Posts by stormylynx23

Taylor Hall2 said:Look at this:

After searching online, I found out I have schizoaffective disorder.
Now, my psychiatrist’s latest theory is that I actually have bipolar disorder—though, to be fair, I can't deny the manic episodes, even if I rarely experience true clinical depression. So, essentially, it's just unipolar mania.
He started me on Lithium, but the blood concentration levels are too high, so he'll have to switch my medication soon.

To be perfectly honest, I couldn't care less whether I'm schizo, manic, or both.
And frankly, I am completely fed up with all these DSM codes.

My doctor hasn't given me an official new diagnosis yet. He just mentioned some bipolar symptoms that would bump me up from the standard schizophrenia category, but he didn't say anything about schizoaffective—that's just what it made me think of.

Other conditions in which affective symptoms are superimposed on a pre-existing schizophrenic illness, or co-exist or alternate with persistent delusional disorders of other kinds, are classified under G20-G29

So if it says "classified under G20-G29," I guess I'd just stay under the old classification. Look, I'm not going to spend my life studying this crap. Like I said, I don't care what my code is, I just want the treatment to actually work.

Taylor Hall2 said:Just hire a translator 😂

I mean, what was the point of asking "stormylynx23, what's the difference between F20 and F25" only to dump a bunch of medical descriptions right after?

What would that even mean in plain English for folks out in the sticks?

I’ve been doing some digging online about schizoaffective
So, my psychiatrist’s latest theory is that I’m also bipolar. Honestly, I can't even deny the mania part, but I rarely ever hit actual depression. So, basically just manic unipolar at this point.
They put me on Lithium, but my blood levels are way too high, so they’re going to have to swap it out for something else.

But honestly? I couldn't care less if I'm schizo, manic, or both.
I'm totally over all these ICD-10 codes.

Taylor Hall2 said:@stormylynx23 what exactly distinguishes the F20 from the F25?

And what would F25 even be? I really can't be bothered to go hunting for it online.

Alex Sullivan5 said:I've been seeing my psychiatrist regularly for 15 years because of these episodes, intense body aches (like some kind of crisis), and this social phobia. But I don't have the guts to tell him about this imaginary world I live in because I'm terrified it's schizophrenia—especially since there are two people in my family with it, my grandpa and my aunt. My doctor knows everything else and just prescribes me calming meds, and the official diagnosis is social phobia, but because of what I'm hiding, I wanted to ask you guys first. Thank you so much 😘 for somehow comforting me that it might not be connected to schizophrenia. I just needed to make sure because I've heard it's next in line for me. Thanks anyway.

Look, I'll give you a little scare, just to be honest. For me, it started with social phobia and retreating into an imaginary world when I was 13 or 14, and it ended with a psychotic break at 23 and a final diagnosis of F20. But that doesn't mean the same thing will happen to you. Seriously. Plus, you actually had the guts to write this here, which is more than I could say for myself ten years ago. Sliding into schizophrenia isn't the only possible outcome; I can only speak for my own messy life. And honestly, everyone talks up schizophrenia like it's this monster, but it’s not as terrifying as you might think from listening to Deborah's stories. If you're already seeing a psychiatrist, just suck it up and tell them. It's not like they haven't heard it all a thousand times before. If you were brave enough to share this with us, you can handle telling a professional. You don't even have to dump the whole truth on them at once—just drop little hints and see how it goes.
At the end of the day, I'm such a narcissist that I wouldn't trade myself for some so-called 'better' New Life or any other 'improved' version of events. I actually quite like being my "schizophrenic" self.

