Schizophrenia

Hi @Fractured

I'm Arie one of the moderators here on the forums. Firstly I would like to welcome you to the forums and congratulate you on your first post!

The forums are a place where you can connect with others in providing support, share your expereinces and get support from others who have or are going through similar expereinces.

I'm not sure if you have had a chance as yet, but when you get a moment have a look through the community guidelines

Please look around the forum, feel free to contribute on other threads and become part of the online community.

Hi @Fractured, our community guidelines allow you to talk about types of medication (like anti-psychotics or anti-depressants) but not the name of the medication itself. It's just better to talk about specifics with your treatment team.

I live with schizoaffective disorder (which is like a combination of bipolar and schizophrenia at the same time). At the moment my voices are very active. I use a lot of distraction techniques to get by. Having said that, I am totally unable to work at the moment and have to have a low stress environment, in case it causes a flare up in symptoms. I take antipsychotic medication, but it only does so much and the rest is up to me in order to keep 'functional'.

So welcome @Fractured. There are a few threads about schizophrenia and psychosis on the boards. Have a look through and I'm sure you'll find them. 🙂

@Fractured daily life when I am doing okay is not dissimilar to other people who do not have mental health issues. I seem to get by with distraction (art, listening to music, chatting online, doing things I enjoy). The medication is somewhat sedating however and I have to have more than the normal amount of sleep in order to function. Unfortunately a lot of antipsychotics are like that I've learned (I've been on many different ones in order to find ones which will work the best for me).

At the moment I'm in a bit of a slump, so I am struggling a bit. I am oversleeping a lot which is causing problems in my relationships as I'm 'not engaging' and withdrawing a fair bit. I've also got active voices which are telling me self destructive/harm others commands. I'll mention it to my GP tomorrow when I go in to see her. I am coping by using this forum, without it I'd be a lot worse off I think.

I've actually thought about offering my partner to have some time to herself, and go to respite for a few days so I can regroup mentally. The thing is, she doesn't know what goes on in my head unless I tell her and I don't exactly see myself being so forthcoming with information like that at the moment.

I also went and had 10 sessions (under a mental health care plan) with a psychologist. I feel like I learned skills there I could use, like reality self checking (although this is not always possible and sometimes I need to ask for clarification from a source outside my head). I've also had hospital admissions this year (and previous years) for psychotic episodes and depressive episodes.

Coping is difficult but it can be done. Most importantly it is paramount to have a good and safe support system behind you. I didn't have this for years and struggled big time with a lot of hospital admissions and social problems like homelessness and drug abuse.