I’ve seen some SZs say they try to stop taking medication for a while, and some of them wind up needing to take it again. What’s the point of doing that if the symptoms could return? I don’t understand. Is it that it’s necessary sometimes for health?
I’m still learning about this illness.
Personally, when I took medication, whenever I was in a manic state I couldn’t differentiate between me being healthy and me being manic, of course, so I would think I was healthy again and want to stop taking my meds. I only hid them a few times in my life but generally I took them because I was scared of being off them. now that I am permanently off psych meds, it worries me a lot when people say these things. but every schizophrenic is different. some need medication more than others just to function, for some it controls their basic symptoms, and most people who don’t want to take their meds simply arent on the right meds.
It’s common for people on medication to get better and then figure they don’t need their medication anymore because they are feeling so good. They don’t realize they only feel good BECAUSE of the medication.
Other people feel bad side-effects of their medication and stop taking it because they figure it will be better to be off of their medication completely and risk relapse then live with those side-effects.
Other people stop taking meds because they think the meds are hurting or poisoning them or causing more harm than good or it is bad for their physical or mental health or they think it would be bad in the long run to take medication.
Other people simply don’t think they need medication anymore and want to try life without it.
People want to risk a relapse just to see if they don’t need meds anymore.
I begged to quit the haldo decanoate injections every other week because after a few months, my head was this completely empty space that couldn’t for the life of me come up with a sentence to hold a conversation with others.
I got so uncharacteristically quiet that my (ex) husband was yelling to the other people to go look for me because he hadn’t seen me in an hour or two. They started laughing because I was sitting right behind him the whole time.
It’s very easy for your mind to play tricks on you when you’re on med’s. They weaken you physically, and you start to resent them.
I can’t speak for everyone but in my case I want to go off because I don’t want to develop longterm sideffects like tardive dyskinesia, diabetes, proneness to psychosis, etc. Plus the long term results for people off meds are better than for people on meds if they “survive” the withdrawal without relapse.
I’d be afraid to stop medication because there’d be no one to help me if I did relapse and have an episode. Some SZ are fortunate to have friends and family around to deal with their illness when that happens.
In that case you could start a psychotherapy so that someone sees you every other week or so and helps you coping
i won’t b going off meds for a while yet. not while my kids are still at school anyway. can’t risk another “episode” i’m going to eliminate every med available to me to prove that i’m not mentally ill. i will get these ■■■■■■■ if it kills me. so no, no going off meds as yet. next up, amilsulpride or abilify and either gabapentin or propanalol. i start those in october. back on depixol for now.
I have researched on people not being on medication. Some with medication have so many side effects that they can’t function at all. Also some people can manage their symptoms without medications and it works for them. There is a certain percentage of people (30%?) who are functioning and are not on medication. I guess everyone is different. I think it also depends on how psychotic a person is? No one can predict with this illness if they will relapse or not. I am told by the psychiatrist most ill people have one psychotic episode in their life time. At the same time I have seen people on remission who are taking minimum dose of medication.
the only reason I am taking med. is, I don’t want to suspect my friends that they are plotting to poison me or harm me. I might counter attack and live with guilt rest of my life… if my delusions were not persecutory I wouldn’t take meds.
I’ve gone off meds because i didn’t want to be such a failure and be a person on medication
took 3 years and including 18 months of psychosis for me to notice that i needed to take them after that
i need them for life
Take your fricking meds…you are in need of constant chemical assistance and mood therapy. Take…your…fricking…meds.
I am going to be honest and direct -meds like antipsychotics are sometimes necessary - I am in the process of lowering my antipsychotic with my doctors consent - antipsychotics although helpful, have a lot of harsh and dangerous side effects.
I personally wish to lower the Risperdal even more and try to go under 2mg (my current dose) - I wish to go as low as possible, and if things work out for me - I may try to live my life antipsychotic free. I think my doctor agrees - or then again she may not agree with this, I think she wants to take on a wait and see approach. No matter what I will be going very slow with this and with my doctors consent. I just have too many physical issues, I am looking after my physical health right now - I have to
Side effects
I’ve been unconvinced the medication isn’t actually causing the symptoms
I’ve believed them to be a conduit to control
Mostly the last one because I have trouble believing I am sick at all.
