recovery

[msrx5sw2]

how long can it take to fully recover from schizophrenic symptoms after a breakdown with medication? i am currently in negative symptoms- low motivation levels, depressed mood, loss of emotion etc etc.. i just want it to end!

 

[Starbright]

I've never fully recovered so I'm not the person to ask

 

[Apotheosis]

how long can it take to fully recover from schizophrenic symptoms after a breakdown with medication? i am currently in negative symptoms- low motivation levels, depressed mood, loss of emotion etc etc.. i just want it to end!

Medication is not a cure. A lot of what you describe - in my own experience & from reading up on the subject - is drug (medication) induced side effects. Depending on the assistance & recovery model you use you will get all kinds of answers. The best the majority of orthodox psychiatrists will ever tell you is that you are in remission & never fully recovered. If you go with the Jungian/John Weir Perry & Diabasis type line - then from a first psychotic break the majority (over 80%) can show marked improvement within a few days & be out of the experience & Weller than well after 6 weeks. Unfortunately the opportunity for such a recovery is incredibly hard to access & virtually, if not, impossible in the UK.

 

[Rambuie Perspecador]

msrx5,
I hope you find it helpful to consider that an optimal situation might be to settle on a maintenance dosage of something that helps you a little, and could help a lot more if it was fine-tuned to your needs in a context of regular and routine dosage and everything else remaining stable, and routine also, right down to regular meal-times and some predictability for your body to adjust to the impact of medications, which can then be reduced to the lowest manageable, without letting the levels drop too far. It must all sound very 'fussy', but this is why considerable time elapses before clinicians agree to reductions in dosage.

The fear is of 'relapse', mostly, so it is a trade-off against reducing negative symptoms by lowering the dose and still having an effective dosage. Clinicians never spend enough time on this, so you have to persevere with whoever. Hope this is helpful. Not an easy time for anyone.

 

[ramboghettouk]

Recovery, guess it depends on the dictionary, to social services it means been able to cope without them, conveniently saving limited resources, to rethink (A carers organisation) it means not needing a carers support.

Some say your better because your stabilised on meds, the mentally ill ex cons in my last area claimed they were better because they didn't take meds, the guy who complained to the local paper however was complaining about them

Too me whats worrying is a recovery thats defined as such by the DWP but isn't really fit for work

I wish there were some incontrovertable truths in these things, problem too me is the people who beleive there are

 

[Apotheosis]

I wish there were some incontrovertible truths in these things, problem to me is the people who believe there are

I have found recovery to be a very personal & largely subjective thing. I'd go as far to say that the truth is subjective - as far as I can make out. But no one has found a conclusive answer, maybe the best we can find is "I think therefore I am" & be content with awareness of self. I see the belief in ultimate truths as being where a lot of problems come from in the World.

I've been attending some "Rethink" support groups, & we have been looking a lot at what Recovery means. It means a lot of different things to different people. For some it is meds, & for others it isn't. For some it is a cure & for others it is healing as best we can between periods of illness; in a state of remission. As a measure I use my own life, & in the past I've been in Hell - I'm not in it any more; some days I feel very good, & I have moments of peace. That has to be Recovery for me & I couldn't care what the DWP or society thought one way or the other. I have found effective ways of coping & living, & being able to grow. This takes a lot of effort sometimes & a job would make me ill quickly; I am not well enough in my present circumstances to work or be under the pressure of a "normal" life. I'm not about to jeopardise what I have worked for to conform to an outside ethic of what some people or organisations think I should be doing. They haven't gone through what I have. Sometimes some people say I'm lazy or try to push me to do more. It isn't always a bad thing to try to expand my boundaries & comfort zone, but I take things easy less I do slip into too much stress & illness. It is like a large staircase from the present moment to my Dreams, & I take very small steps. Trying with quiet perseverance with a little bit at a time. Maybe I will never get to the place of living my wildest dreams; but what I do have I could not have imagined a decade ago.

 

[Rambuie Perspecador]

One mile-stone for me was when I was considered to have been acting as if I had demonstrably 'regained an insight' into my situation and the whys and wherefores of what had been happening over a period of 'absence', for want of a better term. I think acute psychosis does lose you in a kind of limbo, from which only gradual dawning takes place, as delusory or cyclical obsessive or paranoid thoughts gradually fall away and are displaced by a kind of cognitive reconnecting. With hind-sight it is easy to describe these things as phases - but there is no inevitability that people do recover with any speed from such states, or whether the experience of this is not the unfolding of a personal night-mare in each individual person. Either way, I don't think the experience has any favourable out-comes without medical intervention. But that depends on how ill you or I became before intervention. Ring any bells with anyone?

