And that is the basis of modern psychiatry. The idea that everything has a biological cause, and nothing has a spiritual cause. You do realize that there is not a single test that can be done to prove someone has schizophrenia right? Or any other mental illness other than a small number. If it doesn't show up in a brain scan, it is not real. If a brain looks like a normal brain, it is because it is a normal brain.
Bi-polar dx is subjective opinion. Schizophrenia dx is subjective opinion.
That's not just psychiatry, that's a significant portion of medicine. Many - if not most - medical conditions are diagnosed by a doctor or medical specialist observing symptoms. Even the conditions that can be tested for are diagnosed by a doctor subjectively interpreting test results. This is the entire foundation of Western medicine.
There is no proof that antipsychotics treat psychosis.
Except that there is? A lot of it? Dating back at least half a century?
Psychosis is caused by a spirit of confusion. Not a chemical imbalance.
8(
I've been waiting to use that eye roll emoticon since I started my account.
I have never felt worse, in my entire life, than my time on invega. And you will find TONS of people saying the same thing. Many people would rather commit suicide than stay on APs. Many people do when court ordered to take them. Of course, this is attributed to "mental illness" and not forced drugging.
I am genuinely sorry to hear that Invega isn't working for you. I've read enough of your posts to know that you're really miserable on this medication, and I hope you find the support to start a treatment plan that works for you. But it's not OK to use that experience to tell other people (who may be vulnerable) that their medication is poison. That's a lot more likely to lead to suicides than anti-psychotic treatment is.
ALL APs work the same on everyone. Everyone who takes them will have their dopaminergic system blockaded by a drug that is prescribed based on a hypothesis that has never been verified. APs are a multi-billion dollar industry. There is a lot of money in that hypothesis.
They all affect different receptors and different people respond differently to different chemical 'mixes'. Haven't you noticed that side effects and efficacy are documented in terms of prevalence - the % of people studied who experienced each thing? Literally every study done on every antipsychotic ever has recorded differences in effect on different people.
They literally force every person who ends up in an acute psychiatric hospital to take anti-psychotics (regardless of why the ended up there and whether or not they are displaying symptoms of psychosis while they are being observed there). The right to refuse is thoroughly circumvented. Coercion is the name of the game. Many are coerced or outright forced into getting injections of invega sustenna which does not leave the person's brain for 4-8 MONTHS after just one month of *cough* treatment *cough*.
I don't know where you are or what the circumstances of your hospitalisation were, but that's not my experience at all.
APs never facilitate leading a "high-functioning" life. There are reports of them helping some people, but those reports are slanted.
I'm at work
right now. I work two jobs and study. I maintain healthy relationships. I have healthy boundaries and a reasonable capacity for stress. Since starting treatment, my life includes substantially less crying in the laundry because of imaginary persecution. I'd say I lead a high functioning life for a crazy person with comorbid chronic illness.
You are talking about an industry that still forcibly gives people electric shocks to induce seizures.
Which sounds really scary until you look at recovery rates for treatment resistant depression to ECT. I mean, heart surgery sounds pretty scary if you say "We're talking about an industry that saws through people's sternums and rams tubes into their hearts", doesn't it?
Don't trust psychiatric pseudoscience. Real science has objectively verifiable...well...science.
Dude, it doesn't sound like you know a great deal about science.
APs make people suicidal for a reason. They remove your ability to feel good. Some are worse than others but they are all bad -- for everyone.
I feel pretty generally awesome, actually. My life is great and I owe a bunch of that to psychiatric treatment.