Hi,
Has anyone recovered from this?
Thanks,
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Recovered? Or lived a satisfying life while managing the illness?
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E. Fuller Torrey in Surviving Schizophrenia says that 25% of schizophrenics fully recover. So, of the about 100,000 people diagnosed with sz each year in the U.S., about 25,000 will fully recover.
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Read my more recent posts here on this site, I feel like my sz son is as recovered as recovered can be…we are definitely 1000% better than when we started this journey so many years ago. It was super rough starting out and life is not “like everybody else” but he’s happy, sane, and easy to get along with. I’m happy for him. 
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Vallpen,
Both!
Thanks, xx
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I’m 14 years sane after 3.5 yrs total in psychosis over 15 years
I’ve had the odd sketchy half day since then
I exercise cook and housekeep living with my husband for 11 years
I’m happy
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Thank you three. I’m happy for you. It gives me hope for my sister. Amen.
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I think the word recovery implies restoration. My daughter missed high school and college. Those things, with all the accompanying social development,
cannot be restored to her. That said, she is light years from our darkest days. She is building a life worth living.
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There are many definitions of recovery in broad contexts, from economic, substance abuse, health and many others.
I think it’s important to consider that SZ and SZA are brain diseases that alter the brain and it’s functioning, and think of recovery as you would for people who’ve had strokes, brain tumors and other brain trauma. There’s a spectrum of outcomes and recovery is a life-long process not an endpoint, and even in a best case scenario such as mine, you are never quite the same.
But with hard work, effort and perseverance you can regain function and lead a satisfying life.
Edit: P.S. And luck, I forgot to mention luck. Some say you make your own luck, and to a degree I think it’s true.
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Yes, in early 2016 the darkness swallowed my kind, loving daughter’s wonderful personality and turned her into an aggressive hermit. In Dec 2018, forced medication began her journey to a new life. I consider her pretty stably herself now. She is not the same as she was, she is a new kind, loving daughter with a nice personality she shares with me and others. She works as a cleaner in an assisted living home, watches a lot of TV, showers only when I remind her that it is time, sees her psychiatrist and takes her meds because they help her to work, and loves to go on car rides with me, and walks with the dogs. She doesn’t cook or clean but isn’t messy and likes what I make for her. We have a good relationship, perhaps better than “before”. I am very thankful.
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@mmm61 Very glad to hear of this success - for it really is. Stay in the present with the good place she is now. You may both be sad about what has been missed but today things are good and you can build on that.
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Recovery may mean different things to different people. I think recovery would be someone who is med compliant and has something meaningful in their life. If they are able to work then great, if not then hopefully they have meaningful relationships or things they do that bring happiness to them. When my love one was on meds he had a successful job and life was very good…
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This is good to know, thank you
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I have a friend I met at a NAMI meeting 3 long years ago, whose daughter, a scientist in a high govt job, very well paid, had her first psychotic event. She lost her job due to her fears of the work computers spying on her, wires in her body, others reading her mind, etc. After that, she spent years in her mother’s home building a “safe” room to keep out the “electronics” that were spying on her as she was getting a large sum monthly in either unemployment or disability or both. She would not admit to being ill or needing a doctor and never took meds. After a few years, somehow, the mom got her to agree to see a psychiatrist, and she did start on meds, losing her paranoia and voices. Without the treatment, she would probably still be hiding in her “safe” room. She is not back to her scientist job, that may never happen again, but it sure is a better situation for them both.
A while ago, when I called the heathcare.gov phone line to arrange for Obamacare health insurance for my daughter, I had to speak to a representative to make sure the plan I was looking at covered psychiatric care, in-patient if needed, and the haldol injection she is on. The rep verified her coverage and then gently asked me, if I didn’t mind his asking, what she was being treated for. When I told him it was schizophrenia, he told me that he was rescued from psychosis and a very dark period in his life by his parents, who never gave up trying to help him. His parents got him on the right medicine for sz, He asked me to please “never give up on her”. I still think of him regularly, his name was Andrew, and I felt blessed that he was the one who took my call, as I was pretty worn down with the whole battle against my daughter’s sz at that time.
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That’s really inspired. Thank you for sharing. That’s what gives hope and strength to keep on going.
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I’ve been privileged to attend recovery celebration’s and the honorees have been the most spiritual human beings I’ve heard speaking, who have passed through that valley of darkness and loneliness; they have really touched my heart with hope, inspiration and awe.
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Along this difficult journey sometimes I’ve called the cops and some have sympathy others have bluntly told me to put my son on the street; it’s been bad enough that I have called them (on the advice of the States Attorneys office when looking for help), I know what we have going through but if mental illness is like a physical illness I don’t see a person put out on the street when they have cancer or diabetes or any other disease.
I applaud this mother for the great love for her daughter. 
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I followed the regimen of a lyme disease treatment book after learning 13 out of 17 people in a schizophrenia study had bartonella in their system (that is a part of lyme disease.) I’m like a week in and doing fantastically. Main variable affecting me is diet now.
It’s like $4 Canadian. Best purchase I’ve gotten so far. Regimen is super cheap. Just a biofilm cutting drink and collodial silver regimen.
Dead silence in my head at times, sans medication. The collodial silver is knocking out my apparent brain infection.
Please note: keep taking meds, don’t take as needed (PRN) unless you’ve discussed it with your pdoc.
I bought this for collodial silver:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00JU8QYZ8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
At first I was using the 10 ppm stuff but I switched to that. More cost effective and potent. Taking maybe 16 drops a day, split up in four. Like a PRN. Dose in a bit of water and hold it in the mouth for 10-15 mins.
Once I feel normal I’m going to take it maybe once or twice a day. Getting close to that.
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A week later, still doing great.
Regimen is this:
Collodial silver 5000ppm throughout the day 4-8 drops (just whenever I feel I have time to keep a sip of water in my mouth for 10-15 mins) **most important aspect of the regimen, I believe SZ is due to a bartonella infection in the brain
John Ellis water
Vitamin D3 30-40k IU
Vitamin K2 ~1000 mcg (for proper bone remineralization)
Chelated mineral complex from Piping Rock (~$7)
Lugol’s Iodine 5% 4 drops a day
Wild Oregano oil 4 drops a day
I try for gluten avoidance but I’m letting some in just to see how my mental state fares. But for the most part I do better without eating gluten.
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