How to Live with Schizophrenia (with Pictures)

2024 Author: Samantha Chapman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 09:13

Living a normal, peaceful life with schizophrenia isn't easy at all, but it is certainly possible. Therefore, you should find a treatment (or more than one) in line with your needs and health conditions, manage your life avoiding sources of stress and create a support network around you. If you've been diagnosed with this disorder, don't despair. Rather, learn to harness your inner strength and face the situation head on. If the problem concerns a family member, there is valuable information on living with people with schizophrenia.

Steps

Part 1 of 3: Seeking a Treatment

Step 1. Get started early

Don't hesitate to treat yourself. If you don't have a certain diagnosis, see your doctor as soon as you notice the first symptoms so that therapy can be adopted. The earlier you start, the more effective it will be. Symptoms tend to appear in men in the first part or in the mid-20s, while in women they appear towards the end of the 20s. The signs of schizophrenia can include:

• Constant feeling of suspicion;
• Unusual or strange thoughts, such as believing that a loved one wishes to harm you
• Hallucinations or sensory alterations, such as seeing, tasting, smelling, hearing or feeling that others do not feel in the same conditions.
• Disorganized thoughts or speech
• "Negative" symptoms (associated with disorder of social behavior and functioning), such as emotional flattening, lack of eye contact, lack of facial expression, neglect of personal hygiene and / or social isolation;
• Movement disorders, such as adopting strange positions or making unnecessary or repetitive movements.

Step 2. Learn about the risk factors

There are several factors that increase the risk of developing schizophrenia:

• Inheritance, i.e. cases of schizophrenia in the family;
• Taking mind-altering medications during adolescence or transition to adulthood
• Events that occurred during the gestation period, such as exposure to viruses or toxic agents;
• Significant activation of the immune system due to inflammatory processes.

Step 3. Consult your doctor to establish a treatment plan

Unfortunately, schizophrenia is not a disease that goes away on its own. Healing is required, so opt for a treatment plan that will help you accept it and treat it in your life like any other daily activity. To work it out, ask your doctor what medications and treatments are best suited to your needs.

Remember that every person is different, so medicines and therapies have subjective effectiveness. However, you need to keep looking for the best treatment for your condition

Step 4. Talk to your doctor about the drug options available to you

Avoid using webs to figure out which medications you should be taking. There is millions of pieces of information on the Internet and not all of them are reliable. Rather, talk to your doctor to determine the appropriate therapy. Symptoms, age, and clinical history are all important factors to consider in finding the right drug.

• If the medications you are taking are causing you any discomfort, tell your doctor. He will be able to correct the dosage or recommend a different one.
• Drugs commonly used to treat schizophrenia include antipsychotics, which act on dopamine and serotonin, two neurotransmitters.

• Typically, atypical antipsychotics produce fewer side effects and, therefore, are recommended to a greater extent. They include:

  • Aripiprazole (Abilify);
  • Asenapine (Sycrest);
  • Clozapine (Leponex);
  • Iloperidone (Fanapt);
  • Lurasidone (Latuda);
  • Olanzapine (Zyprexa);
  • Paliperidone (Invega);
  • Quetiapine (Sequase);
  • Risperidone (Risperdal);
  • Ziprasidone (Zeldox).

• Generally, first-generation antipsychotics are accompanied by a greater number of side effects (some of which may be permanent) and are also cheaper. They include:

  • Chlorpromazine (Largactil);
  • Flufenazine (Moditen);
  • Haloperidol (Serenase);
  • Perfenazine (Trilafon).

  

  Step 5. Try psychotherapy

  It helps you to follow the treatments, to better understand yourself and your illness. Consult your doctor to understand which psychotherapeutic path is best suited to your needs. However, keep in mind that it alone cannot cure schizophrenia. Some of the more common forms of psychotherapy include:

  • Individual psychotherapy: consists of individual meetings with the therapist focused on your state of mind, on the problems to be faced, on relationships and on many other aspects of your life. On the other hand, you will find a professional who will try to teach you how to manage daily difficulties and better understand your disorder.
  • Family therapy: consists of meetings shared with close family members so that they too can learn about your disease, commit to communicating and relating effectively.
  • Cognitive therapy: very useful for people with schizophrenia. It is important to emphasize that psychotherapy in combination with drugs is the most effective way to treat this disease.

