Purpose of Meds

Hello All,
My daughter has been on many meds in the last 2 years. She is now calm somewhat happy, she is able the think but it slower than before mentally and is still stuck in her head most times with voices.
What am I able to hope for with medication. End to the voices. Back to what she was like before. If this is good as it gets or is there something out there that is better, how do we know.
She has gone through so many bad side effects and I know there are worse. When do you stop looking and say this is as good as it will get?

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You’ll get many opinions on this. My case is near to the best that you might hope for, and I wouldn’t say I’m back to where I was before the illness— I’d vanish that from your mind entirely. I also would stay away from hopes that symptoms will vanish— they likely won’t, or not for a long time.

In my opinion the purpose of meds is to make symptoms manageable, so that diagnosed people can be less bothered by them, avoid relapse, further decline, hospitalization, incarceration and better cope with life. As a side-benefit this may make them less dependent on caregivers, more agreeable to live with, and help facilitate expanding their social sphere, employment, education, avocational and independent living opportunities. Personally I feel the latter are much more attainable if additional therapies are employed outside of medication alone.

When to stop? When the risks and costs of new medications or other treatments outweigh the benefits. Which is a difficult question for a layperson to answer, so I’d look to psychiatrists and your daughter to answer that one, since every circumstance and patient differs.

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Thank you for you’re reply. Unfortunately my daughter does not realize she is sick and if she had a choice it would be no meds. She is on a 3 month and Vraylar, Vraylar is going well only< I think, because she told the doctor she wanted to go on it and he listened which was what she really needed, even though as I said she would stop everything if she could. She also on a depression med, which make her so nice (thats awesome). Your right I don’t have anything set up for POA, but she is on a committal and if she does not stay on her meds, she will have to stay at the health care facility.
She has been at one for almost 1 and a half and she will be getting out on May1st, and coming back home. She will have a team of people looking in on her weekly.

Thank you for your reply I always appreciate your input, I find it to be very valuable and helpful with information. Makes me feel were on the right path.

@margotbane answered this beautifully.

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Hello
My son was diagnosed with sz in 2017 at the age of 20. From 2017-2022 he was only on medicine twice, 2 months in 2017 and 2 months in 2019. He didn’t want to take the medicine and I didn’t force it. In early 2022 my son had an MRI and they were able to show him his smaller brain volume. Then compared it to a set of twin males one having SZ and the other having a normal brain.
I believe that help my son realize he has SZ. Though an MRI can’t diagnose schizophrenia without the symptoms it sure was helpful.
Finally, in July 2022 he started taking 5 mg of Olazapine every night. Then in September he went up to 7.5 mg. He has been willing and that is a blessing. He is stable and doing well. I believe he still hears voices at times.

What has helped me is reading and learning about the illness, self care and attending NAMI meetings. Also, I enjoy spending time with him hiking, swimming, biking ect …

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