Quote:
Originally Posted by paulycoll
Hi sometimes ,
In terms of looking at this , i essentially ask 'who with a dx of sz' and i draw my conclusions on this. Now that could of course throw up the old add-age that people who respond in kind are tied to the medical model which presume a certain negative course , ala the disease model . I am not convinced though
If someone terms themselves 'schizophrenic' and are willing to talk about their experiences i have found an overwhelming negative course. The vast majority are not functioning as they would like.
So is labelling a contributory factor in prognosis? No i don't think so. Instead of using rambling logic about learned helplessness why cant we say it simply that the people who were never 'schizophrenic' did not have flagging symptoms that put them on a trajectory to schiz diagnosis.
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I thought I was schizophrenic for at least 6 months---I knew you couldn't be dxed before that so I never asked and was only told psychosis. I also got put into a research study where the only criteria for admission was sz and they kept saying I was perfect for that study as I kept reading the word sz. When I talked to the pdoc I would randomly refer to myself as sz because I felt accepting the worst possible outcome would save me the trouble of doing it later and he never told me I was wrong---I clearly qualified as schizophreniform due to 1.5 months of psychosis and my psychologists dx and that at best seems like a holding tank dx for sz prior to 6 months---the conversion rate is extremely high from szp to sz---so I don't think that labeling alters outcome at all. So I was absolutely on a trajectory to sz but somehow I beat the odds...why? I like to think it was early treatment plus cbt which a lot of people in this country don't get, supportive environment ie I didn't lose my job, heck my pdoc and T appointments were literally in the building next door to my office who gets that lucky? My boss just told me to do whatever I needed to do to get better so if I cut my hours a little short now and then no one cared. My family and friends didn't treat me any differently than if I had gotten cancer, I got plants and books in the hospital and tasty snacks etc. My parents watched over me for 2 weeks after I got out of the hospital holding my hand while I tried to sleep. Who gets this kind of care---apparently no one---it was one heck of a team effort. So while I'd like to think it was something I did I think it was a convergence of many things...it took a lot to get me sick and it took a lot to get me well.