Posts by David Vaughn75

Do you actually think being in this kind of spot is dragging your whole life down?

I mean, there are moments where I feel totally paralyzed by it—it’s embarrassing, honestly—but then again, who gives a damn? This is just me, this is my reality, and I've finally reached that point where I'm just okay with being exactly who I am.

Kevin Nguyen3 said:When we discuss schizophrenia, there is this massive, looming question: who is actually responsible for what happens? It’s a heavy thought, isn't it? The reality is that in certain segments—those who remain more lucid or grounded—some people with schizophrenia still use their diagnosis as an alibi for everything they've done or intend to do.
It is not easy, nor is it simple, to focus on just one tiny slice of treatment or the state of these patients without writing entire books about it!
For instance, if we look at it broadly, the world experience for a neurotic person is essentially driven by fear, but for someone in a state of psychosis... well, it's something else entirely. It's almost like the difference between life and death itself.
Such a patient often places themselves in situations for which absolutely no one is prepared. These patients frequently exhibit a kind of negativity or a total void of communication—a complete lack of interaction—because, first, they don't have it, and second, they simply don't know what is expected of them. And isn't that, at its core, the heart of the problem?
Is it true that psychotic people cannot control themselves? Partially, yes. But through clinical practice, one might argue that it isn't entirely true either.
Any truly attentive therapist will strive to accept, to understand, and to attempt—in their own subjective way—to qualify the patient.
I would argue that in psychotic individuals, the emergence of transference, or perhaps what we might call "meaningfulness," is entirely possible.
The goal is to provide everyone with sufficient time and knowledge. During that preparatory phase of therapy, all that chaos, the incoherence, the frustrations, the terror, and the various forms of resistance and defense... the aim is to eventually use all of that as raw material. Through this, the therapist can extract—working in partnership with the patient, of course—some form of creative insight into understanding and healing. Naturally, when this happens, the therapist's ambitions grow. But in the feedback loop, there often aren't enough answers to validate those ambitions.
The therapist—the doctor—offers the psychotic patient a model of communication and tries to steer them toward a specific goal; this is where transference appears. But the patient resists! They want their own specific way of communicating (for example, a patient might insist on talking about flowers instead of discussing their mother, and so on).
In truth, the patient is placing themselves in a situation for which they are unprepared. And it is right here that we frequently encounter barriers to any further therapy.
Individual therapy for psychosis is arguably one of the most difficult forms of treatment in existence. Doctors say that anyone who hasn't tried treating such a patient doesn't understand the limitless "greed and insatiability" of a patient seeking to satisfy their own needs.

The real kicker is: can a patient in remission actually control themselves? Personally, I think they can, and if they can, they should absolutely own up to what they do.

Because psychosis isn't the whole person; there’s still our underlying nature underneath it all.

Noah Garcia4 said:I’m facing a different kind of struggle regarding this condition. I’ve made so many foolish mistakes, gone overboard so many times, and hurt or offended so many people—not to mention how often I’ve lashed out with incredibly reckless things to say—that I don't think I could ever truly make amends or fix my reputation in this lifetime. It’s just an inescapable reality. For a long time, I’ve tried to be considerate, to remain as calm as possible, and to be completely transparent about what I’m going through. But the truth is, most people simply don't have the stomach to deal with those volatile phases. So now, where does that leave my social life? I find I have no desire to be around them, and frankly, they have no desire to be around me. It is what it is. I think you all understand what I mean. 😉☕

That isn't on you—you were doing all that while you were sick.

When you're dealing with psychosis, you just lose control over yourself.

I’ve got an F-16 diagnosis on my chart, but honestly? I’m pretty sure I’m dealing with post-schizophrenic depression right about now.

Rebecca James3 said:Honestly, who knows. Combine that with schizophrenia and you've got a real mess on your hands. Whatever.😢

Look, labels don't mean squat—what actually matters is finally getting a handle on the damn problem. 😉

Rebecca James3 said:Yeah. She buys absolute junk—her closet is overflowing with clothes she never even touches—and then she’s out there hitting up charity drives for stuff she doesn't need, which is ridiculous because she actually has money coming in. She’ll literally rip her own clothes apart with scissors just to justify buying something new. It's wild. Plus, she's gained weight, eats nothing but greasy junk, smokes constantly, and just completely ignores her health. I don't know if it's tied to her schizophrenia, but ever since that last stay at the psychiatric ward, she hasn't been herself. What's your take?

Honestly, sounds like bipolar disorder to me.

Maničar types have this massive urge to go on total shopping sprees.