I don't know what to tell you. Some people just live life on a different frequency, I guess. It’s like watching someone try to drive a stick shift in rush hour traffic while eating a burrito—just pure chaos. You can't really predict it, and honestly, trying to make sense of it is a waste of good energy. Just roll with the punches. kaže:
Hey there!
I beat that nasty disease. Now? I’m a successful, independent businessman. Honestly, my success stings some people. It really does. Because at the end of the day, it has nothing to do with any of their excuses or whatever they want to blame it on.
I’m just telling you, I’ve made it my mission. It’s like this stubborn obsession of mine—whenever things go absolutely sideways and life starts hitting me hard, I just start laughing. I can't help it. It's become a habit at this point.
That’s exactly how they lose their grip on you—by making sure you stop believing in the first place.
Taking the path of least resistance? Honestly, that’s a one-way ticket to hell. You just coast through life, avoiding the hard stuff, and before you know it, you're spiraling straight into some heavy-duty mental breakdown—we're talking full-blown psychosis, schizophrenia, paranoia, or whatever dark corner of the mind you end up in. It happens. Fast.
Once you stop giving certain things your attention, they lose their power over you. Period.
The first step? It’s about stepping outside your own ego. You have to stop being so damn narcissistic. Period.
After that, I’m going to strike out on my own and actually start doing something with my life.
There’s honestly nothing like putting in the work and actually breathing some life back into your ambitions. Nothing.
Ten years ago, I was absolutely nobody. Just a zero.
Everything's different now. Believe it or not, nobody had any clue what was actually going on with me.

Isn't that just ironic?

GOODBYE TO DELUSIONS AND HALLUCINATIONS! FINALLY!

www.shine-association.com

Look, plenty of people already know exactly what I’m about to say, and honestly? A lot of you are probably going to think I’ve finally lost my mind.
Anyone who’s ever stepped foot inside the New Life Health Club over at the Shine center knows exactly how it works. There's one golden rule that matters above everything else.

Look, we aren't talking about diseases here. Period.

It took me a little while to really wrap my head around the whole point of this. Why? Because honestly, you have to get patients to stop obsessing over their illness. You need to pivot their focus toward things that are actually beautiful and productive.
When you get hit with a heavy diagnosis—something like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression—it’s a total gut punch. It’s completely normal to spiral. At first, that label is all you can see. You just sit there staring at it, thinking you’re absolutely screwed.
But here’s where the real trouble starts—down the road. If you let this stuff get under your skin and you just keep obsessing over the illness and that diagnosis of yours, you're in trouble. Once you start "leaning into" being sick, once you actually start identifying with the disease, you’re obsessed. You become its slave. And honestly? That’s the fastest way to turn yourself into a lifelong patient or some kind of "professional patient." It’s a trap.

1.
The real issue is that you're just setting yourself up to crash again. You'll be right back in the middle of another psychotic break, mania, or a deep depression before you know it. It's a cycle.
2.
You can't move an inch forward if you’re just spinning your wheels on the same old nonsense. Constant circling equals zero progress. Period.

Look, you just have to accept that you’re sick. You have to be aware of it, keep it in the back of your mind, but for the love of God, just move on with your life. It’s not that complicated. Take the illness, shove it into some deep corner of your brain, and stop obsessing over it. Stop using it as a crutch or an excuse for every single time you fail at something. Now, don't get me wrong—you can't just ignore it entirely. You have to respect your limits. If you push yourself way too hard, you’re just going to snap again, and nobody wants that. The goal is to live and work within your actual capacity. If you play it smart, those boundaries will naturally start to expand over time. People love to say schizophrenia is a lifelong sentence. Honestly? Screw that. From where I’m standing, it’s only "lifelong" because psychosis can always crawl back in, but it doesn't have to if you’ve got enough luck and a little bit of wisdom on your side. It all comes down to how much you actually give a damn about getting better—or how much you'd rather be a "professional patient" like some people I know. Yeah, yeah, call me an optimist. Maybe a naive one at that. But hey, they say hope is the last thing to die, right? And this isn't just my two cents either...

OFFICIAL POLICY FOR THE NEW LIFE HEALTH CLUB.

P.S. Someone actually tried to tell me that this whole thing is what they call anti-psychiatry.

Story 1.

How society views mental illness changes depending on where you live. It’s wild. Take some remote parts of rural India or Pakistan—the word "depression" doesn't even exist in their local dialects. People there aren't "depressed"; they're just seen as "distressed" or having a hard time. Maybe that's why a WHO study covering ten different countries found something pretty crazy: patients in those rural areas actually recover from schizophrenia way faster than anyone else. They get back to work and rejoin society much quicker than people in the rest of the world. It makes you wonder if our labels are actually making things worse.

