What was better off meds? How long did you hold a job without meds? Without meds I isolated myself from everyone and wasn’t able to go to university, hangout with friends or working.
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Even from my family.
lol so many questions. on the lower dose, i just feel a bit less zombie like and can concentrate better (though not sure if my concentration has fully come back atm). i think very soon i will be able to work. i notice theres gradual improvements every month. yes i am searching for a full time job atm.
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Hopefully you will be able to work. I quit 10 different jobs, max I lasted post sz was 1 month on my own and 9 months in my mother’s accounting office (much less stressful). Before sz I held jobs for over 3 years and I quit them for school then for university.
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I found university much easier than working lol
everything got a bit better really, except that year i was extremely paranoid!!
those few months that i was off meds in 2018, i did volunteering
Because I was too smart in school even after sz. But negative symptoms are preventing me from using that in real life and not on paper.
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My psychiatrist said I am wasting my intelligence but he can’t help me 
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thankyou Aziz, i think it will be fine. just concerned about my anxiety getting in the way but i will try my best.
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Do you take antianxiety meds?
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i dont do anti anxiety meds i look at them like sweeties/candy. it doesn’t help. imo, for me, personally.
i am working on my anxiety though, been referred to long term counselling i hope it helps
hope, that word gets on my nerves
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I was on an extremely low dose of risperidone at one point years ago and I still had negative symptoms.
It comes from brain damage.
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One reason that I am able to study in university and not work is that in university I can skip lots of classes, study notes at home and still do good in exams. At work I can’t skip days. Also I find work much more stressful than studying in university.
Deep inside me I know its permanent brain damage but its hard to accept bcz its shocking and permanent 
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I’m not on an ap, my blood work is totally fine but I have negative symptoms. My pdoc thinks I also have some sort of sleep disorder which may add to fatigue etc
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I had awful anxiety. Couldn’t be in a store alone, etc. Always needed my husband qith me. Tried Lion’s mane and it took away anxiety I’ve had for years
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Negative symptoms can be primary or secondary, aka med-induced. It’s a well established fact.
Primary negative symptoms can only be addressed via therapy, meds don’t counter them.
Some say sarcosine or NAC or tDCS have helped with negatives. I have not had such luck. But my negatives did improve after a few years. So it can happen.
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I’m unmedicated and I have pretty significant negatives
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IMO its not just a side effect of the medication. It is part of the illness.
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Knowing nothing about this illness meant I was completely unaware what was happening, so I had that few years where I learned to push forward with life in terms of work etc not really knowing the reasons why things were so hard.
No one actually sat me down and explained anything to me, because I never gave them a chance.
The second I saw an opportunity to get rid of community services I did just that, and it was just a few weeks after being released from hospital post-diagnosis.
Did ok for two years, but I blamed what I now know as negative symptoms, plus weight gain, on Olanzapine. So I quit meds and relapsed.
Ever since I have been under some sort of supervision by the mental health team.
I get the impression that the mental health services where I live are only interested in treating people when they become disruptive. As someone alluded to what happens in Flew over the Cuckoo’s nest and getting a lobotomy - which I have asked for many times.
You can if you went self-employed
There are a multitude of different things you can do for work. Just have to try some of them out.
I find my new job my motivation issues are no where near as bad as they were in the office job. It’s a stark difference between then and now.
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