Schizophrenia - General Discussion

Noah Garcia4 said:Has anyone else here noticed, heard, or perhaps experienced firsthand that psychiatrists tend to start patients off on those older-generation medications first, only moving toward the newer atypical antipsychotics—like Seroquel, for instance—once the old stuff fails to do the trick?
I’ve heard that’s the standard playbook, and honestly, I’ve felt that cycle playing out with my own treatment, though since my meds are constantly being shuffled around, I can't say for certain if there's a definitive pattern at work. ☕

I never imagined I would find myself defending psychiatrists—perhaps I missed my morning dose of 😁—but this is simply how clinical practice functions. You begin with one option, and if it proves ineffective, you move to the next. It is highly probable that older doctors were trained primarily on the legacy drugs, so they start there, pivoting to newer alternatives only when necessary as they continue searching for a solution.

wiredmason56 said:Hehe, people would probably be wondering what's actually going on with them. A buddy told me about back in high school, he and his friend decided to mess around and snatch a couple of pills. They hopped on a subway, just grabbed onto the overhead rails, and ended up stuck in that exact same position for hours... totally out of it. And man, that thing where your eyelids roll back? I bet some people would call an exorcist if they saw that...😂

The side effects listed on a medication insert aren't a guaranteed itinerary for any single patient; it is merely a catalog of possibilities rather than a definitive list of what one will endure upon starting a prescription. Furthermore, my grandmother was ninety-two, whereas everyone discussing this here is quite young, and the way a body absorbs and metabolizes medication differs fundamentally between the elderly and the youth.

The point is that medical supervision is essential, which wasn't the case for my grandmother.

Besides, all the other "standard" antipsychotics carry their own lengthy lists of peculiar side effects, which in my experience were only mitigated quickly because I happened to be in a hospital setting.

As some of you might already be aware, my mother-in-law is struggling with residual schizophrenia (F20.5).

Things have taken a turn for the worse over these last few months. We have tried everything in our power, but nothing seems to be working.
She has become incredibly withdrawn; she really only speaks if we actively prompt her to. She’s completely socially isolated now. All she wants to do is lie around and smoke. She is unable to work, and frankly, she can't even manage basic personal hygiene on her own anymore. Her eating habits are erratic—she doesn't even chew properly, which led to a terrifying moment where she nearly choked. Her concentration is almost non-existent. This decline has been quite drastic over the past year...

So, I suppose I should get to the core of why I am posting here, as I am truly in need of some perspective or advice...
We went ahead with a psychological evaluation, but unfortunately, her psychiatrist is out on medical leave for another two weeks, and the situation has become quite critical.

The psychological report states the following:
"TEST RESULTS indicate borderline cognitive and mnemonic functioning in the subject.
On perceptual testing, there is noticeable impairment in fine psychomotor skills, characterized by pronounced tremors and perseveration. Such effects confirm organic changes. Visual memory is diminished, as is overall intellectual efficiency. Crucially, there is a significant reduction in the capacity for concentration, attention, and mental flexibility. Thought processes occur primarily at a concrete level.
Personality questionnaires reveal numerous responses indicating psychoneurotic disturbances, particularly hypersensitive and depressive traits. There is a very high degree of psychotic tendencies present, with more pronounced paranoid features.

Now, the issue is that her psychiatrist is currently on leave. The local hospital has recommended and provided a referral for an emergency inpatient admission. She is strictly adherent to her medication regimen under my direct supervision (taking 100 mg of Faverin once nightly and 10 mg of Olandix once nightly), yet despite this treatment, all of these symptoms persist.

I feel so heavy-hearted.😢

wiredmason56 said:Man, I guess that’s just my luck lately. My headspace has been all over the place. I wouldn't say I'm feeling totally depressed anymore—well, okay, that depends on which day you catch me—but those intrusive thoughts? They’re relentless. It’s like they take over. Nighttime is always the absolute worst part of the day. As soon as I try to settle in, these thoughts start circling my brain like sharks. They’re my own thoughts, obviously, but they get so loud that I can't seem to shut them out. It's like having a radio stuck on full volume in a small room. Eventually, I just have to take some Lorsilan il Rivotril to quiet everything down so I can finally drift off.

