Schizophrenia - General Discussion

Tyler Jackson6 said:I've only seen it in their presentations.
It’s basically aimed at younger folks in those early stages of psychosis who absolutely refuse to swallow pills. As far as side effects go—insomnia can be brutal.

From what I've seen in practice: aripiprazole isn't really a powerhouse antipsychotic on its own, so you rarely see it used as a solo act. It's usually paired up with Risperdal or Zyprexa to help dial down the side effects of those heavier hitters.

Thanks so much for getting back to me. This specific treatment plan follows an Abilify course and will be given once a month—a 300mg injection as a monotherapy.

Well, I just felt the need to share a little update with everyone! I’ve been in a stable period of remission for quite some time now—which, honestly, I am just incredibly thrilled about. Of course, I still find myself hoping for even better days ahead; maybe there will come a point where I can finally step away from the medication entirely—though, then again, perhaps I should just stay grateful for exactly where I am right now and stop asking for more. Ah... who knows, right? But anyway, I wanted to check in and see how the rest of you are doing with your F20 diagnoses?

Angela Stewart6 said:Well, I just felt the need to share a little update with everyone! I’ve been in a stable period of remission for quite some time now—which, honestly, I am just incredibly thrilled about. Of course, I still find myself hoping for even better days ahead; maybe there will come a point where I can finally step away from the medication entirely—though, then again, perhaps I should just stay grateful for exactly where I am right now and stop asking for more. Ah... who knows, right? But anyway, I wanted to check in and see how the rest of you are doing with your F20 diagnoses?

I’ve been pretty consistent with my meds, though I actually ended up spending both Christmas and New Year's Day hospitalized over in Brooklyn. The whole trick with antipsychotics is finding that sweet spot in therapy where you slow down brain activity enough to stay out of psychosis, but not so much that you end up feeling totally sluggish and wiped out. To be honest, my three-week stay wasn't even triggered by a full-blown psychotic episode (though one was definitely looming in the background), it was mostly just about fine-tuning my prescription. I'm doing okay now.
As far as a total recovery goes, they say about 20% of people with schizophrenia manage to go off their meds entirely; I know for a fact I'm not in that group, but only time will tell if you'll be one of those 5...

Harold Anderson3 said:I’ve been pretty consistent with my meds, though I actually ended up spending both Christmas and New Year's Day hospitalized over in Brooklyn. The whole trick with antipsychotics is finding that sweet spot in therapy where you slow down brain activity enough to stay out of psychosis, but not so much that you end up feeling totally sluggish and wiped out. To be honest, my three-week stay wasn't even triggered by a full-blown psychotic episode (though one was definitely looming in the background), it was mostly just about fine-tuning my prescription. I'm doing okay now.
As far as a total recovery goes, they say about 20% of people with schizophrenia manage to go off their meds entirely; I know for a fact I'm not in that group, but only time will tell if you'll be one of those 5...

Yeah, I totally get where you're coming from. How long have you been living with the diagnosis? I find myself hesitating about the medication because, on one hand, I feel like I might actually function more normally without them—but then again, there's that undeniable need for them to stay stable.

Angela Stewart6 said:Yeah, I totally get where you're coming from. How long have you been living with the diagnosis? I find myself hesitating about the medication because, on one hand, I feel like I might actually function more normally without them—but then again, there's that undeniable need for them to stay stable.

It's been about 7.5 years for me, and I'm 29 now. I suppose if you look at it a certain way, maybe life would feel faster or a bit more upbeat without them, but honestly, staying grounded in reality feels much, much more important than just being a little more cheerful or high-energy. Plus, if you've recently gone through a psychotic episode, you're usually on a pretty heavy regimen right now that will gradually taper down over time, though completely stopping everything altogether... well, that's a tough one to call.

