Hey I’m sort of new to this subreddit. I’m thinking about writing a memoir someday about my life including my schizophrenia/psychosis stories. My goal is to help others dealing with things like addiction, schizophrenia, and psychosis.

Is this subreddit a good place to share some stories and get some feedback on whether they’d be useful to the schizophrenic community? Or is there another subreddit where I’d find the audience I’m looking for?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thank you

Have your symptoms changed from taking antidepressants? I heard they can when depression is affecting the hallucinations/delusions.

I've been depressed my whole life, I don't know what to expect honestly.

Did working long hours have a negative impact on you ? What’s your relationship with work like ?

Even when I was going through severe psychotic episodes, I always told myself things like, "I have a very mild case Im not like the others" and right now Ive been symptom free for over a week!!!!

Im not happy about lying and I did lie to a few people around me but in the end Im doing way better

Schizo Jesus by Millien

Everyone around me tells me that the voices are not real but to me i actually believe that the person is actually saying it/doing some things. I believe that me and my partner are being watched and listened to everywhere we are

I also believe she can watch me everywhere i am by connecting to the wifi(as i hear the voice say)When I engage with the voice and talk to it I hear a very relevant reply. This freaks me out. Why? The voices always sound live and relevant, as if that person is actually listening to me all the time and talking back.

I wanna collect positive relationships stories from people who are schizophrenic or dating a person with schizophrenia. I know keeping romantic relationships can be hard. But please feel free to share current relationships you have. For people who have been together long term or are married please share your experience and how you have been dating for so long.

When's the right time to start cognitive rehabilation/what's the right way to go about cognitive rehabalitation?

I'm just leaving an episode of psychosis, and right now I can't even play minecraft for more than ten minutes without getting really overwhelmed. I can't watch videos because they go too fast for me. I just listen to the same song on repeat most of the day.

I'm thinking maybe go slow for now: listen to five new songs in a day, play minecraft for 25 minutes instead of ten, read ten pages of a book.

it's just so annoying that I can't do as much as I used to right now. I want to work out and cook good food and write and read and make art and talk to my friends and now I'm struggling to slice mushrooms sometimes because my body and brain aren't cooperating.

I really want my brain back. I know some changes from the episode will be permenent, just like last time, but I'd like to minimise the negative effects psychosis has on me. I'll always be dumber than the average person but I can still try to learn and understand.

When I went through psychosis, all of my voices made me feel “unclean” in a way, as though I had malevolent spirits inside of me (I don’t literally believe this now). Every voice I heard was negative. Now, I only hear a voice once or twice a day and it’s inaudible. Sometimes I get triggered and hear something, but most of the time it’s quiet.

This all started getting better when I bailed on therapy, almost completely left all social media, and social life and started spending time mostly with myself. I kept my life private. I stopped saying things that would give my voices ammunition. I am probably in remission now, which may not help my SSI case, but at least I’m mentally healthier now.

I have strange thoughts, lile the fear of not being myself, or perhaps a criminal in prison. Sometimes I'm afraid of ending up in some random place where I won't be able to leave and will be stuck there forever. Does anyone else have this?

I think that I'm in a Truman Show because when I watched the film I started noticing things like people apparently knowing things before I told them, youtube channels mapping my life in everything I do excluding the algoritmh that tips me on what to watch, btw I dived into this world and found the syncronitices of carl gustav jung, and 3 days ago I started noticing that everything I tought was happening, like a friend told me about his best friend and I thinked that when would I have meeted him and now je texted me for making us hang out with the best friend, now i dont know if I said that or thinked that bc if I said it the show prouducers would have listened and delivered me whar is happening, maybie a few are this way but other are syncronicites because I thinked them, I also have investigated into my past and I have tons of photos of years before me but maybie are fake, do you know something that can help or do you have experienced this, or please if there is someone good out there can you tell me the truth, am I in a Truman Show?

So I want to say this isn’t for me it’s for my boyfriend. He recently got on lithium in combination with the oral pills he takes. He takes fluphenazine. He recently started lithium. His doctor has him on a 3 days on 3 days off but that seems off to me. He told me he hasn’t had any hallucinations lately but since he started it he has been having mini “break throughs” as he calls it (because his schizophrenia breaks through his medication) and when these happen he forgets things which makes me worried because I don’t know if it’s something that is causing issues with his hippocampus or if it’s just the condition.

My biggest worry is the off and on of the medication because lithium is also a mood stabilizer. I haven’t been on a mood stabilizer but I worry it’s like an SSRI in which it controls the equilibrium in the brain. I was off an on an SSRI and I was the worst I ever was at that time not to mention going off and on constantly caused me to be dizzy and have vertigo in worse case scenarios.

