new here

Hey! I've just been diagnosed with paranoid schrizophenia. It started what seemed like depression 5 years ago, but my psychiatrist changed the diagnosis last week based on my sympthoms. In the 5-year-period I have had two mainly paranoid episodes so far with hospitalizations for weeks. I have the following question: does it get worse after the initial couple of years? What should I expect? I'm asking this because I seem to respond to medication (Zeldox) pretty well and do not have sympthoms almost at all.
Thanks for the response in advance, and keep it up guys!
Sh

Hey, welcome to the board this area is a bit sparse for replies but im not that long joined up myself.
You have a similar background to me with the deppression then events and things changing situations, though i would say my diagnosis isn't final.
If your intrested my post it titled Merry go round, I want off!


My theory would be that the medication controls the illness and prevents it from getting serverly worse. I would imagine it does get worse but aslong as you recieve the right help you can be as balanced as possible.

That is only what i think.

Shearer,
I apologize for waiting so long to greet you! I have a member of my family who was diagnosed with schizophrenia while in long term inpatient psychiatric treatment. By long term I mean 4 years.

It took the staff a while to find the right meds for him...but once he was on something that worked he improved drastically. He had just about every symptom in the book. He heard voices, had tremendous hallucinations, was delussional, was paranoid about most anything. He would do things like tape up all of the smoke detectors....he was sure that the maffia (sp?) was after him. I used to watch him have conversations with them.

Today you would hardly know that he has schizophrenia. He takes just 3 meds and is able to work, make dinner, do all of the things that other young people do....except for driving. He has a history of seizures, so that takes him out of commission for driving.

I sure hope that you don't have schizophrenia with the full fealm of symptoms. Maybe you will have a mild case of SZ.

Wishing you well,
Sweetngentle

Thank you both for answering my quesitons, it's really nice of you.
I think we should do everything to help one another to overcome this terrible illness.
Any further advice/info is appreciated.
Best,
Shearer

shearer,
If all of your symptoms seem to be taken care of by a minimun of meds then that is super! I don't believe in drugging a person up. One of the best things we can do is to educate ourselves with the various mental illnesses that we have to deal with.

Also, never stop taking your meds because you feel totally fine.
If your meds bring you to that point then continuing the meds is vital.

You sound as if you have a good understanding of your mental illness which is great. If you have questions about a certain symptom or other thing please feel free to ask.

Sweetngentle