Dear Yogita:

1. Diet, exercise and smoking: I read (Wikipedia on Schizophrenia) that associated with schizophrenia are the following: obesity, poor diet, a sedentary lifestyle, and smoking. You wrote that you are “at home whole day”-

– do you exercise daily inside your home, and how is your diet?

Clearly, you need to eat healthily and exercise every day: fast walks outdoors, if safe, are an excellent form of aerobic exercise, good for your health in many ways. Indoors, you can set a daily exercise routine, so that you are not sedentary (sitting or lying down for long periods of time during the day).

Wikipedia on Schizophrenia: “Exercise therapy has been shown to improve positive and negative symptoms, cognition, and improve quality of life. Aerobic exercise has been shown to improve cognitive deficits of working memory and attention.. Supervised sessions are recommended. In the UK healthy eating advice is offered alongside exercise programs”

* “Positive symptoms” are delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized thoughts and speech. “Negative symptoms” are little to no expressions of emotion (blunted affect), a poverty of speech, an inability to feel pleasure, a lack of desire to form relationships, a lack of motivation and apathy, withdrawal, self neglect, particularly in hygiene, etc.

I read that 80-90% of people with schizophrenia being regular smokers, as compared to 20% of the general population. I wonder if you smoke?

2. Medications: I read that the primary treatment of schizophrenia is the use of antipsychotic medications. And you shared that you take these medications and unfortunately you suffer from diabetes (one of the side effects of antipsychotics). I also read that if a person doesn’t experience psychotic symptoms for a long time, doctors reduce the doses or no longer prescribe the patient with antipsychotics at all.

How long has it been for you, since you experienced symptoms?

3. Psychotherapy: I read about Metacognitive training (MCT) is a new psychotherapeutic approach for the treatment of “the positive symptoms of psychosis, especially delusions”. It is based on the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy, but focuses on cognitive distortion most typical to people with schizophrenia, and it is done in an individual or group therapy format.

– I wonder if you ever attended psychotherapy and if such is available to you (after the pandemic I suppose).

4. ACT, standing for Assertive Community Treatment: it includes a nurse and/ or a social worker/ other professional visiting you in your home, helping you in a variety of ways. Anything like that available to you (pre- or post pandemic, I imagine)?

5. Other support services for education, employment, and housing: such are available for some people with schizophrenia, so I read in Wikipedia- anything of the kind available to you?

anita

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