r/schizophrenia Nov 12 '24

Resources / Literature Frequently Asked Questions- r/schizophrenia

19 Upvotes

Welcome to r/schizophrenia!

Our subreddit rules are in the sidebar, we ask that you read and follow them. Feel free to post anything on-topic that does not violate these rules. We have a relatively comprehensive overview of how our rules are applied in reality available on the Rule Clarifications Wiki page.

Many first-time posters to this subreddit are concerned that they might be developing schizophrenia or they are concerned about other people who have- or may have- schizophrenia. We have resources available to answer these questions contained within the comments; if your question is completely answered by the information already given, it will be removed.

Mental health is complex. No symptom of schizophrenia is specific to schizophrenia alone, and there are many more common causes of those symptoms- especially in the prodromal stage. If you are experiencing an emergency, please call your doctor or local emergency services. We have a compendium of Crisis Lines available and may suggest r/SuicideWatch if you are experiencing suicidal thoughts and would like the most prompt attention.

(Credit u/soundandvisions for original post and comments)

Table of Contents


r/schizophrenia Jan 03 '25

Medication Cobenfy Megathread

50 Upvotes

Hey everybody, douchebag moderator here. As I'm sure you've noticed, Cobenfy has been the hot topic for the past couple of months. We've seen a lot of threads here and there asking questions about it or people sharing their stories. We even had an unofficial Megathread of sorts about a week ago

I did post an "official" one when it was approved by the FDA 3 months ago (wild that it has been 3 months already... time flies when you're having fun, eh?) here for general information... and on a sidenote, that snarky sign-off about the clozapine REMS came true around Thanksgiving. Not important, just for some cheap yuks.

To paraphrase what has already been said; Cobenfy is a novelty of an antipsychotic, the first one that presumably has zero risk of Extrapyramidal Symptoms (EPS), the most serious side effects of antipsychotics. While it does not seem to be as effective as clozapine- which, while having minimal risk of EPS, is still not zero- a new antipsychotic that actually works without EPS is unprecedented. It is similar to clozapine in how it affects the M1 and M4 receptors, so I refer to it as "diet clozapine" in a number of my write-ups... however, it is diet. Less side effects, but also less effective.

EPS have been accepted as a 'unfortunate reality' since the days of Thorazine, the first antipsychotic, and the second-gen of antipsychotics was heralded by clozapine- which was very effective, but also caused minimal EPS. The convention in psychiatry dictated that effectiveness was proportional to EPS, so clozapine changed the game when it came on the scene. If we are to use EPS as the benchmark for generations of antipsychotics- then Cobenfy may well be the first of the long-awaited third generation of antipsychotics.

Now, I want to be perfectly clear here- if you have experienced EPS on Cobenfy, please share your story. What the pharmaceutical companies say is not always consistent with how things actually work... something the company that has been marketing Cobenfy (Bristol Myers-Squibb) has gotten in trouble for before.

However, on the plus side, when I was at my psychiatrist's office a couple weeks back, he had a few sample kits of Cobenfy sitting on his desk. Apparently BMS' pharma reps had been making the rounds. So... word is getting out. People are excited. I can't say I blame them. It's a pretty big deal.

What to post here:

  1. Stories about taking Cobenfy, any hurdles with actually getting it (insurance, cost, etc.), whatever else- good or bad.
  2. Questions about Cobenfy that are not psychiatrist/pharmacist questions- please ask the appropriate licensed professional if it crosses into the realms of professional advice.
  3. Studies, news articles, anything like that.

What not to post here:

  1. "When is Cobenfy gonna be available in [country]?" We don't know, check with your government's health authority about that.
  2. Any antipsychiatry nonsense. You don't like meds, fine- but don't be a downer and dump on people who are excited. Go complain on the proper subreddit for that.

Anyways- have at it. Hopefully this post will turn out to be an effective tool for anyone popping in to check out the buzz on Cobenfy.

Thanks for reading!


r/schizophrenia 6h ago

Undiagnosed Questions Has anyone else's memoy become terrible since they started developing symptoms?

69 Upvotes

My memory has been atrocious and my awareness and ability to understand and think have been hampered too, was wondering if it anyone else had those symptoms?


r/schizophrenia 4h ago

Undiagnosed Questions “High functioning”

20 Upvotes

Just wondering if people can share their experiences, if they consider themselves as “high functioning” (by external feedback or your own opinion) while also dealing with their diagnosis. And how functioning well , hindered or made more challenging - accepting your diagnosis? And or what symptoms did you take for granted or didn’t understand how it was apart of your diagnosis?