People tend to overthink the diagnosis part. Honestly, if it’s just pneumonia or a bad cold, nobody gives it a second thought once they're feeling better. These days, the diagnoses that really stick with you—the ones that actually haunt people—are cancer. I personally know someone who managed to pull through that whole nightmare, and they don't talk about it much. With psychiatric labels, though, it feels like the diagnosis is mostly about how the people around you react; most folks just stare at you blankly, totally clueless. Everyone assumes that kind of stuff only happens to other people, thinking it'll never touch them, which is exactly why the stigma is so heavy. In the end, those same people often wind up in a psych ward themselves—maybe because of a bout of pneumonia, or even because of heart issues, like some of the folks I was on the ward with back in the day. About 30 or 40 years ago, if you slipped out of touch with reality, there was a good chance you'd never be brought back. But Dennis, somehow, everyone eventually finds their way back to reality.

Laura Castillo6 said:People tend to overthink the diagnosis part. Honestly, if it’s just pneumonia or a bad cold, nobody gives it a second thought once they're feeling better. These days, the diagnoses that really stick with you—the ones that actually haunt people—are cancer. I personally know someone who managed to pull through that whole nightmare, and they don't talk about it much. With psychiatric labels, though, it feels like the diagnosis is mostly about how the people around you react; most folks just stare at you blankly, totally clueless. Everyone assumes that kind of stuff only happens to other people, thinking it'll never touch them, which is exactly why the stigma is so heavy. In the end, those same people often wind up in a psych ward themselves—maybe because of a bout of pneumonia, or even because of heart issues, like some of the folks I was on the ward with back in the day. About 30 or 40 years ago, if you slipped out of touch with reality, there was a good chance you'd never be brought back. But Dennis, somehow, everyone eventually finds their way back to reality.

That's true, but then again, people don't sit around ruminating on how they survived a common cold. Maybe we would all find things a little easier to handle if the situation passed completely. Or if we could just forget... oops... well, you can't exactly forget 🙂 but you certainly can accept it.

Harold Anderson3 said:It's been about 7.5 years for me, and I'm 29 now. I suppose if you look at it a certain way, maybe life would feel faster or a bit more upbeat without them, but honestly, staying grounded in reality feels much, much more important than just being a little more cheerful or high-energy. Plus, if you've recently gone through a psychotic episode, you're usually on a pretty heavy regimen right now that will gradually taper down over time, though completely stopping everything altogether... well, that's a tough one to call.

If you don't mind my asking, what’s the longest stretch you've gone without needing to be hospitalized? For me, it’s been about 5 years.

Can someone break down what schizophrenia actually is for me? I think I went through something similar once, but now I’m pretty sure it was something else entirely since I actually know what caused my own issues. Is there like a universal cause for this disorder, or does it just hit you out of nowhere, totally out of the blue?

So, like three years ago, I almost ended up hospitalized. This junior psychiatrist I was talking to after getting my referral didn't even bother sending me over to the psych ward at the Mayo Clinic; instead, he literally personally escorted me straight to the stabilization unit—basically the shock rooms—where they slapped me with Normaball and locked me in there with two other guys just lying in bed. While I was stuck there, I was chatting with this one guy who was clearly high on psych meds, and honestly, I just felt bad for him because he was acting totally demented, constantly asking me the same damn questions over and over while trying to calm me down and tell me everything was fine. He started rattling off all the drugs they were giving him, probably about ten different ones, and apparently none of them actually matched his diagnosis. In that moment, I thought, "Is this happening to me?" and man, no way am I letting them just shovel pills down my throat, so I agreed to take Xarelto (some newer injectable drug that supposedly doesn't have all those nasty side effects). What I found out later was that the head psychiatrist had been talking to my mom, and it was a hair's breadth away from her giving the green light to just throw me in a straitjacket and toss me under lock and key, but luckily she didn't agree to it (and yeah, I was only 28 at the time, so obviously to them, I was considered completely incompetent). That's when I got the first shot, followed by two more. I will never, ever forget that feeling of total numbness from that psych med—this heavy, soul-crushing dullness that felt like it would eventually just turn you into a vegetable. I can't even imagine what it's like dealing with the pills, since that stuff absolutely wrecked me; I don't even want to think about it. After those three injections, I stopped showing up to the psych ward altogether, dealt with my own shit, and let me tell you, I'd rather DIE than ever touch anything like that again. If anyone reading this thinks they have schizophrenia, please, JUST REALLY RECONSIDER, seriously, because jumping into mental health treatment through big pharma is a one-way street—there's no coming back from it.