/Excerpted from "Stigma, the patient, the family and the community" by Mark Agius, MD, from the book "Embrace Diversity, Reject Prejudice" published by the "Happy Family" association, 2005/06 — the original English version is at the end of the column

Story 2

Back in 2003, I got diagnosed with schizophrenia at a hospital in rural Pennsylvania. Honestly? It hit me way too hard. That diagnosis just stuck to my ribs. Even nine months later, when I got my discharge papers from the outpatient clinic, they actually wrote, "patient is overly preoccupied with his diagnosis." And yeah, pretty much. I couldn't talk about anything else except schizophrenia and my medical status. I went down a total rabbit hole, reading every psychiatry and psychology textbook I could get my hands on, though it didn't really help me one bit. Since I stayed in school in Philly, I eventually found myself a new psychiatrist in 2004. For the first two or three sessions, he just sat there and took my constant whining and "expert" lecturing. But then... next time... I started going through my usual routine, and this guy just grabbed whatever book was closest and started flipping through it. I froze. I wasn't sure if he was even listening or just reading. So, I kept talking slowly, while he gets deeper into the book, practically turning his whole body away from me. I’m thinking, *are you kidding me? I’m paying $133 for these fifteen minutes and you aren't even listening to me!!!* Whatever, I kept going. He’s totally buried in the book, won't look at me, won't listen, turned almost 90 degrees away from my face. I finish up, hand him the cash, he gives me a rushed opinion, doesn't say goodbye, doesn't even look at me!
After a while, I realized that some other psychiatrist would probably need hours and hours of talking to figure out why I shouldn't obsess over illnesses—otherwise they'd never get anything done—whereas this guy just wrapped it all up in five minutes.

Story 3

I also have a neighbor, an older guy, maybe around 26. When he was 16, he was diagnosed with a tumor in his lower leg. You know how pediatric oncology goes—radiation, chemo, the whole works. They managed to cut the tumor out, but in the process, they had to slice through basically every bone in his leg, and he survived. Unlike most of his friends from the ward—kids, no less!—who didn't make it. He ended up with a titanium rod in his leg that snapped after a while, leading to another surgery. That leg never healed right. It’s constant pain, then massages, then hot compresses, then cold ones, then his back starts hurting, the tumor might come back, etc., etc., etc.
We don't talk a ton, but he never, ever talks about it. He never complains, unless I ask him something specific, and even then, he usually turns it into a joke. He definitely never whines about how bad things are; the guy has plenty of other stuff going on in his life to keep him busy. Actually, pretty much everything I know about his situation comes from his mom.
And hey, you've got every right to think he's having the worst time on the planet.

Societal perceptions of mental illness vary wildly depending on where you are. For example, in certain rural areas of India or Pakistan, the word 'depression' doesn't even exist in the local dialect; people with mental health struggles are simply viewed as being in distress. Perhaps because of this, a WHO ten-country study noted that patients in rural India seem to recover from schizophrenic illness much faster than people in other parts of the world, returning to the workforce more quickly than others.

Noah Sanchez7 said:Dear stormylynx23, since I know you're obsessed with cows, maybe "this world" doesn't bother you all that much. 👍
My answer to your question could be endless, but I’ll distill it into a single sentence that I believe captures the core essence of why all the "evil" in this world exists.
Let's stop lying to ourselves for a second.
Hasn't it become a cliché to assume our conversational partners are too stupid to "read between the lines," so we just lie to them however we please?
When a neighbor stops you on the street to ask, "How are things going?", tell them how you actually feel. If you sense they're about to start unloading a barrage of worrying questions on you, just don't say anything at all.
We need to ditch the fake smiles that have flooded the world, making it so nobody laughs naturally anymore, only out of habit.
Because when you do that, you're proving you're a phony—and not just any phony, but a calculated one, because most of those fake smiles are just tools used to manipulate someone for personal gain.
We shouldn't be ashamed to show that we aren't in the mood or that we're feeling down; sometimes we just are, and everyone feels that way. The bigger sin is pretending we're perfectly fine.
This isn't about capitalism or socialism; it's about creating a more pleasant atmosphere for living on this planet. Which, directly speaking, leads to longer and happier lives.

I AM AN ADDICT!

And plenty of people lie about being okay for a pretty basic reason: they want to avoid more questions (usually automatic ones like, "Nooo, why? What's wrong?") because they just don't have the energy to argue, chat, or explain why things suck. They know the conversation won't lead anywhere smart anyway.

Noah Sanchez7 said:I hear you..

