Schizoaffective Disorder

[Inzomniac]

Sorry to hear what you are going through.
It seems that this reality has borne more suffering than it was meant to.
Ultimately, it is an unworkable situation that forces an impossibly flawed choice:
We can only choose to help others or to help ourselves, with no real middle-ground for something else between.
If there are people who inflict suffering then there has to be people to absorb that suffering in order for the reality to be able to continue.
And it so happens that the people who choose to help themselves are the ones who inflict the suffering on the people who choose to help others.
Wish I could give you better news than that, but those are the facts of the way things work.
It's why many good people can never catch an "honest" break, regardless of ability.
And it's why some evil people can never be stopped, regardless of obviousness.

[Philly]

Luke, I don't have much experience with your condition but I would say that you have to look at it like people look at addiction. An alcoholic can be 20 years sober, but will always be an alcoholic. They will never be cured from addiction, but can find ways to live a bette life that isn't controlled by that addiction. Not a doctor but just my two cents.

[Saz]

[Inzomniac]

[Inzomniac]

Luke/Kevin,

I wish I had used Music the way it was meant to be used...kind of got side-tracked in life in making it more about me than the people it was supposed to reach. It kind of got caught up too much in my own world and so it became self-absorbed and that diminished its value.

This idea you have of wanting to help someone can be accomplished through beautiful, moving music. Find a heart that is stuck and write the piece that let's it go forward. A song as personal, beautiful, intricate as the situation they are going through that let's you feel the situation and the message through the music.

Keep in touch, I would like to share something more personal with you in the future.

Chris

[JDHURF]

Whoa! This was quite the thread. I obviously didn't read all of it, but the first few posts were something else.

Luke, I don't remember you ever posting around here or any past iterations. I remember spacemonkey posting in the past, but I don't remember any of his posts being particularly enlightening. It's certainly true that as far as medication is concerned for treating something as potentially serious as schizoaffective disorder, however that may manifest symptomatically in your life, consultation with a well trained psychiatrist and physician would be the best way to go for a prescription for medication (or even for a diagnosis). Which leads me to ask, how have you been diagnosed as schizoaffective and by whom? What psychiatrist and from which facility? If I may ask. You don't have too answer. Just curious. It could be relevant to you.

As far as cannabis, I am in no place to recommend it in this potentially specific instance. I have reviewed scientific literature somewhat seriously while I studied biology years ago in a community college and have followed it since that time for years keeping infrequent tabs on it and at various depths and length regarding the positive effects of even smoked cannabis, let alone THC oils, on the various extreme symptoms of schizophrenia and other medical ailments (cannabis use and legality in general and in particular as a medicine). I've also read about Colorado's legalization of cannabis and how many parents with children who have life altering ailments such as severe seizures on a daily basis that disables their ability to live a functional life and could well perish or live a shorter life in relatively severe agony and without neurological development and a conscious, intelligent human life have moved there. They have moved there because the normal medical approach that they have experienced with their local hospitals and medical care have been unable to help treat their children and their severe symptoms and ailments. Evidently some small regular doses of particular strains of cannabinoid oils have allowed for the children reviewed (in this specific case, a National Geographic article) to have reduced severe seizures from a daily occurrence to a rarity that have allowed the children to be active enough to play and begin healthy neural development that allows for learning.

In short, cannabis can be legitimately used medicinally, but it really ought to be, if ever used medicinally, overseen by a medical professional knowledgeable with both the illness and the effects of the particular strain of cannabinoid and dose levels.



A blanket suggestion such as Spacemonkey's is both idiotic and potentially harmful.

[spacemonkey]

[JDHURF]

It was a blanket statement so far as you asserted it without any context. You don't actually know Luke or any of his issues.
Seeking help for a legitimate medical-psychiatric ailment is not best sought with a loaded bong of just anything found wherever unspecified without legitimate consultation with a professional. Period.


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[exploited]

This really is a great thread. It's so refreshing that people are able to speak more openly and freely about mental health issues, and I think it is very important for those of us who don't relate to have an understanding of how others cope, how they feel about their illness, etc.

These sorts of discussions need to happen more. Props to everyone here who has shared their thoughts and opened up about themselves. Cheers.

[JDHURF]

Luke,

That is quite interesting. From what you write you have been to quite a few hospitals and have visited a good many doctors and psychiatrists of whatever business and practice they offer. It reads as though you have not necessarily been offered a definitive diagnosis. There appears to only have been a wide melange of observed or assumed symptoms by the doctors of whatever form and/or psychiatrists of whatever capacity. That or they were simply informed by yourself and/or your family. Either way, that seems quite sparse to me.

I certainly understand you not wanting to post specific names. Certainly. If you don't mind I would be curious if you have taken any tests or measures? How the diagnoses were ever identified.

My only concern or observation is that paranoid schizophrenia, schizophreniform, obsessive compulsive behaviors and depression and schizoaffective disorders all slide within a few general categories of diagnoses, symptomatic manifestations and features and effective treatment, be it medical, behavioral, cognitive, general talk therapy or whatever. None of this is a single monolith. It may all be considerably different. If you have ever had hallucinations and delusions, for instance, that may well be considerably different from a feeling of depression or of anxiety and so on and the treatment thereof would likely be equally different.

If you are currently prescribed to Abilify and Cymbalta due to a psychiatrist agreeing with whatever you say he is agreeing with. Some more self-reflecting and analysis of your present life conditions may be a good exercise.

You might want to think about whether you have had hallucinations, delusions and whether your symptoms more specifically, whatever they are, have ever varied in intensity and experience since the medications prescribed under the diagnosis of OCD and its comorbidity. Have your symptoms become more manageable whatever they are? Do they seem to you to be more or less resolving, dissolving into no longer being symptomatic of whatever it may be that is ailing you?

If you no longer have symptoms as the present psychiatrist tells you, what does he say if anything about continuing or discontinuing the medication? Of continuing or discontinuing the conversations about jazz?

Good luck to you!