[Raiden]

I've been diagnosed with schizophrenia years ago, but I was never really on any medication, regardless of the fact that I had hallucinations, and heard voices.For a few years, the voices stopped, but recently I've realised that the voices are returning.Not nerly as severe, or problematic, but once a day or so, I can hear it/them.
For now, the voices I hear are never causing any damadge other then some fright/stress on me, because I have a small daughter so I can not possibly allow myself to get out of hand.I was wondering what medication have you guys used, that has helped you?

I'm not thinking of using any, with out a therapist knowing of it.Usualy I would avoid therapy, but I've had the luck of finding someone who can watch over the little one while I'm on theraphy or similar.If it comes to it, even leave her there for a few days.
I'm just curious of what you used, and has it even had any effect on you at all? I'm well aware of what might have triggered the voices but cretainly not of how to prevent them..

[RunningEagleRuns]

Originally Posted by Raiden

I've been diagnosed with schizophrenia years ago, but I was never really on any medication, regardless of the fact that I had hallucinations, and heard voices.For a few years, the voices stopped, but recently I've realised that the voices are returning.Not nerly as severe, or problematic, but once a day or so, I can hear it/them.
For now, the voices I hear are never causing any damadge other then some fright/stress on me, because I have a small daughter so I can not possibly allow myself to get out of hand.I was wondering what medication have you guys used, that has helped you?

I'm not thinking of using any, with out a therapist knowing of it.Usualy I would avoid therapy, but I've had the luck of finding someone who can watch over the little one while I'm on theraphy or similar.If it comes to it, even leave her there for a few days.
I'm just curious of what you used, and has it even had any effect on you at all? I'm well aware of what might have triggered the voices but cretainly not of how to prevent them..

Zyprexa helped, but I wasn't really getting voices then. It helped with different symptoms. But it made me gain alot of weight, so I had to get off it. Good luck.

[Raiden]

Alright, thank you. I appreciate it and I'll search it up, if it's any good I'll go visit my therapist, and even if it's not, it looks like I have to.I've been trying to avoid/ignore these for a while, but I doing so anymore, would only make things worse with time.Now that I have someone to leave the kiddo with, for a few hours, I'm out of excuses.Which is more then good.

[phoenix7]

good luck

[spiritual_emergency]

Hello Raiden,
You had said: I'm well aware of what might have triggered the voices but cretainly not of how to prevent them...

I think it can be helpful for people to examine triggering events because there are often important clues in those events that can provide some guidance in terms of what they need to do to recover. If you feel comfortable doing so, you might want to talk about that triggering event here and continue the discussions with your chosen therapist. Some people do find this to be quite helpful although there are never any guarantees with anything.

Meantime, something to consider is: If you hear voices and they distress you, you have a problem. If you hear voices and they do not distress you, you do not have a problem. In your case, you seem to think you may have a problem. I would encourage you to explore how other people have addressed that same problem to see if you can learn any coping skills that takes your problem from something distressing to something that no longer distresses you.

Here are three links that may offer you some additional information on the experience of voice hearing and different ways you might choose to cope with it.

• Intervoice: The International Community for Hearing Voices
• Redefining Hearing Voices
• Hearing Voices That Are Distressing - Self Help Techniques

~ Namaste

[spiritual_emergency]

Raiden: I was wondering what medication have you guys used, that has helped you?

There are basically four classes of medication that might be used to treat these kinds of experiences in people.

- Anti-psychotics (neuroleptics)

- Anti-Depressants

- Anti-Convulsants (Mood Stabilizers)

- Anti-Anxiety Agents

Anti-psychotics are typically the drug of choice offered when it comes to "schizophrenic episodes". Older medications like Haloperidol are often referred to as first generation drugs; newer drugs like Zyprexa, Geodon and Seroquel are often referred to as second generation or atypical medications.

Anti-psychotic medications are very powerful drugs that have the power to both help and to harm. Side effects for first generation drugs include neurological disorders such as tardive dyskinesia, dystonia, or Parkinson-like symptoms. The new medications were intitially believed to be far superior to the older drugs because they didn't seem to produce the same neurological dysfunction. We now know they have side effects that may be every bit as disabling, they're just different. Metabolic disorders and cardiac complications are some of the known side effects of the newer drugs.

In spite of these drawbacks, many people feel that medication has been helpful to them, even life-saving. Other people find medications to be harmful and may produce such significant side-effects, they become the bigger problem. My own observations have been that

- Some people function better with medications
- Some people function worse with medications
- Some people function better without medications
- Some people function worse without medications

There is no way of reliably predicting which camp a person might fall into.

~*~

It may be helpful to know that several years back a huge study was done (CATIE) that compared first generation medications with second generation medications. The CATIE study found no significant difference between the older and new medications in terms of effectiveness among large groups of people however, the difference could be very pronounced among individuals.

One of the potential benefits of using an older medication is that more is known about the short and long-term risks of the medication. They are also far less expensive. This can be an important factor if you have to pay for medications out of pocket or have a limited insurance program.

Naturally, any potential benefits have to be weighed against the potential risks. If you should decide you want to make use of medications as part of your treatment I would encourage you to research them first so you can make an informed choice. Also, be sure to tell your doctor about any personal or family history of stroke, seizures, diabetes, heart or kidney failure, manic episodes, etc.

As you can see, there's a lot to consider before making the choice to use medications. Some people are not comfortable making use of them because of the way they made them feel or the side-effects they experienced however, those same people might still feel comfortable making use of a medication from a different class of drugs, such as short term use of an anti-anxiety agent or an anti-depressant.

This link is a very good one for people who are using medications as part of their treatment: Reclaiming Your Power During Medication Visits With Your Psychiatrist

Here are two additional links that you can use to research medications in those different classes of drugs: Anti-psychotics; Anti-Depressants; Anti-Convulsants and Anti-Anxiety Agents.

- rxlist.com

- askapatient.com

If you do begin taking psychiatric medications it's important that you not come off them abruptly. This link provides some additional information in that regard: Matters to Consider When Reducing or Coming Off Drugs. It might be helpful to ask your medical caregiver what the withdrawal profile is for any drugs he/she might prescribe.

~ Namaste

[Raiden]

I'm thankful to all three of you for the help.

If you feel comfortable doing so, you might want to talk about that triggering event here and continue the discussions with your chosen therapist.

I appreciate the help, though seeing how the subject/event which might have triggered them is rather personal, I would rather deal with it with a therapist.And if it turns out it's not what triggered them, it's gonna take some time to find out what the cause of them is.

If you hear voices and they distress you, you have a problem. If you hear voices and they do not distress you, you do not have a problem. In your case, you seem to think you may have a problem.

Voices and similar don't have such a bad effect on me, at least not now.At the moment, they aren't talking to me, but rather past me, so to speak.Or in short, rambling a bunch of things that don't even make sense, or relate one to the other.Though I am worried because I'm raising my daughter alone, and really have no family to take care of her if things start getting worse again.I would rather not risk letting the past repeat itself, since ''unusual'' behaveyor would distress her as well.She's old enough to realise when her father is acting out.

Thank you for both the information, and the links.I highly appreciate it all.