[robbi15]

Hello everyone. I have met an old friend of mine yesterday and even though I was nervous to see him it helped, he understood what I was going through and was supportive. But he said one thing that I cannot fully agree and I want to know your opinion about it. So, he said that I must ignore my psychotic episodes and he also said that I should stop reading and looking things up about my illness as it makes me too conscious about myself and he also thinks that the reason I have been having multiple episodes recently is because I know too much about my illness and was thinking about it. So he said that I should stop looking things up about my illness and just ignore and let go. Is it true? is being ignorant about my illness is good or should I read more self help book ?

[ofthevalley]

I think knowledge is power

[Sometimes psychotic]

I think that knowing more helps you recognize if it happens again which is important because you may need a med adjustment in that case so like of the valley I think knowledge is the right way to go.

[costello]

Does your friend have any training, education, or experience - either personal or work - with mental illness and specifically your illness. If not, I would consider that he's well-intended, but I'd take his advice with a grain of salt. Even if he does have that training or experience, his advice might not be right for you. One size does not fit all.

[A18793715]

I would never trade my knowledge for ignorance of my illness. I feel people and up way worse not knowing because they think that's their true reality. There is no questioning it.

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[RisuNeko]

If you don't have knowledge or insight about your illness how are you supposed to help yourself? It just doesn't make sense to me.

[Atypical_Disaster]

Ignorance was bliss for me until I got insight two years ago, it shattered my world. Since then I've researched a lot about my illness, as another poster said knowledge is power.

I went untreated with paralyzing anxiety for two months. I just thought it was what it was, then the panic attacks started to come and I decided to buy a gun, then my psychiatrist said "hold on there!" He put me on an SSRI. If i hadn't seen my psychiatrist sooner I would have been dead, since I wasn't aware of what my body was going through.

Be your own advocate, learn about meds and what side effects you should watch out for. If you don't like a med, ee if there is a better one. It's your body, your life, your gamble. Not to mention all your loved ones who care about you, they matter too. Look at yourself, examine your self, know what you need and know what to look out for.

Originally Posted by robbi15

Hello everyone. I have met an old friend of mine yesterday and even though I was nervous to see him it helped, he understood what I was going through and was supportive. But he said one thing that I cannot fully agree and I want to know your opinion about it. So, he said that I must ignore my psychotic episodes and he also said that I should stop reading and looking things up about my illness as it makes me too conscious about myself and he also thinks that the reason I have been having multiple episodes recently is because I know too much about my illness and was thinking about it. So he said that I should stop looking things up about my illness and just ignore and let go. Is it true? is being ignorant about my illness is good or should I read more self help book ?

imo a lot depends on the individual, & the manifestation of the condition. Some people heal & recover, some claim they are cured - some with orthomolecular medicine, some re-framing things as spiritual crisis, or with traumagenic social recovery models, or with variations of psychological, social &/or spiritual healing approaches.

i think it's very debatable how/why some people find a more full resolution/healing to their difficulties?

Facts remain that schizophrenia is a condition with no known cure, & a severe case i think will effect the person for life, in different ways. It is probably wise within a more severe case to take a maintenance dose of medication & just accept the condition - yes live as healthy as possible - eat well, exercise, don't (ideally) drink/smoke/do street drugs & try & have some healthy patterns with everything, in a sensible way - but are there any categorical answers beyond that?

i've done a lot of research & reading on all these areas over the past 30 years - hundreds of books - many thousands of hours of research on-line. i'm left with accepting the diagnosis & taking the pills.

i've always had a strong leaning to psychosocial & spiritual/transpersonal approaches to care - others will argue other approaches, alternative & orthodox. i feel that acceptance & letting go are a key to it all.

[Tsunamisurfer]

I think knowledge and insight are very important to our managing our disorder.
They influence how we interact with our treatment team and how we remain aware of warning signs so we can get help early on.

There is, however, a risk of becoming so obsessed that we become immobilized by fear of the tiniest symptom, and avoid living life as well as we could. This is probably more relevant when we are not so ill.

It's a bit of a tricky one because I am only able to do any substantial research when I am comparatively well.