#anitpsychotics

[schizopositivity]

Friendly reminder that antipsychotics don't cure schizophrenia. They don't even treat schizophrenia fully. They only treat the psychotic symptoms aka the positive symptoms. (And lots of people on antipsychotics don't have all their psychotic symptoms disappear, sometimes it only helps a little bit). Meanwhile our negative and cognitive symptoms cannot be treated fully (or at all depending on the person) with medication, and they greatly affect our lives and tend to get more severe as we age. So please don't assume that a schizophrenic person on antipsychotics is basically not mentally ill anymore cause there's a shit ton more we have to deal with on a daily basis, even if our psychosis is treated and no longer affecting us.

[compassionatereminders]

Yep yep!! Namely I'm on an anitpsychotic and a mood stabilizer and I still qualify even with those :)!! Sometimes you can earn money from certain kinds of donations as well but idk how those work

Then I might be able to donate blood too! How exciting! I'll definitely have to some research.

[labnedthealchemist]

An account of my delusions.

Trigger Warnings: Delusional Thinking, Unreality, Cotard, Su*c*de Attempt, Self Harm

I’ll be 24 this year. It was only a few months ago that I was diagnosed with Schizophrenia. The diagnosis itself was frightening to me. Previously I had been diagnosed with Bipolar II with Psychotic Features, and before that Generalized Anxiety and Acute Depression. With such as succession of diagnoses and my 2 consecutive April’s that contained brief Institutional Stays; I felt in many ways my life was toppling and this was the final diagnosis that would set forth the precedent of my future. Everyday that has passed since I’ve gotten my diagnosis the thought “I have schizophrenia.” has passed through my mind. My thoughts were either stagnant or blindingly fast and I had a hard time processing any information I’ve come in contact with. Even writing this right now is glaringly difficult. My memory is absolutely destroyed, I forget information almost as soon as it’s been given to me. My medication dosage has only changed slightly since I started my combo of Anitpsychotics and Antidepressants 2 years ago and I truly feel that though some of my symptoms are managed I’m could be in a much better place on new meds. But recently I’ve found a glimmer of hope. I’m not sure where it necessarily came from or what my motivation is. Maybe it’s me embracing my Transness. Maybe my love for my true family and their unconditional support in return is finally having a noticeable effect on me; I’m not sure. I do feel I’m really coming to terms with this diagnosis (Schizoaffective is also a possibility but the differentiation is so iffy). As I’m going to therapy I’m learning so many things that make a lot of sense now. I’m not necessarily saying I’ve had schizophrenia since I was a teenager but the symptoms were present that, to me, now knowing more about Schizophrenia, make sense and I’m not so surprised that I am Schizophrenic. I just hadn’t realized that I had been grappling with certain aspects of it since I was a teenager. Occasional Hallucinations, a voice that didn’t seem like it was my own telling me how bad of a person I am periodically, a faulty memory for seemingly mundane things, but the main one that most prominently lead me to where I am today was what I would consider to be one of my longest held beliefs. When I was 14 I felt so so low. I had no self esteem (still don’t but we’re working on it). I had and still don’t have much of any concept of myself. I wasn’t sociable and interaction with new people made my heart race and my head spin. Nothing made sense and I was miserable. One day I wrote a note and tried to kill myself. I felt myself go as I started to fade from consciousness. But I failed. Right as I felt I would have been gone I was dropped back into consciousness. I felt different after that. I felt wrong. I had always felt like I didn’t belong, but now I felt inhuman. I coped poorly, my hygiene (though better then than now) dwindled as I stopped caring about myself entirely. I looked at myself in the mirror and didn’t recognize what looked back. I felt like a stranger for so long. I didn’t feel much, so I self harmed to feel anything. I attempted a couple more times after this event but none of them felt the same. Those times felt like an attempt to right what was wronged by the event. Then one day, years and years after the event I caught myself in the mirror realized what was looking back. Death. A corpse. Standing vertically, but nothing in its eyes. It wasn’t me. And yet it is me? It was the only answer. I could hurt myself and still not feel much. I was never happy because what does a corpse have to be happy about. It’s not how I see me yet I knew the thing in front of me was the body I was inhabiting. I felt stuck to it. Everything felt pointless at times and every little thing mattered at others. And then after a while everything really just felt pointless. My hygiene dwindled even further (working on it!). Around this time the voices gained traction and were becoming more frequent.

And then one day I heard IT. IT comes from the back of the inside of my head. IT’s voice is deep and sinister and so so scary. IT explained that that day that I faded nearly to black that it came and crawled into my body and brought me back. IT confirmed that I am a corpse and that My consciousness is only partially left over from who I was before the event. IT was with me now. IT was a part of me. For a while I thought that IT WAS ME, but we’re not the same. IT wants out and IT drives me to hurt myself. I don’t hear IT often luckily. I still look in the mirror and see a corpse, but even though a part of me knows I can’t possibly be dead, I still just absolutely know I’m not alive. That I’m a walking inhabited corpse for whatever reason plagued to walk this earth. But lately I’ve tried changing things. This is my corpse I’m going to make it look nicer. It has been treated poorly by it’s owner and family and deserves some love. I may still struggle greatly with my delusion. It’s not my only one but like I said I can trace the feeling of lack of self and feeling abjectly different from everyone else has been with me since the event. And that explanation it the one that my mind accepts.

I know I’m not dead. I know I’m loved. I know I’m Schizophrenic. And I believe I’m going to be ok.

Sorry I know that was very rambling, I did my best.

[psychotic-spectrum]

I was just diagnosed with schizophrenia but the anitpsychotics they have put me on aren't working. Could they have the wrong diagnosis?

Not necessarily. When you’re first prescribed psychiatric medication, there’s a lot of trial and error, and you may have to try a lot of different medications before you find the right one. I myself been on risperidone, quetiapine, haldol, olanzapine, aripiprazole and I finally settled on risperidone and aripiprazole. You should talk to your doctor about this so they can make the necessary med adjustment.

There is, however, a possibility of a misdiagnosis, I was diagnosed with BPD, bipolar and schizophrenia before reaching to the agreement of schizoaffective, so of you’re not sure, go get a second opinion.

My two cents.

[a-rtery]

How long after you come off your meds do you start to feel effects... I kinda just came off them myself...

[kenda1inaa]

I just wanna feel stable.

[schizopositivity]

Here is a nice easy to read article about the differences in effect and side effects of typical antipsychotics vs atypical antipsychotics: