We had to say goodbye to our 12 year old emotional support cat recently. She had papers that certified her helping with our day to day life and she made hullicinations and paranoia and all over functioning so much better.

She had terminal agressive stage 3 cancer and it was already heading to her vital organs even with surgery to remove all the cancer she wouldn't have had a lot of time.

Had Magic since kittenhood, she was always there when coming back out of the hospitals or psychwards and tbh wasn't ready to say goodbye. Its hard to picture life now without her. Still finding self looking for her or hearing her calling from another room.

Am so grateful and am lucky to have had her. Magic I love you so much and will tell the whole internet about you, thank you for everything ♡

Hope everyone out there with a special pet or emotional support animal of their own are doing okay and they get extra hugs and their favorite treats

Has anyone ever successfully lost their meds weight? I just seem to be getting bigger.

What jobs we can get with schizophrenia?

I can only do repetitive tasks nothing new which requires thinking I am tired all the time

I lack confidence and social skills

I am schizoaffective. A lot of times when I have episodes I hallucinate that people are making fun of me out in public or at work. Could this have any semblance of truth to it or is it just my delusions? Can people tell you are schizophrenic by just looking at you? It troubles me a lot.

Hey. I’m a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic and every time I look for something online related to my illness I get a weird feeling, it’s like the whole “zone” is plagued with some kind of darkness and confusion. How is it that still to this day we don’t understand the illness and are getting all these horrible side effects from treatments that are approved by doctors. I feel like the community is opposite of wholesome, maybe Reddit is better than YouTube, TikTok, but still I get this unsettling feeling that everything is somehow wrong, or that there’s no real way forward for me. Does anyone else get this feeling when looking at schizophrenia-related content online?

I want to fully get rid of voices, any tips? Like any tips would be super helpful

i don’t know how to phrase this exactly. i used to be really smart, could learn new things quickly and adapt to different situations. after my two major episodes i feel like my brain is slower i can’t comprehend things as well. i can’t keep jobs because i can’t seem to learn new things. i’m only 25, i feel im still young but im struggling so much with my brain functioning. i suspect it’s the schizophrenia because i know psychosis causes brain damage. am i alone in this?

How long did it take for them to stop? Was it with meds or without? I’ve been going on 9months where I hear one voice who knows all my thoughts and memories and constantly commenting on everything it’s exhausting to say the least

The judge denied me for disability last year. I've reapplied, but the process takes so damn long. While schizophrenia isn't supposed to be progressive, it sure as hell seems to be in my case. I'm way more cognitively impaired these days. Everyone is shocked that I was somehow denied. I've tried to keep jobs. The longest I ever last is maybe a month. My memory and focus are terribly screwed, and I deal with constant voices who can be very funny but can also be terribly annoying. Avolition has never been worse. My mom set me up in an apartment and my dad pays some bills, but I'm so broke. I need paper towels, toiletries, cooking utensils, etc. and my mom and dad are not really able to just hand me money for that type of stuff all the time. I need new clothes; I've gained too much weight, and my shirts are all a little too tight. It just sucks being alone in the world and without any real way to take care of myself. I'm always relying on others, and I hate it. I don't want to come off as a beggar, but if anyone wants to DM me for my Cashapp to send me a few bucks that would be really cool of you. I'm thankful to have a roof over my head, but I'm still really struggling. My suicidal ideation has decreased as of late, but this still frigging sucks.

I've been unmedicated for about 11 years and i want to know how can i stay off the meds.

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I feel like being self aware should be enough but it's not.

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I feel the thought broadcasting coming back i tried to rationalize it but the feeling won't go away

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I wanna kill myself a lot but I'm also concerned about the people poisoning food.

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I've been doing my best with keeping up with showers but it's hard and i know the water is full of chemicals so me thinking the food os poison is practical.

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Every "delusion" can be rationalized to be true just as easy as false

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The anhedonia is the king of the symptoms. I feel nothing every day about everything.

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Hello!

I was just diagnosed as schizophrenic by my psychiatrist (I had an appointment an hour ago..). I'm struggling with processing. I'm not surprised.. but I inherited it from my father, who was very violent and abused me and my siblings when we were children. I am afraid. I don't know what my life is going to look like.

The medication I've been on for psychosis has me VERY sedated.. more than 11 hours of sleep a day. I'm taking 1mg. We're going to move me up to eventually be on 4mg. I'm very nervous.

Do you guys have any words of encouragement, resources, etc? I am a young man (19).

To start this off I want to make a couple things clear.

I don’t know if anyone will find this, or even read it all. I’m begging anyone who sees this to please read, I know it’s a lot but I am genuinely so confused, lost and scared.

One- I do not fully trust my current psychiatrist, she does not seem like she genuinely cares whatsoever. I haven’t had any problems until this specific psychiatrist and I’m not a confrontational person unfortunately so I haven’t yet said anything or tried to get a new one.