 

[ramboghettouk]

I know about rethink support groups, the fact they discuss recovery shows it to them is an issue

At mencap in brent they were discussing work and the people made a collage with pictures of people working, get real

Personally i don't care what people think about my recovery or lack of recovery, but i will be pissed off if i'm pushed into some work business that exceeds my limits by the DWP, i worry about that book/film one flew over the cuckoos nest where in a american system with limited welfare their in hospital because that way they get fed and a roof over their head

MY mother i phioned today and said their sending a million people to work and i doubt theres a million scroungers to be found, my brother said "They've found one" and laughed, i don't know whether my family really beleive that, though it's convenient with my sister and family in Malta to play down illness

The rethink stabilised on drugs recovery, well rethinks reported to be paid by a drug company to research recovery, they're not likely to say drugs aren't recovery

 

[Apotheosis]

Rambo - Much as I too am prone to cynicism, I have found very genuine & caring people on the "Rethink" course whose motivation has been to assist me as best they can with what I consider to be recovery. I have discussed at depth my "med free" recovery thoughts & they have been open & knowledgeable about such matters. What the agenda of Rethink as a whole/or the management think about it all; I wouldn't hazard a guess. Although I personally find "Mind" to be more progressive for the rights/recovery of patients & to give more comprehensive advice on the whole.

A fact remains that this country is disappearing down the toilet - & a lot of people could do with a very large boot up the backside (present company excluded). The benefit reforms are misguided nonsense from government; but that's governments for you - they have largely created the present problems themselves anyway.

I do hope that one day I am well enough to work, & if I'm not - that I have a degree of care & financial support which I am entitled to in a civilised society. I am presently reasonably content; & I have put a lot of work into trying to get better & be better able to deal with "MH Problems". If future needs must - then I will deal with it when that bridge comes, & act appropriately - as I have tried to do in the past. Much as I can latch onto things to worry over - worrying about all this is going to make no difference whatsoever.

 

[ramboghettouk]

Your right worrying doesn't help but worry is the nature of the beast/illness

I can't talk about rethink nowadays, i was in a hostel run by the NSF 25yrs ago were they pushed an independent living, not using services, stabilised on meds agenda.

They encouraged me to come to LOndon, rethink been a carers organisation they'd be pleased with the fact my carers don't exist, a lot of rethink carers moan about having to care

I just feel sensitive about the rethink recovery and it's aspect of not needing a carer, all very well but if you can't work to support youirself and the state doesn't provide beyond a minimum

 

[Rambuie Perspecador]

The usual circular argument - about likelihood of relapse through taking on too much - kicks in with employment more than anything else, because you agree to conform to a system of operating which may not be to your health advantage or welfare priority, but serves the needs of some work 'organisation'. My own doctor would be mindful, and make sound advice on what is within my own scope - the Government has side=stepped all good sense by ensuring that you stand in judgment of someone who does not know you at all, but thinks he/she can assess your work-capability dispassionately. [your own doctor is supposed to have impaired judgment !!!] Burford is completely Bananas - none of these people realize that it is only through mutual sounding-out and acclimatisation that Anyone stays for any length of time in a job, however well-suited. Its the way of the world for people to size each other up - new employees and managers/supervisors ALL think they know what is best for them and stay only so long as they are mutually comfortable with the idea. The DWP are full of sh*t on this also. Once again Experts who know nothing about you or your state of health! Yeah, desperate times from a desperate Government flailing around like vacant wind-mills...

 

[ramboghettouk]

Is Burford the psychiatrist i call the burford, i had him yrs ago, just curious, remember him rediagnosing me

Latest, today, is residual chronic schitsoprenia or chronic residual schitsoprenia, she's promised a letter if the DWP put me to the question but as she's a new shrink, they never last long in my area

She says benefits and illness are seperate issues, they will be to her if she ever becomes ill, can't see a psychiatrist who becomes ill on means tested benefits

Getting a support worker, the indian guy upstairs, my paki neighbour, as i call him has people round staying constantly, theres noise every night. then theres my alky neighbour who the police have been called twice last month, i know if i make an complaint the housing office will use my mental illness as an excuse to ignore it so it's nice that i've got someone to represent me who's sanity isn't under question

 

[Rambuie Perspecador]

Sorry, yes, some confusion - I thought he was the DWP geezer in the Government. Caught him on Sunday morning (-Phil, someone anyway), with his plans to hound claimants - Incapacity in particular. Saw they had a MIND spokesperson who wasn't allowed near the microphone save to say that Compulsion is counter-productive. And theres Andrew Neil with his usual right-wing Get the Scroungers and make them sweep Leaves! - garbage. Tories' Green Paper said much the same - remove benefits if you don't take the first job offered. Don't know why They are so proud of their coercive victimising attitudes - it does Break the Law to discriminate against the disabled but I expect they pick and choose what laws they intend to uphold or ignore.

Saw David Cameron's bike was whipped - very amusing, since he's supposed to have Won Glasgow East, by coming in 3rd, apparently... poor fella had to ride home in a limousine - how sad.

 

[maudikie]

Recovery.

I think apotheosis has a very good answer. Do what you can when you can. don't push yourself to hard, come to terms with the fact that life is not whaat you had inteded it to be, and make the most of what you are able to do.
Best wishes.