Brenda Cook4 said:😘 First off, thank you for fighting the good fight so that I can finally sit here and write all this out in peace.😁 🙏
I am so glad to hear you’re doing better... honestly, when it comes to those incredibly heavy life experiences, maybe the only way through them is to actually live through them!
I just don't get why people look at seemingly irrational behavior without considering the context in which it happened... instead, they treat it like an isolated incident—something to be treated exclusively with pills, especially when those meds come with such harsh side effects.
Regarding those charts and data points, I lose my train of thought every single time, but then I quickly tell myself, "Never mind, just keep moving." But there is one real reason why it is so difficult to struggle with mental health: 1. Once you've been labeled, it's almost permanent. 2. After that, nobody ever looks at your actions objectively again. They won't see the cause; they'll just say, "He lost it," or "Oh, he's just being an eccentric artist"—instead of saying: you know what, let me explain what she was actually going through.
At the end of the day, isn't human society the ultimate benchmark for what we call "normal"?😲 🤣
So, let’s talk about the life of John Nash. He really is such a fascinating figure. There's that moment where he keeps his head down, they ask him what the future holds for the world, and he just says: "Well, the way things are now, nothing good." That's how the movie wraps up. His wife, who has Spanish roots, has put on quite a bit of weight by then. In the end, all those people were actually his true friends. After the divorce, Nash was essentially homeless, but she actually let him stay with her. He also has another son from a different marriage, though I can't remember if he deals with schizophrenia too. The narrator mentions that Nash stopped taking his medication back in 1970 and hasn't touched them since. He looks thinner and taller than Russell Crowe, with a balding head and a long face. He looks like he's just thinking to himself: "Who cares what any of you think?" The film shows some real hospitals that look like places anyone would recommend for a mental reset—much better than visiting a state facility in Los Angeles or a local psychiatric ward. But they don't allow much more than visitors. He started out in a high-end, fancy hospital, but it eventually became clear he needed something more intensive. A huge portion of the story focuses on his game theory, the Nash equilibrium, and the Nobel Prize that he eventually receives, because his whole life was driven by the desire to be someone truly special. Isn't that something most of us strive for, too? 😘
Nicholas Peterson said:Most psychiatrists have the wrong approach, acting as if their patients are just completely delusional. In reality, most patients have a very clear understanding of their own situation. Most doctors fail to realize this because they tend to look down on them.
That is absolutely spot on. My therapist looks me right in the eye and basically tells me, "I don't know why, but just go ahead and drink!!" It feels like she’s just trying to wrap me up in the best possible way to get things over with. So now what I decide to do with my life once I stop seeing her is none of her business. It really isn't; she has 500 other patients to deal with, she isn't a computer.
Nicholas Peterson said:Actually, "manic" is a much better term. Your approach to "true" schizophrenia is just too predictable.
Well, that’s just my little brain working overtime, haha! Honestly, look at these doctors—that lady was totally off base with the F20 diagnosis. The real powerhouse gave me an F25 without needing an F20. I swear, sometimes I feel like giving up because my ultimate dream is just to take a trip down to South America. It feels like society puts so many limits on people like me. My uncle was actually a teacher back in high school in Canada, and he used to tell me: "Talk less, and write more." So, I once wrote a three-page short story for him, and then my cousin asked me, "Wait, did you really write this?" I guess that's just that classic Canadian politeness for you.🤣
Wait a second, what makes you say my approach is so predictable? Are we talking about true schizophrenia? Could you please explain that?🙂
Well, I hear you, but honestly, knowing all that doesn't stop me from holding my own perspective, 😂 😂 😂
And regarding what you mentioned about people being unclear—I totally get it. Sometimes when you give someone a simple "yes" or "no," they still can't wrap their heads around it, let alone anything more complex.
I’d love to claim I’m being wise here, but this is really just something borrowed from Buddhist philosophy: You can't truly understand heat until you've felt the cold. You don't know hunger until you've experienced fullness. You don't grasp poverty until you've known wealth. And so on. And so on.
Have you noticed how much Laing resembles John Nash? At least, based on his photo on Wikipedia.
