I've been studying neuroplasticity recently and I keep coming across a plethora of doctors who are now saying that your mind controls your brain.

Well, I didn't believe it at first, I thought it was impossible for someone with schizophrenia to ever stop medication or "heal" from it. I thought that if your brain is damaged, it would only get worse as time went on and eventually you'd die. Well, I found hope!

If this works, I will post about it in the SZ success stories.

Anyway, I've decided to slowly stop taking my medication. Since I've recently gotten rid of some very toxic people and situations in my life, I've found that the voices have lessened in intensity and they've gotten almost... nicer? They don't shout at me anymore, they don't make fun of me anymore and they just comment now on what I am doing in a day and sometimes they talk to each other.

I don't have to be a victim anymore. If my mind can heal my brain, then I am going to go at it full force and see what my mind is actually capable of.

I've heard a TED talk about a woman who learned to work with her voices and she was able to stop medication and live with her voices with harmony. Her name is Eleanor Longden and she helped found one of the Hearing Voices networks (I think in Australia?). Anyway, I think that if she can do this, then clearly, anyone can do this.

I am going to document here and in my own physical journal, what I am feeling when I slowly peel back my medications. I have been forgetful lately, so I may forget about this thread tomorrow, if that happens... well...

But if not! I will do my best to update this thread at least once a week.

I'm hoping that instead of remaining in a toxic mind state all the time, where I was being surrounded by people who didn't understand, gave me bad advice and were all around, not supportive, that I will be making it easier for my brain to heal itself.

I am now surrounding myself with positive people, people who listen to me and care about what I am saying... People who don't shove their own ignorance down my face and then wonder why I am doing so poorly when they give me ****** advice.... People who care about me as a person and don't see me as some letters on a screen.

I am ready to face the world for the first time without being under the influence of brain-altering medications and I am ready to start a new aspect of my life that I've never really gotten the chance to exercise before. Wish me luck!

- Kori

Here is some information on neuroplasticity:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity

[Rincad]

I'm glad your finally finding peace. I think that it's good that you let go of the toxic people, and finding that something works. I hope this works out for you, good luck and great job.

[Findingreason]

Kori!

I am so happy to hear these improvements in your life as of late. <3 That is great. I am proud of you. You can do this, and we are here to support you. How are things going with your moving process?

I look forward to hearing about your updates!

I'm glad that these positive changes in your life are helping your symptoms, Kori

A lot of people have found that changing their relationship with their voices can make them less upset by their voices, and even make the voices nicer, or disappear. Romme & Escher wrote a really good book along those lines called Living with voices: 50 stories of recovery

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Voic.../dp/1906254222

I also personally experienced that removing toxic people from my life, and improving my relationship with myself (i.e. realising that I wasn't a 'bad' person as I'd believed my whole life) meant that the voices became nicer. Initially, it meant that I didn't believe the nasty things that they said and so was less distressed by them. Then they started saying more neutral things. They did disappear entirely, but I don't know if that was a coincidence.

Anyway, I'm glad that it's helping. Dn't forget to taper very slowly though with your pdoc's supervision. I'd hate for withdrawal symptoms to get confused with release symptoms, which happens all the time

Wishing you all the best,

*Willow*

[Shoe]

Hey Kori, this is a great book about neuroplasticity

https://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Brain...=buddhas+brain

I started skipping a couple of doses of medication,
However, we recently got a closing date on our house, so we have to leave by February 1st.

So as of right now, my plans to stop my medication have... stopped.

I will continue to try to come off my medication once I move, but for now, I will just keep working on trying to rewire my brain as is.

Pausing your taper schedule isn't a failure or anything, so I hope that you don't see it that way. I frequently see people try to rush off their meds, but the goal is to stay off, if you can, and so the best way to do it is slowly and sensibly. I think it is very sensible of you to wait until after your move to try tapering. Ideally, you should be stable and experiencing as little stress as possible to give your mind time to adjust to the decreasing doses of medication, and so a house move isn't going to be the best time.

So, even though I understand that you're probably feeling disappointed, good on you for doing the sensible thing and waiting a bit for a better time to try tapering. I hope that the move goes well and you can restart when you're all settled in

All the best,

*Willow*