Never tried. Still have beakthroughs but I’m on as low a dose of drugs as I can be without it affecting too much function.
It’s a dangerous strategy and it harms more folks than not. It’s not uncommon for drugs to be less efficient if you return to them. It’s possible they may not work as well or you need higher doses than before.
I copped that with an antidepressant. Tried heaps but effexor seems to be the only one that functions well. I got off it to try another and came back but had to move from 50mgs a day to where I now take 300mg daily. That sux because there are side effects on the increased dose.
Yes, I function, but I still have a lot of anxiety and I still eat too much, but being overweight is a lot better than being obese, which is what I was when on medication.
For the most part I do
I kind of self medicate though
I’m told I need to be on meds, that things are going to get bad again soon
I was in the hospital last August for a psychotic break
Probably the worst I’ve ever had
Unless you count the year I live as 6 different people
That was before I got help though
But the meds turn off my creativity and my ability to self express
It’s as if it shuts down my soul
And I cannot live like that
So I go a few months without it, sometimes up to a year before I completely break down
My father deals with it without the meds
And I’m hoping I can continue to do so
It’s seemingly getting easier with time
But my illness is very very mild compared to others
So far, I think I’ve been lucky
This.
I couldn’t have said it better
I have hope too
I’m currently off my meds and doing better than I have in a long time
I’m awaiting the break down
But enjoying my current reality while I can
i cannot function without meds, unless you count that ephemeral time period when I’m on the downward spiral from medicated to full blown psychotic, as the meds seep out of my system and my dopamine or whatever goes berserk. I can function for under a year with no medication…then downward spiral into madness and florid psychosis. Every year since I got sz, I was hospitalized, often multiple times per year, for months at a time (although my sense of time was screwed up, so I go by how many visits I got from the board deciding whether to 5250 me again, and they usually came a little after the 2 week mark every time).
I just decided I can’t survive without meds. I hate being psychotic, it’s no way to live. I’ve been mostly on ap’s since 2008-2009 and I haven’t been in the hospital since! A big accomplishment, in my book!
Unmedicated, I think everyone is out to kill me and my family and then my psychosis worsens, I start hallucinating that they’re in the process of being killed. I once thought the lions in sesame street were really assassins watching me through the television. They were singing and dancing and I was standing there, fearful, thinking, “I’m onto all of you lions” lol
usually when I stop taking my meds the first thing that happens is I go manic. And as is par for the course I quickly become clinically depressed. While at the bottom of the well I have micro-psychosis and lots of dissociation. Then if I have any external stressors I’ll go psychotic. I hate taking meds but what can I do, I have loved ones who need me sane.
Hi Wave, I understand the extreme guilt that you are suffering. I was psychotic when I discovered I was unable to look after the puppy my husband brought me. I took him back to the breeder. I wish I could go back in time and keep him…
My main symptom without meds is an overactive agitated mind, so I never feel very comfortable. And I only sleep very fitfully. And if I was to become more stressed I would start having visual hallucinations and delusions. They go away again, though.
I am down to taking it about once a week. Been doing that for months now. Haven’t had withdrawals. Been over a week since my last dose. But nobody knows. I don’t even think i have schizophrenia. It was probably just one episode of psychosis.
When I get off my med’s it is just a matter of time until I mess up. I have a hard time functioning even when I’m on medications. When I go off them I really get bad.
No I wouldn’t function without meds. If I got off meds, I know I’d go back to that weird psychotic world in less than half a year. I wouldn’t do that to myself. Meds might not be 100% safe, but my life is far better with them so I’m willing to keep taking them as long as I need them.
This.
I function without meds, barely, but I would slowly start hearing more and more voices until it became unbearable again.
Going off your meds should never be done unless you’ve talked it over with your doctor and made a plan with them to slowly take them off.
If you do it from one day to the next, you’ll feel great for a few days, maybe even weeks, and then, as the medicines start to leave your system, you’ll most likely feel worse than before and need more medicines to get back up. It could permanently damage your psyche, so be careful.
A lot of people on here seem to idolize being able to be without meds, but you people need to think about it this way; If you were diabetic, would you stop taking your life-saving insulin “just because”, even though stopping might make you sick, permanently damage or worst-case scenario kill you? I don’t think so.
So why should the meds your brain need be any different?
I get the hallucinations
They haven’t been bad, yet
Mostly just shadows
And voices every now and then
But honestly I’ve been experiencing thay since I was a child
So it’s like it’s just kind of there
I’m hoping to stave off the paranoia
You are the first person to actually make a good point about taking meds
I currently do not
And have said I will not
But what you wrote here has got me thinking…
Thank you