Schizophrenia - General Discussion

Does anyone have a particularly gripping delusion they’d care to share with the group?🙂

Larry Lewis said:Does anyone have a particularly gripping delusion they’d care to share with the group?🙂

Where do I even begin? 🤷

How’s it going, my friends?

Eric Mitchell55 said:How’s it going, my friends?

Here we have someone who gets genuinely depressed when a thread starts to fade into obscurity—it’s almost poetic, really. Where is everyone else? Given my circle of similarly unhinged friends, I'd wager they're all currently checked into a psychiatric ward somewhere in the Midwest.😢

Larry Lewis said:Here we have someone who gets genuinely depressed when a thread starts to fade into obscurity—it’s almost poetic, really. Where is everyone else? Given my circle of similarly unhinged friends, I'd wager they're all currently checked into a psychiatric ward somewhere in the Midwest.😢

Let's hope it doesn't come to that. 🤷

I had a close friend who was perfectly fine until he hit 27, at which point the paranoia set in, eventually leading to a schizophrenia diagnosis.
My colleague had spent years exhibiting a certain detachment from everything—he was essentially emotionless, just completely flat about life. He used to smoke weed quite frequently, and I only realized much later how closely cannabis use is linked to the onset of schizophrenia... he seems to be doing alright now, though.

I have a question that feels far too trivial to warrant its own thread, so I thought it might be most appropriate to post it here instead. If a moderator feels this belongs elsewhere, please feel free to move it.

If an individual experiences a premonition or believes they are on the verge of a mental health crisis—despite having no prior history of psychiatric issues—is it possible for them to receive any meaningful assistance through telephone support alone if they visit an urgent psychiatric clinic?

I ask because I know someone living with a disability who confided in me that she attempted to seek such support over the weekend. She lives in a rural area and simply could not arrange transportation to a hospital. She told me that the doctor on duty refused to engage in a detailed conversation with her over the phone, insisting instead that she come in for an evaluation immediately, even without a referral for her first visit. This was despite her explaining clearly that she was physically unable to make the trip to the facility.

The crisis manifested as intense anxiety, auditory buzzing, indistinct voices, hand tremors, and extreme dryness and pallor in her mouth and face, along with significant irritability. Eventually, the sensation of the crisis subsided, but she told me she came dangerously close to "crossing the line."

She only opened up to me because her housemates noticed her distress and urged her to talk to me. Naturally, I found myself powerless to offer anything more than my heartfelt empathy.

Eric Mitchell55 said:Let's hope it doesn't come to that. 🤷

I’m hoping for the best too. Honestly, this summer has been a bit grim—so many of my female friends have ended up spending their vacation in the hospital. Just a few days ago, another girl I know was admitted. It seems like everyone is constantly complaining about how they aren't feeling up to par, or some variation of that story. Since I'm currently in remission, I’ll admit—sometimes hearing about everyone else's struggles gets to me; it drags me back to those dark times when I was the one suffering. Still, I always listen.
In fact, looking back at when I was really struggling—and believe me, I was struggling for a long, long time—the worst part was having absolutely no one to talk to. I used to carry this misguided belief that you just had to swallow your feelings, keep everything bottled up inside, and fight through the darkness entirely on your own.

What I'm trying to get at is that you can't truly heal if you don't purge those thoughts from your system and convince yourself of a better reality—but it feels like my friends are just spinning their wheels. I don't know a single person dealing with this illness or anything even remotely similar who actually has a hobby or something meaningful to occupy their time, which is a massive missed opportunity. Instead, some of them just sleep until 3:00 PM and then sit around wondering why they still feel like garbage.

By the way, it has been quite some time since we last had a forum member struggling with those intrusive thoughts about having to consume animal organs because they believed microchips were being implanted in them...

I truly hope he has recovered, found the right medication regimen, and is doing well now.

Nicole Barrett76 said:By the way, it has been quite some time since we last had a forum member struggling with those intrusive thoughts about having to consume animal organs because they believed microchips were being implanted in them...

I truly hope he has recovered, found the right medication regimen, and is doing well now.

Good grief, that guy actually used to creep me out. It was the first time I'd ever even heard of someone spiraling like that.

Calling all the schizos and anyone else out there feeling just as fractured! How’s everyone holding up? Are you currently riding a wave of remission, sinking into a depressive episode, or stuck in some other dark corner of the mind? Personally, I’m doing alright—passable, really—but let's be honest, there’s always room for improvement.

I can't help but feel a bit envious of Lexi because she seems to have things much more figured out than I do... you know how it is, Lexi 🙂

I'm doing okay, I guess. Just stuck in a bit of a funk lately. Is this just part of the deal with this illness?? Is it even normal to be on antidepressants while dealing with schizophrenia?

Henry Garcia9 said:I'm doing okay, I guess. Just stuck in a bit of a funk lately. Is this just part of the deal with this illness?? Is it even normal to be on antidepressants while dealing with schizophrenia?

Look, I’m on antidepressants myself, and I’ve been diagnosed with F20—plus a few other similar things as well.

