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Reset, Now Focus.

There were a few consecutive days leading up to my grand finale of bad side effects to my antipsychotic medication that impaired my eye sight to the extent that I could not drive to my own doctor's appointment to get relief. Sometimes I would lose my ability to focus on the task at hand. I could sort of see, but not directly what was in front of me. I had a bad tendency of looking up, literately. I could not maintain eye contact with people or look down long enough to see the tasks I tried to do with my hands such as texting. The nerves behind my eyes would not let me concentrate, it was an uncomfortable, nerve-wrecking, stressful experience, which lasted more than two hours on and off, the worst of my experiences yesterday. Thankfully I had a great friend chauffeur me to go to my doctor's appointment and to wait for me, help me pick up my son from school, and drop off my prescription, and then pick it up from the pharmacy.

For the last couple of weeks I've been tip toeing with my vision and privilege to drive. Whenever I felt my focus beginning to shift I rested my eyes to "reset" them. Last week I had to drive back home "before it got bad" to rest my eyes so that I could drive the street way to pick up my son from school, it was a merry go round, but a safer alternative.

My greatest coping skills were patience and humor, both of which I do not master. I am grateful to my friend for their peer support and for creating time to help me maneuver. I am so glad I have the fast acting medication that minimizes and counteracts my side effects to help me control my paramount concentration problems. Now I can focus, again!

 What challenges have you had with side effects of your medication? How did you cope?


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Anonymous said…
I look forward to your blogs!
April 6, 2015 at 1:50 PM
Chris said…
I stopped having any side effects when I started to take the higher dose at night and the tiny dose in the morning. Before that I took it mostly all in the morning and would fall asleep during the day often during the week.

As soon as I changed the dose time I stopped having this side effect.Now I have no side effects at all.

Chris
December 6, 2015 at 12:58 PM
Unknown said…
Nice to meet you Ashley. I was diagnosed with Schizophrenia almost a decade ago, I'm 39 now. At the time of my diagnoses, prior to, I had lived a pretty full life. Military, federal employment, and business owner. Because of this fullness it was hard for me to believe that this was true. I went several years wondering the streets, jail, and hospitals because I thought I could fix. Thanks to the grace of God he got my attention, which prompted me to take my meds, I haven't had an episode since 2013. Since that time I have purchased a home and am in my last semester at SLU, majoring in Accounting. I have lost alot of friends on this journey but truth be told they were never my friends. I do still suffer from some of the negative side affects of schizophrenia, like disorganized speech. I also have a big problem with eye contact, but I think that has more to do with esteem. For a long time I was so ashamed and embarrassed for having this disease, that I kept my head to the ground. I have come a long away. I also have a hearing coming up to get my federal job back on June 30, pro se. I have been working ao hard these last few years trying to catch back up. I'm learning to embrace schizophrenia, my only problem besides the disorganized speech is not speaking. I do have problems with maintaining new relationships but I think I have the cure for that. A person once told me the cure to schizophrenia is believing you don't have it. I believe that statement but it's scary, once you've been stabilized and comfortable to move from that position. Last night God told me to look back and now look, he wanted to move me but I was so terrified of looking back, I avoided the message. Thanks for listening.
June 25, 2016 at 11:55 AM
Unknown said…
Nice to meet you Ashley. I was diagnosed with Schizophrenia almost a decade ago, I'm 39 now. At the time of my diagnoses, prior to, I had lived a pretty full life. Military, federal employment, and business owner. Because of this fullness it was hard for me to believe that this was true. I went several years wondering the streets, jail, and hospitals because I thought I could fix. Thanks to the grace of God he got my attention, which prompted me to take my meds, I haven't had an episode since 2013. Since that time I have purchased a home and am in my last semester at SLU, majoring in Accounting. I have lost alot of friends on this journey but truth be told they were never my friends. I do still suffer from some of the negative side affects of schizophrenia, like disorganized speech. I also have a big problem with eye contact, but I think that has more to do with esteem. For a long time I was so ashamed and embarrassed for having this disease, that I kept my head to the ground. I have come a long away. I also have a hearing coming up to get my federal job back on June 30, pro se. I have been working ao hard these last few years trying to catch back up. I'm learning to embrace schizophrenia, my only problem besides the disorganized speech is not speaking. I do have problems with maintaining new relationships but I think I have the cure for that. A person once told me the cure to schizophrenia is believing you don't have it. I believe that statement but it's scary, once you've been stabilized and comfortable to move from that position. Last night God told me to look back and now look, he wanted to move me but I was so terrified of looking back, I avoided the message. Thanks for listening.
June 25, 2016 at 11:56 AM
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