Sadly, everything said above is 100% spot on

Angela Stewart6 said:If you don't mind my asking, what’s the longest stretch you've gone without needing to be hospitalized? For me, it’s been about 5 years.

Just a heads-up, though—medication isn't some magic shield that prevents every single setback. Antipsychotics come with their own set of side effects and challenges, too. The whole point of staying on a long-term regimen isn't necessarily to feel absolutely perfect every second, but rather to get you stable enough to actually navigate daily life. And honestly, that often includes dealing with the occasional brief psychotic episode every now and then.
I personally went through one major psychotic episode about seven and a half years ago, and it took me over a year to really bounce back from it (including six months spent in a hospital facility). Then, two years later, I had to stay in for two months due to depression, and most recently, I was in for three weeks because my medication wasn't sitting right with me—plus, work stress was piling up, I was struggling at college, and my relationship ended... so, I wouldn't even call this last stint a full-blown hospitalization so much as a quick adjustment to my meds since it was only three weeks.
If I can offer just one piece of advice, it’s this: please don't stop taking your medication or try to taper off the dosage on your own. Even if things eventually lead to a hospital visit, going through it while still being medicated is going to be much more manageable and less intense than trying to face it after quitting your treatment entirely.

Laura Castillo6 said:People tend to overthink the diagnosis part. Honestly, if it’s just pneumonia or a bad cold, nobody gives it a second thought once they're feeling better. These days, the diagnoses that really stick with you—the ones that actually haunt people—are cancer. I personally know someone who managed to pull through that whole nightmare, and they don't talk about it much. With psychiatric labels, though, it feels like the diagnosis is mostly about how the people around you react; most folks just stare at you blankly, totally clueless. Everyone assumes that kind of stuff only happens to other people, thinking it'll never touch them, which is exactly why the stigma is so heavy. In the end, those same people often wind up in a psych ward themselves—maybe because of a bout of pneumonia, or even because of heart issues, like some of the folks I was on the ward with back in the day. About 30 or 40 years ago, if you slipped out of touch with reality, there was a good chance you'd never be brought back. But Dennis, somehow, everyone eventually finds their way back to reality.

You're talking nonsense!

jadetinker32 said:So, like three years ago, I almost ended up hospitalized. This junior psychiatrist I was talking to after getting my referral didn't even bother sending me over to the psych ward at the Mayo Clinic; instead, he literally personally escorted me straight to the stabilization unit—basically the shock rooms—where they slapped me with Normaball and locked me in there with two other guys just lying in bed. While I was stuck there, I was chatting with this one guy who was clearly high on psych meds, and honestly, I just felt bad for him because he was acting totally demented, constantly asking me the same damn questions over and over while trying to calm me down and tell me everything was fine. He started rattling off all the drugs they were giving him, probably about ten different ones, and apparently none of them actually matched his diagnosis. In that moment, I thought, "Is this happening to me?" and man, no way am I letting them just shovel pills down my throat, so I agreed to take Xarelto (some newer injectable drug that supposedly doesn't have all those nasty side effects). What I found out later was that the head psychiatrist had been talking to my mom, and it was a hair's breadth away from her giving the green light to just throw me in a straitjacket and toss me under lock and key, but luckily she didn't agree to it (and yeah, I was only 28 at the time, so obviously to them, I was considered completely incompetent). That's when I got the first shot, followed by two more. I will never, ever forget that feeling of total numbness from that psych med—this heavy, soul-crushing dullness that felt like it would eventually just turn you into a vegetable. I can't even imagine what it's like dealing with the pills, since that stuff absolutely wrecked me; I don't even want to think about it. After those three injections, I stopped showing up to the psych ward altogether, dealt with my own shit, and let me tell you, I'd rather DIE than ever touch anything like that again. If anyone reading this thinks they have schizophrenia, please, JUST REALLY RECONSIDER, seriously, because jumping into mental health treatment through big pharma is a one-way street—there's no coming back from it.