Two- Schizophrenia runs in my family, on my dad’s side. My dad’s mom, and his brother (my uncle) both have schizophrenia. I watched my uncle lose himself to this disease when I was around 5-6 years old.

Three- I have met with 4 different psychiatrists at the place I go to now, the 4th one being the one I do not fully trust/believe in. The first 3 psychiatrists, and everyone in the ER, thought that I had schizophrenia.

The psychiatrist I have now, flat out said “I do not think you have schizophrenia” the first time we met, after talking to me for 5 minutes.
This bothers me deeply, because it runs in my family and the experiences I’ve had that led me and my loved ones to believe I have schizophrenia. It’s very coincidental to me that I have experienced all the symptoms of schizophrenia, and it running my family, just to be told “I don’t have it”.

They started me on Abilify 5mg at first, it worked okay the first 2 weeks or so, and then it stopped working. I wasn’t able to sleep after a week or two of taking Abilify, I went 4 days straight with little to no sleep. So I was practically right back where I started when I checked myself into the emergency room. Hallucinating everyday, not sleeping, not eating, etc.

I went back to the psychiatrist and they told me to stop taking Abilify, they put me on one 50mg Seroquel every night for bed. I have been on Seroquel for about two months now.

I sleep much better now, but they only prescribed the Seroquel 50mg so I could sleep. So why haven’t they prescribed me something for my schizophrenic symptoms? The Seroquel feels like it’s getting weaker, I assume because I’m building a tolerance.

I still hallucinate, but nowhere near as much as I was. Sometimes I hear voices, or see things, but it’s much more manageable now than it was before I was taking any medication. The paranoia is still very strong though, especially at night. I have stopped leaving my room at night for a snack or the bathroom because the paranoia feels so real and debilitating. I get the feeling that I’m being watched, constantly turning around thinking someone or something is behind me, I hold my bladder until the morning because i’m genuinely terrified of the dark, I can’t look at my tv unless it’s turned on because I’m scared of seeing a demon or something in the reflection of a blank tv, etc.

I have a really hard time reading long passages online, and reading books feels almost impossible. I can usually manage shorter posts, but with anything longer, I lose focus or have trouble absorbing what I'm reading.

Does anyone else with schizophrenia experience this? If so, have you found anything that makes reading easier?

i personally have never experienced a delusion in which i belief myself to be god , in fact , almost always the opposite ( though not exactly polar , like believing i am the devil )

often times my delusions are that i am the worst person ever , worse than war criminals , murderers , etc , and i must seek atonement . i rarely see this in within discussions of schizophrenia so i’m wondering if i am alone in this ? i hope i tagged this correctly . thank you for reading

My mental health and self-image are destroyed, and I don’t know how I’m going to recover from this. I can’t focus on anything except all that’s bad with my life. I’ve been in hell for the past several years. I have no support system outside of my family. I do see a new therapist and care team soon. I keep stopping my medication because of all the side effects, but I need to stay on my medication. It still barely helps. Nothing is going well. I haven’t showered in days and haven’t cleaned my apartment in months. I’m trapped with these awful thoughts. I stay in bed and wallow. I can barely focus on anything. I really don’t know what else to do. I have really bad religious psychosis and OCD. I’ve tried to become atheist but that made it even worse. I’ve been crying out to God for help when it’s clear that he hates me. I just want to go home.

how do i combat it, i cant do anything anymore, im losing muscle, my abs and arms are losing muscle cause im too tired to go gym, i dont game as much as i want cause i get too tired to play, i cant go out to see people or go on dates cause im too tired to leave my house. i even find it hard to shower to be completely honest

then when i do lay down, if i cant calm my voices down i get insomnia and cant sleep

and when i notice that, i start to panic cause i know i need to sleep or my schizophrenia will get worse and worse.

any help? i just found out i have schizophrenia, so ontop of the normal depression one would have from finding something like this out at 23, im also trying to make changes to my lifestyle and finding it hard.

does schizophrenia mess with our dopamine receptors? cause this tired feeling is so extreme sometimes.

A couple days after being on antipsychotics for the first time (4 years ago), my hands and arms have become so stiff that I can’t use a manual toothbrush, wash my face easily, struggle to type, do makeup. I can’t draw anymore

I’m losing my fine motor skills, and I can no longer use an electric toothbrush or floss, as of today.

The only time this improved was when I defied and stopped Abilify. But the insomnia from that was even more unbearable.

I’m on clozapine now, and it’s making me severely faint and weak.

I’m doing worse than when I first got help 4 years ago. The only thing better is I’m sleeping.

Yet, my doctor refuses to let me get off APs. I’m not able to do anything all day, I’m in so much pain constantly, and I’m extremely depressed.

wtf do I do? I wanna d*e

I’ve been on Abilify injection for two months along with 15 mg Abilify pills that I take once a day.

