Schizophrenia - General Discussion

So, you’re still hearing them today, too? Honestly—and I say this with zero judgment, just pure pragmatism—maybe it’s time to talk to your doctor about bumping up that antipsychotic dosage. It might actually help quiet things down. My best advice? Get yourself an appointment with your physician as soon as possible. Just get it handled.

Larry Lewis said:So, you’re still hearing them today, too? Honestly—and I say this with zero judgment, just pure pragmatism—maybe it’s time to talk to your doctor about bumping up that antipsychotic dosage. It might actually help quiet things down. My best advice? Get yourself an appointment with your physician as soon as possible. Just get it handled.

I'm going to do it right after my new 😍

Oh, please... I’ll probably be looking for someone new myself down the line—and honestly? I could use a good long talk with her, maybe even a little course correction in my own therapy sessions, because let’s face it—I’m far from being in peak mental shape either.

I honestly don’t know how you do it, vividnomad2—I really don't. Personally, I am prepared to interrogate my own soul until I hit a wall of pure madness if that’s what it takes. I have to understand the inner workings of my own mind... because right now, I feel like I’m stuck in a coma, just white-knuckling my way through the days. And let me tell you, that isn't going to cut it. I don't want to just exist; I actually want to *live*.

Anyway, it’s getting late and I’ve been spiraling into my own little delusions—mostly just "peace and love, not war" type of nonsense, you know?🙂

It’s funny—really funny, in a dark sort of way—how it takes a serious bout of illness to finally strip away the noise and show you what actually matters. You start seeing the real stuff—love, genuine empathy, basic human kindness—stuff we usually ignore when we're busy chasing nothing. I’ll admit, there are days when I look at people who live entirely within the bubble of their own egos—blissfully unaware and completely self-absorbed—and I feel a twinge of envy. It must be easy, right? But then again... I don't regret my own path. Not really. Even the hard parts, they leave their mark on you—they shape you, carve out the person you eventually become. So, if you're currently going through the wringer, if you're fighting your own battle right now: don't let them break you. Don't give in. You only get one shot at this life, and despite all the nonsense and misery in this world, I refuse to believe that life isn't fundamentally beautiful.

Larry Lewis said:It’s funny—really funny, in a dark sort of way—how it takes a serious bout of illness to finally strip away the noise and show you what actually matters. You start seeing the real stuff—love, genuine empathy, basic human kindness—stuff we usually ignore when we're busy chasing nothing. I’ll admit, there are days when I look at people who live entirely within the bubble of their own egos—blissfully unaware and completely self-absorbed—and I feel a twinge of envy. It must be easy, right? But then again... I don't regret my own path. Not really. Even the hard parts, they leave their mark on you—they shape you, carve out the person you eventually become. So, if you're currently going through the wringer, if you're fighting your own battle right now: don't let them break you. Don't give in. You only get one shot at this life, and despite all the nonsense and misery in this world, I refuse to believe that life isn't fundamentally beautiful.

Life really is beautiful, though I'm still sitting here feeling pretty sick myself, if I even am.😂

It’s honestly exhausting—having to perform this daily audit of my own physical failures—measuring exactly how much I’ve declined versus how much I can still manage. People who aren't dealing with chronic issues don't even have to think about it; they just exist, blissfully unaware of the mechanics of their own bodies. Sometimes I find myself spiraling into this thought—this strange, heavy idea—that if I could just somehow wipe the slate clean and forget every medical setback I've endured, I might actually feel healthy again, rather than stuck in this constant state of being "unwell." Instead, every single morning, before I've even had my first cup of coffee, the very first thing that hits me is the crushing realization of just how sick I really am.😢

Has anyone here actually done LSD? I’ve got this nagging feeling that tripping on acid and dealing with schizophrenia feel pretty much identical... because once you start desperately praying to God to just let you go, you know for a fact that things have gone completely off the rails.

You absolutely have to stay by his side!!! Seriously, people like him need someone they can actually count on. Someone dealing with schizophrenia shouldn't be left out there on their own for a single second.

Matthew Fisher11 said:Has anyone here actually done LSD? I’ve got this nagging feeling that tripping on acid and dealing with schizophrenia feel pretty much identical... because once you start desperately praying to God to just let you go, you know for a fact that things have gone completely off the rails.