Maybe try dialing back the emotional intensity and looking at this from a more grounded perspective. Generally speaking, when people lack experience in a certain area, they tend to get too caught up in themselves when they talk or write. They become so wrapped up in their own subjectivity that they fail to communicate rational facts or information to those around them. In psychiatric hospitals—especially on acute, locked wards—there are strict protocols for staff behavior for a reason. These rules exist specifically to ensure the safety of the patients themselves.
As for psychopharmacology, the reality is—unfortunately—that medication is often pushed too hard and prescribed far too easily without sufficient psychotherapy. But you can't just blame the psychiatrists; the entire system is flawed. Besides, most of us are hypocrites. If you look closely, plenty of people would just pop a Norman if they felt even a hint of mental discomfort, and many actually beg their doctors for a prescription. And that’s not even mentioning the crowd that abuses these drugs.
Regarding your mention of being 28... just imagine if you had to deal with all of this during your teenage years, or even worse, earlier while you were still practically a child. Imagine if you had been battling schizophrenia since early childhood.

Jeffrey Ramos4 said:Maybe try dialing back the emotional intensity and looking at this from a more grounded perspective. Generally speaking, when people lack experience in a certain area, they tend to get too caught up in themselves when they talk or write. They become so wrapped up in their own subjectivity that they fail to communicate rational facts or information to those around them. In psychiatric hospitals—especially on acute, locked wards—there are strict protocols for staff behavior for a reason. These rules exist specifically to ensure the safety of the patients themselves.
As for psychopharmacology, the reality is—unfortunately—that medication is often pushed too hard and prescribed far too easily without sufficient psychotherapy. But you can't just blame the psychiatrists; the entire system is flawed. Besides, most of us are hypocrites. If you look closely, plenty of people would just pop a Norman if they felt even a hint of mental discomfort, and many actually beg their doctors for a prescription. And that’s not even mentioning the crowd that abuses these drugs.
Regarding your mention of being 28... just imagine if you had to deal with all of this during your teenage years, or even worse, earlier while you were still practically a child. Imagine if you had been battling schizophrenia since early childhood.

Psychiatry as it stands now is basically dying out; just hand someone some pills and kick them out the door without asking questions, which is a terrible way to handle things if you ask me. It’s an approach that's unfortunately dictated by a system that relies on the energy, motivation, and love of professionals, and I'm pretty sure that kind of passion is lacking. In places like Scandinavia, people with mental health struggles are sent out to do social work in nature where they actually take care of them, and they only hospitalize the most extreme cases or people on the edge. Here in the States, it's like they don't even bother to make a distinction, like what's happening in my case. We really ought to be categorizing mental distress better; Robert Torre talked about this, but it feels like he was just talking for nothing. Maybe mental illnesses didn't even exist on this scale or in this form back in the day—there were just people who embodied "madness" and people saw them that way, but those with milder issues weren't viewed differently because they were still being useful.

