Schizophrenia And Head Trauma

In 2001 I sustained a head injury although it didn't show up on CT and MRI scans. I had this diagnosed through doing some neuropshychological tests. Around the same time I was also diagnosed with schizophrenia and are currently on resperadone injections.

I want to know if schizo can be caused through head trauma and also what course of treatments should I be following?? The person who diagnosed me with the head injury wanted tp put me onto dopamine agonists judically with whatever medication my physchologist put me on to help with the apathy. Yet my psychologist is very against this so it is impossible to get the two to work together and worse than that I am forced to take the resperadone injections(which cost a lot of money to the government) where I will be placed under the mental health act if I refuse to take them. It seems one wants me to become a zombie by blocking the dopamine and the other wants to increase it to improve my enjoyment of life yet I am forced to be a zombie.

I thought I'd add a little bit more. I wrote a more indepth bit on this page here>http://cambridgemedicine.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/does-traumatic-brain-injury-%e2%80%98cause%e2%80%99-schizophrenia/#comment-523

My name in the comments is frustrated. To me I am unsure that I have the disease. Some of the reasons are as follows.

1) I have only been diagnosed for about 1 year and turn 40 years old today . Only a very small percentage get diagnosed so late in life.

2) Nobody in the extended family has scitzo or any other forms of mental illness.

3)I do not hear voices or have imaginary friends like people who write in this forum yet my physciatrist says he caught the disease just in the nick of time.

4) Nobody I know thinks or understands I am scitzo.

On the other side of the coin I have had racing thoughts and confusion about radio stations targeting me and people where their manipulation and imaturity in the games they play cause a lot of things to go wrong such as the outbreak of murders that happened in and around my life. This is what people will get very annoyed and angry at me for talking about just because I hold an opinion about real events that actually happened and not my imagination as they are dead. And probably the biggest reason why I am now diagnosed as scitzo. I guess I developed an interest into the way peolple think and how society is controlled by the messages people in power send out. One would think that my views on these things would change once being medicated for a year but they haven't at all although the resperidone does suppress my racing thoughts.

The point is these problems that I get treated for are not the biggest problems in my life yet this is what I am forced to be medicated for. My biggest problems are fatique and apathy(made worse by the medication) which would be more a problem to do with brain injury than scitzo. The way the psychiatrist tried to deal with apathy was putting my on anti depressants(seratonine) but that was hopeless as for someone with a flat battery(brain) using it more often is only going to lead to a downhill slide. I would like to learn more about dopamine agonists and the effects increasing dopamine can have on a person... the OPPOSITE to what they do to schzophrenics.

It's a bit unclear what I am asking here I guess I'm just after a bit of advice for my situation as it seems overwhealming and hopless.

I was in a serious car accident about 3 years ago on the local highway. I'll be completely honest here, I was trying to take my own life. I was in a coma for 2 days and they had to stitch up the front and back of my head. Also sustained a severe concussion.

I was schizophrenic before the accident of course, but they think I had a seizure (which is probably why I can't remember anything of the accident) so I'm being tested for epilepsy now. Ah well, just one more pill to take right? No sweat off of my sack..

P.S I haven't been suicidal in years, not even close

duder78 wrote:P.S I haven't been suicidal in years, not even close

Sounds like it knocked some sense into you. . Glad to hear. I've been suicidal a lot of my life and it can get pretty bad.

I was at it's worst in the beginning of my ordeal. I didn't understand what was happening to me. I heard voices 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Relentless and mean voices. I made two attempts on my life, the car accident being as close as I came to death. It truly was a wake up call and I thank my lucky stars I didn't succeed.

After switching up my meds(zeldox), the voices just stopped. It was the weirdest thing. Nothing. After a year and a half of sleepless nights, manic states, worried family members, the voices just stopped. So whenever they come back now I just keep telling myself "It gets better than this...just hold out, do what you're doing and things GET BETTER THAN THIS' and you know what, they do...every damn time. I went from days of 'flare ups' to mere hours before I have them under control now. I've accepted my condition and am willing to do what I can to keep a clear head.

I'm sure this doesn't happen to every person with this illness but for those who it does, just being a FUNCTIONAL schizophrenic is such a welcome circumstance for me compared to where I was. I was NOT functional. I was a train wreck. Crying all of the time. Thinking I was going to die from panic attacks which were a daily occurrence. The feeling of never being alone in my own head...it all weighed on me and my family quite heavily. But things got better. I'm now dating and hoping to start a family in the next few years, something which i've determined through trial and error is something I can achieve AND be a good father to my kids even with this illness.

I just hope to god it isn't inheritable...but hell even if it is, I'll be there every step of the way for my son/daughter in the event this horror comes knocking on their door. I wouldn't wish this disease on my worst enemy.

Rattatat wrote:In 2001 I sustained a head injury although it didn't show up on CT and MRI scans. I had this diagnosed through doing some neuropshychological tests. Around the same time I was also diagnosed with schizophrenia and are currently on resperadone injections.

