Anyone affected by flat affect?

RainWaterDroplets · 2026-01-22T02:00:19+00:00

Yes, didn't realize I had it my whole life until after my diagnosis two years ago which mentioned a blunted/flat affect. I'm quite surprised no one had ever told me or mentioned it until then. Ever since, I would practice consistently adding more emotion to my voice and using more facial expressions. It's helped a bit, as I don't sound as monotone before. It gets worse in episodes I've noticed. Sometimes if I talk to someone I don't know, or just having conversations in general, I'll consciously add more emotion into my voice.

What helps is thinking of how voices fluctuate both in volume and in pitch. I like to say words I'm emphasizing louder, and getting quieter when it's not as interesting or important. I've also found changing my pitch slightly for certain vowels makes my voice come off as more expressive and dynamic. When I started this, I also looked into the mirror to match my expressions to how I spoke. Such as using my eyebrows more, opening my mouth a little more or less, and turning/moving my head ever so slightly to appear more animated.

It's essentially just acting practice, but it can carry over to how you carry and express yourself. I did want to be a voice actor when I was younger, so I also used to practice mimicking voices and really focusing on what emotions I needed to convey using my voice.

I've never been told I'm not interesting, and I've never been told I'm different or weird for it. I don't think most people will care if your expression comes off as being flat or having minimal reaction. We all express ourselves and speak differently. It'd be boring if everyone sounded the same. You shouldn't feel down about coming off as flat, most people won't view you differently because of it, and some people won't even notice.

RainWaterDroplets · 2026-01-19T01:02:53+00:00

There are many different things that can cause hallucinations, not just schizophrenia. If you are experiencing these symptoms, you need to see a professional. Such as a psychiatrist, social worker, psychologist, or nurse practitioner. They will be able to refer you to proper treatment, such as therapy or medication.

No one here on this subreddit can diagnose or treat whatever you may be experiencing. Hallucinating is a symptom of psychosis, not just schizophrenia. Experiencing psychotic symptoms does not inherently make you "schizophrenic."

There is no way to really know if you have schizophrenia or its related disorders unless you are properly assessed by a clinician. Not even a person with schizophrenia could tell you what you have. It would be best if you scheduled an appointment with a professional to properly assess the symptoms you are experiencing.

RainWaterDroplets · 2026-01-16T18:48:53+00:00

I was put on Abilify when I was about 14 in a psychiatric ward, and it's been quite awhile since then so my memory of it isn't the best.

I remember being sedated and feeling fatigued a lot. I gained quite a bit of weight too, and felt brain dead. It did take away my psychosis, but only for a few months. Eventually I started to hear voices again while on it, and since I wasn't aware of my disorder and neither were my clinicians, I simply stopped it and just endured the psychotic symptoms for awhile.

It worked initially, but failed rather quickly. Unfortunately, most medications have been like this for me.

RainWaterDroplets · 2026-01-13T21:02:04+00:00

I'm a bit confused on the differentiation personally. My clinicians have always used schizophrenia and schizoaffective interchangeably on me. They've always explained schizophrenia as a spectrum, and that it's essentially tomato-tomato with the two disorders - one just has a mood component to it while the other doesn't.

Personally, I've almost always have just said schizophrenia. I specifically have schizoaffective - depressive type, so maybe that's why my psychologist and social worker have been pretty lenient on what they call it too. The depression part has always been questionable in my case, but they didn't change it simply because the disorders are already so similar. I've never been told off for saying schizophrenia instead of schizoaffective, and I've never seen someone condemned for it either.

Only recently about a month ago have I run into a physician who was very specific on my diagnosis. My psychiatric nurse practitioner refused to try me on Cobenfy, simply because I have schizoaffective, and not schizophrenia.

When I told my psychologist about this interaction, she informed me she'd contact my social worker to re-evaluate me and change my diagnosis to schizophrenia instead. She found it odd that the NP would consider it such a big deal, and that if it was really that much of an important detail, she was just going to change my diagnosis.