  

  Step 6. Consider community reintegration therapy

  If you have been hospitalized due to a worsening condition, find the right way to reintegrate into the community where you live. By doing this, you can regain your role and gain the support you need as you develop daily habits and interact with others.

  • This approach involves the involvement of an interdisciplinary team within a therapeutic framework articulated in assessments and assistance interventions of various kinds. Therefore, it is possible to consult professionals specialized in drug abuse, but also competent figures in professional retraining and nurses.
  • For more information on this treatment, search the Internet for "assertive community treatment" or ask your doctor for advice.

  Part 2 of 3: Managing Your Life

  

  Step 1. Follow drug therapy

  It happens that people with schizophrenia stop taking the medications prescribed by their doctor. Try some ways to keep taking them when you want to stop:

  • Remember that they are used to control your condition, not to cure it. In other words, they help you feel better as long as you keep taking them.

  • Take advantage of the support of the people who are close to you. Tell your family or friends when you are feeling well so they can encourage you to continue your drug therapy when you want to stop.

    Try recording a message urging yourself to take the drugs explaining why (they are a treatment, not a cure) and ask your family to let you know when you think about stopping them

  

  Step 2. Accept your illness

  You have to commit to accepting it so that recovery is less strenuous. On the other hand, denying that something is wrong or thinking that the disorder will go away on its own can only make the situation worse. For this reason, you have to start treatment and accept these two realities:

  • Yes, you suffer from schizophrenia and you will have a difficult task to carry out.
  • You can live a normal and peaceful life. Schizophrenia is not a hopeless disease. You can learn to live with it.
  • While accepting the diagnosis is the first step in finding the right therapy, you must be willing to fight for a normal life if you truly want it.

  

  Step 3. Remember that with the right approach you can lead a normal life

  The initial shock of diagnosis can be very hard for both the patient and the family to overcome. However, it is possible to have a normal existence, but it takes time to familiarize yourself with the disease and find an effective treatment plan.

  In fact, if a person with schizophrenia takes medications and follows therapy closely, they can easily interact with others, find a job, start a family, or otherwise be successful in life

  

  Step 4. Avoid Stress

  Often, situations of high stress trigger episodes of schizophrenia. Therefore, if you suffer from this disease, you must avoid all situations and factors that could put you under strain and cause a crisis. There are several ways to manage stress. Consider the following tips:

  • Each individual is sensitive to certain stressors. Psychotherapy can help you identify which ones you are most responsive to, be it people, situations or places. Once discovered, try with all your might to avoid them.
  • For example, you can use some relaxation techniques, such as meditation or deep breathing.

  

  Step 5. Exercise regularly

  Movement not only relieves stress, but stimulates the production of endorphins, promoting a feeling of well-being.

  Try to listen to songs that give you the right boost during training so you don't give up

  

  Step 6. Get enough sleep

  Lack of sleep fuels anxiety and stress. Therefore, try to get a good night's sleep. Find out how many hours it takes you to feel rested and keep the same sleep-wake rhythm.

  If you have trouble sleeping, try making your bedroom completely dark and quiet by muffling outside noises, changing the environment, or putting a mask over your eyes and earplugs. Create a bedtime routine and stick to it every night

  

  Step 7. Eat healthily

  Foods that are not good for health can promote the onset of negative feelings and, consequently, increase tensions. Therefore, it is important to eat well to combat stress.

  • Go for lean meats, nuts, fresh fruits and vegetables.
  • Eating healthily means following a balanced diet. Avoid overeating with food.

  

  Step 8. Try cognitive techniques

  While they are not a substitute for psychotherapy or psychotherapist work, they can help you relieve the severity of your symptoms.