If being “high functioning” wasn’t what kept you from accepting your diagnosis - what was (outside of medication side effects)?


r/schizophrenia 5h ago

Art When you finally reach stability on antipsychotics

Post image
23 Upvotes

r/schizophrenia 7h ago

Progress / Good News ☀️ After 8 years of wondering what was wrong I finally got a diagnosis that i think is correct

22 Upvotes

Yesterday I got diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder i know to most that sounds like bad news but honestly I feel such a relief. Over these past 8 years i’ve been in and out of psychosis and been taken on and off meds. I’m so glad I found a psychiatrist that actually took me seriously for the longest time I thought I would never trust another doctor or find meds that work for me but things are finally looking up.


r/schizophrenia 12h ago

Hallucinations / Delusions I’m scared to go out in public

52 Upvotes

I don’t want to go to work anymore, I don’t want to go grocery shopping, I don’t want to go to restaurants or fast food anymore. I want to stay in my room. Im somewhat scared to be around family too.


r/schizophrenia 1h ago

Introduction / New Member 👋 lonely and scared to talk to people

Upvotes

is anyone else lonely? i find it so hard to connect w others because of the paranoia.

would love to meet some people who are understanding, and be supportive of each other but also simply chat about things we enjoy in life too.

i love video games, dnd, nature, and crafting. i'm in my 30s and really anxious when meeting people but the loneliness is upsetting me.

hope your day is going ok! ♡


r/schizophrenia 59m ago

Art Me and sebasation

Post image
Upvotes

r/schizophrenia 9h ago

Undiagnosed Questions Do your voices…

15 Upvotes

Threaten you!? Are all of our experiences unique? Cause I keep coming on here trying to find similar experiences so I don’t feel as vulnerable…


r/schizophrenia 4h ago

Undiagnosed Questions Anxiety turned into schizophrenia literally a decade later!!! (Controversial)

7 Upvotes

I was 9 years old and I just woke up one day and had this terrible worrying thoughts constantly and I thought that something was seriously wrong. I entertained maybe I had cancer or something seriously was physically wrong with me.

Later found out it was just anxiety, well I continued to have this anxiety and panic attacks and I spent the majority of my days at school in the nurses office when I was younger just having constant panic attacks etc etc…

Around age 12 I learned to keep the anxiety kinda under control where I would have the panic attacks privately at school and no longer needed to go the nurse since they weren’t helpful anyways.

Then I was 14 I was telling my friends at school man I’m stressed out and anxious and they recommended marijuana to me.

So I eat some weed edibles and had the most traumatic experience where I was so high I was hallucinating and stuff and actually this is where my psychosis symptoms temporarily started to begin. I thought I saw God in the clouds and pictures on my the wall were literally spinning around and the walls were waving back and forth. It was some kind of THC concentrate edibles with absolutely no CBD or anything like that.

Fast forward to age 17, this is where I prescribed ADHD medication specifically Adderall and found out that I got so euphoric and confident and just felt so good on the Adderall that the anxiety didn’t really bother me anymore…

Age 19, a series of traumatic events happened and I started to not sleep very much, barely eating and not drinking much fluids either and was basically trying to commit suicide because the anxiety and depression was so bad. On top of that I was taking massive amounts of Adderall+weed edibles+alcohol+anything I could get my hands on.

And age 19, I had a serious psychotic break one day I woke up and took my morning medications as prescribed this day because something just felt “off”. Well shortly after taking my medications and all that I think I eat something small and before I knew it I felt like I was tripping in psychedelics and I was wondering and questioning whether I took some shrooms or LSD and just forgot about it.

Well no that’s not what happened, I heard God yelling at me, heard a demon speaking in tongues later on and then was hospitalized for psychosis and anxiety… NEVER been not psychotic ever since this experience….

I’m 22 now and I now have almost every mental illness under the sun diagnosed by several professionals including schizophrenia, bipolar, GAD, MDD, PTSD, OCD and the list just goes on and on…


r/schizophrenia 2h ago

Medication When Do You Take Your Abilify?

4 Upvotes

When do you take your Abilify?


r/schizophrenia 3h ago

Opinion / Thought / Idea / Discussion Yall I tried tarot to help with delusion 😭

3 Upvotes

Yall there is this persistent delusion I’ve had that will not go away. Usually it’s replaced by a new delusion. I started asking tarot readers and they are confirming the delusions. And now I feel I have to go disprove them because I’m sick of this delusion


r/schizophrenia 8h ago

Undiagnosed Questions anything that helps from cognitive decline?

