Does Having Schizophrenia Make You a Little Psychic?

A little about myself before the topic

I've lived with this for 2 years so far and it took me one year before I even got medical help because I didnt know what to do. The hospital thinks I may have gotten this from being given a spiked drink, but im not sure.The first year was also hard for me and I was baker acted four times. I was nuts. I was even lost on the beach for 5 days where I lived in the park there.My parents reported me as missing to the police and my mother went all over town passing out flyers. I thought my family was all dead and I had the topic of bombs in my head. My mind was all warped and made me think I was in Iran. Another incident I had was when I went to the police station telling them that president obama wants me to go into the electric chair. They all looked at me like I was nuts and took me to the hospital.I also felt like the government put a chip in my head and was giving me instructions on what to do. I've been taking risperidon which I stopped recently. The med makes me way too tired and since Ive been off it I notice I get very low voices, but not too many. Its manageable now. I used to have loud voices calling me cuss words and I was paranoid some and then started getting suicidal thoughts. Also I had odd religious thoughts about jesus being an alien and how I needed to die so my soul could travel to other universes. Well Im doing better now, but I dont want to take meds.

Back to the topic.

Anyone think this makes you a little psychic. Some things that happened to me

1. In my head when I was nuts I had a vision that the police went to a night club I used to go to and that the people there knew about my dog. This happened when I was missing. Well turns out the police did go to that nightclub and they had a picture of me with my dog in it. I had no idea they went there until someone told me afterwards.

2. Another incident which is why this sickness is so screwy. My voices had been making fun of me by saying I live with my mommy and daddy. Im in my mid 30s so what. Anyway after this started I went to the emergency room with my mother and the doctor was there saying I was there with my mommy. I went nuts after hearing him say that.

3. My voices were telling me that I would be seeing someone soon that I know by their name and it turns out that person visited the house where I live 2 days after. They were called to come over by my mother.
I think it does make you psychic some. Anyone have similar experiences?

First things first... I'm not really responding with this post. I'm just making it because I've noticed that the second post in every topic gets covered up by some advertisement that won't display properly. So, why put the effort into making a post that's only going to be covered up by an ad?

Once this has been posted, then I'll actually write a response to you.

Hello miamui,
I'm only going to address two of the points you raised. I have noticed that a number of individuals I've spoken with over the years who are considered to be schizophrenic can also be very sensitive to their environment and highly intuitive. I'm not sure if you would consider that to be the same as psychic.

miamui: I've been taking risperidon which I stopped recently. The med makes me way too tired and since Ive been off it I notice I get very low voices, but not too many. Its manageable now. ... Well Im doing better now, but I dont want to take meds.

I know people who are recovering with medication and people who are recovering without. For this reason, I'm not too hung up on whether or not people are making use of medications as part of their treatment. What I am concerned with is function. I have observed that:

- Some people function better with medication.
- Some people function better without medication.
- Some people function worse with medication.
- Some people function worse without medication.

Which camp will you fit into? I don't know. What I do know is that making an abrupt withdrawal from anti-psychotic medication is probably a good way to set yourself up for failure. Here's why...

Quote:

Potential adverse effects upon withdrawal of atypical neuroleptics:

The body will always try to maintain itself in a state of optimal conditions for cell functioning. Therefore if a drug is introduced that blocks a specific signal or function the body will try to compensate for this. So, if an atypical neuroleptic blocks dopamine receptors, the cell on which the receptors are located will sense that it is not receiving as many signals from the dopamine receptors as it used to. In the long term, the cell will respond by producing more receptors, in an attempt to get the level of dopamine receptor signalling it is used to.

As well as producing increased numbers of dopamine receptors, the sensitivity of the dopamine receptors is increased. If an individual then decided to abruptly discontinue taking the atypical neuroleptic, the dopamine receptors would no longer be blocked and fully exposed. So should anything potentially exciting or stimulating happen, dopamine would be released and bind to the increased numbers of extra sensitive receptors, leading to increased dopamine transmission, over and above what would have occured before the atypicals were introduced. In this scenario, some individuals develop 'psychotic' symptoms, due to over flooding of dopamine receptors, which may be interpreted as a 'relapse'.

The development of psychotic symptoms when there is excess dopamine transmission (as may occur in abrupt withdrawal) may lead some individuals to believe that increased dopamine signalling may have been responsible for the psychotic experiences an individual initially had when the drugs were first prescribed. However, individuals who had no psychiatric history have been given a course of neuroleptic treatment, and when the neuroleptics were abruptly withdrawn some of these individuals developed 'psychotic' symptoms.

- Rufus May - Clinical Psychologist and Diagnosed Schizophrenic

I've come across that information before and feel that this fellow actually explained the process a little more clearly...

This biological mechanism is somewhat well understood now. The antipsychotics profoundly block dopamine receptors. They block 70-90 percent of the dopamine receptors in the brain. In return, the brain sprouts about 50 percent extra dopamine receptors. It tries to become extra sensitive.

So in essence you've created an imbalance in the dopamine system in the brain. It's almost like, on one hand, you've got the accelerator down -- that's the extra dopamine receptors. And the drug is the brake trying to block this. But if you release that brake, if you abruptly go off the drugs, you now do have a dopamine system that's overactive. You have too many dopamine receptors. And what happens? People that go abruptly off of the drug, do tend to have severe relapses.

Source: An Interview With Robert Whitaker

As noted, I do know people who are functioning well without medication so I know it's not necessary for everyone. However, if you want to actually succeed at reducing or withdrawing from your medications, it's best to taper very slowly so your body has time to adjust. During each step down, you also have to allow a period of time for assessment. If you continue to function well, you reduce again. If you do not, you return to the dosage that was last effective, and you stabilize and re-assess before attempting a further reduction.

There's some more good information here: http://forums.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=175759 I would encourage you to read that first if you want to increase the odds that you'll be able to make a successful reduction or withdrawal.

Good luck to you.