Quick Fixes for Schizophrenia and Anxiety Are Not Helpful

Schizophrenia and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are complicated illnesses for which quick fixes do not work. It often seems like popular media outlets cover and sell ideas that dealing with anxiety is just a matter of learning a few mindfulness exercises or wrapping yourself up in a weighted blanket. I see less in the media addressing the symptoms of schizophrenia. Still, I know from experience that people can think that just telling someone with delusions or hallucinations that they aren't real will somehow make the belief disappear (it doesn't). 

I know it is difficult to see someone you care about suffer and that people are often well-meaning when they give advice, but asking someone with a mental illness if they have ever tried a weighted blanket or breathing exercises is probably not the best way to support or be helpful to them when they are experiencing symptoms of their illness. These quick fixes for anxiety or schizophrenia don't work.

Products That Are Quick-Fixes for Anxiety

When I come across an article or product with hundreds of positive reviews saying it helped with anxiety, I usually buy it. I've been disappointed over and over again, though. I've learned that schizophrenia and generalized anxiety disorder are not conditions with which quick fixes work, no matter how much retailers or those selling the latest class or book try to make us believe they are. 

I'm not saying that exercises and products can't be helpful. They can. I am happy to add new tools to my toolboxes to help with symptoms. I have one set of tools, including medication to help with schizophrenia, and another (also including medicine) to deal with anxiety. 

I Still Hope to Find Quick Fixes for Schizophrenia and Anxiety

To keep a positive state of mind, I keep hoping there is a solution to the most uncomfortable symptoms I experience, and so far, I haven't given up trying new things. I continue to attempt mindfulness, breathing exercises, talk therapy, cold water on the face, ice packs, weighted blankets, stretches, shaking, fidget spinners, vagus nerve exercises, and probably everything else made popular by magazine articles as tools for reducing the symptoms of anxiety. 

Although all of these techniques and products are great when I feel a little tense, none of them have ever been successful at helping me with a full-blown anxiety attack, and none of them have reduced the overall level of anxiety I experience.

An important thing to consider when suggesting a solution to help someone deal with their mental illness is that the person you are trying to help has probably tried everything they can to reduce their discomfort. It is also important to remember there are no quick fixes for anxiety or schizophrenia. Neither one of these conditions is a one-and-done kind of scenario.

Living with a mental illness takes a character made partially of steel. It is difficult, and assuming some simple answer to solve symptoms isn't realistic or helpful to those who feel we have tried everything to make our lives more manageable.