Posted by xbunny on December 16, 2004, at 13:54:16
In reply to SCHIZOPHRENIA - with or without voices, posted by pretty_paints on December 12, 2004, at 13:17:22
This post is kinda old but I thought I would reply anyways just to add my voice (so to speak).
> Anyway the point of this is, I'm looking for people who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
>
please to meetcha> 1) What was the onset of your illness?
> 2) How did things progress, was it gradual or sudden? Did you end up in hospital?
>18 years old, though I've always been 'weird' it became a problem at 18 (from the stress of my A levels)
The acute onset was quite sudden, its hard to put a date on it, but over a period of about 3 months I became convinced people where either controlled by a some kind of 'remote' evil fog or were trying to poison me or talking about me and that reality wasnt real etc etc I had a lot of visuals and thought insertion and messages too. I didnt know anything mental illness at the time and assumed what was happening was real but I was too paranoid to talk about it so I just tried to get on and recovered from it without meds over a period of about 4 months. I then had another acute episode about a year later which I went to the dr about. Since then I have never been right, about 3 years ago I had an episode so acute I had to go into hospital, I kept getting messages and seeing things which were telling me reality was a sham. I beleived (firmly) I was in a coma and I could hear the people by my bed side talking about me and wishing me to wake up, at the same time angel/demons wanted me to give up and there were aliens controlling the wind or something. It was terrifying.
> 3) What type of symptoms did you have? Can you give any examples of the delusions or paranoia you suffered from?
>
> 4) Do you hear voices or hallucinate?
>I know I hallucinate visually. I find visual hallucinations easy to identify. Im told I have good insight but often I fail to notice when I am being irrationally paranoid. I hear voices only when Im really ill. I also get smell hallucinations too which I find disturbing as they make me panic despite myself.
> 5) How long did it take to be diagnosed?
Hard to say, the doctors here in the UK are very reluctant to give me a label. However after I was in hospital and discussing things with the dr, it was obvious I had that dx for awhile. So probably it took about 2 years to get a firm dx of schizophrenia. I used to beleive I had psychotic depression but my cpn is pretty definate about my dx.>
> Thanks so much for all your replies. xxxxxHope this is of some interest,
Bunny
poster:xbunny
thread:428300
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041211/msgs/430317.html