Noah Garcia4 said:Honestly, that sounds a lot like a state hospital in Queens to me. I’ve spent time at those types of facilities in Queens, and I actually found them quite decent. They have multiple departments, a little local park nearby, walking paths, tennis courts, a chapel, occupational therapy, group sessions, fitness programs, and, most importantly, my doctor, which makes all the difference. ☕
edit: I don't see my friend actually going there; she's far too attached to her own home.

I’ve never been to Queens myself, but everyone tells me that the facilities over in Brooklyn offer much better treatment options than what you get at Jack’s place. A park is just some minor detail—what really matters is how the staff actually treats the patients.

Noah Garcia4 said:I’ve always had a bit of a prickly disposition, and if I’m being honest, there’s a fair amount of malice baked into my nature. I have these sudden, sharp outbursts that can be pretty cutting, and when they happen, people tend to rush in with that patronizing "Oh, you're just going through something" or "It's just your temperament" kind of attitude. But it isn't some psychological ailment or a phase I need to get over; I truly meant every word of those outbursts exactly as they came out.
I can be quite lovely when I want to be—sweet as a homemade peach cobbler, at least when I’m actually awake. Though, admittedly, that charm tends to take a backseat once I drift off to sleep. And as for everything in between... well, let's just leave that to the imagination.

I’m genuinely asking if anyone out there can give me a realistic, unfiltered breakdown of what it’s actually like to live with someone struggling with schizophrenia. I want the unvarnished truth about how heavy that weight really is. 😛

if that’s not going too far, I actually think it's kind of sexy😍

Noah Garcia4 said:I'd say I'm more middleweight 🥳

But honestly, wouldn't someone want to potužiti about how exhausting it is to deal with a total schizo? 🥳

Honestly, you’re either just a difficult person by nature or you aren't—I don't think it has anything to do with having an illness. 🤷

Jessica Fowler4 said:I guess I agree. Honestly, maybe the OP should try engaging their own brain a bit more and figure out a way to actually raise people from the dead to fix this mess.

By the way, I’d love to hear about all those genius solutions we supposedly came up with for earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, or meteor strikes.

Overthinking things during a depressive episode—especially when it's about stuff you can't change—is kind of just self-inflicted masochism. If it goes on too long, it's basically pathological.

Actually, dwelling on the negative is like a "depression addiction."

I don't know if anyone else has put it quite like this, but I'll give it a shot. This is just my layperson's take on it, anyway.

Ruminating, or just obsessing over negative thoughts, acts like a type of addiction. See, rumination—just like any other state where you're intensely focused—inevitably stimulates the dopamine system, which the brain marks as a "reward." Even though the actual content of the thoughts causes anxiety and sadness, the part of the brain registering that intense focus doesn't care about the misery; it just sees a source of stimulation and logs it as such.
That side effect of anxiety and sadness is what drives depression, because it lowers your baseline dopamine levels (compared to when you aren't ruminating). When dopamine is low, the brain starts looking for ways to replenish it. It reaches for whatever source seems easiest or most immediate—which, wouldn't you know it, is rumination. It's right there, always available. That gives a quick spike of dopamine, followed by lingering anxiety that drops your levels again as soon as you stop, which then triggers that craving for dopamine all over again. It becomes this loop where the brain thinks this is the only way to "feed" itself. That's how this whole depression addiction cycle builds up and gets deeper.

If you're someone who is naturally more reactive—meaning your dopamine system is a bit harder to control—then this addiction can grab hold of you pretty easily, just like any other habit. People with certain genetic predispositions involving dopamine signaling—maybe folks with ADHD, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia—seem especially vulnerable. They tend toward deep moods and heavy rumination because their hyper-reactive dopamine systems are constantly trying to compensate for inherent signaling issues.

So, yeah... that's my take.

Just my two cents. I haven't heard it explained exactly like that before, but that's just how it feels to me.🙂

Personally, I tend to lean toward using medication to correct these kinds of states.

Force yourself to go outside, hang out with your wife's friends, clean the house, play some pickup basketball... give your life some direction and the depression will clear out.

You can't bring the dead back, but you can choose how you carry yourself in the face of it.

And seeing the solution solely in pills tells me you're uneducated on the subject, because after a while, you end up needing more and more antidepressants just to stay level. You're essentially a product of this "instant gratification" civilization that views any minor discomfort in life as a catastrophe that absolutely must be eradicated.

What I'm telling you is backed by lived experience; what you're saying is just an excuse to take the path of least resistance. "I feel bad, so gimme the meds, blah blah blah."

