Schizophrenia Blog

I gained almost 20kgs in three years, while taking antipsychotics. I gained even more weight than when I was pregnant with my child. Does this story sound a little familiar? My sudden weight gain was very concerning to me, all my regular clothes stopped fitting me and I felt like a baby elephant. On the internet I found medical articles that confirmed that the antipsychotic, Zyprexa, that I was taking was notorious for weight gain. I also found that there was a newer breed that was better. I pleaded with my psychiatrist to switch my medication. He did the switch, but he also made the point that I needed to exercise more, I gulped.

The chances of recovery from schizophrenia are greater than many doctors, patients and their families believe. It is helpful though for certain factors to be present. Back in 2002 researchers at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute identified what they said were 10 key factors present in a recovery from schizophrenia. If many of these factor are present then the chances of a recovery from schizophrenia are good. Unfortunately many of the factors are historical. You can not influence them, they are either present in your case or they are not. I have reproduced the details of this research below courtesy of www.schizophrenia.com because these 10 key factors still hold true today and they will give many hope. I would add an 11th key factor that research since has also found to be true. Taking the ingredients in SBX and Omega 3 fish oil high in EPA can improve prognosis dramatically...so don't neglect to change the things that you can and start taking both today. www.sbxsupplements.com

This post is about my experience in trying to help a family member recover from schizophrenia and the role of family and friends. The role of the person who cares is a vitally important factor in a recovery. The nature of the illness is such that without an intervention of some sort, recovery, I imagine, is very rare. This is because people with schizophrenia usually lack self-awareness in respect of the illness and without that, their decisions tend to set them on a downward spiral. Unfortunately your task involves many challenges including that your attempts to help will probably not be appreciated.

During a recent casual conversation with some new friends, I asked them what they understood the term schizophrenia to mean. Without pausing, they replied, "schizophrenia, that's the split personality mental condition". I knew that their backgrounds were not in medicine, and I assumed, from our conversations, that none of their family members suffered from the condition, but I was still taken back by their lack of understanding of what I believed was a well understood mental condition.

Why do some British Doctors Believe Fish Oils (EPA) could be a "cure" to Schizophrenia? I was a little sceptical when I recently read, an article on Fish Oil that had the words "schizophrenia" and "cure" in the same sentence. Any sufferer of schizophrenia, care giver or family member who has conducted any kind of research on the topic knows that there is currently no known cure for schizophrenia (of course a Cure would be great but what sufferers should aim for is a full recovery, there is no cure for the common cold either but people make full recoveries). Anyway, back to the article, while a fairly old 1998), it is certainly one that has its merits.

Below is an uplifting story of a high-achieving woman who suffered from schizophrenia and did not give in to her doctor's prognosis. I wanted to share it with you to show that great this are possible while living with schizophrenia. Even if you do not make a full recovery from schizophrenia it is still possible to be a great success. I get really sad when I stumble upon very scared and frustrated forum posts on various health boards from sufferers of schizophrenia or their care givers. Often posts deal with the same topics and ask the same questions: "can you hold down a job when you are on your meds?," "can you study when you are sick?," Sound all too familiar to you? These are the types of questions and comments we want to address here. But understanding that great possibilities exist in the future is necessary first. Today I want to share a positive and uplifting story that I found in The New York Times (dated January 25 2013). The story is about an American sufferer of schizophrenia – Elyn R. Saks – a Law Professor at the University of Southern California and the author of the memoir “The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness.”