Clozapine success stories

It’s so long ago when I had these symptoms but I try to remember… my side effects were extreme fatigue, dizziness when standing up (low blood pressure) and constipation. Takycardia (I still got it) drooling (still there…) heart issues in general. Feeling hazy and weird. So so sleepy all the time.

I was patient enough to go through these symptoms and in weeks they went away. I still got heart issues, drooling and sleepiness. The drug really knocks me out every time I take it. But that’s when I go to bed so it doesn’t matter.

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I can’t say with certainty which one was worse, Risperidone or Clozapine.

I was certainly more functional on Clozapine as it was more effective for me. However, I slept 12 hours straight on it. I had also other problems, such as, weight gain (also on Risperidone), Acid Reflux, etc, etc…I think they both can compete for being the worst medications in terms of the side effect profile. No sex drive on Risperdal, weight gain, lethargy, etc etc…if I hhad to pick one I would pick Clozapine as the better one.

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I was also on the Abilify/Clozapine combination and that was the final analysis in terms of what the doctors thought I would be on for my whole life. They all said Clozapine is a lifetime medication.

It used to knock me out for 12 hours straight. In those 12 hours nothing in the world could have woken me up. Also, I drooled and drooled on it, my pillows were full of water…

Fortunately, I took my life back by getting off it…really fortunate that Ziprasidone worked after I struggled for a couple of years.

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my doctor has also said I will be on clozapine the rest of my life. I will be 35 years old in march, and I feel I am young still. when I started taking clozapine and Abilify, I was only 20 years old. a lot has happened in my life after that… but I feel that clozapine killed my psychosis and gave me life back.

there are many things I don’t like about clozapine… but as I weigh the pros and cons of it, I feel that living psychosis free is more important than the side effects I live with. it has been such a long time I’ve been on clozapine that all of the side effects of it have become normal for me and I don’t even know what life could be off meds. I would love to be off meds. but I am really afraid what would happen if I didn’t take them.

My veins are so scarred now that taking blood hurts more than before. I have been going to blood tests every month for… 15 years, and they always take the blood from the same arm and place.

I forgot a side effect: weight gain. it sucks. I have been able to lose temporarily tens of kilo’s but they come back and losing weight is hard.

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Incidentally, I was 34 when I switched from Clozapine to other medications and went berserk for 2 years.

It is tough to also come off it. There is a risk. I think if you are comfortable with the side effects, you are doing fine.

I realized that I couldn’t work on Clozapine, sleeping 12 hours a day. Nobody would marry me either, so I weighed the pros and cons and decided to come off it.

I think if you have 4,5 medications you haven’t tried to mix with Abilify, some day you can consider switching Clozapine with that medication.

In the process I tried Saphris, Seroquel, Latuda, Ziprasidone with Abilify. Latuda and Ziprasidone worked, but Ziprasidone had no side effects so I preferred it.

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I was able to work a low stress office job on 80mg Latuda but my life quality was low, some positive symptoms, insomnia, akathisia, nausea, weight gain and needing to have 350 calories min with the pill.

For me now its either Vraylar (Cariprazine) or Clozapine.

Nothing wrong in trying either.

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I have tried several other medications before, that did not work. Here where I live, you cannot get clozapine unless you have tried 2 other antipsychotics and they didn’t work.

But yeah, I am ok with the side effects. So it’s ok. I can understand why you felt the side effects were too much for you. I have them too, but not as strong. I was sedated for the first couple of weeks but thankfully it got better over time.

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