It has been about 7 weeks since last shot of 78mg of Invega sustenna
Doing fantastic
Besides the occasional cold sweats ,dystonia, akathasia,dyskinesia…!
We have a long way to go
But we will see
Just keeping everybody updated on our journey
Won’t be entirely celebrating until about after a year or two To see …
But there is no hallucinations and delusions.
What this has taught me is
I hate sketchy psychiatrist…who overly diagnose everybody schizophrenia or a mental disorder…
Reminds me of people in jail who have been forgotten who don’t belong in there…
I pray for all of these folks going through it!
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That’s great news, TheSunshineMaras!
I hope she continues to improve and that the side-effects continue to reduce.
Best wishes and good health to both of you! 
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Thank you so much lifeishard!
I appreciate you commenting on my post always showing your support!
It means a lot to us!
My son’s doctor would agree with your statement. And overly prescribe meds for an overly used diagnosis.
I’m so happy to hear this, it sounds like she’s slowing freeing herself from these poisons and is functioning well without them. I truly believe that is everyone’s wish on here, but unfortunately for some of us, that is not a reality.
Hope she’s back to being 100% again without meds.
It’s funny you mention doctors overly diagnosing for schizophrenia. My son’s GP said the same thing. When he asked what my son’s diagnosis was, and we told him, he just rolled his eyes and said “oh brother”. I think for some the diagnosis is legit, (like my son), but I do think there’s an over abundance of that diagnosis going around. Schizophrenia is the “go to” diagnosis for everything, at least this is what my son’s doctor was trying to say (he was being sarcastic of course).
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I am happy that your loved one is doing well coming off of her medication and hope she continues to better her life. I personally feel that medication is justified in many cases, but over-prescribed in others. If there are no delusions or hallucinations, it might not be sz and might not need medicated. One study showed that about 25% of sz patients need not stay on medicine for life.
My daughter continues to do well on the monthly Haldol shot. I asked her P-doc about reducing the dosage, and she felt 8 months medicated was not long enough to play with reducing the dosage. My daughter’s improvement on the medicine is dramatic and very high. She is working, communicating well, and totally non-delusional and non-hallucinatory now. Compared to over 2.5 years of 24/7 psychosis. She used to dramatize from “sensible” babble about gifted beings watching over the city and speaking to her, to dangerous and nonsensical behavior and talk.
The psychiatrist pointed out that she didn’t want to risk my daughter sliding backwards, since forward progress and recovery is still going on. I don’t think she is against reducing the dose, just that now is not the right time.
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Yes!! Most definitely…
Everybody’s condition is different
I’m sorry for what I wrote up there about misdiagnosed
I know for a fact though
That psychotic break where she had a demon named Kiki who wanted to kill her parents was there in the beginning…
She was hospitalized 5 different times
That’s why she was put on them…
But…
Is it permanent?
She has gone through tremendous healing of all kinds with her way of life and perspective even…
Maybe not misdiagnosed…
But perhaps healed from schizophrenia…
But I heard of someone telling me a psychotic break isn’t necessarily schizophrenia
But people with schizophrenia have psychotic breaks?
Hi this is so so good to hear. That its moving in the right direction at this time great to here!! gives me hope for the future.
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I always thought extreme trauma of some sort was related to psychosis, where they flip into the dark side, imagining, thinking, believing, and seeing things that simply aren’t real or true, and would be considered extreme to “normal” people. To this day, I believe trauma as a young teenager played a major role in my son’s condition. What I don’t understand is that there are people who, for the most part, lead relatively normal happy lives, and yet experience horrific breaks and hospitalized multiple times. That’s where I think some type of physical medical reasoning and explanation come into play, and justifies that it can’t be all environmental and past trauma.
I know you mentioned before that your gf’s life was not an easy one, and that it was riddled with trauma. I don’t know if she had that break about the demon because she was schizophrenic or because of something else. I’m also conflicted about the methods they use to diagnose schizophrenia so quickly. My son was in the hospital for 3 months the first time, and they diagnosed him after 3 days. And that was the point my son’s GP was trying to make. He also mentioned that there are no blood tests or any other type of analytical tests to validate sz. The diagnosis is made strictly from a behavioral standpoint.
If your gf is functioning and trying to adapt to a healthier lifestyle, and is not experiencing psychosis, without meds, it sounds like that is all anyone could wish for. I don’t know the last time your gf experienced psychosis. I have also heard sz can’t ever be healed, that there is no cure. But it sounds to me like she is on her way.
I’ve asked my son if he felt like his first break was worse than the one he experienced last year, when he stopped his meds cold turkey after being on them for 3 years, when all hell broke loose. He says “mom, how I felt after stopping the meds was a thousand times worse”. So based on his answer, I can’t help but wonder if maybe he shouldn’t have been on the meds for so long after the first break. Maybe just to bring him out of psychosis, and then manage another way? He just takes his pills everyday, and his psychiatrist tells him, “if that no longer works, we have many others you can try”. Scary!
Knowing the fate of my son’s life is dependent on pills, for the rest of his life, it’s really hard for me to digest that.
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