Not sure

Dear Pip,

Welcome to the forums! Thanks for having the courage to share so openly and honestly.

Well you're certainly in the right place to be real about mental illness and the trials of finding help appropriate to your needs. We're a pretty caring bunch I must say, although I'm a bit out of it myself at the moment. It sounds like you have a huge amount on your plate and are managing extraordinarily well with minimal support.

I can really relate to some of what you say, especially about meds not helping much or side effects being worse. But I've got bipolar - I wonder if @kenny66 can relate better & might have any thoughts? (I hope you are travelling better now Kenny)

Pip you might try using the search function to find some of the threads around on things like schizophrenia & medications. You are welcome to ask the rest of us any questions you'd like. You can address a question in a post to another forum member as I've done above with kenny by starting the username with an @ symbol first. That will send the person an email notification. If they're up to it then I'm sure they'll respond.

I'm glad to hear you aren't feeling suicidal & I really hope that you find some of us you can connect with here. Being part of a group who "get" it can make a big difference.

Kindest regards,

Kristin

Hi Pip

Well I have schizophrenia too, or more accurately schizoaffective disorder. Mine is a fairly severe form but even so I am fairly high functioning mostly. I envy that you can work and look after your family. You are so gifted with this.

Yes schizophrenia is really hard to deal with. Meds or no meds is impossible to answer. When I have been off my medication (which I sometimes do) I cant say my life is under control, so I don't enjoy it. Its really about quality of life with me. I have very little quality of life unmedicated and I cant be a functioning member of society when I am like that.

On the other side I wont take medication that knocks me out like a zombie-so its getting the balance that I can live with. My regime took 3 years to get right so now I medicate morning-mid morning-lunch-afternoon and night. Sticking to the correct med regime is critical I find.

It keeps the hallucinations at bay and all the other stuff that can go with schizophrenia.This works great for me but everyone is different of course. I strongly resisted mental health professionals telling me how to make me better for a long time. I just stayed sick until I got onto the right program.

If you don't want to medicate, and these reasons are important to you, then only you are in control of that decision. So I guess I am saying its important to weigh up how your quality of life is under both scenarios. There is plenty of community health support and groups who help people who do not want to medicate for various reasons so you might want to talk to them.

Its all about informed choice and you should also definitely involve your psychiatrist and mental health team into your thinking on this before deciding on an outcome.

On balance if medication works well, and in my case it does, then I made the choice to medicate.

Hi @Pip09

It would be hard to make a big decision about meds when you feel the way you're going is the best that it's going to be. For me, the line is whether it's impacting/restricting every day life. What you have described of your day to day life sounds very overwhelming for you.

What if the focus was taken off just the medication? Could trying different therapies help? From what I understand, a combination of treatments that work together, can really help. I'm not sure what else you have tried before, but could visiting a psychologist add a new dimension to your treatment plan?

Also - just wanted to let you know, the 'bad words' (terrible name, but we can amend it) filter won't let people mention specific medications. The Community Guidelines highlight that discussing specific medications is discourage. You can read more here.

NikNik

Hi Nik
My MHN does not focus on medication as such. He mentions it every time I see him and says that he recommends that I start back. Then he leaves it be being my ultimate decision which then continues to support. His reasoning being that this new medication works so much better. It may. It may not. I do not know but what I do know is, it requires me letting go of what I considerer an massive invasive of privacy.

In regards to new therapies. It is seriously a big deal that anyone knows and would not be comfortable starting therapies, meeting new people, telling them about myself. I am not happy the MHN and psychiatrist know.