no mr.psychologist you do need antipsychotics....

[swanny]

it seems EVERY psychologist ive seen is like "you dont need antipsychotics, you cant rely on them" what BS! before antipsychotics came out ppl with schizo would be locked up in a mental institute and have their heads opened up and have lobotomies done on them. the psychologist also said "when it comes to recovery its 95% you and 5% medication. how the hell do you stop the voices without the antipsychotic? how do you stop the delusions without the antipsychotic? how do you stop the paranoia without the antipsychotic? i dont think we can just "think" ourselfs better. antipsychotics arent everything but bloody oath do they help you manage schizophrenia better. ive tried goin without aps and i couldnt even leave the house! antipsychotics help us schizos live and participate in the community. what good are we if we are non medicated and locked up in a cage with thousands of other psychotic ppl. i think psychologists are bloody idiots for saying you cant always rely on antipsychotics. i think THEY are the ones that need their heads examined.........

[swanny]

its so easy for them to judge us coz they are not the ones experiencing hearing voices telling you to kill yourself or other people. they are not the ones feeling as though people are out to get them. its a awful feeling and i bet if they were schizophrenic they would be dying to be put on an antipsychotic. how dare they say you cant rely on it. awful people just trying to order us around and make our lives a misery. yes lets all go off our meds and end up in hospital for attempting suicide or worse in jail coz we murdered some1 coz we heard a voice telling us to when infact if we were on meds that voice and that incident would never have happened.

[AnneMarie]

How many psychologist told you this?

Is it not possible that they did not mean you should forego meds?

I doubt that you would find very many psychologists who tell schizophrenics to go without meds.

[swanny]

How many psychologist told you this?

3 in total in psych wards and 2 in the community.

Is it not possible that they did not mean you should forego meds?

actually they told me to do deep breathing and that should fix my paranoia... go figure

I doubt that you would find very many psychologists who tell schizophrenics to go without meds.

well im in oz and i think their pricks and im really mad at them for telling me off that i rely on meds too much. im not gonna talk to another psychologist again.......

[confused]

I think it would be a shame if you gave up on all tdocs. There are some helpful things I've learned from therapy.

I'm in the US and I haven't heard that I rely on meds too much, but I did have a tdoc who told me she thought I was overmedicated. I convinced my pdoc to reduce my meds and I ended up crashing in to a depression/anxiety episode.

I agree with you that we need our meds.

[swanny]

I convinced my pdoc to reduce my meds and I ended up crashing in to a depression/anxiety episode.

i rest my case

I agree with you that we need our meds.

THANK YOU finally some1 on my side...

[bpladybug]

Swanny, I think most of us, if not all of us, are on your side. Those comments are dangerous. Really very dangerous and someone who is easily influenced or resists medication compliance could end up in a terrible situation. Potentially life threatening to themself and others if they become psychotic. Ask your psychiatrist to suggest a therapist who he respects. Someone you can trust.

It is so offensive that a therapist would tell a schizophrenic that recovery is 95 percent of to them. And 5 percent meds. That is just so wrong, not true. For me, bipolar 1, it is 90% meds. And all the fish oil, exercize, therapy just helps me. But the real treatment is lithium.

[swanny]

does anyone know what possible reasons why they(psychologists) would be telling me these things? are they not trained properly? i know it was a while ago but when i was in the psych ward the psychologist wanted to stop my PRN and talked to my pdoc and he agreed! WTF i posted this in the schizophrenia forum a while ago. the only possible reason why they might be against antipsychotics is coz of serious side effects that can be permanent such as tardive dyskinesia? hardly ever happens and is unlikely with atypicals though. thats all i can think of at the moment.....

[swanny]

any1 else have psychologists tell them not to rely too much on meds?? or is it just me?

[weordmyndum]

I've had a few like that. I don't have psychotic symptoms, but I take a number of meds for targeted symptom relief, including a TCA for a rare sleep disorder. The meds don't touch my root issues (C-PTSD and severe depression), but they do keep me at least marginally sane.

The therapists I've had tell me that I shouldn't rely too much on meds tended to be those who worked a lot with addicts. Some of them think that everything you do/use a lot is an addiction and therefore bad...but that model doesn't work so well with people who actually need meds to stay sane. (There are good addictions therapists out there, though.)

I've been lucky over the last several years to work with therapists who totally get the need for meds. There are some out there, swanny. I hope you find a good one.

[Pamito]

I'm in Oz too, Swanny, and my therapist is trying to make me see that meds are not the be all and end all. But he would never tell me to go off the meds. Just trying to make me think that I can do something about my symptoms by relating to them differently, and its not all meds.

I believe my illness is 90% physical and I can feel better about 10% with changing my views.

The people who are telling you that it is 90% psychological sound really stupid, I would be annoyed too. SZ is a medical illness!