Limitless

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So I recently watched "Limitless" over the weekend and realized how applicable the movie would have been if the protagonist was originally a schizophrenic who found anti-psychotic medication. Of course I will go more into depth about this in the post, but please do not read this if you do not want any spoilers for the movie. I would definitely recommend the movie it was quite an intriguing journey.

Image from https://deadline.com/2014/10/limitless-series-from-movie-bradley-cooper-alex-kurtzman-bob-orci-set-atcbs-1201268933/

How Limitless Could be About a Schizophrenic

The movie starts off with the protagonist, Eddie Morra, who is struggling in his day to day life as an author. While this part may be a bit of a stretch, it seems that before the start of the movie, he was living a normal life, having both a girlfriend and a contract on a book, though the book hadn't been started in any serious manner. He seems to struggle in a manner that I was like when I was psychotic. I could not focus on anything or do any work, and I isolated myself socially due to insecurity, and hallucinating being "commented on" by the people around me.

Out of the blue, he runs into his brother-in-law, who offers him a nootropic drug, NZT-48, which improves his cognitive abilities in a way not possible in reality. While anti-psychotic medication does not take affect immediately, usually taking a week or so from my experience, the fact that anti-psychotics improve the cognitive ability of a struggling schizophrenic is accurate. Again, this is reminiscent of when I was off-meds and psychotic. Work frustrated me, because I could not focus on at all, while having deadlines looming over my head. Comparing now when I am stable to then, the contrast would seem like that of taking this wonder-drug, NZT-48.

I think that the point where the protagonist discovers that he could die or worse if he is off the drug in reminiscent of remission of schizophrenia. Even though I am fully functional, I know that the minute I stop taking my medication, life will go downhill again.

By the end of the movie, where he manages to modify the drug so that he is no longer reliant on it is something that I hope for in the future. While I do not see this opportunity as even a remote possibility, I do wish for an anti-psychotic medication that did not have such bad long term side effects as the medication I am on now, for the rest of my life. For those who do not know, I am on Clozapine, an antipsychotic that is known to cause cardiovascular side effects, diabetes, weight gain, and high cholesterol from long term use.

Bonus Tidbit: There is a scene in the movie where the protagonist goes on a bit of a "time-skip", where he ended up partying for 18 hours without being fully-conscious for most of it. This reminds my of when I was on Seroquel (quetiapine), and would fall asleep frequently and wake up somewhere else. I attributed it to sleep-walking, which I no longer have a problem with, being on a different medication.

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