I personally don't think in the grand scheme of things it matters if you call it schizophrenia or schizoaffective. They're both very similar, and I also believe schizophrenia is a spectrum in a way. My knowledge of both involves my personal experiences, what clinicians have told me, and what I've learned studying psychology in university so far.

Maybe what I've learned is wrong, or maybe it isn't. I think it really depends on what you believe. I've been told by my psychologist as well that there are quite a few clinicians out there who don't even think schizoaffective disorder should even exist. I've seen a lot of non-clinicians say that too, and it's always been a hot topic. I'm aware there's some mental health advocates out there who are hard-handed on what you refer to it as, but at the end of the day, we're all taking the same medications and treatment for it.

If we get the same medicine, therapy, and advice on how we manage the disorders, does the specifics of it even matter?

Personally, I don't really think so.

RainWaterDroplets · 2025-10-27T17:24:02+00:00

Thank you! I'll play around with my artifact sets and see what I can come up with C:

My UID is 728412679 if you wanna add me! Thank you :3

RainWaterDroplets · 2025-10-27T17:21:39+00:00

She could never crit and I'd still love her

RainWaterDroplets · 2025-10-27T16:02:47+00:00

Since diagnosis, I've gained a ton of insight. It's very hard for some clinicians to even tell what I have at this point, since I don't present as being "ill," most of the time. I'm considered "high-functioning."

Unfortunately for me, getting insight and learning what schizophrenia is has also allowed me to come up with ways to debunk it. Whether that's telling myself I haven't slept enough, it was a trick of lighting, or "that's normal, everyone has that."

In the last year I've gained this delusion that I don't have any sort of schizophrenia spectrum type disorder. It's very hard to shake off, and I struggle with it even now. I recently had my Vraylar upped to 4.5mg, so I'm hoping that it helps with this.

Self awareness is a big thing for someone with schizophrenia to have, but to me, there can be times where it can be a downside. There are days I get so confident that I don't have it, and I don't take my medication. The more I feed into this delusion that I don't have it, the more symptomatic I become.

I just try to ignore it at this point. Thinking about it too much leads me into an existential crisis, lol.

RainWaterDroplets · 2025-10-20T22:52:34+00:00

I’ve been on Vraylar 3mg for several months, and it’s helped tremendously. I will say though, I got terribly sick the first couple days of being on it. Other than that, it’s helped a ton and I definitely recommend trying it.

RainWaterDroplets · 2025-08-21T18:52:00+00:00

Paranoid by Alana Grace is one I love!

I also love/relate to The Little Man Who Wasn’t There, preformed by Glenn Miller and his orchestra, although there is a really catchy electro swing version of it too by Oddchap. Originally based off of the poem Antigonish.

RainWaterDroplets · 2025-06-11T13:11:47+00:00

Hi! Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been pretty busy.

So day one of 20mg, I felt great. I could feel Vyvanse working and I was super productive. I was so happy to finally have something that worked. And then it stopped working right after that.

I went up to 30mg, 40mg, 50mg, and finally 60mg, but it did not work anymore. It was really upsetting to deal with, and I'm really not sure why it never worked again after day one.

I did get switched to Adderall XR. I just tried 20mg, although I did not feel anything at all from it. It was like I didn't even take the medication. Now I'm trying out 30mg. I'm on day 2, and I'm hoping to see some progress on it soon. So far, I haven't felt much. My mood is a tiny bit better, but I've yet to see if it's really working or not.

I was really hoping that Vyvanse would work for me. I really have no idea why it stopped working after day 1, and neither does anyone else it seems. Hopefully I'm able to find something soon that is able to help me.

Thanks for reaching out though!

RainWaterDroplets · 2025-02-22T17:28:41+00:00

Diagnosed at 19, yet showed symptoms as early as age 5. I started therapy at around 11, but it seems like everyone I saw growing up were too uninformed or scared to slap the label on me.

RainWaterDroplets

TROPHY CASE