I have had one episode of psychosis every two years since my first one I'm 2018. I don't take meds for it. I did a year of over the phone talk therapy after my second episode and I feel like it lessened the severity of my third episode. I had pills on hand for my third episode, but they were expired and as I worsened I stopped taking them so I only took them about three days. I was lucid but ended up on a 5 day ER hold for throwing a rock at my husband and breaking my window(there's no excuse for this but he and my parents locked me out of my house and had my neighbor take my daughter to dance class and wouldn't tell me who had her at the time which agitated me greatly). I talked to a doc for five minutes over zoom in the hospital. He prescribed me zyprexa pills but I said that I would only take invega pills (since I have experience with those). They ended up being too disorganized to make a new prescription, and I ended up coming out of psychosis on my own after just resting and being alone there so I ended up being released after taking nothing. I didn't eat for three days in hospital, and only got one shower, all they served were roast beef sandwiches. After that experience I feel like resting on a hold and having time to come through it is the best thing for my psychosis, if it happens again. There is a place in my new city called "Rhonda's house" that is a peer support house and that is where I plan to go if it ever comes to that again( based on history maybe next year.)
It's also really helped me to read psych books and papers to really learn what I'm struggling with. I found "Man and His Symbols" by Jung and "the vital balance" by Menninger very helpful to really learn about why I enter these subconscious processes and to feel less guilty about going mad. besides going over some of my trauma in therapy I think it's important to really understand what psychosis is, the history of its treatment, and that it's actually a normal human process (almost like the subconscious giving birth). Right now I'm reading "the subconscious language" by Thienemman and I find that helpful too.
I think our first reaction after invega is to ignore what happened and cross our fingers, but what we actually need to do is face it head on.
Doctors are taught to believe that it's not possible to live a normal life after psychosis but it very much is. Many, many people did so before these pills were introduced in the 50s and 60s. (Just a disclaimer that I don't think it's possible for EVERYONE, there is a reason they did ECT, ice water and many other abominable treatments before neuroleptics, and some people have a better quality of life on neuroleptics
but I believe that for many (maybe most at this point) people , quality of life and the ability of function is better gained through other means, and just because we have a few episodes doesn't mean we are doomed to that sort of life).
. As well as headaches. I wonder if that’s a coincidence.