Just today i notice that my med is effecting my concentration. Today i had friends over , i was participating well in conversation and my time came to take the med. so i didn’t wait until they go and i took the pill. In 20min. I couldn’t follow up in what they were saying. I never had this experience. I would always took it wen i go to bed. The med prevents me from having delusion but it causes 10x more debilitating symptoms.
The is the one thing that scared me when I came across my illness and heard about taking medication.
- Make sure you 100% trust your doctor.
- Tell them, be honest, ask them for a different drug with similar efforts - there are many.
I took antipsychotics, the first 1 made me fuzz out and all my nerves went funny, arrrh! Anyway the first 2 doctors I told were NOT helpful, however MY doctor was fine about it.
“Fine we will find another medication that has similar results but without these horrid effects you feel”
The 2nd medication made my hands go funny - which is NOT good as a programmer.
And so the medication was changed to a 3rd. I have been on this medication for over 2 years now.
My concentration is 100% of what is was, apart from a little weight added, 0% other nasty effects - apart waking with a groggy mouth!
So speak to your doctor but makes sure you trust them 100%. Then just work with them to find a drug which *works with you and your body.
Hope it helps.
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It’s amazing that your concentration is 100 of what it was. Could I know the name for your 3rd med? If possible, I would like to have a try.
People love to blame medication. How’s your concentration while psychotic?
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Okay but remember (a) the doctors do NOT know exactly what is going on here, in any illness, and (b) the same thing kind of goes for medication.
This is why the following are all treated similar-ish.
Schizophrenia
BiPolar
Personality Disorder
etc
The drug I now use is called: Risperidone. To be honest I cannot remember the others, apart from the LETHAL effects.
And technically, I have been in psychosis for around a month now - and YES my concentration is just fine; as you can see.
You ERR to judge others on your own effects. Madness can be experienced across many different levels, including psychosis.
Thanks a lot, chris. I am on amisulpride now. It’s not bad in terms of side effects. My concentration is so-so under this med. I wish I could improve it by changing to other antipsychotics. Anyway, thanks.
Let us know how you get on with any new meds, especially if it improves concentration.
Indeed let other people know. If we all turn against the nasty meds (old meds) then hopefully they sill stop purchasing these and giving them out.
I mean, what is the point of fixing your mind, if you have now lost its greatest gift; the concentration.
Doctors understand this, indeed they have spent many many years learning and hence appreciate just how important concentration etc is.
Not all of them; which is why you must 100% trust your “doctor”. Remember, here in the UK if you are NOT 100% happy with our doctor - you can ask for another. Indeed tell them you have trust issues with your existing doctor. There is NO POINT a doctor helping a patent who does not trust them, and they know this.
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I find my concentration and focus has shortened with years of surfing the net and quickly shifting from one web page to another. Also it’s harder to do so if i am particularly anxious or stressed. I can’t say medication makes much difference.
I know my anti-psychotic is supposed to block thoughts, but it doesn’t distinguish which thoughts to block and at times I’m at a loss for words.
If anything Risperdal allows me to focus better it seems. When psychotic, my thoughts are scattered and all over the place
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actually my concentration is tip top when I’m in the grips of psychosis…used to do all kinds of freaking things while psychotic, was a much more attentive driver back then as well I’ve noticed.
the med I take now for that kind of stuff doesn’t effect my concentration at all I don’t think as it’s only 15mg of abilify, but I’ve taken stuff in the past, like Seroquel, that would knock me out as soon as it kicked in, forget concentrating, I was O-U-T. But all this stuff effects people differently of course as does the wild spectrum of psychosis.
My meds improve my concentration.
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I have poor concentration but I always thought its more my illness than my medications. With so much going on in my head its hard to always focus on whats really going on.
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This is the same for me. My ability to concentrate is significantly lower when I am symptomatic. Medication helps me concentrate.
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Its the same with me, I’m for better while on the right amount of meds than I am without.
Now that I’m stable and have been straight and narrow, med compliant for almost three years, I find my concentration has been improving, so has my memory.
I’m very scattered when I’m not on my meds. I have racing thoughts like no other. I know I jump topic all the time, my word salad kicks in, highly disorganized. Plus I’m too panicked to make much sense. Then I just shut down do to over stimuli.
I’m sticking to my meds and I’m in school now. First time in my life I’ve been in a class and can remember what in the world I just studied. My memory is very damaged due to many factors, but lately, I think it’s improving.
The meds have helped me stabilize enough to let my brain know what stable feels like. I like the feeling of stable.
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In the past I read many books, but in many years now I have not read any books. I just do not have any concentration to read these books.
True, true…
Up until sometime this past winter I had been reading like crazy. I was hooked on this alternate history series about a west Virginia town that gets zapped back in time and space to Germany during the 30 years war…they just keep pumping out books and I just kept reading them all up.
And then one day I was hanging out with my guy Jcal and an acquaintance of ours and this acquaintance puts a pipe in front of me and three months later I emerge from this cloud of smoke and I haven’t been able to read more than a few paragraphs since…
I don’t know if it’s necessarily really my concentration that took a hit though as I was on a Total War: Rome II binge for the past four months until the game quit working last week. War games like this take some concentration with strategy and planning and all that jazz. I think it’s just that the “reading” part of my brain got switched off and may take some time to switch on again.
I think I’ve been able to concentrate better since being on medication. Although I don’t get super manic hyper focus anymore.