That depressive phase is just brutal... I was right there in the thick of it myself once, but now I've drifted into what you might call a remission—it’s a bit more stable, at least.

I’m actually on antidepressants myself right now. 🙂

Larry Lewis 😛

Eric Mitchell55 said:I’m actually on antidepressants myself right now. 🙂

Larry Lewis 😛

And you have the nerve to brag about it 😛

Henry Garcia9 said:I'm doing okay, I guess. Just stuck in a bit of a funk lately. Is this just part of the deal with this illness?? Is it even normal to be on antidepressants while dealing with schizophrenia?

I believe this is indeed a normal phenomenon. In the clinical treatment of schizophrenia, physicians occasionally prescribe medications that function simultaneously as both antipsychotics and antidepressants. While my medical knowledge isn't absolute, I believe such drugs often fall under the piperazine class.

I believe Melperone might be one such example.

In any case, if anyone feels inclined, please feel free to research this matter more deeply.

Henry Garcia9 said:I'm doing okay, I guess. Just stuck in a bit of a funk lately. Is this just part of the deal with this illness?? Is it even normal to be on antidepressants while dealing with schizophrenia?

Whenever I find my way back to this forum after a long break, I always make sure to check in on this specific thread...

Henry, what you're experiencing is completely normal for this condition; there's actually a formal diagnosis for it called post-schizophrenic depression. I was actually in the hospital for this during my last stay.

If I were to try and offer a logical explanation for why this happens... when we are in a state of psychosis, we aren't typically feeling depressed at all; instead, it's usually the exact opposite, where we feel hyperactive or manic. Once we take antipsychotics, things settle down, and if the medication is keeping the illness under control without being too heavy-handed, we start to feel somewhat normal. However, as the illness recedes over time, those medications can sometimes feel overwhelming, leaving us feeling depressed or just totally drained of energy. There are generally two ways to handle this: tapering down the antipsychotics or adding an antidepressant to the regimen. While antidepressants and antipsychotics don't have perfectly opposing effects, the reality is that the former lifts your mood, whereas the latter tends to lower it or, more accurately, stabilize it. Reducing the antipsychotics can run the risk of causing a relapse, so sometimes it’s actually better to just introduce an additional medication to help boost your mood.
That's just my layman's take on it, though if anyone here with more medical expertise has a better way of explaining it, please do weigh in.

As for me, I've been taking Effexor XR at 150 mg, and I'm quite happy with how it works for me.

I have a family member struggling with schizophrenia, and honestly, I suspect he’s dealing with one of the more severe variations. Is there even such a thing as a "mild" version? It feels like an all-or-nothing nightmare.
He’s incredibly asocial, too. When his father isn't around—the only person he actually listens to, mostly out of pure fear—he can be downright abusive. I’m talking about how he treats his mother; he’s vulgar and, well, you know, completely defiant. Sometimes he’ll just fixate on someone, staring them down for what feels like hours. On the rare occasions when he hits a better phase—which, let's face it, is extremely rare—he’s actually quite talkative and surprisingly witty. But most of the time, he seems... how should I put this? Forgive my bluntness... slowed down? He drags out his words and speaks at a snail's pace. And the lack of coherence is frequent. A few times now, he’s sat with me telling these elaborate stories about things that never actually happened, then pointing toward his bedroom door and asking if "that thing" took place right there. He's also been caught kicking cats and hitting dogs. We can't leave him alone for a single second. This all started back in his teens, and in my opinion—and please excuse my lack of medical expertise—there is simply no worse mental illness than this. I just... I felt like I had to get this off my chest. 😁

James Cooper23 said:I have a family member struggling with schizophrenia, and honestly, I suspect he’s dealing with one of the more severe variations. Is there even such a thing as a "mild" version? It feels like an all-or-nothing nightmare.
He’s incredibly asocial, too. When his father isn't around—the only person he actually listens to, mostly out of pure fear—he can be downright abusive. I’m talking about how he treats his mother; he’s vulgar and, well, you know, completely defiant. Sometimes he’ll just fixate on someone, staring them down for what feels like hours. On the rare occasions when he hits a better phase—which, let's face it, is extremely rare—he’s actually quite talkative and surprisingly witty. But most of the time, he seems... how should I put this? Forgive my bluntness... slowed down? He drags out his words and speaks at a snail's pace. And the lack of coherence is frequent. A few times now, he’s sat with me telling these elaborate stories about things that never actually happened, then pointing toward his bedroom door and asking if "that thing" took place right there. He's also been caught kicking cats and hitting dogs. We can't leave him alone for a single second. This all started back in his teens, and in my opinion—and please excuse my lack of medical expertise—there is simply no worse mental illness than this. I just... I felt like I had to get this off my chest. 😁

Have any of you explored integrating alternative therapies alongside standard antipsychotic medications? For instance, would administering high doses of niacin 3000—perhaps between 3000 and 4500 mg—combined with various B-complex vitamins, perhaps in increments of several hundred to 1000 mg, be worth investigating?

Such protocols are suggested by hospitals in Saskatchewan and the Linus Pauling Institute.