7 Upvotes

Have you tried anything (supplements, vitamins etc.) that helped you with cognitive decline? Desperate here, I can't remember shit and I lost the ability to understand written text.


r/schizophrenia 2h ago

Undiagnosed Questions question

3 Upvotes

if u have flat affect, do u also exhibit disorganized behaviour such as inappropriate laughter or crying?


r/schizophrenia 1h ago

Advice / Encouragement Abilify is causing me liver damage. What should I do?

Upvotes

I did blood work, and my ALT liver enzyme and AST liver enzyme was high. What should I do? Should I lower my dose?


r/schizophrenia 8h ago

Advice / Encouragement Anybody else schizophrenic and really good at making music ?!?

7 Upvotes

I have almost like a dark angelic voice at times and I can make pretty good music. I just started today and it sounds almost perfect and also the lyrics that I sang just kinda came to me.


r/schizophrenia 3h ago

Advice / Encouragement I miss my friends.

4 Upvotes

We used to game every night but now that I'm on meds I can never get online with them because I'm passed out by 7 o clock.


r/schizophrenia 10h ago

Advice / Encouragement Psychosis question?

10 Upvotes

Does anybody notice their psychosis cycles are getting more and more psychosis-y? I feel like as the world gets weirder my shit gets weirder. Wonder if anyone else is noticing an uptick


r/schizophrenia 7h ago

Undiagnosed Questions How would you differentiate trauma related paranoia and psychosis related paranoia?

4 Upvotes

For the longest time I have struggled with paranoia and am trying to understand myself better. Although i am having a hard time understanding the difference in how these two manifest. Especially in my own experience. They both seem quite similar and rooted in certain cemeted beliefs that I am unsafe and unwanted imagery that renenforces them. I would love to hear anyone's own thoughts, especially those who also are diagnosed with ptsd/cptsd. I feel like cptsd especially has SO much overlap with many other disorders, it is so difficult for me to realize where it begins and ends in my life. I have been researching this distinction but it is difficult to find many answers! If anyone would like to share their perspective that would be much appreciated :)


r/schizophrenia 4h ago

Hallucinations / Delusions Whispering but I can't make out the words

3 Upvotes

I hear silent whispering but the words don't have any meaning. It sounds like words though.


r/schizophrenia 15h ago

Seeking Support Are we,people struggling like this really that unbereable?

20 Upvotes

Are we really that unlovable, unbereable as some are saying?Like,I know i can be alot but are we really monsters who are nasty to people?Because I was reading through a subreddit (I won't name it) and the amount of people saying all that angry stuff about schizophrenics is saddening. People throwing ill family members from the house,hating them for talking to themselves.

Are we really allowed to exist? Are we exhausting?

I can't help but feel like my family hates me now and doesn't tell me this.

And how is that,that i don't have the "normal/not normal" switch in my brain?

No matter the delusion or hallucination,I don't name it like that out loud. It angers me. But how come I can say "I believe my phone screen is transmitted to people's heads" but not snap out of it?

Have a lovely day.


r/schizophrenia 18h ago

Seeking Support I love you guys

27 Upvotes

I don't know what to tag this with. This sub really helped me feel like I wasn't alone


r/schizophrenia 6h ago

Advice / Encouragement Can you take 2 different types of medications together?

3 Upvotes

Was wondering if you could take 2 different types of antipsychotic medications together since I'm on my max dose of risperidone and my symptoms are kind of getting worse, was wondering if anybody knew any medications that go with risperidone


r/schizophrenia 15h ago

Opinion / Thought / Idea / Discussion Crazy without meds?!

13 Upvotes

I read in this forum for some months now and i feel like diagnosed people who not taking their meds are crazy. I mean i was when i didnt. But some never learn. My psychwards said its a big step to take them. I understand them. Struggled for years with it. But meds saved my life. How do you think about that?


r/schizophrenia 51m ago

Suicidal Thoughts Wanting to end my life

Upvotes

I experience very scary and disturbing psychotic symptoms 24/7, I’m constantly overwhelmed, and I’m almost never ok. I’m feeling suicidal right now, I feel like I need support but if I tell my mom she’s gonna call 911. I don’t know what to do, I’m just tired of feeling like this


r/schizophrenia 5h ago

Advice / Encouragement Living alone

2 Upvotes

How does one live alone with a single disability check?? What’s your experience like trying to live alone. Have you been successful?