So, could you actually walk me through it? Like, give me the details on how your life would look and what an ideal world would even entail. Just purely hypothetical here—don't worry about where things stand for you right now or the mess humanity is currently stuck in.

Honestly, I’m just sick of reading about endless crowds of makeup artists
and seeing news stories obsessed with the health updates of some mayor's dog in Chicago
or some random model from a small town in Ohio gaining half a kilo
and all that nonsense.

Noah Sanchez7, I’m keeping my fingers crossed this time.

Noah Sanchez7 said:So, does this mean I can just go get a scan and get a definitive "black and white" answer on whether I have it?

Go ask an expert. Maybe check with vividskipper15

So, here's the deal with schizophrenia: it all comes down to a chemical mess-up in the brain involving neurotransmitters. Think of neurotransmitters as the little messengers that carry electrical signals between neurons. One big player here is dopamine—the theory is that people with schizophrenia either have way too much of it or their brains are just super hypersensitive to what's already there. Researchers are also looking at other chemicals like serotonin, glutamate, acetylcholine, and norepinephrine, thinking they might be part of the problem too. But honestly, most experts point the finger at an imbalance between dopamine and serotonin as the main culprit behind the symptoms. That’s exactly why antipsychotic meds work the way they do; they target those specific neurotransmitters (and a few others) to try and level things out.

Can you actually see brain damage from schizophrenia?

If you look at modern imaging tech we use here in the States—stuff like CT scans, MRIs, or PET scans—the evidence is pretty clear. There are undeniable differences in how the brains of people with schizophrenia function and look compared to healthy brains. We're talking visible stuff: enlarged ventricles filled with fluid, deeper grooves (sulci) between the brain's lobes, and a smaller hippocampus. Plus, there's often reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex, which is the area responsible for thinking, memory, and learning. There's a whole laundry list of these structural and functional changes, many of which can be linked directly to specific symptoms or cognitive struggles.

HealthFirst

Noah Sanchez7 said:True. I just can't accept the idea that something is incurable, or that it can't be fixed or at least steered back toward a positive outcome.
There is always a path that leads to schizophrenia, so there has to be a path leading back out.
If it isn't there, find it!

We never actually fought about that—it was always just about whether or not you need medication.

Noah Sanchez7 said:It isn't the same! Does schizophrenia cause physical changes in the brain? NO! So, it's absolutely not the same.
That is exactly what I am trying to make you understand—you aren't sick! Someone suffering from social phobia or panic attacks isn't "sick" either.
In reality, people are only considered "ill" to the extent that they can't perform the functions society expects of them, and that shouldn't be used as a valid basis for labeling someone as sick.
Psychology and psychiatry are relatively young sciences (not counting Buddha), so don't cling to everything you're told, because even they don't truly know everything.
If your doctor had told you a different, more positive story, you wouldn't view your "illness" this way.

Besides, that crowd you consider "normal"—the ones you feel abnormal compared to—is completely unaware of any of this!

Actually, it totally does!!!
It messes with the neurotransmitter balance in your neurons. Think of neurotransmitters as the chemical messengers passing signals between nerve cells.

Antipsychotics just work to get that balance back where it belongs.

And just a side note—I’m an optimist. Always have been. I don't see my condition as some huge tragedy.

So, I was flipping through this massive medical textbook on psychiatry the other day, and honestly? I felt like I was reading a checklist of my own personal flaws. Every single disorder in there felt weirdly familiar. I’ve actually heard other med students say the same thing—it’s like when you study a specific disease, you’re suddenly convinced you’ve caught it. By the time they graduate, they’ve basically "survived" a hundred different illnesses just by reading about them.

That's why if you actually have schizophrenia, you can't just decide that for yourself. You need an actual doctor to look at you objectively and make the call. You can't just hand out your own diagnoses. It doesn't work like that. If you start reading up on something like bipolar disorder, you'll walk away thinking you've got it too.

Richard Murphy6 said:Quote:

Holstein says: that’s got absolutely nothing to do with it Seriously, congrats on cracking the code for schizophrenia! I’ll be sure to put your name forward to the Nobel Committee myself. 👏 😵 🤮 🤮

And why not just let them run wild? Not everyone is going to fold like a cheap lawn chair just because they're shaking in their boots.
There are still folks out there who aren't afraid to see things through to the end and actually stand up for themselves.😉 🙄 👍

Scientists and amateurs alike have been grinding for over a century trying to nail down the essence, the causes, and the cure for schizophrenia, yet this absolute genius thinks he cracked the code in a few days.