Harold Anderson3 said:Just a heads-up, though—medication isn't some magic shield that prevents every single setback. Antipsychotics come with their own set of side effects and challenges, too. The whole point of staying on a long-term regimen isn't necessarily to feel absolutely perfect every second, but rather to get you stable enough to actually navigate daily life. And honestly, that often includes dealing with the occasional brief psychotic episode every now and then.
I personally went through one major psychotic episode about seven and a half years ago, and it took me over a year to really bounce back from it (including six months spent in a hospital facility). Then, two years later, I had to stay in for two months due to depression, and most recently, I was in for three weeks because my medication wasn't sitting right with me—plus, work stress was piling up, I was struggling at college, and my relationship ended... so, I wouldn't even call this last stint a full-blown hospitalization so much as a quick adjustment to my meds since it was only three weeks.
If I can offer just one piece of advice, it’s this: please don't stop taking your medication or try to taper off the dosage on your own. Even if things eventually lead to a hospital visit, going through it while still being medicated is going to be much more manageable and less intense than trying to face it after quitting your treatment entirely.

You write well, clearly you've been through the wringer with this stuff. Anyway, I'm not about to change anything without talking to my doctor first because I take this seriously, even though I have some as-needed pills and I'm slowly realizing I don't always need them—sometimes I just have to convince myself they're necessary. But it's all starting to click for me, you know? Like, becoming more aware. You're looking at things pretty realistically.

Jeffrey Ramos4 said:Maybe try dialing back the emotional intensity and looking at this from a more grounded perspective. Generally speaking, when people lack experience in a certain area, they tend to get too caught up in themselves when they talk or write. They become so wrapped up in their own subjectivity that they fail to communicate rational facts or information to those around them. In psychiatric hospitals—especially on acute, locked wards—there are strict protocols for staff behavior for a reason. These rules exist specifically to ensure the safety of the patients themselves.
As for psychopharmacology, the reality is—unfortunately—that medication is often pushed too hard and prescribed far too easily without sufficient psychotherapy. But you can't just blame the psychiatrists; the entire system is flawed. Besides, most of us are hypocrites. If you look closely, plenty of people would just pop a Norman if they felt even a hint of mental discomfort, and many actually beg their doctors for a prescription. And that’s not even mentioning the crowd that abuses these drugs.
Regarding your mention of being 28... just imagine if you had to deal with all of this during your teenage years, or even worse, earlier while you were still practically a child. Imagine if you had been battling schizophrenia since early childhood.

Yeah, I think I read somewhere that we're pretty self-absorbed, but maybe that's not necessarily a bad thing because if you look at someone from the outside, they basically live in their own little world. Trying to force that world to be "objective" might be questionable, because if we draw the wrong conclusions, it's probably just because we're stuck in our own beliefs. We all have our own internal reality; it's just more intense for some people. I guess instead of trying to tear that world down, maybe it's better to just try and fix it where possible.

rich92 said:Basically, I checked myself into a psych ward because of stress and all the crap I was going through just to get some space, right? But I didn't even realize while I was there that they were treating me for something like schizophrenia—nobody even bothered to ask if what I said was actually happening or not. Anyway, after a few days on the locked ward, I had no clue what I was being given; I thought it was just something for stress, but then I got sexual dysfunction immediately on the second day, like my penis just won't get up anymore and there's no sperm, and it's been like that for 9 months now. I eventually got moved to an open ward, didn't talk to the doctor at all, then the next day a nurse shows up with an injection and again, I have no idea what it is, thinking it's more stress meds, but then a few days later I can't sleep at all and find out the drug is Xeplion, which apparently has a ton of side effects, and the best one is insomnia. I tell the doctor during a checkup that I can't sleep, even though nothing else is bothering me too much, and she says I'll get Leponex, and man, that Leponex really knocked me out the same night, but it's such a heavy hitter that once you're out, you couldn't wake you up if a tank drove past your bed, it just pins you to the mattress. But since then, I can't sleep without stuff like Ambien or Leponex. And honestly, everything just went downhill during my stay. When I got home, I thought about stopping the meds, thinking what's the harm, but my mom insisted, saying they told her I had to keep taking them, so I kept taking Leponex every night because I couldn't sleep otherwise, plus that poison Xeplion every month for like 6 months straight, and suddenly when I take the Leponex, I become super irritable and aggressive, my whole body just twists up, it's terrible. Life becomes hell, constant aggressive outbursts, and I start looking into the drugs I was given only to see I was being treated for schizophrenia, which means I should be having visions, hallucinations, hearing voices, and all that, but I never had any of that. Now I don't know if I need to be medicated or if this will just stop, because the way Xeplion and Leponex wrecked me, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. Maybe poisoning me with two antipsychotics was overkill, I don't know, but things with my parents are a total disaster; I don't know how much longer they can deal with the aggression and me hitting stuff around the house, it's an emergency. I'm taking Ambien three times a day just to calm down somehow. Please, I need some professional advice, thanks in advance.

