I’m now 65. I was diagnosed with sz when I was 22. They put me on a major tranquilizer, Haldol. I took that stuff for 23 years. I was kind of zombied out but they continued to put me on Haldol. I believe they thought that this drug was keeping me from hurting myself or others so that was considered a success.
I beg to differ. It wasn’t until I was 45 that they switched me to Abilify and my life began to make sense again. I did much better and eventually went back to work and got married to an awesome woman. I would say I really didn’t start the recovery process until I was about 51.
I’ve had to come to terms with losing so much of my life and earning power during the times that I was taking Haldol.
Hi @simpjeff1. I’m afraid I don’t have an answer for you. I’m dealing with something similar, but my medication was Saphris, and it was only 8 years, comparatively much less. I’m on Abilify, too. I try not to stress the “what might have beens” and focus on what is. If it comes down to it, a therapist might be able to help you with any trauma related to losing those years. I wish you the best of luck.
i feel the same about my switch from seroquel to geodon. its terrible when we are first diagnosed and treated that we are unable to make decisions for ourselves. waking up with food all over my chest, i was still working and driving and the danger i was in falling asleep at work constantly dozing off at the wheel, i was a danger to myself and others and i didn’t know better.
now my new casemanager wants to put me on haldol and its been session after session of defending my decision that me and my pdoc are on the same page as far as my medication goes.
I don’t think you can change the past but if you are able to work now and manage your life the best you can, is what i am trying to do.
its wonderful you met an amazing person throughout all of it.
IDK, learn from it and make the rest oof your days count? Ruminating or obsessing about the time lost isn’t going to do any good, it’s not going to bring the time back. Make the most of whatever you got going for you now.
I kinda lost the last 7 years to isolation and withdrawing. In 2015 I had just finished living on my own for 20 years and I had been at my job 4 years. I had been out of the hospital for 25 years but my mom died and I lost my housing and had to quit school and as a result I had to go back into the psyche ward for a couple of days. I ended up back in a board & care home. I had to start all over and my family was trying to help me get my life back. I needed to just go on with life but had fallen far. I had to take two months off of work.
Well, I never fully recovered from that setback. I’m back at my job, I finished getting my degree and moved in to semi-independent living. That’s the good stuff I did but socially I never got back into the swing of things. I haven’t engaged in life fully for the last 7 years. Now I have to decide, do I want to keep going down the same road or make some changes.
When it comes to medication, I was diagnosed at age 19 in 1980 and put on prolixen in 1982. I was on heavy doses for several years but I managed to work. A bunch of stuff happened then in 2006 I was put on resperidone. I was on resperidone until 3 years ago when I started getting the Invega Sustenna injection. So yeah, my medication hasn’t been my biggest problem but I’ve lost seven years of my life. Not sure what I’m going to do. I have several options open to me.
I Think I most respond to your thread because I had a simular response to a mixture of psychotropics for 21 years. You see I lost the most valuable years to a very very bad mixture of meds. Now Im 54 years Old and Ive finally recovered after I deprescriped the substance that was the reson for my bad experiences. So Well 54 years in year Zoro. Well I`ll have some Healthy food and some good exercise and take my 4 pills and visit the health clinique in one week to take my major tranqulizing depo meds.
If you want your life to have any purpose or reason then you Can start to help people who are in need of help. Look around you the world is crying. There are so many people addicted to substances and so many poor and hungry people.
Find interests and hobbies.
And forget the past cause you cannot turn back the clock.
Man that’s hard but I guess you have the rest of your life and maybe make the best of it. I struggle with coming to terms with the 8 years olive been sick so I couldn’t really understand your situation man…
But on the bright side you at least have some years of freedom left!!! Spend them wisely?
I Think I was to Quick on the tricker and Ill try to relate to what you Said. Yes you truely are in the right to morn over the years you wastet on Haldol and that I really Think. Most people get very servere side effect and some even get a blank mind. Yes people can really feel like they are lobotomized on the 1. Gen antipsychotics. I do really understand the place youve been.
But try to feel good about that you now get the right meds and have the best wife.
I now finally realize that I fel victim to Big Pharma and the docs on the mental hospital who overperscriped antipsychotics to such a degree that they now have destroyed mig IQ.
The more I read about the drugs people take here, the more I realize that, while many medications treat the condition, Abilify seems to be the only one that makes people functional enough to live a reasonable quality of life. At least that is my experience here, anyone doing so well on any other drug may elucidate.
I really doubt that’s true. I think many people here do well and function and have a reasonable quality of life on many different drugs. Unless something very obvious has slipped past me all these years people function OK on a wide variety of drugs. In 14 years on these forums I’ve never heard anyone say that people only function well if they’re on abilify. I don’t know what you consider a good quality of life but before I started isolating just several years ago I was very social and active and I am on resperidone. I had many good years where I functioned great. It’s been an extremely slow decline in functioning starting about 10 years ago.
I so sorry Nick about your slowdecline I hope and P… that you Will do better in the near future.
Now in regards to functioning back in 2003 when I was put on Abilify. I did`nt function at all on that meds and soon after starting taking it I was admitted to the ward where they removed the abilify and uppered the Clopixol.
Thanks. I should have put it better and been more specific… The amount of my socializing has been in decline. I still function well enough to work part time and live semi-independently, take care of my money and myself and I finished up getting my degree just last year.
Now I understand it Nick. As a matter of fact are you doing much better now than in the past but you just miss the social Links. Yes I feel the same as you but for two weterans like use I just Will say that we loose some friende while ageing and find it hard to replace Them.
You know things just come naturally.