I could go on, but I also just don’t want to take them and often believe they are the culprit and not any sort of resolution to the symptoms. It’s tricky. I’m trying really hard to be compliant now because I can because I have some shred of “insight” but the years I spent with none, I thought they were all full of crap and trying to get me and formaldehyde me and that was one of the means.
That’s why I’ve discontinued and what would make me do it again. I’m lucky I’m sorta kinda mostly maybe stable right now but I haven’t always been and many aren’t. The reasons someone discontinued aren’t always simple or singular and can be very much a factor of the person so I’m only speaking for myself and my history, not all schizophrenics do anything for a universal reason. We are still individual people.
I think 77nick77 said it best. I’ve tried going off meds many times, but the mental pain gets too bad. The dysphoria is horrible, like pain that just comes from nowhere for no apparent reason.
Unfortunately there is a period when you come off meds where the side effects are low and voices are gone and you almost feel normal. Its unfortunately impossible to get this feeling otherwise its either damned on meds or full blown schizophrenia. I have had two months of no symptoms, but they are coming back. Science can deliver the meds to just the parts that need it just yet, only the detoxing state can do this
I’ve never gone off my meds, and never will…they work too well. I’ve had a few meds that didn’t agree with me, but I’ve never tried to go off them.
It is a total waste of effort. You die a hundred times everyday trying to coop and become a better person and fight sz and then you go off med for a couple of weeks, feel normal but then you return to post zero point and have to rebuild what you have accumulated for God knows how much. Do not stop the med and try to set a treatment plan with your Dr because his aim is to ensure you are not relapsing at the -minimum doze-, Again, it is not fun with the side effects but to get delusional by ones own hand is suicidal. Pardon me for this message but I’m speaking out of a bitter experience. Take care
I think,you are the only one who touch the core of truth !
You wrote "…voices are gone and you almost feel normal "
So that,the main basis:
1-If the voices are gone,you will feel normal
as you were before the onset of sz and its symptoms
2- all period time that you do not hearing the voices,you should feel,act and behave normally ,as you are a person have not sz or suffer with it now or before !
#Evidence,
a-all period time of sleep and lose consciousness; the cause of sz and all
internal symptoms does not exist or work at all
b-there is no any manifestations of the chemical imbalance in the brain
-there is no any changes has occur in personal believes,cultural knowledge,
religious beliefs all time of sleep
c-the daily details of the hallucination "coexistence with imaginary people
and talking with them and hearing them voices} do not exist during the
path of dream events.
d-the dream regard to the schizophrenic is empty from everything related the hallucination,and the person dreams his dream as he was before the sz onset
{the schizophrenic can not hearing the voices or sees the imaginary people
during the time of deep sleep or the dreams}
THE conclusion
1-the sz causing a chemical imbalance all time of wake,but sz it is not
genetic disease because the genetic disease must be exist and work
all time of the day {24 hours }
“you can make a test for the blood of the schizophrenic during the sleep time,
you can not find any chemical changes in the brain”
2- sleeping is a way to loosing the sz during the day life,and avoid the sz effectiveness
-on the biochemistry level,the schizophrenic during the time of sleep is similar
to the biochemistry level of any normal/natural person "who have not sz "
The higher truth of sz,hearing the voices and seeing imaginary moved pictures are
the main internal symptoms of sz,which causing all types of disorders in
the brain biochemistry, thought and behavior
the main suffering from the sz is merely the time of hearing the voices and seeing
the pictures of imaginary people"the time of all disorders "
all types of medical drugs whatever they are,they can not block “mute” the path way of
these voices or pictures,and this means that all internal symptoms “hallucination”
does not disappear during the time of medication
in other words,there is no any interactions between the medical drug effectiveness and the voices source,so that it must be that the schizophrenic has lives his life with all internal symptoms of sz, from the time of sz onset to the time of old-day,because the world
neglect the truth of hallucination and its main role in creation the sz case and all its symptoms