I deal with those intrusive thoughts too, so I have a pretty good idea of what you're going through. Personally, they caused absolute chaos in my head for a long time—total wreckage—but after years of fighting them, things have stabilized somewhat. It took me years of grinding it out to finally get them under any kind of control.

😂 God, if you only knew the absolute circus of posts I used to churn out
. Honestly, looking back at that, I actually had a good laugh right there in the middle of the street—now I’m just left wondering how on earth I’m ever going to recapture that specific brand of chaotic creativity 🤣.

Larry Lewis said:I deal with those intrusive thoughts too, so I have a pretty good idea of what you're going through. Personally, they caused absolute chaos in my head for a long time—total wreckage—but after years of fighting them, things have stabilized somewhat. It took me years of grinding it out to finally get them under any kind of control.

Hey, does this ever happen to you? Like, you wake up in the middle of the night after a weird dream, and you’re just terrified to go back to sleep, even though you're exhausted. But then, when you close your eyes, it isn't just darkness... it's like these distorted faces start appearing, you know? Just creepy, demonic eyes everywhere. So I end up snapping my eyes open, over and over again, until I'm eventually too tired to fight it anymore...

wiredmason56 said:Hey, does this ever happen to you? Like, you wake up in the middle of the night after a weird dream, and you’re just terrified to go back to sleep, even though you're exhausted. But then, when you close your eyes, it isn't just darkness... it's like these distorted faces start appearing, you know? Just creepy, demonic eyes everywhere. So I end up snapping my eyes open, over and over again, until I'm eventually too tired to fight it anymore...

I experienced something very similar when I first started practicing meditation, particularly during that phase of my life when I was still grappling with a heavy sense of resentment and fear. It felt as though those internal anxieties were simply manifesting visually, much like how a storm cloud might reflect the turbulence of the atmosphere. Once I began the process of making peace with my past, those visions gradually faded away.

My doctor recently decided to scale back my Zyprexa to 2.5 mg, hoping it might give me a bit more energy during the day. I also tried to reset my internal clock by staying up a little later and forcing myself to wake up early for a few days, but honestly, it didn't go quite as planned. I started noticing some subtle signs of psychosis creeping back in over the last few days, so I ended up having to bump my dosage back up to 5 mg. Now, while I'm sleeping a little longer, my dreams have become absolutely wild—they’re incredibly vivid and full of detail, even if they don't make any sense at all, and I remember every single thing about them. I went through something similar after that intense psychotic episode I had before I was fully stabilized. Has anyone else dealing with psychosis experienced this kind of intense dreaming?

Harold Anderson3 said:My doctor recently decided to scale back my Zyprexa to 2.5 mg, hoping it might give me a bit more energy during the day. I also tried to reset my internal clock by staying up a little later and forcing myself to wake up early for a few days, but honestly, it didn't go quite as planned. I started noticing some subtle signs of psychosis creeping back in over the last few days, so I ended up having to bump my dosage back up to 5 mg. Now, while I'm sleeping a little longer, my dreams have become absolutely wild—they’re incredibly vivid and full of detail, even if they don't make any sense at all, and I remember every single thing about them. I went through something similar after that intense psychotic episode I had before I was fully stabilized. Has anyone else dealing with psychosis experienced this kind of intense dreaming?

