Also let me ask something that might clarify what you actually want---what defines sz for you? It is a strict DSM 5 definition? I know the guys I mentioned above were more like the DSM III definition just due to age so its kind of tricky since the dx itself is nonspecific. What about the fact that any two pdocs can see the same person and come up with a different dx, I've seen people here with sz, bipola,r sza ,autism, psychotic depression etc because you can't get a single set dx unless you only ever ask one pdoc. What about the ICD-10? This is an internationally accepted resource and it only requires 1 month of symptoms for a sz diagnosis---I would qualify for that for sure. Even the DSM actually only requires a month of hallucinations with the remainder of 6 months with some level of functional impairment but that seems arbitrary to me considering my functionality was never measured---I mean I have an IQ drop of 10-20 points is that impairment enough? So I had enough active psychosis to have sz under any definition are you looking to recover from psychosis or from the functional element? Also are you looking for people who hear voices---Elyn Saks has recovered from a strict DSM definition of sz but so far as I can tell she was mostly disorganized and wasn't hearing voices or at least doesn't mention voices, she's also a big proponent of staying on the meds as she relapsed when she tried to get off and her dose was above the guidelines for administration. So lets just talk theoretically---the common cold which we think of as one type of disease is actually 200 different diseases---this is one of the reasons why there is no cure but only treatment of symptoms...can you imagine getting 200 different vaccines just to stop yourself from ever getting a cold? I know you prefer to think of sz as one thing but what if its not one thing? What if its like the cold. I could make a vaccine that would prevent one cold virus but if you were exposed to another type it would do you no good.
Another point----cures, remission all that is complex as heck and any person you talk to is just an n of 1. So for me my final end to the voices was reading a book called drawing on the right side of the brain and working through the exercises---but I also had meds and cbt. Did any of that actually cause my cure? This is like asking someone how they got over a cold. They are likely to say rest and chicken soup and cold meds----not one of those are why they were cured....their T cells and B cells and innate immune system got together and wreaked havoc until the virus was gone. How would I know what my brain was actually doing when I was getting better any more than you know what your brain was doing when you got sick?

So what are you actually looking for? Your personal cure or somebody elses story? One of the most amazing stories I've ever heard comes from someone who doesn't have sz at all---she had learning disabilities---and from that nobody ever thought there was a cure but she was just curious and in her reading she came across the concept of neuroplasticity and she used it to fix her own learning disability and she now does this for other students every day. What was amazing about her was she was having difficulty learning to read clocks but once she fixed that it actually opened up a general understanding of philosophy---it was too abstract for her prior to that she just didn't get it---but she actually changed on a core level how her brain worked. I think that's incredible and she did this before scientists or doctors thought it could be applied or learned, instead the prevailing theory was simply that you could learn techniques to deal with the fact that your brain wasn't working only compensations. She actually had poor physical control of half her body and fixed that too---she just fixed everything she didn't like by doing various types of exercises. Her name is Barbara Arrowsmith Young and she was my inspiration to come up with a regimen to fix myself. You might want to check out her book, its pretty awesome.

Barbara Arrowsmith Young | | Barbara Arrowsmith Young