Cutting Back on a Treatment for Schizoaffective Disorder

One part of my treatment for schizoaffective disorder is an antianxiety medication I take as needed. I’ve been taking it for decades, but now my psychiatric nurse practitioner (NP) wants to ween me off of it. I have mixed feelings about this change in my schizoaffective treatment.

I Needed This Treatment for Schizoaffective Disorder Most When I Heard Voices

One of the most important things I’ve used this particular schizoaffective treatment for was when I used to hear voices, I would take it to calm down the voices, and it worked. Now that I no longer hear voices or have any delusions, it might be a good time to go off the medication. Although I am in no way at all antipsychiatry, I would like to be on less medication.

But this treatment helps my schizoaffective anxiety. I have very high anxiety. Yesterday, I got extremely anxious when my shopping cart grazed a display of Cheez-It bags at the grocery store. Normally, I never go grocery shopping alone. I always go with my husband, Tom. And usually, when I go with him, I stay in the car. There are so many things I could knock over and so many people who make me feel that I’m in the way. When we got home from this trip to the grocery store, though, I had to take my as-needed anxiety medication.

Using Therapy Skills as Schizoaffective Treatment

I am happy, though, that I no longer need as much of this treatment for schizoaffective disorder as I used to because my NP and I are decreasing it. And I’ve been using skills I’ve learned in therapy to fill in the gaps. Medication is important, but therapy skills are another crucial schizoaffective treatment for me.

Right now, the therapy skill that helps me the most, especially as my as-needed anxiety medication is being decreased, is telling myself if I’m worrying about something (which is all the time) to put it aside and worry about it later. Another is labeling worries as what-if thinking.

For more about cutting back on my medication for schizoaffective disorder, watch this.

Writing this has made me realize that I can handle slowly going off of this schizoaffective treatment. So, thank you, my readers, because you are why I write these articles. I mean, I quit smoking, I quit drinking, and I’m lowering my sugar intake. (I was getting most of my sugar from juice, so now I’m going back to drinking lots of water.) My whole point is: having done all that, how hard can this be?