Honestly, even 5mg of Zyprexa is basically nothing—I’m sitting here on 20mg

And as for those dreams... what even is a "logical" dream? 😁

David Vaughn75 said:Honestly, even 5mg of Zyprexa is basically nothing—I’m sitting here on 20mg

And as for those dreams... what even is a "logical" dream? 😁

Oh, I should probably mention that I'm also taking 25 mg of Risperdal. We aren't touching the dosage for the Risperdal, but I am playing around with the Zyprexa a little bit. Honestly, I feel like I could turn any one of my dreams into a full-blown story. Some of them are actually intense enough to wake me up in the middle of the night. I was wondering if maybe there might be some connection there to the psychosis.🤷

Harold Anderson3 said:Oh, I should probably mention that I'm also taking 25 mg of Risperdal. We aren't touching the dosage for the Risperdal, but I am playing around with the Zyprexa a little bit. Honestly, I feel like I could turn any one of my dreams into a full-blown story. Some of them are actually intense enough to wake me up in the middle of the night. I was wondering if maybe there might be some connection there to the psychosis.🤷

But look, it's not just the psychosis itself—it's the whole damn package deal. Once you're dealing with mental illness, you start spiraling about the diagnosis and how much it's gonna wreck your life.

That total dissatisfaction with life? That's actually way worse than the psychosis. Because at the end of the day, the world is real, and there isn't a pill for reality.

wiredmason56 said:Hey, does this ever happen to you? Like, you wake up in the middle of the night after a weird dream, and you’re just terrified to go back to sleep, even though you're exhausted. But then, when you close your eyes, it isn't just darkness... it's like these distorted faces start appearing, you know? Just creepy, demonic eyes everywhere. So I end up snapping my eyes open, over and over again, until I'm eventually too tired to fight it anymore...

A few years back, I used to deal with this constantly—that paralyzing fear of drifting off again. These days, my dreams are fine; it's just getting enough actual sleep that's become the struggle.
Honestly, I've been walking around all day with this gnawing anxiety because I think I might have coughed up a bit of blood—though, to be fair, I can't say for certain if it actually was blood or just something else. I called everyone I know who smokes as heavily as I do, and they all tried to convince me it was nothing. I guess I'll just wait until tomorrow morning to see what happens when I cough, since it doesn't happen every single day.
It would be such a cruel, twisted irony if I were diagnosed with cancer right now, just when things have finally started to stabilize for me.

God, man... you can never truly catch a break, can you?

What am I supposed to do when cigarettes are the one damn vice I have, and I simply cannot quit them.

David Vaughn75 said:But look, it's not just the psychosis itself—it's the whole damn package deal. Once you're dealing with mental illness, you start spiraling about the diagnosis and how much it's gonna wreck your life.

That total dissatisfaction with life? That's actually way worse than the psychosis. Because at the end of the day, the world is real, and there isn't a pill for reality.

What scares me most is the idea that everyone knows I have schizophrenia—even people who haven't even met me.🤣

Noah Garcia4 said:What scares me most is the idea that everyone knows I have schizophrenia—even people who haven't even met me.🤣

+1 🤣

Anyway, looking at this thread, I see some folks are still on relatively low doses of their meds—I wish I were there yet. 😁
My psychiatrist told me she isn't going to give up on me until we get me down to just one single type of pill, so... well, we'll see how it goes. 🙂

Eric Mitchell55 said:+1 🤣

Anyway, looking at this thread, I see some folks are still on relatively low doses of their meds—I wish I were there yet. 😁
My psychiatrist told me she isn't going to give up on me until we get me down to just one single type of pill, so... well, we'll see how it goes. 🙂

Hey girl, when are you coming to visit Washington, D.C.?

David Vaughn75 said:Hey girl, when are you coming to visit Washington, D.C.?

I’ll definitely be getting lost somewhere in Washington, D.C. for a few days this June, if not sooner.
As for anything before then, I haven't really mapped anything out yet—we'll just have to see. Maybe I'll pop in for a weekend sometime 🙂

David Vaughn75 said:But look, it's not just the psychosis itself—it's the whole damn package deal. Once you're dealing with mental illness, you start spiraling about the diagnosis and how much it's gonna wreck your life.

That total dissatisfaction with life? That's actually way worse than the psychosis. Because at the end of the day, the world is real, and there isn't a pill for reality.

