Schizophrenia - General Discussion

Taylor Howard36 said:Regarding work capacity—do you honestly believe you're incapable of working? Just like the commission, I say: get to work!🙂

Look, I’d work if I could. And let's be clear, I wouldn't be out there digging trenches; I have a degree in electrical engineering. But I just don't see a future for myself in any job out there. Even if I wanted to, nobody will take me. They actually called me from the Department of Defense to ask if I was interested in a position. I said yes, of course, and then I went through mountains of paperwork. They told me what the salary would look like and gave me a rough idea of my duties. I even signed two non-disclosure agreements promising not to breathe a word about my work to anyone. And you know what their final verdict was? They told me they felt I was too "burdened by the war." Apparently, they need someone who can think about nothing else but the job, and they claimed I would be a distraction. So much for that. That’s how they treat people like us who actually lived through the conflict.

No123 said:Look, I’d work if I could—and honestly, I shouldn't have to be digging ditches—because I’m actually an electrical engineer. But I just can't see myself landing a job anytime soon. Even when I try, nobody wants me. They actually reached out to me from the Department of Defense asking if I was interested, so I said yes, right? Then I spent ages filling out mountains of paperwork. They went over the salary, what my day-to-day would look like, all that stuff... I even signed two non-disclosure agreements promising not to breathe a word about my work. And then, after all that? They told me they thought I was too "burdened by the war"—that they needed someone who would focus solely on the job, and they felt I’d just be a distraction. So, there you have it—that's how they treat people like us who actually lived through the conflict.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa... an electrical engineer... 😍
Stay as far away from the Department of Defense as possible—there's nothing for you there... you're a smart guy who can (and absolutely MUST) find work elsewhere. Find something that actually fits who you are. You pulled off a grueling degree like that; don't let all that effort go to waste. Get back into your field! 🙏

Taylor Howard36 said:ughhhhhhhhhh... look, you're an electrical engineer. 😍
stay far away from the Department of Defense—there’s absolutely nothing for you there. You’re a smart guy who can (and MUST) find actual work. Something that actually suits your skills. You have a heavy-duty degree; don't let all that hard work go to waste. Find something in your field! 🙏

Look, before the war broke out, I was the lead designer for electrical equipment in an electronics R&D team, and it was fantastic. But I haven't worked since I left for the front lines back in '91, so honestly, it feels like I've completely lost my edge.😉

I can tell you quite clearly that true cases of insanity only account for about 20% of those currently carrying a schizophrenia diagnosis. It seems like everything and anything is being shoved under the "schizophrenia" label these days.

...............and I’m betting the actual lunatics are the ones sitting in hospital beds right now.

Taylor Howard36 said:...............and I assume it's the truly crazy ones who end up hospitalized.

The real issue here—and it’s a significant one—is that you rarely encounter a psychiatrist subtle enough to actually read someone's gaze or their body language, things that often communicate far more than any standardized clinical test ever could. For what it's worth, I carry an F23 diagnosis myself.😛

Wishing you nothing but the absolute best in 2007, outoftheblue!!!! 😘

Shayen said:I would love to read one of those books. Could you please write down "who and what"!

Thanks in advance!

The most famous "representatives" are Thomas S. Szasz, the previously mentioned Robert d. Laing, and David Cooper. There are actually quite a few books (REALLY) that have been translated into American English; they were often handled by Ljiljana Filipović, who did a lot of work in this field. Her work tends to be more theoretical compared to the others, who all come directly from within the profession itself. I actually stumbled upon these other names through her master's thesis, "philosophy and anti-psychiatry of Ronald d. Laing"... It's a fascinating area, even though most of them don't strictly consider themselves "anti-psychiatrists"—well, at least Laing doesn't, since he feels that very label was born out of the "normalcy" paradigm.

