I’ve done it twice, you know what they say about doing the same thing over and expecting different results. Lol, think I finally accepted I’m on meds for life
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I’ve done it a number of times. Came to same conclusion as you.
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My psychiatrist lowered my antidepressant because he thought it might be making me sleep to much, and 4months later I started with suicidal ideation.
I was on a very low maintenece dose of an antipsychotic for about 15 years and was heading for wanting to get off disability and have a career and marriage and child. Then came in contact with someone who said things to me and sent me into a relapse. since my relapse i have to take two and a half times the medication I was taking and am very (painfully slow to normal poeple) getting to a point where I was before
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yup, dozens of times. I’m actually not very bright apparently. I still want to go off meds but I’m trying to have common sense like Anna and 5713
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I have done this a few times now. Always end up back in hospital. I know all the nurses very well now!
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Never have and never will, I’m protecting my brain from damage as much as possible.
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Only needed to do it once for a 9 month psychosis, putting me in the way of a second year of psychosis a few months later
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As I was on 5 mg Abilify and didn’t have psychosis for many years, I tried to get off it twice. Both times I had to get back on them after 2-3 weeks. I got mood swings that were difficult to control. Note both times I didn’t relapse with psychosis. The moods were the issue.
I tried to get off it again a few months back and I’ve been off it for about 3 months now, the longest I’ve been off the antipsychotic. The difference is I’m on a mood stabiliser this time so the mood swings haven’t been an issue.
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Been there done that and it was very costly, was in depression when I quit and everything felt hopeless.
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I’ve tried to quit many times but after a couple years of AP’s it started to get serious, like not just withdraw symptoms but to the point I pass out and my head bounces off the floor like a basket ball. No joke I’m scared to try to quit now. Strangely some doctors think there is some way I could possible be just not taking my meds… Don’t know how the he’ll I pass my skrillchecks. That’s what I call them now… The 400 million questions people ask me to find out if I’ve been a good boy lately. You know like the Skrillex song… She’s a white girl so we do those skrillchecks…
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I’ve done it probably about three or four times. I haven’t kept track. It’s very easy for me to start to see my med’s as punishment, and not therapy. All the times I quit my med’s I ended up badly out of control.
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There’s no way I will ever go off all meds. I’ve taken naltrexone every day for over a year and a half now. That med is so effective for me I will never miss a day. And klonopin I’m addicted I can go off it for a day but not 3 days. When I went into the psych ward he thought I wasn’t taking my klonopin because it didn’t show up on the drug test. I was like why would I not take klonopin? Abilify I need more as an add on to naltrexone. Naltrexone is my main source of preventing psychosis even though it’s not meant for it. I was on 25 mg abilify and in TERRIBLE shape before naltrexone. Then I was prescribed it for alcoholism and it’s been a miracle med for me it’s not normal how much that med does for me.
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I went off meds for 2 years. Then crashed and burned and ended up psychotic in hospital. I was barely coping during those 2 years.
Then I tried coming off meds for a few weeks and the feeling of barely coping returned. So I knew where things were heading.
Now I’ve accepted that it’s meds for life.
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I did it! Now it takes double my original dose to keep me sane 
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When I quit meds I was very angry then my family put me in the hospital
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I’ve gone off for 2-3 days at the most and noticed the difference. I’ve never stoped completely nor would I, I like the meds. Feel better now than when growing up with no meds
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It seems to be a natural phenomenon that absence makes the heart grow fonder, so over time we tend to glorify the good and downplay the bad. I’ve been taking meds for 34 years and have never stopped taking them.
A tool that has helped me over the years is taking notes. I write down how I was thinking, feeling and behaving just prior to being put on meds. The notes are placed on my refrigerator, so I see them everyday.
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Between 1996 and 2007, I’ve been hospitalized 24 times involuntarily, 1 time voluntarily. Not proud to say I wasn’t taking my meds all that regularly, but the side effects were far outweighing any benefit.
I could only sustain the meds for a little over 6 months before either they stopped working at all, or I couldn’t stand it anymore and stopped (except haldol and topamax), then I couldn’t stand myself.
I just crash and burn and rinse and repeat.
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Well I have been on my meds for over a year now and expect to be on them for another year and then I hope to try a med free trial. Fingers Crossed!
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