Author Topic: Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia similarity to POIS Symptoms for me  (Read 3775 times)

Iamnobodi

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If I look at the negative symptoms of Schizo:

1. Apathy

The person may have a lack of interest in activities that previously were important to them such as their work or studies or recreational activities such as sports. They may also stop looking after themselves properly and their personal hygiene and appearance may suffer noticeably. They may be reluctant to leave the house or even their bedroom and may lie in bed for the larger part of the day.

2. Absent, blunted or incongruous emotional responses

People with schizophrenia experiencing negative symptoms may appear to display no reaction to good or bad news or to react inappropriately for instance laughing at sad news or appearing to become unhappy when hearing good news.

3. Reductions in speech

People with negative symptoms of schizophrenia may appear to have little interest in conversation and may give only very brief responses to questions. Their speech may be disrupted or there may be long pauses in the flow of their speech or in responding to conversation (known as poverty of speech). The ability to make small talk is often completely lost and this loss of vital communication skills can impact seriously on the person?s ability to take part in social activities or find employment7. This is also called alogia by doctors. In extreme cases the person may become completely mute.

4. Social withdrawal

The person may shun social contact and may prefer to spend the larger part of the day and night by themselves. There is a general lack of will to interact with the world around them. This is called avolition by doctors

5. Impaired attention

There may be an obvious difficulty in concentrating during conversation and an inability to concentrate on even simple tasks.

6. Anhedonia

This describes an inability to experience pleasure. People with schizophrenia who experience this often describe life as being grey or empty, devoid of the normal emotional ups and downs that we all take for granted7. Others have described it as feeling empty or hollow10.

7. Sexual problems

There may be a significant reduction or total absence of libido (sex drive), men may experience problems in achieving erections and both men and women may have problems achieving an orgasm (anorgasmia).

8. Lethargy

People with schizophrenia experiencing negative symptoms will often have a profound lack of energy and find it difficult to do any more than light activity. This may lead to them spending a large part of the day in bed or watching television.

Taken from: https://www.livingwithschizophreniauk.org/advice-sheets/negative-symptoms-understanding/

All these symptoms are very similar for how I feel for a day or 2 after an O. Numbers 1-4 resonate with me a lot in the context of POIS.  And I slowly get better after abstaining. So I guess that means I dont have Schizo. Well I hope I don't.

Perhaps I was genetically pre-destined to get POIS. As mental health problems do run in my family, a 2nd degree relative was Schizophrenic.

I am currently feeling emotionless & anxious. It's not a good feeling.

Best wishes to you all.

Quantum

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Hi Iam,

Interesting comparison.  In fact, for me that have mainly emotional symptoms, POIS looks very much like an acute episode of madness, where I become intolerant, aggressive,  .... a total personality change, for the worst.

That would be the main difference with schizophrenia - POIS lasts a few days, and is not as invasive, because you may have the negative symptoms, but you do not have the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, like hearing voices and hallucination.

I do not know where all that links together, but niacin has been shown to be an effective treatment for schizophrenia.  However, there have not been much follow up with the studies made in the 50s and 60s.

Some interest have been raised lately in schizophrenia research about the fact that a large portion of schizophrenic patients shows an impaired response to the niacin flush ( they hardly get a flush with niacin).  Example of such a study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20417059 .  ( Important sidenote: Those are mean responses in large groups - that does not mean that you are schizophrenic if you hardly flush with niacin ! ) The goal of those studies is to find what physiological pathway is not normal in those patients, leading to this abnormal response to niacin.  To date, it seems that there may be a problem in the n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) pathway in schizophrenia (Well, just another good reason for me to continue taking omega-3 fatty acid.)


Is there anything significant or useful for understanding POIS in all that?  I don't know.
« Last Edit: August 14, 2016, 08:00:13 PM by Quantum »
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