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Going on Vacation With Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder

August 25, 2016 Elizabeth Caudy

Schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder comes with you on vacation. But you can still have fun on vacation with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

Going on vacation with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder is mandatory for those of us with the disorder. We can't just leave it at home. We bring it along. But that doesn’t mean you can’t unwind, relax, and have fun while on vacation with a mental illness. Sure, there will be tough moments, as there always are with any illness. When you vacation with a chronic illness like schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, the key is to focus on the fun times and not expect everything to be perfect.

A Good Vacation With Schizophrenia or Schizoaffective Disorder

I had one of the most magical, blissful, heavenly moments of my life while on vacation with my family. I felt like I was 14 or 15 again, before the heavy clinical depression, that was to be a nearly constant companion, set in. I felt weightless—because depression really does weigh you down. In this moment, I was sitting on a pier overlooking the lake in Wisconsin, dangling my bare feet over the edge.

What was especially magical was that I felt like a kid again with my husband, Tommy, who was sitting right next to me, dangling his feet over the side of the pier, too. I felt like a kid while sitting next to the love of my adult life. The feeling was almost indescribable. And almost as quickly as it came, it went away. Luckily I snapped the picture at the right moment as a testament to what I was looking at during the fleeting sense of bliss.

Schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder comes with you on vacation. But you can still have fun on vacation with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

There were a lot of other good times on the same trip. Tommy and I shared a vacation home on Rowley’s Bay with my parents, my brother, and my brother’s girlfriend. Another great time also involves my husband: he bought me a pair of handmade, sterling silver and turquoise earrings for our eighth wedding anniversary. Even the bad things turned out to be good, as they so often do. For example, one restaurant got so noisy that I had to step outside with Tommy (Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder, Overstimulation).

My brother and his girlfriend came out after us, and I told them I felt scared and also embarrassed for having to leave. My brother’s girlfriend assured me I am protected and loved, and there was no reason to be embarrassed (Seeing Someone in a Mental Health Crisis). From now on, whenever I feel scared or even just nervous, I can remind myself that I am protected and loved. But the point is that I had to go through that experience to be able to add that memory to my toolbox.

Hearing Schizoaffective or Schizophrenic Voices On Vacation

It did get to be a recurring theme that I got freaked out while going out to dinner with everyone. So I was really relieved on the night my mom made dinner at the resort cabin where we stayed. But, wouldn’t you know it, that was the night that my voices decided to drop in. Well, I have to admit they did have good timing. Imagine what a disaster it would’ve been if we had been out. My dad was watching the news, which was muffled by our closed bedroom door. Tommy asked, “What are they saying?”

At that moment, the voices were making fun of me for hearing voices and making fun of some absurd political news. I replied, “They’re making fun of how ridiculous the news is.”

Tommy said, “Well, that kind of makes sense, right?”

I laughed and said, “That’s what I hate about my voices. They always make sense.” (Schizophrenic, Schizoaffective Voices Can Say Good Things)

Keeping a sense of humor is key to dealing with hearing voices, having any illness, the unplanned surprises on vacation, or, really, anything.

Coping With Hearing Voices On Vacation

Photo by Elizabeth Caudy.

Find Elizabeth on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, and her personal blog.

APA Reference
Caudy, E. (2016, August 25). Going on Vacation With Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder, HealthyPlace. Retrieved on 2024, December 23 from https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/creativeschizophrenia/2016/08/schizophrenia-schizoaffective-disorder-and-vacationing



Author: Elizabeth Caudy

Elizabeth Caudy was born in 1979 to a writer and a photographer. She has been writing since she was five years old. She has a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago. She lives outside Chicago with her husband, Tom. Find Elizabeth on Google+ and on her personal blog.

JohnT
August, 26 2016 at 2:24 am

Glad you had a good, relaxing vacation that soothed the soul. Sometimes the simple things are the best things. For me, running up a steep hill and ascending to the top can give me the primitive feelings of happiness when at the top you look back down the valley and see the simple beauties of achievement and nature.

Elliot Broad
September, 7 2016 at 2:44 am

Nice advice to the patients of this disease. I have saw some patients of this, they does not feel very good on this types of vacations.

Dr Musli Ferati
September, 11 2016 at 8:48 pm

Your genuine and positive experience with auditive hallucinations during your kind vacation exhibits great and important issue to successful recovering from schizophrenia. As we know schizophrenia is the most serious and dangerous psychosis, especially when it failed its appropriate psychiatric treatment and management. I mean that active and inventive personally convenient treatment and management of patient with this mental illness is the best way to improve the devastating outcome and to increase the index of global life functioning. On the other hand, hearing voices during active phase of shizophrenia indicates critical moment to achieve the remission, because they impede daily functioning and limited the psychosocial performances of this category of psychiatric patient. Beside this, your experience incited the useful role and place of the benevolent sense of humor toward hearing voices. However, the creative process of recovering should be the fist and the main approach to diminish the bad course of schizophrenia. Active taking part to everyday interpersonal, occupational and social engagement is the hopeful means to triumph against positive and negative symptoms of this psychosis.

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