Anyway, I won't ramble too much, but I dug up a few things for you, including the publisher details:

author : Cooper, David
Title: The language of madness / David Cooper ; translated by Ljiljana Filipović
imprint : New York : Forward, 1986. (New York : " Ognjen Prica "
publishing entity: Psychological Library
Notes: psychological note : The language of madness

author : Cooper, David
Title: Psychiatry and anti-psychiatry / David Cooper ; translated by Ljiljana Bastaić
Edition: 2nd ed
imprint : New York : Forward, 1987. (New York : " Ognjen Prica "
publishing entity: Psychological Library
Notes: Translation of the work: Psychiatry and anti-psychiatry. - Print run: 3000 copies.
Other authors: Bastaić, Ljiljana

author : Szasz, Thomas S.
Title: ideology and madness : article on psychiatric dehumanization of man / Thomas S. Szasz ; [translated by Josip Đaković ]
imprint : New York : Forward, 1980

author : Szasz, Thomas S.
Title: The Making of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the mental health care movement / Thomas S. Szasz ; translation and introduction by Ljiljana Filipović
imprint : [New York] : GZH, 1982. ([New York] : GZH, printing house)

author : Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff
Title: The Tyranny of Psychotherapy / Jeffrey M. Masson ; translated by Dubravko Torjanac
Notes: From : the tyranny of psychotherapy, Berlin, 1993. - thematic block : tyranny of psychotherapy.

And Foucault certainly has something to say from a historical perspective, though naturally, it wasn't translated into American English, but rather into a different dialect:

author : Foucault, Michel
Title: History of Madness in the Age of Classicism / Michel Foucault ; [translated by Jelena Stakić]
imprint : Mexico City : Nolit, 1980
publishing entity: Sazvežđe library ; 70
Notes: Translation of the work: Histoire de la folie a l'age classique / Michel Foucault

So, that should be it. There's more out there, obviously, but the trio mentioned above is probably the most important for grasping the whole phenomenon. My apologies to the original poster if this massive wall of "just listing books" is a bit much. I hope it isn't. Cheers.

outoftheblue said:If we were living in the Middle Ages, she’d probably be chained to a wall right about now.

Or facing a bonfire😁.

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.

Ann Happy New Year's Day😘

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.

F21 jumping in here... 😁

Some days I feel pretty much like a regular person, but then there are those days where the psychosis just hits me out of nowhere. Suddenly, I can’t even string together two coherent words—honestly, it feels just like Malnar's Sheva 😍. I get super paranoid, and under any kind of pressure, my whole thought process just completely falls apart. If someone asks me a simple question, I might go totally numb to everything happening around me (which is REALLY dangerous when I'm driving), or I'll genuinely forget my own name or say something totally nonsensical. 😍 It was actually pretty wild back when I was in the Army; I wouldn't be able to handle a simple task like "hey, grab some matches from the corner store," and five seconds later, I'd be sitting there frustrated because I couldn't remember who sent me or what I was even supposed to do. 😲

Right now, I'm just taking 4x25 mg of Lexapro for depression and about 40 mg of Norvasc before bed... I'm still pretty new to all this medication stuff, even though I've been dealing with these issues for over 15 years. I really wonder if there's a med out there that could stop this sudden mental breakdown, because it doesn't even seem to be triggered by fear. I just end up getting so angry at myself because I can't pull a few logical words out of my brain (and even then, they aren't in the right order 😍).

It's honestly a massive roadblock in my life. The last time I went out looking for work, I sat down for an interview and couldn't even remember the employer's name, what his company actually did, or even the specific job I had applied for. I'm sure I left a real "impressive" impression on them. 😍

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???

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.🙄

...and while we're at it—let's take a quick headcount—exactly how many schizos are actually lurking in this thread? 🙂

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’ve gone through all the posts here.

There's just... man, so much info and everyone seems to have such different takes on this.

My final takeaway? I probably have like a 40% chance of ending up part of this whole family of schizophrenics🙂

It all sounds wonderful on paper, but I wouldn’t go jumping to any conclusions just yet... 😉 Just being cautious, you know?

Someone was bringing up Laing, Cooper, and Foucault earlier...👍

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