Schizophrenia - General Discussion

I was digging through some ancient psychiatry textbook... it was full of stories about meds, psychotherapy, electroshock therapy... and it mentioned a few old-school "techniques." Like inducing hypoglycemia or even a coma. I can't recall the specifics—I’d need to double-check—but it sounded pretty horrific. Were you thinking about any of that, briskgull27?

I know my grandad—he’s always super careful when he’s giving grandma her insulin; he makes sure to check her blood sugar levels first, and then he calculates the dose based strictly on those numbers... but one time, he accidentally gave her way too much 😳 , and things went south fast... honestly, she nearly kicked the bucket 😢

Rebecca Flores5 said:I was digging through this ancient psychiatry textbook the other day... it was talking about all sorts of old-school methods—medications, psychotherapy, even electroshock therapy. It mentioned some pretty intense techniques too, like inducing hypoglycemia or even putting someone into a coma just to stabilize things. I’d have to double-check the specifics, but honestly, it sounds terrifying. Was that what you were getting at, briskgull27?

Well, my mind went straight to the insulin they administer to diabetics.😳

And honestly, I’m still sitting here scratching my head—I just cannot wrap my mind around what on earth the connection is supposed to be between people dealing with schizophrenia and insulin levels.

I can't say for certain since I don't have the book right in front of me, so I'm not positive... but I'll be able to give you the exact details next week... It's pretty gripping overall, though it feels a bit like reading a collection of horror shorts... Apparently, they were intentionally inducing comatose states in people; I'm not entirely sure if it was via insulin or something else, but my guess is they were driving them into hypoglycemia, which is something you could actually achieve with him... If I've got that wrong, I'll correct myself, but I won't know until next week..

So, now we finally know where the term "burnt out" actually comes from!

🙂

So, when did you actually go through with your first session of ECB? Just to be absolutely clear—we're talking about electroconvulsive therapy, right? I really ought to double-check before anyone goes and makes a massive mistake here... 🙈

Honestly, I have absolutely no clue if that guy actually underwent ECT... I really need to check with my mom first...😍

Taylor Howard36 said:So, when did you have your first ECT session? Is ECT basically just electroconvulsive therapy? I should probably double-check so I don't mess anything up.🙈

If you want to avoid any mishaps, just look back two weeks before your 19th birthday in 1997. Electroconvulsive therapy haha, oh man... March 29, 1997, was the very first one.😁 🤣

And what about the timing? Like, the gaps between the first and second time, the second and third... all the way down to that final stretch between the penultimate and the last one... does the thought of heading toward that end actually scare you?

Taylor Howard36 said:What about the timing? Like, the gaps between the first and second session, the second and third... all the way down to the last one. Does the anticipation make you nervous?

Doing all six sessions every two weeks isn't scary when someone just shows up at your door and tells you it's time to go.
Now that I think about it,
YES, YOU ARE SCARED.

So, wait—you were only 19 when you went through ECT? Just one single round of six sessions and that was it? Nothing else after that?🙂

briskgull27 said:YEAH, YOU'RE SCARED

honestly, I’d be feeling the exact same way...😢

Taylor Howard36 said:I think I would be...😢

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.

Check out this crazy blog I’ve been following lately: Siza is just a crisis 😉

Borrowed from Dalibor’s 1983 Zyprexa thread

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

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!"😂 😂 😂

☕

outoftheblue, could you tell me a bit about your experience with Risperdal? I honestly can't gauge how it’s affecting me, mostly because my memory of what I was actually being given is a total blur. Back in '99, I spent a month in the hospital, and while I know they gave me occasional injections when things got intense, everything else is hazy. After I was discharged, I was on Lexapro for a year—which basically meant I slept through the entire year—then I moved on to medications like Modane and Artane for a few years. For the last four years, I've been tapering back onto Risperdal. I remember feeling absolutely wretched when I stopped taking Artane; I was dealing with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and total physical exhaustion. Because of that, I didn't take anything for about a week before sticking with the Risperdal. I used to take 3mg, then 2mg, and for the last five months, I've been on 1mg. To be honest, at 1mg, I feel like I'm taking nothing at all. Meanwhile, a friend of mine told me he nearly passed out on the sidewalk walking home because the dose hit him so hard! Maybe those years of Lexapro, Modane, and Artane just left me permanently dazed, because I truly have no idea if this Risperdal is doing anything for me. These days, I'm on VA disability and don't work. I spend almost all my time online, sleep constantly—though I struggle to fall asleep initially—and once I do go under, I'm out for 12 hours straight. I usually don't roll out of bed until 2 PM, and I'm useless until I've had a couple of coffees and a few cigarettes. I tend to feel best in the evening, which makes going to bed a real chore. As for the future? I don't have any plans or ambitions. I'm basically just waiting for the VA to process my retirement. It’s ridiculous: I’ve had three different psychiatrists write that I am completely unfit for any kind of employment, yet the disability board somehow ruled that I’m capable of working full-time as an advisor. On top of that, this new private psychiatrist I saw claimed that using Risperdal is "weak" therapy and warned that if I were actually schizophrenic rather than just having had one psychotic episode seven years ago, this medication wouldn't even hold me together.

Happy New Year 🙂

Regarding the whole issue of work capacity—do you honestly believe you’re incapable of working? Because I’m right there with the commission on this one—get back to work! 🙂