- Hi, everyone.
In today's video, we are going to be discussing
why someone with schizophrenia
may go off their medications.
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Hi, and welcome back
to the Living Well with Schizophrenia channel.
My name is Lauren,
and I make videos about
what it's like living with schizoaffective disorder
or schizophrenia.
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All right, so a frequently asked question
is why do people with schizophrenia
go off their medications?
Or why are people with schizophrenia
sometimes adverse to taking medications?
There are a lot of, you know, potential answers to this.
And I will share some of my own
as well as some common, you know,
experiences of why people may go off their medications.
So the first one and possibly the biggest one in my opinion,
is anosognosia.
Now we did a video on what anosognosia is
that you can check out for more information,
but basically anosognosia is a lack of insight
into the illness.
And so it's when someone doesn't really know
that they're sick.
So sometimes I go into periods of wellness,
where I start to question
if I even have schizoaffective disorder.
And the insight that I have kind of lessens in a way.
And I think, well, maybe I don't need medications,
which can lead to going off medications.
Or the other way is that I start to become unwell,
and I start to become diluted about
the medications impact on my illness.
And if I have the illness and, you know,
the anosognosia comes into play for that as well,
where I don't have proper insight into my illness,
and into the necessary treatments for it,
which again, leads to going off medication.
I think anosognosia is a really common thing
that people with schizophrenia experience,
and it's just kind of part of having the illness,
unfortunately.
And so, you know, in order to counteract this,
it's really important to, you know,
do as much work around, self-acceptance as you can,
and as much internal reflection about
what it means for you to have the illness,
and what it means for you to maintain wellness.
And if you're supporting someone
who is experiencing anosognosia, it can help to just kind of
tease out these feelings with them,
and just try to talk to them
as openly and as much as possible.
Educating yourself about the illnesses
also a really good way to combat this anosognosia.
Having more information at your disposal
helps you to kind of see past this lack of insight.
The second thing that I wanted to talk about
in terms of why people may go off their medications
is concurrent disorders.
So this is when has schizophrenia,
as well as experiencing a substance use problem.
So this can kind of go both ways
where sometimes the medication that someone is on
for their schizophrenia can lessen the effects
of the substances they are using,
which makes them not want to take the medication.
Likewise, sometimes the substances that they're using
lessens the effectiveness of the medication that they're on,
which again, can make them feel like
there's no point in taking the medication.
So I know for myself personally,
if I have had a little bit too much to drink, you know,
on a rare occasion, it lessens the impact of my medications,
which makes me feel like,
well, what's the point in taking medications.
And so if I'm feeling that with, you know,
not having substance use as a problem that I'm experiencing
on the regular basis.
You know, I can only imagine how it might feel for someone
who is experiencing a more continuous issue
with substance use.
I did a video on addiction and schizophrenia,
which can maybe give more insight
into the spiral of maladaptive coping, but also, you know,
if you're dealing with addiction
that can often lead to other social issues,
such as housing insecurity, financial insecurity,
and these sorts of things can make it very difficult to,
you know, focus on, or have enough resources
to address getting medication,
and focus on taking medication,
or to help your schizophrenia.
So there are a lot of different layers involved
when dealing with substance use issues and schizophrenia.
The next point that I wanna talk about
as to why some people with schizophrenia
may want to go off medication is just having
not a very good relationship with their care team
or their care providers.
So for me personally, I have had,
you know, less than ideal experiences
with some care providers in my past,
which made me just kind of lose hope
in terms of following through with treatment
and with medication.
And it made me just feel like
I don't really trust these people,
and the medication isn't helping,
and this isn't helping, and so what's the point?
And I think that, you know,
that relational component with your care team
is a really important piece
that is sometimes often overlooked.
The best kind of example that I can think of
is two different psychiatrists
who treated me on two different occasions in the hospital.
One, I did not get along with,
and I don't think we had a very good
reciprocal relationship.
And I just did not want to engage
in discussing treatment with him at all.
And I just was not open to hearing about the medication
that he wanted me to try,
or the treatments that he wanted me to try.
And I didn't accept medication from him.
Whereas the next psychiatrist,
I had a much better relationship with.
And, you know, she really took the time
to build that relationship with me,
and I felt comfortable sharing with her in return.
And we had a much more, you know,
reciprocal nature to our relationship.
And I did accept treatment from her.
And I understood the importance of taking medication,
you know, from her guidance.
And so, you know,
these differences in treatment relationships,
I think indicate the importance of having good, you know,
reciprocal relationships with your care team.
And the next point that I wanna talk about
is a really big one.
You know, some of the studies on this
indicate that it's not as big as the first three
that I mentioned, but I struggle greatly with it,
and I think a lot of other people struggle too.
And that is around side effects of the medication
such as anti-psychotics.
Side effects that are often experienced
with these types of medications
can frequently include, you know,
lethargic, weight gain, fogginess, confusion.
Sometimes, you know, drooling or, you know,
lack of control over things like that.
Sometimes it can lead to lactation, you know.
It changes your sex drive.
It changes just overall your ability to function.
These side effects, you know,
can really negatively impact your life,
and it can be very, very difficult to manage them
and to live with them, which is a huge reason
why people who are taking these kinds of medications
that lead to these side effects
end up not wanting to take those medications.
Another potential reason why someone may go off medication
is the simple reason of the cost of the medication.
You know, a lot of times these medications aren't covered
or aren't fully covered for a lot of people in the world.
And so, you know,
cost of the medications is a barrier to taking them.
There can also be the reason where, you know,
they don't find that symptoms are really improving.
And so again, there's kind of that, well,
what's the point in taking these medications?
And then also, you know,
if you're feeling this kind of what's the point,
and you're experiencing side effects and some stuff
that can, you know,
obviously lead to things like depression.
Depression can also just happen on its own
in conjunction with schizophrenia.
And you know, when you're feeling depressed,
it can be hard to keep up with things
such as taking medication.
And that can be a reason why someone may go off,
or neglect to take medication as well.
Now the flip side of this, which is, you know, mania.
I have schizoaffective disorder,
which is a combination of schizophrenia
and bipolar disorder.
And so people who have this component of bipolar disorder
may experience periods of mania.
And so I know for me personally,
when I have started to experience periods of hypomania,
which is just kind of a step below mania,
but it's still an elevated mood and state.
It feels really good, and it kind of leads you to be like,
well, maybe I should stop taking my medication
so I can feel really, really good,
you know, and go into mania.
And so that can be another reason
why someone may go off their medication
if they have the bipolar component to their illness as well.
If you are having any of these thoughts
about wanting to go off your meds for any of these reasons,
or any other reason, it's really important
to be honest about this with your care team.
And to just, you know, try to talk it through,
and hopefully they'll be able to help, guide you,
in a direction that will address your concerns
or address the things that you're struggling with.
So these are just some of the reasons that I've thought of,
that I've experienced,
or that I know of that other people have experienced.
If you have any other reasons
why you've thought about going off meds yourself,
we would love to hear from you in the comments below.
So thank you so much for watching this video.
If you found it helpful at all, please hit the like button.
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Also just a quick reminder
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to please check out the link to our Patreon page.
Thank you so much again for watching,
and as always wishing you and your loved ones, good health.
Let's see in the next video, bye.