☕

Noah Garcia4 said:daaa...🙄
By the way, if anyone here actually has the guts—maybe you’re healthy and living with someone struggling with schizophrenia, or perhaps there's a family member in that boat—to speak up, tell us just how much of a mental grind it really is for everyone involved.🍿

Look, I'm not "difficult"... 🥳 except maybe when it comes to my actual weight.🤣

Noah Garcia4 said:It just crossed my mind that I might have unintentionally offended someone here with my previous post; I’ve been stuck in the headspace of this article for two days now, and I’m feeling a bit guilty about it.

http://www.nytimes.com/article/economic-trends-analysis/271679/

I mean, honestly, where is the silver lining in any of this? 🤔 🤷☕

The guy beat schizophrenia, sure, but he's still stuck on the meds. 🙄

EDIT: nothing at all

Jamie Mitchell5 said:Honestly, this is just one of those massive misconceptions people have. Voters tend to back whoever’s looking out for them, and they lean toward the Democratic Party because the old Communist Party basically handed them everything on a silver platter—apartments, steady jobs, you name it.
The Republican Party isn't some group of Nazi leftovers; if anything, its roots are closer to the Partisans, and they've always been the heavy hitters when it comes to actually building and leading the nation through its independence.

That’s why the parts of the country that were hit hardest by the aggression from the South always swing heavily for the Republicans. It’s hard for people who didn't live through those battles to truly grasp the bond that holds those folks together.

They're tethered to the past, man. Honestly? Me and anyone else living in reality are looking toward the future.

Jessica Fowler4 said:In my opinion—and I might be wrong here—I just don't think the human body was ever meant to handle the sheer weight of modern civilization and all the pressure it throws at us.

People really need freedom, you know? To just do what they want. I guess that’s the only way we’re actually happy. Like, back in the day, if you were hungry, you’d just head out into the woods, hunt a bear, and eat it. Problem solved. The motivation to take down a bear is right there, plain and simple—you're starving. Then, eventually, agriculture happened. You work half the year planting and growing food, watching over it, and then finally eating it. You have supplies, so you can survive longer without having to go out and hunt. It gives you periods where you don't have to work constantly. Now, civilization keeps moving forward... today you have a job, maybe doing paperwork, and that paperwork supports some business process that enables this or that... and then the company makes money and pays you at the end of the month. So you take that money, and when you're hungry, you just go to the grocery store and buy food.

The big thing here, I think, is how effort and reward are totally disconnected now. If your brain can't bridge the gap between the work you put in and the reward you get—well, depression becomes almost inevitable. In those early communities, effort and reward were pretty much directly linked... But today? Sometimes you work your tail off and you actually get penalized for it... let alone getting to feel the direct fruit of your labor.

That's just one example of how our brains aren't wired for the conditions of modern society. Our thought processes try to adapt; some people adapt better than others, some worse, and some might even have an innate difficulty that makes it incredibly hard, or impossible, to adjust. But it’s all just adaptation, really. Just compensation for this unnatural environment we built for ourselves.

So, yeah, I guess that's my take. I think medication has its place. It has just as much justification as civilization itself does.

Humans are evolutionarily designed to solve problems, not to just pop a magic pill and watch them vanish. If that were the case, we never would have survived lions or natural disasters. You have to engage your brain to tackle an issue.

Pills are there for when it becomes literally impossible to function any other way.

brisktrucker said:I’m really grateful for these two posts. 🙂 Oh, I almost forgot to mention—I’ve actually been seeing my psychiatrist for quite a while now. But, surprisingly, I haven't been prescribed any antidepressants. 😢 It turns out my doctor doesn't think they're necessary for me at this stage. 🙄

Sounds like your psychiatrist knows what they're doing.

Because let's be real—pills aren't going to fix your life's problems.

we really went overboard with the 🙂

Noah Garcia4 said:I was just curious 😬 if it’s actually possible for us to have feelings at all 😈

you know, like that total emotional numbness you see in people with schizophrenia or whatever.🥳

you just let everyone else's opinion get under your skin too much

honestly, I gave up a long time ago on trying to make sense of how backwards this whole society is 🥳

Noah Garcia4 said:I can’t decide which scenario feels more bleak: whether there’s absolutely no hope left for us when you find yourself stuck in a room full of people acting like total clowns, or if the sheer weight of constant negativity from everyone around you just starts to erode your sanity. It’s a toss-up between being surrounded by pure, unadulterated stupidity and simply being drained by a relentless wave of pessimism.

Definitely the second one.

When everyone around you is in a foul mood, it drags you right down into the gutter with them.

Noah Garcia4 said:Look, the state of society isn't really our responsibility, but when the economy hits the fan, we unfortunately end up being part of the wreckage too. 😬

Exactly. It’s like, sure, you can try to distance yourself, but when everyone around you is absolutely screwed, you're gonna feel the burn too.🙂