  • For example, you can resort to the technique of normalization. It consists in considering psychotic episodes as part of the same set of experiences to which normal ones also belong and recognizing that everyone can experience moments that differ from regular everyday life. With this approach you will feel less alienated and stigmatized and will develop an attitude that will have a positive effect on your health.
  • To manage an auditory hallucination, try to object by making valid arguments. For example, if a voice commands you to engage in the wrong behavior, such as stealing, list the reasons why you cannot go along with what it is asking of you (for example, you could get in trouble; violate social norms; you would harm another person; is an intolerable gesture by most people and, therefore, you must not listen to this voice).

  

  Step 9. Distract yourself

  If you suffer from hallucinations, try to distract yourself, perhaps by listening to some music or doing some manual work. Do your best to fully immerse yourself in another activity and prevent the risk of having an unwanted experience.

  

  Step 10. Question distorted thoughts

  To deal with the social anxiety that accompanies schizophrenia, try to identify and challenge the distorted thoughts. For example, if you think everyone in a room is watching you, try to challenge the validity of this belief. Look for proof: Is it true that everyone is watching you? Ask yourself how much attention you pay to a single person when walking down the street.

  Remember that in a crowded room there are many people whose attention is not focused only on you, but can focus on one individual and then move on to another

  

  Step 11. Try to keep yourself busy

  Once you have learned to manage symptoms with medication and therapy, try to get back to normal living and keep busy. If your day is full of dead moments, thoughts that fuel anxiety and tension may flash in your mind, and consequently also the risk of schizophrenic crisis. So, to keep yourself in business:

  • Commit yourself to your work;
  • Schedule moments to dedicate to friends and family;
  • Cultivate a new hobby;
  • Help a friend or volunteer.

  

  Step 12. Avoid excessive caffeine consumption

  Sudden spikes in caffeine in the system risk worsening the "positive" symptoms of schizophrenia (such as delusions and hallucinations). Even if you are used to taking it, the important thing is that it does not affect the symptoms, even in case of interruption. The key is to avoid a sudden change in habits related to the intake of this substance. Therefore, it is recommended not to consume more than 400 mg per day. However, keep in mind that the chemical mechanisms of the human body vary from person to person as much as the consumption of caffeine, so you may tolerate it better or worse than other substances.

  

  Step 13. Avoid alcohol

  Drinking alcoholic beverages negatively affects treatment, worsens symptoms and increases the risk of hospitalization. You better not touch them.

  Part 3 of 3: Create a Support Network

  

  Step 1. Seek the company of people who can understand your health condition

  It is important that you spend time with those who are aware of what you are going through, so that you do not stress yourself explaining your situation to those who do not know it. Dedicate your time to empathetic, genuine and sincere people.

  Avoid those who are not sensitive to your psychophysical conditions or who can transmit tension

  

  Step 2. Avoid isolating yourself

  While it can be challenging to gather the energy and calm to interact with others, it is important to do so. Humans are social animals, and when we are with others, our brains produce chemicals that can make us feel happy and protected.

  Find the time to do what you love with the people you love

  

  Step 3. Find someone to express your emotions and fears to

  Schizophrenia increases the sense of isolation from the rest of the world, so by confiding what you are going through to a loyal and sincere person, you will be able to defeat this feeling. Opening up to someone, sharing their experiences and emotions, can be very therapeutic and relieve pressure.

  You should confide even if your interlocutor has no advice to offer you. Simply communicating your thoughts and emotions can promote calm and self-control

  

  Step 4. Look for a support group

  It can be a great help when you have to accept schizophrenia and consider it a part of your life. By realizing that other people are also facing the same problems as you and have found a way to manage them, you will have an additional tool for understanding and accepting your illness.

  By joining a support group, you may also feel more confident in your abilities and have less fear of illness, as well as understand what you can do in your life

  Advice

  • Schizophrenia is not a catastrophic event, although many people mistakenly believe it is. Although the diagnosis is undoubtedly difficult for both the patient and their loved ones to accept, this disease must not ruin one's life.
  • If you accept what is happening to you and are willing to do your best to follow the treatment plan, you can lead a peaceful and fulfilling life, despite being diagnosed with schizophrenia.