Having been medicated before for extended periods of time, my personal observation is that I was trading one set of problems for another. Do I deal with psychotic episodes and constant fringe issues, or deal with being emotionless, clouded, and other side-effect-related problems?

I don't think there's any universal "right" answer to this question, really. Some people have to deal with such extremes without meds that whatever side-effects come with the meds seem like a gift, rather than a burden. For others, it can be more median, or even the opposite. I really don't think there's enough understanding of schizophrenia (medically speaking) to have any sort of standard approach, and it's a very wide spectrum to treat - seems like everyone has a slightly different way their docs tried to help them cope.

I stopped taking meds some years ago because I didn't like the trade-off of symptoms, and found it easier to deal with something I was familiar with (episodes, paranoia, machine's commentary) than dealing with being a zombie who was only making others happy, but himself miserable. That's only my experience, and it doesn't work for everyone, but I say it to let others know that, in some cases, it can be managed mostly by yourself. Having a supportive partner, family member or close friend goes a long, long way to helping that happen.