Yes forcing is only way to cope with negative symptoms. Habits keep the rhythm going. We either create good habits or bad ones so force ourselves to follow good habits to beat bad ones.
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I am yet to find something to reduce the flat affect. This flat affect just getting worse and worse as each day passes. Its not due to any AP or any other medication.
Hi, Iâm new here and I came here for help on this very topic. Just delete this if it doesnât belong here. Do people that donât have Schizophrenia/Schizoaffective also get negative symptoms from antipsychotics?
My diagnosis is bipolar 1. Yes I have had a more severe spell of psychosis from a drug interaction back in 2008 but since then I would classify it as âabnormal thought contentâ my psychiatrist calls it delusions of reference, paranoid/persecutory delusions, delusions of grandeur, thought insertion, thought withdrawal, derailed speech, in combination with other thought issues (I think ADHD) and poor nonverbal communication that comes and goes (looks like intermittent autism).
Long story short I am on lithium and lamictal and I hate antipsychotics. Just like most of you here if I donât need to be on one Iâd rather not be. My psychiatrist and I have this argument going on, he is trying to change my dx to Schizoaffective. I think it is because he is dying to get me on Rexulti and is in bed with Otsuka. He claims I was in the beginning stages of psychosis at a session last November, asked me if I was high on meth (I wasnât) and put me on Abilify for 10 weeks. It was 10mg then I complained and down to 5mg and I still suffered from Anhedonia and other negs (I still showered, etc but took short cuts). He claims that this reaction is unique to people with a more severe dopamine imbalance, i.e. people with Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective.
Do you think he is onto something or is he trying to just get me on an AP for a kickback? I could see if I was in my 20âs and if he was trying to pre-emptively or trying to diagnose someone before a major psychotic break but I am 44, been holding down a really good professional job for about 22 years and I have never even been hospitalized (Iâm naturally a loner so no one would really know if I am unwell except my wife and she is mentally ill but more chronically as in conspiracy theorist type).
The stuff he calls psychosis may or may not be psychosis. Yeah it was some weird thinking but no one was around to challenge my thinking so I am not sure how strong my convictions were at the time (someone has to show you proof youâre wrong and you still believe it, right?). It lasted 3-4 months, I was manic/hypomanic and all but the very last week was pleasant (I was a therapist, a prophet, I befriended a tree that became an antenna to god). The last week sucked but Iâd rather deal with one week of hell every 10-12 years than take something that is going to cause negs.
I think I might have said too much to him and was too honest. The last week started with severe paranoid/persecutory delusions where I thought I did a bunch of drugs at work and was high and everyone was looking at me funny, then the police were following me and I had a body in the back of my car. Then I felt guilty for several days and thought I was the anti-christ. I tried to tell him it wasnât a deity thing, it was a guilt/shame thing where christ was everything good and perfect and I was the opposite/inverse. I had no intentions of destroying the world. If I had to say it over again I would say âinverse-christâ I guess.
Should I find another psychiatrist?
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These thoughts are highly associated with schizophrenia.
Great but thank you for your response. So he might be onto something. Still messed up logic. Because you have a bad reaction to these meds it means you need them more than other people. That is almost like saying that the kid who gets anaphylaxis from eating peanuts needs to eat more peanuts.
This is the first psychiatrist I have seen that sees Schizoaffective as a separate diagnosis the other 2 since my dx said it was just a type of bipolar. My trust with my current is still shaky right now. I have an appointment on Wednesday, we will see where it goes.
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Vraylar can treat negative symptoms.
Would you take Vraylar in place of or in addition to another antipsychotic? I have heard that it works well against negative symptoms. I have also heard that it doesnât always work for positive/psychosis symptoms. My psychiatrist and I have discussed it before. He said he doesnât hate it, gets very few complaints about side effects but it only works about 1/2 the time. This is for bipolar.
My daughter is on it for bipolar and she loves it. She said she got tremors (sounded like akathisia) on the lowest dose, 1.5mg every day and was told to cut back to every other day. I am susceptible to akathisia, to me it is the worst side effect.
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I am not taking any medication. I have only negative and cognitive symptoms and not taking any medication for that.
I canât blame all of my negative symptoms completely on the Risperdal.
4 years ago I was on a very low dose of my meds and I still experienced low motivation and anhedonia.
I had a difficult time with my hygiene.
Vraylar alone once its out here. I hope it works for my schizophrenia, I donât have bipolar.
Did you have positive symptoms on a low dose? I found out that positive symptoms worsen negative symptoms. Without meds I isolated myself from fearing ppl and not from negative symptoms.
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No what happened was my doctor switched me over to Vraylar and it didnât work on me.
She switched me back to Risperdal but at this point I was too psychotic to take my meds the right way.
I ended up being hospitalized involuntarily
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Man I hope Vraylar works for me, otherwise I will live all my life in bed 
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It could work for you, I just found it to be extremely activating.
I felt very wired and anxious on it so I remained on the lowest dose of 1.5 mg.
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Stratterra, wellbutrin, tyrosine, omega 3 all can give that kind of activating feeling. The problem is it can raise anxiety and when anxiety gets too high it can appear like paranoia. If able to ignore the anxiety then it will be very useful to control negative symptoms.
Perhaps it is the access to over the counter drugs such as caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol and therefore possibly the use of those mind altering substances when taking along with medication(s). Maybe even acetometaphine, ephederine, and huge amounts of Vitamin B12, decrease in Vitamin C, reduce in citric acid, lack of Vitamin D, overdose of glucose and sodium, things like that
How exactly do you know that the meds is making your have negative symptoms, like reading a book? Or how do I know itâs my schizophrenia that it making me have negative symptoms?
Before my diagnosis I had sz symptoms and I had no negative symptoms. On Abilify I had no negative symptoms. Since switching to Risperdal I am in bed all day everyday and canât read a book, same with Zyprexa and Latuda.
After my sz diagnosis without meds my positive symptoms create negative symptoms, I stay in bed and isolate myself from fear and paranoia of ppl.