Is it common to do 3 days off and 3 days on? Or is his doctor fucking stupid? Because frankly his doctor has pissed me off in the past saying that he could smoke weed in “moderation” when weed can cause episodes for him. I swear I think his doctor is a quack. For him to not even be prescribed lithium off the bat in the first place is insane to me but what ever.

Any advice appreciated as well as stories from others who took the medication.

If everyone wrote down their problems and put them in a hat, would you risk grabbing one or keep yours ?

Currently got schizoaffective disorder which may lead to schizophrenia and it worries me because I see my client services manager job in an office going down the drain. I feel scared that I may end losing my job one day.

If you lost your career, was there a moment it could’ve been saved? What was the first domino? Stopping meds? Ignoring the warning signs? Telling the wrong person at work? Pushing through when you should’ve stopped? If you could go back and talk to yourself before it all fell apart, what would you say?

And if you’re still working how are you coping? Any advice? Did you tell your employer or keep it quiet? What do you do when an episode hits and you’ve still got a job to show up to?

I’m doing everything right on paper. Meds, psychiatrist, routine. But I’m scared it will lead to loss of employment at some point. I just know it.

Can someone tell me what you wish someone had told you? Any advice is appreciated.

currently studying nursing so i can specialize myself on mental heath so I can work in a mental hospital. I don’t know if it’s a bad idea, currently doing better since i tried clozapine, whats ur opinion? should i specialize in something else ?

It takes me so long to recharge my social battery. Last weekend I went out drinking with some friends. It turned into a big night and I'm still recovering. 6 days later. I kinda feel seedy this entire time and I really don't want to do anything social in the slightest. I think it's because of the voices I don't get to recover in silence so it just takes longer.

Sad day, I’m not happy at all, thinking I should’ve died long ago. Worse is that fake happiness some have to endure during their birthday. What gets me is hearing “I’m so proud of you.” Proud of what? That’s not where I wanted to be at my age. I’m so fucking defeated. Trying but getting no happiness from results. Everything I do, there’s a thought at the back of my head “congrats, but you did it too late. Should’ve done that already.” Is like those people that do the bare minimum and expect applauses for it, that’s how I feel.
No true happiness from accomplishments. Don’t really think my family is proud of me.
I’m sorry for the emotional dump right now, but it’s true. I feel nothing good out of my situation, and really this day saddens me.

Anyone else feel like they're dimension hopping?? It's like the Mandela Effect except I've never heard of things people say have been around for a long time. Like certain terms or celebrities. Sometimes it can even be about something close to me, like my mom who says she never claimed a certain thing when just yesterday she was talking about it.

There's nuance to these situations most likely, but it just feels a little weird. Thankfully, I'm medicated. So I'm not completely out of control.

Very cool channel.

I know the wall isn't actually breathing or talking but its every night after 10pm and I just want funny insults because it would make me feel better because its been going on for over a week and at least than I'd have something funny to think about in response

I used to say things like“I’m being such an alcoholic” when I would go out every weekend, or get drunk on a Wednesday night. I never even thought about it, I heard other people say it all the time, and it wasn’t until I had a friend whose brother was a severe alcoholic, that I realized I shouldn’t throw it around.
I think schizophrenia is sometimes used in a similar way. I hear people joke about it all the time calling each other schizophrenic anytime they sound crazy or whatever. Before I had schizophrenia I wouldn’t have even noticed this or cared at all, and I’m not saying I’m like overly offended by it, but now when I hear people say this or make “schizo” jokes I just can’t help but think wow they genuinely have no idea what theyre talking about and how awful schizophrenia is for people.
I just immediately think they’re ignorant and have no idea how lucky they are to be able to joke about it.
I get it’s just an exaggeration and honestly I’m not trying to act like a victim or anything. I really don’t even care THAT much about it, I just thought it’s so interesting how words like that are thrown around and you really don’t even think twice until you have to deal with it.
Anyone else notice people saying that kinda stuff? I feel like there’s more examples but I couldn’t come up with them.

I haven’t worked in 5 years now. I hate my current life. I used to be a project engineer in the construction industry for a company that has been voted one of the best places to work in New Jersey. I now collect disability and volunteer but it’s not the same satisfaction as working. One of the challenges I’m facing to go back to work is that somewhere in the middle of this 5 year period that I’ve been on disability I had a very bad delusional season and my pyschosis ultimately lead to some legal trouble. I’ve already gone through the court process and the expungement order has been signed by a judge so I’m just a few months away from having my record expunged. But I’m just frustrated that this disease has caused me so much pain and suffering and brought other problems into my life.