I want to know if schizo can be caused through head trauma and also what course of treatments should I be following?? The person who diagnosed me with the head injury wanted tp put me onto dopamine agonists judically with whatever medication my physchologist put me on to help with the apathy. Yet my psychologist is very against this so it is impossible to get the two to work together and worse than that I am forced to take the resperadone injections(which cost a lot of money to the government) where I will be placed under the mental health act if I refuse to take them. It seems one wants me to become a zombie by blocking the dopamine and the other wants to increase it to improve my enjoyment of life yet I am forced to be a zombie.

I’ve read about some of your history, it’s a street life not one wrapped in cotton wool. I’m similar in that i’m also from a street background and have a strong belief that the media communicates directly to us without admitting it. i believe realising this alone is a schz symptom, then when we try to police it or get acknowledgement of it it creates further imbalance that makes the condition worse.
I’m slowly learning schz is an ineveitable progression and a humbling condition. There is only so much we can directly do before we reach a point of letting the ripples of nature take their course. We have to keep our beliefs that things are not what they seem but accept that they are not going to be directly acknowledged as no one actually knows exactly what is happening. It should get easier with time as people get humbler and less demanding of impractical systems. Existence smoothes out it’s imbalances with ripples not rippling muscles. Accountability is unavoidable, apart from for the untouchable enigma that is potential infinity and it’s constant one step ahead advantage. Better to be patient than a hospital patient. Nature punishes any aggressive or dominant behaviour regardless of how justified it may or may not be. Dark spirituality is hard to achieve but brings with it a sense of knowing without needing to know the details. I’m still learning and struggling with a lot of imbalance myself. It needs a parasite shift not a paradigm shift. We need to be helpful parasites not destructive parasites.

Hey Duder...

How many mg of Zeldox are you taking? I've heard some good things about it. Curious if it's worth a try. Also heard that withdrawal symptoms are a total b$@#).

Thanks!

rog wrote:I’ve read about some of your history, it’s a street life not one wrapped in cotton wool. I’m similar in that i’m also from a street background and have a strong belief that the media communicates directly to us without admitting it. i believe realising this alone is a schz symptom, then when we try to police it or get acknowledgement of it it creates further imbalance that makes the condition worse.
I’m slowly learning schz is an ineveitable progression and a humbling condition. There is only so much we can directly do before we reach a point of letting the ripples of nature take their course. We have to keep our beliefs that things are not what they seem but accept that they are not going to be directly acknowledged as no one actually knows exactly what is happening. It should get easier with time as people get humbler and less demanding of impractical systems. Existence smoothes out it’s imbalances with ripples not rippling muscles. Accountability is unavoidable, apart from for the untouchable enigma that is potential infinity and it’s constant one step ahead advantage. Better to be patient than a hospital patient. Nature punishes any aggressive or dominant behaviour regardless of how justified it may or may not be. Dark spirituality is hard to achieve but brings with it a sense of knowing without needing to know the details. I’m still learning and struggling with a lot of imbalance myself. It needs a parasite shift not a paradigm shift. We need to be helpful parasites not destructive parasites.

Well I actually had a pretty normal life. It is only in my recent past that things have got the way they have. I am lucky got a decent education(though never went to university) and worked in heaps of jobs(always a hard worker), been in relationships, owned my own home and all while free of medication, judgments or tied to a system. I am 40 now so unlike most people who get schizophrenia early in life I have had the chance to live and experience life a lot more.

I think having schizophrenia can develop a part of your brain further then the normal human where it can become more in tune/sensitive to things like media, government etc. However distortion can often happen in not only the interpretation of these things but also when you try to explain your understandings and it's a very good way to make people angry and burn relationships which is a hard thing not to do when you feel a great need to speak out. Most people with schizophrenia would simply choose ignorance over facing these things which is probably a wise thing to do... unless you are willing to be jesus and sacrafice yourself for the greater good of mankind. Media definitly communicates with us and we stay blind to the effects of their obsessions... putting the blame on individuals in society when the actual truth of the matter it is also the shepards fault.

@crazymoth

I take 80mg per day, twice a day. It's a pretty good slug but I'm not going to argue with something that works well for me. I was on olanzipine before but my doctor wanted a more weight-neutral drug seeing that I'm slightly overweight. I've heard it's a relatively new drug as well..

Olanzipine is a horrible drug. It causes constipation and makes you eat like a horse. You are dicing with death. This drug made me fall off the toilet for about a year cause I was too embarassed to tell anyone. One time I screamed out 'help me jesus' lol as i was falling off as you are in so much pain. Another time I blacked out leaving the toilet and smashed the glass in a picture with my head on my way to the floor. Lucky I wasn't forced to take that drug as i managed to escape the mental health system for a while untill I got put in the mental hospital. When there they had a big sign do you have trouble pooping and asked me as i was having a checkup but was too embarssed to say and i don't trust doctors very much. I finally told my mother a while ago and she told me one of her elderly friends was having the exact same problem and guess what drug she takes.... olanzipine! She went to the doctor aqnd they told her she had irratile bowl syndrome yet i know it happens because of the drug as i have not had the problem since stopping the medication. Now I'm on resperidone injections i think. I thought resperidone and resperidal were the same thing.