Personally, I’ve always felt that a little bit of madness can actually be a good thing if you keep it in check.
I've always had a pretty wild imagination, and I think that's fine, but things only get messy when you lose your grip on the boundaries. 😉

Eric Mitchell55 said:+1 🤣

Anyway, looking at this thread, I see some folks are still on relatively low doses of their meds—I wish I were there yet. 😁
My psychiatrist told me she isn't going to give up on me until we get me down to just one single type of pill, so... well, we'll see how it goes. 🙂

😬

down to just one type... yeah, that'll be the day. 🤣

Harold Anderson3 said:Personally, I’ve always felt that a little bit of madness can actually be a good thing if you keep it in check.
I've always had a pretty wild imagination, and I think that's fine, but things only get messy when you lose your grip on the boundaries. 😉

The real trick is being able to tell where your creative spark ends and actual illness begins.

If we can actually master that distinction, we can live pretty damn great lives even while dealing with schizophrenia.

Larry Lewis said:A few years back, I used to deal with this constantly—that paralyzing fear of drifting off again. These days, my dreams are fine; it's just getting enough actual sleep that's become the struggle.
Honestly, I've been walking around all day with this gnawing anxiety because I think I might have coughed up a bit of blood—though, to be fair, I can't say for certain if it actually was blood or just something else. I called everyone I know who smokes as heavily as I do, and they all tried to convince me it was nothing. I guess I'll just wait until tomorrow morning to see what happens when I cough, since it doesn't happen every single day.
It would be such a cruel, twisted irony if I were diagnosed with cancer right now, just when things have finally started to stabilize for me.

God, man... you can never truly catch a break, can you?

What am I supposed to do when cigarettes are the one damn vice I have, and I simply cannot quit them.

I’ve noticed I’ve been smoking way more lately too, especially with my coffee. I even find myself lighting up in the middle of the night—like, I'll wake up, grab some water, and immediately reach for a cigarette, which is something I never used to do... And I keep telling myself I'll quit, but nothing ever happens. I really want to do it for my health, mostly, plus I'm basically just throwing money into a cloud of smoke. That thing about coughing up blood might not mean anything at all; a friend of mine used to cough up blood, and even some black stuff (probably just tar), but he went to the doctor and everything turned out fine. Though, of course, his doctor told him he needs to quit smoking—what else would they say?🙄My throat usually hurts in the morning, but thank God I'm not coughing. I heard it's good for smokers to drink plenty of milk, like at least a quart a day, but I'm not a big milk person. I really only drink it in my coffee, and I go through liters of coffee...☕

wiredmason56 said:I’ve noticed I’ve been smoking way more lately too, especially with my coffee. I even find myself lighting up in the middle of the night—like, I'll wake up, grab some water, and immediately reach for a cigarette, which is something I never used to do... And I keep telling myself I'll quit, but nothing ever happens. I really want to do it for my health, mostly, plus I'm basically just throwing money into a cloud of smoke. That thing about coughing up blood might not mean anything at all; a friend of mine used to cough up blood, and even some black stuff (probably just tar), but he went to the doctor and everything turned out fine. Though, of course, his doctor told him he needs to quit smoking—what else would they say?🙄My throat usually hurts in the morning, but thank God I'm not coughing. I heard it's good for smokers to drink plenty of milk, like at least a quart a day, but I'm not a big milk person. I really only drink it in my coffee, and I go through liters of coffee...☕

Thank God there wasn't any more blood, which means I can just keep right on smoking.🙂
Maya, look—if you think you can quit, then go for it. I've tried, believe me, but I simply don't have the willpower for it. It's just not in my nature. I actually decided that starting New Year's, I wouldn't touch alcohol at all, and I've stuck to it—watching my buddies down drinks and realizing I don't even care for it anymore—but cigarettes? That's an entirely different beast.
The very first thing I do when I get up in the morning is, naturally, light one up. It's a nightmare, truly...

Anyway, I wanted to ask you all—does your health actually improve once the warm weather rolls in? For me, it does, significantly. But then late winter and autumn hit, and I'm back in a major slump.