I had a brain injury a few years ago and I literally am not the same person. Be careful with your head, folks. It’s really easy to permanently change your existence.
I had a couple of appointments with my neurologist. She saw me with and without opiates. The first time she saw me while I was being on opiates, she told me how much better I look and all that. If I told her that the difference between the two was opiates, I bet she would approve of its use in my case.
In any case, this is what works for me, and I have been through a lot of psychiatric medications without any success. Opiates are not really an issue at all. I get regular blood tests done, I get MRIs done and so forth... everything seems to be fine, otherwise I would not use it. Constipation is the only issue, but I take magnesium citrate for that.
I would like to add that I wish I did not have to depend on opiates or anything at all, I would rather prefer that, but this is what it is. I am happy I found something that works for me after so many unsuccessful attempts. I found it by accident, even.
Also, Tysabri is effective. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalizumab
For now I take propolis, vitamin D, B vitamins (B1, B6, B12 especially), garlic oil, quercetin, and bromelain. I just ordered CBD oil and this will be my first time testing it. I hope it is going to work for my muscle spasticity. Additionally I ordered Ceylon cinnamon, because I read some studies with promising results. I might as well give it a try. Opiates do help tremendously, but they do not treat all of my other symptoms.
[1] First search results: "There's no cure for demyelinating conditions, but new myelin growth can occur in areas of damage".
Hoping you get better.
The feeling is hard to articulate, but I no longer connect to my feelings or thoughts in the ways I had been accustomed to.
My new behaviors and patterns are somewhat destructive to the life I was building prior to my “break,” and it’s incredibly maddening and depressing trying to balance “good for new me” and “good for the life old me built and the people he loved.”
It goes way beyond not simply enjoying the things I used to enjoy any more.
Same here. I had the mix of a heavy burnout and a broke up a couple of years ago and I'm still recovering.
It's curious how I totally had the same kind of "logarithmic" recovery that some other people wrote in other comments here. It might be how the brain reacts to that.
I’m on antipsychotics and no one is going to let me go off them, including me.
I’m never, ever going off my antipsychotic.
After my psychotic break and starting treatment for bipolar, I was a shell of a person. I had the opportunity to become anyone I wanted to be. I picked what I thought my best traits were from my last self and started on a journey of self discovery.
I vaguely remember my previous self and he had completely different motivations. The only similarities I recognize are things I decided to keep.
To keep this bit brief, my interests changed in ways I didn’t expect. My previous self would never have shamelessly written pornography.
My previous self used to care what people thought of him. I don’t. I only care about the consequences of how people see me. This doesn’t make a sociopath because I do care about how people feel. I want to communicate effectively. I try to tailor my actions so other people feel I am listening and that I care, because I do. My previous self wasn’t so explicitly and logically calculating about relationships.
My previous self was brutally honest. I try to be kind when confrontation or blunt honesty is necessary.
Overall, my maturity increased by about 20 years in the last 3 years. My previous self is a person I’m not fond of.
Overall, not worth the insurance settlement. If anything, the idea that I cashed out ended up alienating me from my entire support network. Friends and family, people I’d just met who had been told my story before hand… Yuck. Glad to now run in different circles selected for maturity this time.
It's not like we can sell brain injuries at every corner store to change peoples' lives.