Brenda Cook4 said:Someone mentioned Laing, Cooper, Foucault...👍
Madness is permanent revolution in the life of a person. Sometimes this revolutionary process becomes evident as a major change in the way that we live, a change in the direction of greater autonomy that may be accomplished without the intervention of other people, but sometimes it becomes socially visible as a crisis in which other people intervene.
Cooper / The Language of Madness
Exactly, exactly, absolutely true. Honestly, I just had an MRI done and everything came back perfectly normal. So, does that mean I'm actually crazy since my brain is technically healthy?🤣 🤣
Oh boy, they’re being pretty slow about this. I feel like I’m picking up tiny crumbs just to get any info at all. It’ll definitely break loose eventually, you'll see.😍 👍
I have to admit, I went a little overboard with my talking again. I was visiting my dad, and he and his wife were shifting colors constantly, going from bright red to completely pale.😁 And she was just sitting there, looking at her reflection in the mirror under her arm...🤣 No, these aren't hallucinations—I’m feeling perfectly fine. My grandpa found the whole thing hilarious; I suppose when you're 88, you end up hearing all sorts of things. As for my husband, well, he's always been the same about it—he actually used to love my blunt, unfiltered way of speaking.🙄
I haven't really dove deep into all the technical details here, but my dad actually put me through some kind of intensive shock therapy—it was officially listed as electrical stimulation for the brain—and honestly? I LOVE him
MOST LIKELY HE FEELS THE SAME ABOUT ME.
Ah, those older folks. But that’s why my grandma lives downstairs while my husband and I stay upstairs; she just picks at us over every single little thing. She's 75, so what can you do? There's really nothing you can say to change it.
Hi Ashley Morgan look, when you're going through a psychotic episode, you don't have to settle. You have the entire spectrum of antipsychotics at your disposal, like a whole palette of colors🤣 just waiting for you to find the perfect match.
But when things are stable? Well, what can I say?: I’ve finally embraced the reality of my situation: I am someone living with schizophrenia. That is simply who I am. For all of you to know. Honestly, I think I have a bit of a flair for the dramatic, too.😍
Deep down, I consider myself a true lover of humanity, completely free of prejudice—though I'll admit I struggle with some biases toward certain groups, I'm always eager to learn more, to see everything I possibly can, and to root out falsehoods from the human race.😂 .....
My struggles are a little different than most; sometimes I just don't know how to stop talking, and I often find myself wondering: what is actually considered polite here??????? and what isn't???
Saying that 20% of people are schizophrenic might actually be an understatement. If you look at the statistics from Queens, the numbers hover around the 20.0-20.9 range, but personally, I’m sitting at 25. When I hit my limit, things get pretty wild for me. One doctor will tell you it's 1% globally, while another claims it's 2%, so you really have to take those numbers with a grain of salt.
But if you want to step back and think about this for a moment: human "civilization" has been around for roughly 5,000 years. Meanwhile, modern medicine and psychiatry—the things we hold in such high regard today—have only really existed for maybe 200 years at most. That is, of course, unless we start counting Leonard's autopsies.
No123 said:briskgull27, could you share how you felt while taking Risperdal? I’m having such a hard time gauging its effects on me. To be honest, I have no clue what they were actually giving me during my month-long hospital stay back in 1999. I know I got occasional injections whenever things got intense, but after I was discharged, I was on Lexapro for a year—though I mostly just slept through that time. Then came a few years of Mooditin and Cogentin, followed by about four years of Risperdal. I remember feeling absolutely terrible when I stopped the Cogentin (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and total exhaustion), so I didn't take anything for about a week then, just stuck with the Risperdal. I used to take 3mg or 2mg, but for the last five months, I’ve been at 1mg. At 1mg, I feel like I'm taking nothing at all, yet a friend told me he almost passed out on the street walking home because of his dose! Maybe the Lexapro, Mooditin, and Cogentin just left me feeling so foggy that I can't tell if the Risperdal is doing anything. Currently, I'm on disability and not working; I spend most of my day online. I sleep a lot, though I struggle to fall asleep, and once I do, I sleep for 12 hours straight. I usually don't wake up until 2 PM, and I'm useless until I've had a couple of coffees and a few cigarettes. I feel best in the evening, and honestly, I don't really feel like going to bed. I don't have any big plans or ideas for the future; I'm just waiting for the VA to transition me into retirement. Three different psychiatrists wrote that I'm unfit for any kind of work, even though the disability evaluation board claimed I'm capable of working full-time as an advisor. This new private psychiatrist actually called my Risperdal prescription "weak," suggesting that without it, I'd definitely have more psychotic episodes if I had schizophrenia, rather than just that one episode seven years ago.