That whole year you spent holed up inside wasn't psychosis or schizophrenia—it sounds way more like social anxiety or something along those lines. You already mentioned seeing several psychiatrists who never once gave you a schizophrenia diagnosis, so please, for the love of God, drop it and focus on what's actually happening with you.

And where do you get off acting like I didn't use my own willpower or consciousness? That was incredibly rude.

If we’re playing the "stop taking meds" game...
-let's tell heart patients to stop too
-and diabetics
-and cancer patients
-and pretty much everyone else, because your logic regarding antipsychotics is exactly the same kind of nonsense.

up99 said:The Fashion is that whenever I mention drug use, people immediately give me this look of total judgment.

That's got nothing to do with it.

up99 said:Just picture the scene. I’m sitting with my buddy—someone I've known since we were kids, a great guy. And suddenly, BAM! Out of nowhere! I'm staring him dead in the eyes and I'm convinced he's about to murder me. I think he's plotting something. His phone rings, he starts talking to someone irrelevant, and my brain just screams that it's his accomplice... AAAAARGH, pure chaos, darkness, paranoia, total misery, FEAR.
Whoa, hold up. I could have been hauled off to a psych ward right then and there. They probably would've just tranquilized me with a heavy dose of Thorazine without a second thought.

They wouldn't hit you with Thorazine; they'd send you straight to rehab!!!!!! Drug-induced hallucinations have absolutely zero connection to schizophrenia, man, and they're treated totally differently, so stop equating them once and for all!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's one thing when you're hallucinating and spiraling because of drugs, and it's something else entirely when we're talking about schizophrenia. Go pick up a DSM-5 and find a code under substance abuse somewhere. And please, don't take this the wrong way. For it to be psychosis, those hallucinations and paranoia need to last for weeks or months—consistently.

up99 said:Nobody here is actually sick; some people are just acting like spoiled brats expecting everyone else to fix their problems. And the best or worst part? They actually expect it. They want the pills, the doctors, the little treatments......

You've got it all wrong. Nobody else fixes your illness except you. Medication is just a tool to help you get moving in the first place. But before you can move forward, you have to get clean. According to the stats, only 10% of people with schizophrenia are completely incurable, 20% recover fully, and 70% improve partially—so you aren't exactly dropping any truth bombs here. You insult me by saying I'm not trying, but I am fighting like hell, you couldn't even imagine it. And I believe I'll get off the meds one day, but now isn't the time. Because if I quit and the illness comes back—then I'm really screwed. Every new psychotic episode knocks you several steps back and trashes everything you've built. Last year, my mental state almost forced me off my meds, and I thought I was done for, but then it snapped in a matter of days—before I could even turn around—straight to the hospital, where they immediately tripled my dosage, and that was that. Better to play it safe and go slow; that's the only way you can actually taper off.

Do you honestly think anyone *likes* taking antipsychotics!?!?!?!?
That crap slows you down, makes you drowsy, makes you gain weight, kills your sex drive, and in the worst cases, causes hand tremors, body stiffness, tension... you're just waiting to get off them. But if you care about staying healthy, you have to force yourself to take them. People constantly quit on their own just to feel "normal," and then they end up crashing hard and landing on even higher doses. You have to be patient in life!!!!! Again, for you, getting clean is a huge win, but for me, it's the exact opposite.

Look, at the end of the day, you’re the only one who can actually heal yourself. Pills and doctors? They’re just tools in the kit. That’s it. It’s like telling someone, "Why bother with a computer, a TV, or a house with central heating? Just go live in the woods on a tree branch and deal with the lice." It's ridiculous.

If I had been around a hundred years ago, I would’ve ended up living like some crazy vagrant under a bridge, or they would've tossed me into some horrific asylum. If I were lucky, maybe a wealthy family would have hidden me away from the public eye. Schizophrenia affects about 1% of the population globally, regardless of where you are.

Anyway, congrats on finally cracking the code and finding the true cause of schizophrenia. I'll be sure to nominate you for the Nobel Prize committee. 👏 😵 🤮 🤮

I wanted to do it myself, honestly, but I just didn't have the know-how or the means

what kind of question