With the increased symptoms, I am wondering if haldol (50 mg oral) is not working as it should be. I’ve been pretty anti-clozapine for a while, but if medications keep failing me, then I don’t have much option. I’ve been on abilify, risperidone, vraylar, haldol, geodon, and caplyta. And they all are either not enough by themselves, or all together failed totally.
With me running away from my house and then also calling the police, I’m reaching a point where I need to do something. My dad thinks it’s because of my intense cardio and dieting, but I’m not so sure because I’ve done it before with no symptoms. Nevertheless, I’m increasing my haldol to 60 mg oral.
I’m looking for anecdotal accounts of Clozapine. And also what brought you guys that are on it to take it? Do you guys think I need Clozapine?
I was on clozapine until February of this year. It was a great med. It took away the voices and the suicidal ideation and allowed me to participate fully in the advocacy community. It made me sleep a lot and drool, but atropine drops under the tongue each night dried that up. I was put on clozapine because everything else had already been tried and failed. I was on it for about 3 years but it caused heart problems for me (tachycardia and QTc-prolongation). The QTc-prolongation was what made me have to stop it, as that can cause you to go into ventricular fibrillation and die. My pdoc is aiming to put me on the new Cobenfy (KarXT) as soon as manufacturing begins, while i take Zyprexa during the interim (i still hear voices and have delusions on Z but it’s keeping me alive). Aside from the initial weekly blood tests (which eventually become monthly), clozapine is a miraculous med…i think you should seriously consider it, as 60mg of haldol is a lot, especially if it’s not really working for you.
i used to be on 60mg haldol a day too and that lead me to clozapine (mostly cause my tongue was starting to wiggle). I ended up on 350mg clozapine. I didnt like it. It was okay around 150-200mg but once i got to 350mg all the side effects kicked in bad. i went from 110 pounds to 170 pounds in just 6 months. i got tachycardia. by the end of the 9 months i was on it i had to be on a diabetes and a heart medicine. i also drooled so much at night. now im on paliperidone with abilify and i think im doing well.
Thank you for your responses, @WhiteRaven and @irrelevant. I should add that my dad really doesn’t want me to be put on Clozapine as he would be the one paying for the weekly blood tests copays. He thinks increasing the haldol should be enough. Either way, I have a telehealth appointment with my psychiatrist on Thursday, and whatever he suggests, we’ll do.
When I was on 350mg of clozapine I hated the side effects. Drooling mouth at night was the most embarrassing. Constipation was also a problem which I was advised could be life threatening. Medication to counteract it did not work properly. I had a fast heart beat which was treated with propananol. The morale of the story - you end up taking more drugs to counteract the side effects which makes you wonder was it worth it?
I kept going unconscious on clozapine. So I had to quit. I’m on haldol .5mg. and perphenazine. My voices have been loud lately. I hate them. I’m sorry you’re going through the whole rainbow of meds. I hope they’d find you something that gives rest.
You should try olanzapine first since it is a less heavy drug with less side effects, but still considered 2nd most heavy of the atypicals, only next to clozapine.
I have taken it 17 years and it’s ok. No problematic side effects so far(except insomnia on generic brand, but I now take original) There is hunger, but I learned to get around it.
you seem delusional if other antipsychotic didn’t work for you then you should try clozapine its prescribed for treatment resistant schizophrenia. i am willing to take it at low dose 25mg in the future if i developed insomnia to help me sleep.
I agree with the others who mentioned olanzapine. @John_Raven
You should try olanzapine before clozapine. Why have you never tried that med before? To me it would seem strange if your psych agreed to prescribe you clozapine before trying olanzapine first. I take olanzapine, it’s effective.
Olanzapine has its issues that I know while Clozapine has it issues, too, but I’m extremely sensitive to second generation antipsychotic weight gain. And I’ve heard Olanzapine has it the worse, both from stories on the forum, but also my own research. But I will ask about it tomorrow when I see my psychiatrist. Thank you.
Well, two medications with less side effects can do the trick.
My case was considered treatment resistant.
I had a partial response to Clozapine. I was taking 800 mgs. I was hospitalized. The doctor’s didn’t know what to do, and were trying to mix Amisulpride with Clozapine to revive me.
Currently, I take Abilify with Ziprasidone with virtually no side effects. Life cannot be better in the side effects sense.
So, my point is, consider polypharmacy. Naturally, two medications that will give a partial response individually might be combined. So, note down the effects and side effects of each individual medication. You might want to combine two meds which give partial response (they can then augment each other’s effects) and also have less side effects.
Can you think of any medications which made you slightly better with less side effects?
Well, actually, I am on two antipsychotics. I’m on caplyta and haldol. I was also on ziprasidione but got off to lose weight, plus I felt it didn’t really do much. I almost am able to gauge medications by the side effects. If it makes me more tired and apathetic, it usually controls the hallucinations and delusions better. I will always have paranoia, I will, I’ve just accepted that fact; but feel like I can manage it with therapy better than with me being over-medicated.
However, with all this said, there’s a level of insight needed to use techniques from therapy. And just last week, I was better than this… by a lot. I was able to use those techniques and medication and was able to live away from my family for the first time ever. But now that is so far from attainable that it’s not even funny. I’m hoping to still be on caplyta because it seriously helps with my negatives and the side effects of haldol.
