Question for the negative schizophrenics

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What is it like to go catatonic?

Hate to answer a question with a question, but how is someone who is catatonic supposed to answer that question?

Catatonia doesn't only occur in schizophrenia. It also can be defined in several ways, not just the common view of catatonia, where the person is fixed in one position and isn't moving. The other end of that scale is also defined as catatonia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catatonia

Can't answer what it feels like though, as I am assuming you mean the description listed under the subtype "stupor". I've never experienced that.

I experience catatonia (although not these days as I am medicated against it) I think as a symptom of my bipolar disorder.

My experience of it was in a catatonic stupor although I once experienced the reverse (catatonic excitement - which was brought on by drugs) and that was a really scary experience. Catatonic stupor in its most severe form can be very scary too, although I find the level I sink to can vary a bit.

What catatonic stupor feels like is it's like out of the blue you suddenly feel like your body is rapidly slowing down, like for example you could be walking and you find yourself walking slower and slower for no reason even though in your head you're ordering your legs to move at the same pace as before. You may come to a halt, and find you suddenly need to lie down, then you can't get up. While this is all happening other stuff happens too, like you can feel your facial muscles going slack and if you're speaking or you try to speak your speech becomes slurred and slowed down, and incomprehensible (like you start repeating words or there are big gaps). This all happens pretty rapidly but I found that if I got a high burst of adrenalin (from some external stimulation) during the very early phases of going into the catatonic state sometimes this would prevent it.

Anyway, sorry for my atrocious garbled writing, I'm a bit unwell at the moment. I'll continue in a new paragraph.

So you're lying down in some position, and your brain is running in it's usual way (although probably racing a million miles an hour as you're freaking out or feeling frustrated - no matter how many times it happens to me I never take it calmly hahaha) and you've reached a point where you are unable to move a single muscle in your body, not even a finger. You order yourself angrily to "Move! Get up!" over and over but nothing happens. It's like your brain has disconnected from your body. Generally you will lie in whatever position you're in staring blanking ahead until the catatonic spell passes (normally for me 15 minutes to an hour at the outside). Mostly it doesn't get so bad that I can't speak - most commonly I find I get complete physical paralysis but use of my voice as normal, although generally with slurring and distortion. Occasionally I have had it so bad that I can't even speak though. Once I had it so bad I was struggling to breathe, because even that tiny action of taking air in required some sort of physical movement.

Also, as a person who also suffers from depression induced immobility, the two states are quite distinctively different to me. When I'm depressed I don't want to move, I feel like I don't care anymore, I have no energy, and there's this sort of hopeless empty lethargy, or I'm just so tired I lie down and don't get up. Whereas when I'm catatonic it's almost the opposite, I feel frustrated and almost furious, I want to get up and get moving, inside my head I'm just continually shouting at myself to move but nothing happens and it feels like the commands from my brain are not reaching my body. Depression doesn't feel like that, it still feels like my brain and body are in communication.

Thank you, I understand better now.

I appreciate the answers.