Look, I've rolled with LSD a few times myself and I’ve never had a bad experience. Sure, there were moments where the trip started taking me on a weird detour, but that's a whole different beast entirely...

The way I see it, a trip just magnifies whatever is already swirling around in your head by a thousand percent... if you’ve already got a genetic predisposition for mental health issues, then yeah, you're probably gonna have a rough time. Honestly, I know plenty of people who ended up diagnosed with schizophrenia after using it, but looking back, the drugs were just the trigger for stuff that was already simmering under the surface anyway... if you aren't prone to that, then fear shouldn't even be a factor...

And that part about praying to God to let you out? I think the big thing is that most people absolutely freak out because they think they’re stuck in that state forever, and that panic is what keeps them trapped there. For me, I always just told myself I had to ride the wave and let it happen, and once I did that, my brain would just pivot to a different headspace and I never spiraled into a bad trip...

so seriously, tell me about your trips... I'm genuinely curious to hear how it went for you guys... assuming you haven't completely lost it, obviously...🙂

Amy Hughes said:My brother was hospitalized about three years ago after being diagnosed with acute schizophrenia.
He ended up staying in the hospital for roughly three months.
Before all that went down, he had this week or two where he was just wildly manic—always partying, totally wired, just overflowing with energy. But in those last few days right before he got admitted, things took a dark turn. He started saying the weirdest stuff, claiming people were following him, telling us he knew exactly what we were thinking, that he could read our minds. He started seeing these "dark figures" too, insisting we had to burn everything black in the house—clothes, trinkets, everything. His eyes... man, his look was so terrifying I was actually scared to even meet his gaze.
The day before they finally checked him in, he just vanished. He left his phone and his cash behind, hopped in his car, and drove it straight into a creek because he genuinely believed he could fly over it.
When the police showed up, he wouldn't say a word. They took him to the hospital, but nobody told us where he was for a day and a half. We were losing our minds calling every hospital in the state, the cops, neighbors, friends... you name it.

To make a long story short, he kept taking his meds for about three months after getting out, but then he decided he didn't need them anymore. Since then, he’s been fine for three years.
He got a job, fixed up his car, keeps the house tidy... things seemed back to normal.
But a couple of days ago, the behavior started shifting again. He had some drama with his girlfriend—they haven't been together long—and yesterday, he disappeared again. He wrecked his car, and we had no clue where he was until just now.
The police called and said he's wandering around somewhere, completely disoriented and lost. On top of that, he wandered into someone else's house, which led to a reported break-in.
My parents have headed down to the police station to go get him.
What are we supposed to do at this point? Please, if anyone has advice, I'm all ears...

Do you know if he was using anything when this "madness" first started? It's entirely possible he tripped on some LSD and just got stuck in that headspace... back when I used to party, I read quite a bit about LSD, and I learned there are cases where people stay trapped in that reality forever. Look, I've done LSD myself, and believe me, if you're with a good crowd and it's all just jokes and laughs, it feels great. But once I got home and hit the bed, I was alone, and I was literally talking to myself, begging, "It's just the drugs, this will pass." I completely lost my sense of time and space. I remember stumbling into the kitchen and asking three random people for help so I could sleep, only to wake up at 11 AM. My stomach was a wreck, too—I couldn't even stomach a piece of toast. Honestly, the sheer horror a person can experience is indescribable. I spent twenty minutes walking thirty feet and actually thought I was an airplane. Thank God nobody ran into me, because god knows what would have happened... seriously, I'm just lucky it let go of me. Ugh.

I don't know what to tell you—some things just aren't worth the effort, and frankly, I'm tired of pretending they are. It feels like we’re all just spinning our wheels in this endless cycle of nonsense, chasing after these supposed "solutions" that never actually materialize. You see it everywhere if you bother to look—people acting like every little setback is the end of the world, or conversely, acting like everything is perfectly fine when the whole system is clearly fraying at the edges. Personally? I've seen enough to know that most of it is just noise. Just empty chatter designed to keep us distracted while the real issues get swept under the rug. It's exhausting, really. kaže:
Look, I’ve rolled with LSD a few times now, and honestly? I’ve never had a bad trip. Sure, there were those specific moments where the ride started getting a little too intense—times when the trip felt like it was taking me somewhere I didn't exactly sign up for—but that’s a completely different conversation altogether.

