I posted here a couple months ago asking people here how to deal with schizophrenia symptoms without being prescribed meds. It was a difficult conversation to have with me because I wasn’t just being paranoid about going to get help, those people actually ruined my life for a solid year after I stopped going to them. A lot of people on here gave me a lot of great support. Their care kept me from doing what I did for a few months, and probably went into it being a half hearted attempt.

Things boiled over a few months later unfortunately. About a month ago, I was drinking heavily. Fought with my partner, went to bed, and tried to kill myself the morning after all of it. I didn’t end up dying. I tried calling 911 in the moment, but lost my phone and learned that Alexa cannot do emergency calls. I seized out and slept for a day. Woke up the next day with clear symptoms of serotonin syndrome and went about getting it treated without getting locked up. Thought about it for a bit and realized I was also an alcoholic who needed to get help for drinking, and my plan was cooked and honestly pretty fucking fire.

I went into a mental health center that focused on rehabilitation and told them that my clearly visible serotonin syndrome was alcohol withdrawal. Did my intake, they sent me to their urgent care, who proceeded to send me to the emergency room. They gave me a bunch of benzos for the week, and that took care of the alcoholism and the building serotonin syndrome. Afterwards, I returned to the rehab center because they also offered psychs and 24/7 walk in counselors, which I’ve found very helpful. The psych listened to me and said that to him, it is clear as day that I’m suffering from PTSD and brain damage, with everything else being secondary. He said I may have schizophrenia, it’s definitely in the family history, but was far more concerned about everything else. Sent in a referral for neurologist appointment. The meds have proved it so far. He gave me meds for PTSD and they’ve been quite helpful. I asked for my risperidone back and he gave it back to me without second thought, even at the dose I asked for. Between the two, 70 percent of my psych med needs are met. Not perfect of course, but I have a psych appointment with them next week so it hasn’t been too much of a pressing matter. Also, they helped me sign up for medicaid, and that’s pretty cool

To anybody questioning if they need psych meds or not, the answer is probably yes. I’m on one of the heaviest knockout meds on the planet and get an inexplicable boost of energy from it because of how well it medicates all my issues. I’m starting to get a routine again, and it’s great. Like I feel like I can actually live a long term life again