Happy New Year! 🙂
Same to you, man! I'm such a fool for just getting back from the Gila River. When I took Risperdal for a month, we actually had to order it from Germany. It felt even worse than those "old school" meds. Restless legs—I mean, I was incredibly, incredibly restless.
They prescribed me 4mg of Mooditin daily, but I only took one pill so I could actually function and work.
With Lexapro, I collapsed in the hallway three times like I was having a seizure, so I stopped taking it. I kept the pills just to mess with anyone who tried to act superior to me over coffee. If I insist, when a psychotic episode hits, I'll take Haldol for a maximum of three months.
They hand out Cogentin at the Queens clinic like it's a miracle drug, even though it's really just there to offset the side effects of other meds.
Right now, I'm on Lithium and Cipralex. 4x 300mg of Lithium and 2x 5mg of Cipralex. 🙂
And no, I don't know what you're talking about regarding smoking—I can't do it. I used to, but now it interests me about as much as watching Harry Potter.
I used to work a regular 9-to-5, but ever since I've been dealing with this firm, everything has gone downhill. I'll just have to adapt, since they say it's better for me this way. We'll see.
Sending my best to the doctors who would love to cure schizophrenia if they could, but unfortunately, they just don't have the answers yet. Antipsychotics have been the standard since somewhere around the 1950s.🙂 If we were still living in the Middle Ages, people would probably be chained to a wall right now.
A little anecdote for you: In an episode of Star Trek Voyager set in the 24th century, the holographic doctor says something along the lines of, "Oh boy, what am I going to do with him? Just give him an antipsychotic!"😂 😂 😂
Schizophrenia F20.0 Paranoid schizophrenia F20.1 Hebephrenic schizophrenia F20.2 Catatonic schizophrenia F20.3 Undifferentiated schizophrenia F20.4 Post-schizophrenic depression F20.5 Residual schizophrenia F20.6 Simple schizophrenia F20.8 Other schizophrenia F20.9 Schizophrenia, unspecified A fifth character may be used to classify course: .x0 Continuous .x1 Episodic with progressive deficit .x2 Episodic with stable deficit .x3 Episodic remittent .x4 Incomplete remission .x5 Complete remission .x8 Other .x9 Course uncertain, period of observation too short F21 Schizotypal disorder F22 Persistent delusional disorders F22.0 Delusional disorders F22.8 Other persistent delusional disorders F22.9 Persistent delusional disorder, unspecified Acute F23 and transient psychotic disorders F23.0 Acute polymorphic psychotic disorder without symptoms of schizophrenia F23.1 Acute polymorphic psychotic disorder with symptoms of schizophrenia F23.2 Acute schizophrenia-like psychotic disorder F23.3 Other acute predominantly delusional psychotic disorder F2.8 Other acute and transient psychotic disorder F23.9 Acute and transient psychotic disorder, unspecified A fifth character may be used to classify course: .x0 Without associated acute stress .x1 With associated acute stress F24 Induced delusional disorder F25 Schizoaffective disorders F25.0 Schizoaffective disorder, manic type F25.1 Schizoaffective disorder, depressive type F25.2 Schizoaffective disorder, mixed type F25.8 Other schizoaffective disorders F25.9 Schizoaffective disorder, unspecified A fifth character may be used to classify the following subtypes: .x0 Concurrent affective and schizophrenic symptoms only .x1 Concurrent affective and schizophrenic symptoms plus persistence of the schizophrenic symptoms beyond the duration of the affective symptoms F28 Other non-organic psychotic disorders F29 Unspecified non-organic psychosis
Not really anything after that, but when the doctor grabbed my attention at the Los Angeles clinic, I actually asked her: Do you guys offer electroshock therapy here? She replied: No, we don't do any electroshock therapy here. Alright, I guess I'll just adapt.