I know it is different for people but I have decided to quit all medication. In my case quitting APs was a major turn around in my recovery, in which I am stopping the taking of a SSRI and my benzodiazepines and taking a route of recovery instead that has lead to good success. So I’m just going to be my own healing force/medicine. Question is how has your guys experience with meds or no meds.
Meds help me. No meds is bad for me. Make sure you consult your doctor before coming off meds! It can be dangerous stopping benzos especially, on your own!
@turningthepage the plan was to titrait off them because of a higher risk of seizures.but I just do not want to go in to a pattern of reliance
I always end up in the hospital when I stop my meds
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@Sheryl hopefully that doesn’t happen. I know symptoms of schizophrenia may be stronger but I don’t mind it happening in my home. Hoping there is a good outcome.
The folks here who manage without meds all agree it’s a good idea to increase your therapy/doctor appointments, and many of them love CBT. I also use neurofeedback to manage my anxiety/OCD. It isn’t effective against hallucinations or delusional thinking, but it can get rid of paranoia. Good luck.
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Thank you @Ninjastar I’m still in the process of looking for a good therapist to not just tell of the knowledge of psychological thought reworks such as CBT, DBT, ERT, SJ etc. but to be open and willing to be real and help me to get to the roots of some of my psychological unhealthy thinking patterns. Someone who is authentic and is openly humane.
Well, it’s a risk and a gamble to go off of meds. Its personally a chance that I wouldn’t take but it’s a personal choice. I have read so many stories on here of people going off of their meds and then relapsing. If I had to make a rough estimate of how many people relapsed I would say it’s about 80-90%. Those are odds that I don’t like so I will stay on my meds.
I have a zilion problems and things going wrong in my life right now so I don’t need a relapse to add to them. I think at this point, a relapse would sink me and I might not have another recovery in me. Another relapse would be the final nail in my coffin.
I’m not trying to be mean, but I will say this. If you take the risks you have to live with the consequences.
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@77nick77 certainly there is a risk, but I feel it is overall a good decision for my individual experience. It may take some time for my brain to comeback to a non-medicated state so experiences may be altered for some time. I have just been really lucky to find a answer that works for me and decreases psychosymatic induced stress and allows it to be more life affirming in a schizophrenia mind. That is why I’m making the decision to discontinue medication. I believe it will be successful. Let’s just hope it doesn’t backfire on me. I understand that medication play a major role in recovery for many people but I think in my case medications can be discontinued. That’s the hope 
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I wouldn’t do it u could damage ur brain it’s not worth the risk.
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No offense, but you don’t sound like you’re approaching this from a very informed angle. You seem to think you will be living symptom free once the meds are out of your system. That is not so. Your life will get much harder without meds. You will experience a huge increase in symptoms, and you’ll need to have a solid support structure in place when that happens. Symptoms tend to reemerge 8-10 weeks after stopping medication. You need to be prepared for that. Not just sit there and hope for the best.
hallucinations, delusional thinking, paranoia, depression, mood swings, etc. whatever you were dealing with that caused you to be medicated in the first place.
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No offense, but I envision a face plant waiting to happen…
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
Good luck to you just the same.
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I hope that you are doing this with your doctors approval and guidance.
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I guess when reading a thread with this title, I would hope to see a discussion of how you and your treatment team are going to go about this, what kind of support and backup plans you have, what caused you to make this decision and why your treatment team signed off on it, what kind of therapies you’ve been working on to prepare yourself for this, which therapies you’ll be using instead, and what leads you to believe that this will be a successful choice for you.
Maybe you’ve given a lot of thought to these questions. If so, could you share with us?
As it is, I have to agree with Nick, Patrick and Ninjastar - I’m very concerned, and I don’t see a lot here to make me think this is going to be a healthy choice for you. The people here who have found some measure of success without meds all have involved, supportive families and strong relationships with their treatment teams. Even so, they acknowledge that this choice requires some significant tradeoffs on their part. I don’t see that you have the same kind of considerations in place.
I wish you the best and hope that I’m wrong. Good luck.
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Dude meds have messed me up personally my doctor told me today whatever i choose and he can’t force me to take my meds anymore if i really want on
I was discussing prolactin with him and how my levels are high 50ng/ml and he said it was fine its not… my metabolism has slowed i weighed in at 248 highest i been in my life started at 160, limbido is gone if thats how its spelt could be wrong… and ■■■■■ has shrunk .8in… for myself ive always been the popular fit guy been on 6 years and ive finally had enough and told him that. Some symptons of schi still affect me nothing i cant live with and im going to test my luck and try to be off the meds for a bit… starting next month hopefully i can achieve what i used to be because i still got the same personality and i can memorize what ever i set my mind on… been fighting the meds 6 years and had no support from my family who cry constantly when i tell them im coming off… also my docotr said the only thing prolactin does is produce breast milk which i had for a male… he clearly doesnt have a clue best of luck to me and you… maybe i should sue him for completely messing up my life he said i could of he was misleading me. Keeping me on risperdol consta now invega sustenna these past 6 years was very misleading and his knowledge is completely ■■■■■■ up
@c-Mac I don’t know of how medication effects you or how your state of mind is in schizophrenia, but wish you all the best in your decisions and hope it is a calculated choice. I have a complex situation having a TBI allowing me to be more susceptible to substances and such. Hope all the best for you.
I have a TBI too. They don’t make you more susceptible to medications. They actually make medications less effective for a period of time, while the brain works on healing itself.
@theninja assumption