the mental care policy is to deny existence of this behavior or offer any coping advice. If you act in a confrontational, even frustrated manner, with your mental care provider you will be forced into mental hospital stays at your own expense for an ‘attitude adjustment’…If you complain about this kind of behavior to your mental care staff too much, sometimes the gang stalking will get worse enough to cause loss of your employment or relationship. Do not complain to your care staff…Actually, some mental care staff or doctors act like this so do not be surprised…if you don’t like your care, you can only switch doctors quietly. Churches and social groups are not immune and can actually be quite damaging if a member of the bunch is sleazy…Go anonymously unless you have an invitation from a trusted friend…no last name (or use Smith) and email address that is not searchable like a username on a forum such as ParanoidAndroid. Do not discuss where you work EVER!..This is especially important if you are female…You don’t want any of the problems ‘working’ these groups as unwilling mistresses get stalked and tortured sometimes…
Well, if you think someone is trespassing at your house, no lock changes will EVER make this stop. You can move if you want but it still happens as different nuts take this up in new cities…keep RX glasses on you when you leave the place. No security system or camera will ever function for more than a few days to catch them…Friend was sexually harassed by a boss about her dating history from another state he had no way to know. Ladies at the office confirmed this was the office sleaze man and all females always transferred offices after this crap…then someone was letting 4 cats out of her apartment while she was at work. She moved to gated apartment with security system and reset pin. It still happened. She had to move in her boyfriend who she later married…things got better but she still had some crazy strangers bothering her. Other friends had similar stories and shacked up with ‘some guy’ who agreed on cause of the problem and did not call them mental…Things got better for them but sometimes the trespassing continued. It is best to only own the basics as it is tactic of some abusers to break all belongings multiple times to cause a ton of debt plus usually causing problems with your employment due to a crazy coworker problem…Keep the money in the bank so you don’t get hit so hard…You CANNOT make any police reports on this stuff unless you met a group like mine and you just tell the small town cops ‘this shouldn’t be here’ and explain their sex abuse history. City cops will get you a psych evaluation IN THE MENTAL HOSPITAL at your own expense FOR MONTHS SOMETIMES FOR A NORMAL ACTING PERSON for any nuisance complainers who cannot get photo evidence of the trespassers…Neighbors with cameras can be helpful but they usually don’t want to get involved and tortured too…This is just how things really run…Politicians will even admit they know about these complaints but cannot do anything about it as everything is owned by the rich and all the other stuff is just to serve their needs - stores, restaurants, drugs, prostitutes, all businesses…and politicians.
Learn the rules about employment which differ for social security disability or supplemental income (SSI) welfare…You can work part-time if you wish. I find it healthier and less stress financially if I do work. Some states will offer you medicaid if you work some for a reasonable monthly premium price which can really help with medication expense. However, if you earn over $700 a month on SSDI, you eventually get charged a huge amount for medicare insurance premiums so be warned…
I recommend you read magazine articles, watch short TV comedy and play video games to improve concentration so you get used to ignoring the voices…you might like painting, drawing or even sewing/knitting hobbies as it helps concentration and will calm you down. You may need sleep help if you have insomnia…It is very hard to function and remain calm/concentrate/deal if you don’t sleep enough. Seroquel 50-300mg taken at bedtime can be a really big help with sleep or ask for trazadone or ambien…Ambien is habit forming but seroquel will help with withdrawal if you need it. Psych drugs cause weight gain, especially if you like white carbs, potato products or sugary stuff…expect to change some food choices and exercise enough so you don’t go diabetic. Lastly, some pdoctors are still prescribing risperdal consta shots without telling their male patients it will cause impotence and lactating, bigger breasts (plus exploding farts/irritable bowel symptoms)…the ED is temporary but I hear orgasms are never as strong once off the drug. Females just have menstrual stoppage and frigidity but I wasn’t told this by pdoctor either…Gotta love that after exploding rubber incident…
I hope this helps…I’ve heard it for 10 years now (to the date) without relief from the voices. A friend’s family sex abuse issue caused me PTSD. I think this happened to all the woman’s friends…her only reason for being was keeping the family problem busy with someone else IMHO. She is a predator. Pdoctors refused to help when I showing with anxiety and insomnia, escalating things worse. I suffered a major depressive episode due to the horrible care and then psychosis started …I had worked 14 years easily and supported myself…I’ve worked 10 PT jobs since but all were desperation situations so I didn’t stay more than 9 months…I’ve lived on my own the whole time except for the last 2 months due to $$ problems, worked, socialized, FWB and went to college…I can confirm there are a lot of screwed up people and scams but otherwise, I guess I’m still okay. Amuse yourself, use Facebook to find the old group as sometimes new people who introduce themselves are crazy (especially relationships)…spend time with the good people. If you see gang stalking (called thought broadcasting too) from old friends, this person will probably screw you up in some way so avoid them without another word except a polite hello while out in public.