I kinda get where you're coming from, I was on Xeplion back when I ended up in the psych ward and the side effects were so nasty I told myself there's no way, I'm gonna deal with this illness on my own, and luckily it worked, I don't take any meds anymore. From your post, it sounds to me like you need chill pills, not those damn psychotropic drugs. Don't think I'm insulting you or whatever, but look, I smoke weed and there is seriously no better way, there just isssssssssttttttttt NO way, because there are zero symptoms!

Look, people, if you aren't planning on jumping off a building, don't go to a psychiatrist; they're just there to keep you alive and turn you into a vegetable!

Angela Stewart6 said:Yeah, I totally get where you're coming from. How long have you been living with the diagnosis? I find myself hesitating about the medication because, on one hand, I feel like I might actually function more normally without them—but then again, there's that undeniable need for them to stay stable.

Perhaps a middle ground could be found by tapering your dosage, or if that isn't feasible, perhaps you could temporarily pause the specific one you suspect is causing the most side effects.

I certainly won't claim to have all the answers here in America, but until you actually try it—how can you truly know?

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Is anyone else here taking an antidepressant alongside an acid reflux medication? Does the antidepressant maintain its effectiveness when taken in conjunction with a reducer for stomach acid?

Nicole Barrett76 said:Perhaps a middle ground could be found by tapering your dosage, or if that isn't feasible, perhaps you could temporarily pause the specific one you suspect is causing the most side effects.

I certainly won't claim to have all the answers here in America, but until you actually try it—how can you truly know?

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Is anyone else here taking an antidepressant alongside an acid reflux medication? Does the antidepressant maintain its effectiveness when taken in conjunction with a reducer for stomach acid?

Well, I did manage to scale back mine, though it wasn't some overnight transformation—it took plenty of time because I only reduced things as I felt ready to handle it. Eventually, I realized that sometimes there isn't even a real need to change anything; I was just telling myself I had to. To be honest, I don't really suffer from major side effects now—I went through that initial period of adjusting to the medication, and frankly, they've done more good than harm for me. The only thing is that I occasionally feel a bit sluggish, though even that is becoming less frequent. And even then, I can't definitively pin that on the medication itself—it's hard to tell if it's the pills or just my general state of being.

It looks like there’s been a bit of a technical glitch here—it seems my previous posts have somehow been merged directly into lolipop's thread!

Yeah, I definitely realized I got my wires crossed there a little bit 😁
@sunčani cvijet, I can see you've been doing a ton of deep diving into your own diagnosis, and honestly, I think that kind of proactive research is really commendable 👍
In my own life, for instance, my mom also lives with schizophrenia, and watching her navigate it has actually given me a much better roadmap for managing my own journey with the condition. Of course, having all that "insider knowledge" didn't somehow act as a shield to prevent me from developing schizophrenia myself, but it has certainly made the day-to-day struggle feel a lot more manageable. There is so much helpful information available online regarding psychosis, and while things like psychotherapy and talking through things with professionals are absolutely vital, I’ve found that there is something uniquely valuable about personal experience—just learning from your own mistakes and seeing how things play out in real time. I'm rooting for you and truly wish you the very best 😉