Considering going back on zyprexa

every other med i have tried is not doing enough, i think i might go back on zyprexa even tho it made me extremely fat and made me get high cholesterol it completely got rid of my symptoms and made me feel like a normal person,

right now i am hearing voices and having horrible anxiety and i dont even feel comfortable with my thoughts because i the voices can hear my thoughts and talk about them.

i really like the weight i am at now but my life is not that good i am not enjoying it as much as when i was on zyprexa,

it really made me want to eat all day long but at least i can watch a movie or listen to music without hearing voices, i really dont know what to do right now i have to choose between mental and physical health and i hate it

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i wish the new zyprexa that is combined with that other med to cause less weight gain would come out because zyprexa worked perfect other than the massive weight gain

my dr told me “you can be skinny or you can be sane” can you believe that crap? Just try to not over eat, I know it’s easier said then done. It’s terrible you have to choose. Good luck

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happy bday tera

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thank you @sigarino

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Is there anything you can try besides abilify & zyprexa? Maybe geodon? Some ppl on here have reported weight loss on that…

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i just switched from geodon to abilify i lost alot of weight on geodon but it didnt really help and i had bad side effects

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That’s too bad. I just wonder if there’s any AP you haven’t tried that would control your positive symptoms and not make you gain weight… It’s like trying to find a unicorn sometimes, I know, but maybe worth the hunt.

@sigarino Just so you know.
Abilify is a weak Antipsychotic and it can sometimes make things worse.
If you are hearing chronic voices then maybe going on a stronger AP like Zyprexa might be a good idea.
Talk to your doctor about it.

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@sigarino, for me too only Zyprexa works. I couldn’t handle the side effects of the other aps or there were ineffective… Its a good med.
I am also very paranoid and anxious in my illness like you to a point that I prefer to be fatter but normal. I knew the hell for the past years. I would say go for the mental health. You can do sport or monitor your food so you wont put a lot weight on Zyprexa, believe me.
take care :slight_smile:

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i feel like even if i ate less on zyprexa i would still gain weight but even tho i track everything i eat i feel like i would overeat on zyprexa because of strong cravings and endless appetite it is already a little hard for me to not overeat on abilify but zyprexa it would be extremely hard

And solian then? Me i manage to control a bit my food cause in my illness i have a loss of appetite. Solian was good med for me too but less calming though…

What is this new med? I have the same problem as you, nothing seems to remove my symptoms as completely as zyprexa but i am miserable with the weight gain

Aripiprazole has been shown to have the same efficacy as Risperidone I think, that is one strong drug. If it isn’t working for you chances are you are just on too low a dose or need to wait the necessary two weeks for it to reach maximum concentration in your system. If you are on the injection I would attribute your breakthrough symptoms to the nonlinear concentration of the medication over the course of the month. There is a big peak and then it tails off leaving you hanging. People have found interesting solutions to this, like upping the dose, taking your injection more frequently, like once every three weeks or as @goyankees has done, supplementing the injection with oral doses as well.

It is also possible the instability you feel is just a withdrawal left over from abruptly stopping the Geodon. Psychosis can occur in an irregular pattern, and it might not always directly correlate with the concentration of a certain drug in your system. You might be feeling bad because you are feeling bad this month, not because abilify is too weak a medication for you.

In fact, at higher doses aripiprazole rivals haldol in its occupancy of dopamine receptors. Aripiprazole is a heavy duty med when you look at the pharmacology. Give it some time, it can take weeks to months to feel the benefit of this medication due to its unusually long three day half-life.

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Aripiprazole has been shown to have the same efficacy as Risperidone.

Maybe on paper but I don’t think so.

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“For people with schizophrenia it may be important to know that aripiprazole may not be as good or effective as olanzapine but that it has less side effects. Aripiprazole is similar in effectiveness to risperidone and somewhat better than ziprasidone.”

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I got that when I was switched to Latuda. I was always angry. I decided to go back to Geodon because it controlled my symptoms with the fewest side effects.

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Like I said - on paper.
I’ve been on both meds and for me at least, risperidone was a lot more effective.

I’ve been on Olanzapine also and found it more potent than Aripiprazole in a lot of ways.

Abilify is such a strange drug being a strong partial dopamine agonist.

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samidorphan + olanzapine it is in trial by alkermes the drug is called ALKS 3831 idk about it there was still some weight gain but i think not as much as zyprexa by itself

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It has not been a month yet. It takes a while you know? Check with your doc I guess. You know yourself the best in the end.

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