Dave's Progress. Chapter 1: A Weighty Issue.

I have been asked recently by the Talkbank Action Group to keep a diary of my so-called "progress". They have told me that this diary will go onto a new blog, but just as a bit of practice I thought I would write something here for all of you out there in blogland.
As many of you will know from my previous blogs the illness I have is a chronic, long term one. That is to say it is not curable, but it is treatable. In this way there can be long periods of well-being as well as illness. Indeed, so long as medication is taken there seems to be no need why you cannot live an apparently "normal" existence. However, and it is a big however, medication, whilst being very good at reducing so-called "positive" symptoms (such as hallucinations, delusions and hearing voices), is not always as good at reducing "negative" symptoms of the disease (such as tiredness, lack of motivation and low mood). Indeed, many people put down these negative symptoms to actual side-effects of the medication. How true this is, to what extent these are either symptoms or side-effects I am unsure. It would seem then that my current state- sleeping up to 14 hours a day, feeling sluggish, unfit and unhealthy- could be due to one of three things: negative symptoms of the disease, side-effects of medication or simple terminal laziness and the continuance of bad habits on my behalf.
What is certain, though, is that medication does have the effect of making you put on weight, and boy, have I put on weight. Since I started to take my medication around two years ago, I have put on perhaps seven stones. Yes, I am what you might call a "big feller". I would like to say that I am simply big-boned or that it is my hormones, but according to blood tests there is nothing wrong with me physically (yet!). So, just how did I get so big. I'm sure that I eat normally, do not drink excessively and take what exercise I can get given my size and the droning tiredness I feel. It is true that I could do more, but as my levels of motivation are so low I find it extremely difficult. I am, therefore, at present, stuck in a bit of a rut.
What I find even more disturbing now is that my psychiatrist says I am a prime candidate for chronic physical disease, given my weight and nasty habits (e.g. smoking). But, would I even be in this situation if I hadn't started to take my medication? Indeed, surely, in this instance, I have not been in control of, nor do I see myself as wholly responsible for, my current state of physical health.
Having said that, the only thing that I can do seems to be to continue to eat as healthily as I can, really try to push myself in terms of exercise and see what happens. The statistics for people who take medications such as mine and who have illnesses such as mine dying early deaths due to heart disease are already, I am told, beginning to emerge. I do not particularly want to become another one of those statistics.
So, keep it here to see if I make any progress with all of this, because I am sure that medication and negative symptoms of disease remain a "weighty" issue for many like me.

That's all for now from your normal, average delusional and paranoid man.