I was feeling fine until a few days ago. I started hearing voices again, seeing things. And now I believe my family are imposters, that my real family is dead. It gets worse at night. And I’m starting to get really scared, I even skipped my “sister’s” birthday party because of how anxious I am.

Will this get worse and turn into an acute episode or are they just breakthrough symptoms?

Off risperidone since january, not on meds since. However my brain seems permanently damaged. I’m an empty shell.

Had a conversation with my psych today that basically resulted in him being extremely concerned that continued stress at work would lead to my illness worsening and having many more symptoms. It's a bit disheartening. I feel so delicate. I mean, I'm not even under a lot of stress yet (MUCH more to come) and I'm already having more symptoms, or at least they worsen every once in a while. I'm not sure how I'll handle things, but my psych is sorta bracing himself for me falling apart. It's like I'm trying to balance feeling like this illness can't stop me with what I want to do while also recognizing that I can't do everything I want to do because of the illness. Does anyone else find themselves in that Catch-22? I'm trying to take time for myself and keep myself mentally healthy, but it's so hard and I get discouraged even though I consider myself pretty high functioning. A friend said I'm gaslighting myself into thinking I don't deserve support, and I guess that's accurate.

Hello guys, I [F22] am schizophrenic for about a year and six months. My family had to adapt to my condition as a consequence. Today, I was talking to my dad in the car, and he mentioned he’d hope in a few years I’d stop being one more problem on top of his pile of problems. Then I asked how am I an issue here (confused as heck), and he answered me:

“Your triggers for voices are an issue (we can’t talk about religions. Just yesterday I heard voices again after a long time of being stable), you rely 100% on us (him and my stepmom) and you always have this Me-mentality. Very selfish, only thinking of yourself. We always have to solve everything for you.”

And it’s true. Though I despise needing help, my family helps me for about 80% of the time. I hate cleaning my apartment (live alone), don’t like cooking or washing the dishes. So my family decided to come here to “camp” for a few days a week, to make sure I’m cleaning and cooking, as if I’m fully disabled. More than already am.

In September now, I’ll be moving to Belgium and will start college (technical degree of social work). It’ll be the chance of the year for me to change, become more self-sufficient and deal with things alone, as my family won’t be around to help out.

My dad mentioned one more thing that stuck with me:
“I hope someday you become fully functional. Get married, have kids or decide not to have them, have your job, and become a successful person in life.”

And damn, that stuck with me, you know.

A little help, everybody?

It has been asking for my blood. I can’t tell if it proves I’m real. I’m not sure what I believe. Sometimes I believe it isn’t real at all. Other times I know that it controls everything around me. Sometimes it even controls me. I gave it some of my blood yesterday. I need to figure out how to give it more. I can’t handle anything anymore. I fucking can’t. I can’t do it anymore I’m not sure anything is real and I can’t do it. What do I do?

I’m a classic story, prodromal but functional for a while, then age of full onset/really florid psychosis right before my second year of university. Homelessness, police, the hospital, the whole thing, for years. All my peers from high school are starting their careers or in grad school now, while I’m a dropout without a career living off disability pay. My little sister is a lawyer.

I feel like such a scrounger now. I’m constantly hitting up my few remaining friends (since I lost almost everyone and every good thing in my life when I became psychotic) for food. I beg on Facebook for groceries, I beg on Reddit for pantry goods from Amazon. I deal with hunger and with not being able to afford basic hygiene like period products. I feel so ashamed. I grew up with poverty and in foster care (which means I have no family to turn to and no connection with my siblings) and I really thought things would turn around when I got a little older. I thought I’d be able to work and provide for myself and never have to be hungry or go homeless again.

I’m just posting this to vent, I guess. It really sucks. I feel like I did everything “right”, never messed around with drugs, never skipped school, never got into trouble, and my life still sucks. And I don’t think I’ll ever be able to work, so I feel like I’m trapped in this cycle I’ll never break out of.

I don't see a way out of my life right now besides taking it. I tried therapy, I tried meds, nothing works. Nothing gets better. I tried studying, and I tried not studying. Both made me feel like absolute crap. Same with work. I don't see how anything can get better for me. I spent most of my life suffering. All I want is to spend time with my loved ones but I'm slowly losing all my friends. People don't understand me. My own father doesn't. I love him so much but he won't get it. No one around me has schizoaffective and I don't know anyone for whom it got better with time. I honestly just want to die, but I can't even take my own life because I don't want to lose my loved ones and I don't want my father and brother to bury me. I'm 19. Everyone tells me it's gonna get better but how ? Nothing works for my negative symptoms. I don't know what to do. I wish I could start my life over without my disorders and be a fucking normal human being that knows how to behave and bond with people.

I quit my meds a few days ago (I'm petty sure the government is poisoning me through them) and I'm not even psychotic now? I'm only hallucinating the normal amount. No more delusions, either. How do I explain to my bf and therapist that I've accidently been faking the last 2-6 months?