Had an Episode

I had an episode last night and another night before. I was just curious on what people use to cope during these difficult times. How long do they usually last for you?

Are you referring to psychotic episodes? It's different with others. They can last for minutes, hours, or days. The most important thing is to take your meds every day.
Since I started taking Invega, I have had very few episodes.
I noticed your profile page says your primary concern is Depression. Are you talking about a depression episode? Depression can last days, weeks, months. Distractions help a lot for coping with mental illnesses. Music, which is very important to me. Movies, deep breathing.

Piraeus

I was diagnosed with depression a few years ago, but after I had a schizophrenic episode I went to my doctor and he sent me to a psychologist who diagnosed me with paranoid schizophrenia. I have episodes sometimes. I was just curious on what what people do to cope with it.

http://recoveryfromschizophrenia.org...oices-list.doc

I use the above list but mainly listen to music If i realize I'm having an episode....if delusional I don't always know.

I leave my area (Which isn't really a good idea im not sure)

Can you describe what an "episode" entails? Does it mean voices? Hallucinations? Paranoid thoughts? Out of control emotions?
If you'd rather not say, that's okay. But different people experience schizophrenia and psychosis in different ways.

It starts out as voices in my head and progresses to hearing voices and sounds. Then the paranoid thoughts come. Thinking somebody was watching me or trying to break into my house and kill me. The list goes on and on. I never actually get visual hallucinations though. Nothing makes me realy visually hallucinate. Even LSD and shrooms never did.

thank you
The length of an episode is going to vary greatly among individuals. Ways of coping are going to vary too, but might include concentrating on specific tasks like singing, cleaning, exercising, gardening, puzzles, anuthing to focus concentration elsewhere, using distractions like music, television, movies, sometimes (if safe to do so) you can talk back to voices - tell them to be quiet, ask them what they want, try to schedule an appropriate time to listen to them, you may have to experiment to find something that works for you. You should also definitely report these episodes to your therapist and/or doctor. They may prescribbe medicine that you could take daily, or prn.
I am sorry these episodes are bothering you. It might be helpful to try to discover if anything in particular might be triggering these episodes, and any changes in their frequency or duration.
I hope you will be feeling much better soon.