Honestly, I think you’re just playing out a thousand different scenarios in your head right now—it's like a mental loop that won't quit. Look, if you've already got the genetic predisposition for this kind of stuff, then yeah, it’s eventually going to hit you. It’s just biology. I personally know plenty of people who ended up spiraling into schizophrenia, and when they finally sat down with a specialist, it turned out there was always some underlying trigger waiting to happen because the symptoms were already simmering under the surface. If the foundation is shaky, the house is going to fall eventually. So, my advice? Don't let the fear eat you alive. Just don't let it get to you.

Look, when you finally pray for things to just let go—and I mean really let go—you realize why most people stay stuck. It’s because they’re paralyzed by this idea that things will always be exactly this way, so they just settle into the rut and call it life. They freeze up. But I’ve always had this gut feeling that eventually, everything has to give way. Once I finally embraced that—once I stopped fighting the inevitable shift—my whole perspective flipped. My brain started processing things from a completely different angle, and honestly? It’s kept me from ever spiraling into a total bad trip.

Alright, spill it—I want to hear all about your recent trips. Seriously, give me the full rundown. I’m dying to know what you guys actually experienced out there... assuming anyone's actually willing to share, of course.🙂

Look, I’m just telling you how it went for me... I’ve gone for it a few times now, but only once did it absolutely wreck me—and honestly, that’s because I overdid it. I took way too much at once, and let's just say it was a massive wake-up call. Ever since that disaster, I haven't even considered taking more than a third of what I did that night. But hey, when you're just out there messing around and having a laugh, the rush is pretty incredible.

Look, I’ve personally taken no more than two-thirds of the dose—multiple times, actually—and honestly? It felt incredible every single time. I never once felt like I was being played or misled by the high, but somehow... despite all that, I still ended up losing my absolute mind.

It’s been exactly one year since I received my schizophrenia diagnosis. For a while there, things actually felt like they were looking up—I was able to scale back on some of my medications and felt much more stable—but over the last couple of months, my mood has taken a real dive. Some days are okay, but most of the time, everything just feels heavy. I find myself spiraling into these dark thoughts about why I was even born, and honestly, the idea of suicide is starting to feel like a looming possibility in the distance. At work, I’ve become pretty withdrawn; while everyone else is joking around and being social, I just tend to retreat into my own head. My doctor recently added Edronax to my treatment plan, but since it's quite expensive, I haven't actually started taking it yet. I guess I was wondering how those of you dealing with psychosis manage to fight off the depression that comes along with it?

I’ve recently gone back on antidepressants—though, frankly, my bouts of depression haven't been nearly as crushing as yours seem to be. How am I managing? Well, I find myself constantly rushing over to my doctor's office just to get my refills🙂

Whenever the darkness really takes hold, I feel like I’m sinking... I can't seem to pull myself out of it on my own. The absolute worst part is this internal pressure—it feels like there's ten tons of lead sitting right on my heart, crushing the life out of me

Larry Lewis said:I’ve recently gone back on antidepressants—though, frankly, my bouts of depression haven't been nearly as crushing as yours seem to be. How am I managing? Well, I find myself constantly rushing over to my doctor's office just to get my refills🙂

Whenever the darkness really takes hold, I feel like I’m sinking... I can't seem to pull myself out of it on my own. The absolute worst part is this internal pressure—it feels like there's ten tons of lead sitting right on my heart, crushing the life out of me

It seems like it's just the pills that do the trick—whether they're yellow, white, or pink... once I start this new one, I'm hopeful things will finally start looking up.

Well, unfortunately, things have a way of turning out that way... I suppose all I can say is I hope things take a turn for the better for you soon.

vividnomad2 said:But if you ask me, they’re starting to sound incredibly lifelike

What does it usually sound like when you hear them? What are they actually saying?

When you’re spiraling into a psychotic break, do you actually realize it’s just the illness taking the wheel, or does it all feel entirely too real?

velvetsailor26 said:When you’re spiraling into a psychotic break, do you actually realize it’s just the illness taking the wheel, or does it all feel entirely too real?

There is no universal rule. Some people maintain insight, some don't, and others have it but the symptoms are simply too overwhelming to allow for any self-help...