Dropped meds;when are symptoms supposed to start?

I took the last invega sustenna 50mg shot december 15.
My pdoc is OK with it.
When can i start getting happy that im not sz after all?

I went two and a half months without meds once, symptom free. Then they started again. My psychiatrist was warning me the whole time that that happens occasionally. The good news? After the symptoms came back, I needed about half the medicine I did at my peak dosage. I’ve been at 15mg of Abilify, with Lamictal and Lithium and Klonopin and Adderall for two years now. But, hey, less anti-psychotic is less antipsychotic. At my peak I was on 4mg of Risperdal and 160mg of Geodon, which is the max dose of Geodon and an average dose of the other. Finally the doses have stopped changing, after ten years of searching for a combination that worked (and that I was willing to take).

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If you are sz then the happiness may be an illusion. One of the first things we lose off meds is our ‘insight’ into our condition. The last time I went off meds I thought I was healthy and high-functioning, but I was not. I was a combination of manic and delusional. Yeah, I did have more energy without the meds, unfortunately it went into making the wrong decisions that hurt our family.

PLEASE make sure you have a good support network in place that can double-check you if you are going the med-free route. Please.

Pixel.

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Your pdoc is okay with you just randomly dropping medication? That’s kind of weird. Does your pdoc have reason to believe you may have been misdiagnosed?

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It really depends. For me i was hearing voices all throughout my 1 year treatment of Xeplion. Last shot was August 2015. Been 7 months and the voices have gone. But Invega Sustenna withdrawal can be a total pain. for me the sideeffects of xeplion withdrawal were a 2-3 month (November 2015-February 2016) depression and the voices were terrorizing me everyday also. but as 14th February i am doing just fine, no meds no nothing no voices.

Many peoples report of a bad mood after the 4 month mark after the last injection. If youre not as lucky as me you might also have a relapse and land up in hospital.

Why did you quit invega sustenna, if i may ask?

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Last time I lasted about 6 months off of my meds…then I crashed. It was my fifth nosedive, so I’ve realized now I need my medication for life.

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@shutterbug thanks. I have a therapist and live with my mom, guess they will notice. Do you think once the symptoms start they go all the way or can we get a little crazy in a stable way?

@Turnip its not randomly, it was planned. I changed docs and my breaks might have been drug induced. Thanks

@eiskalt because i dont like the side effects and the idea of being medicated for life. Where did u see that most people get depression on the 4th month? Hope u doin good. Thanks

To everyone, i guess i dont really mind being a little psychotic, as long as i can study and be social. I just simply hate being drugged, however this may sound

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as long as you have the support you need I don’t see a problem with it. Some people can function pretty well without meds, and some people DO get diagnosed a little too soon after say, one break. A friend of mine was diagnosed SZ after a mental break down, four years later she was aken of the meds because they found out she had a small tumor in her brain (benign) that caused her symptoms. All her other symptoms were side effects of the meds!

this is really rare, as an example, but, it happens. My friend is living in S Korea now (short term) while her husband is stationed there, she sends me little gifts now and then and even offered to fly over for the holidays after I had trouble because of some memories. She is awesome :smiley:

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I thought I was stable, my wife disagreed, and she has also asked me not to fool around with meds in the future. So there you go.

Pixel.

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Thanks, there is a forum of people who got an invega sustenna injection due to misdiagnosis. They all report feeling like trash and that invega/xeplion withdrawal is a real mental killer.

here is the forum:

http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/701129-Coming-off-Invega-Sustenna-(paliperidone)

but dont read too much into it. xeplion has different effects on different people. this forum is just filled with people who had an awful experience from invega sustenna.

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That forum is full of antipsychiatry and a lot of disinformation.

I’m also on Xeplion (Invega Sustenna) and I don’t suffer from anhedonia. Everyone experiences their illness differently, it’s a lot easier to blame the meds than to find another reason for what one’s feeling. Anhedonia is common in depression, especially after a psychotic break of any kind.

Seems like a lot of people want to blame psychiatry but relly on meds for their well being. Confusion confusion confusion and misguided anger.

I only speak for myself but I could never handle psychosis without my meds. I am on prolixin and I love it. I don’t even feel like I’m on meds.

Guys I am glad you all can mange it. i am so scared. Did you ever wished to be normal again and go medication free. I do

Is their possibility, somehow somewhat just get back. I do not know if I will survive it. If they had some kind of implantation or something that works 5 years without taking all medication every day, and just live life. Forget psychosis hallucinations. Can we overcome it without medication. Or we are doomed for life. Right. I am not ok at all

I want get of the med I do for-ether.

You’re lucky if the meds work at all. Be happy about that :grinning:

based on my experience, I would gladly take more meds if they DID work…but I still take them anyway.

when you are sick with the flu you take medicine for it…schizophrenia is way worse when you are ill and you MUST take antipsychotics for it…sorry.

With me, they start within two days of no meds. My son went without meds for three months before his symptoms started acting up. Everyone is different. And it may be different at different times too.

Ummm idk about shots because they last longer :confused: with pills it can be anywhere from 2 weeks (or less) to 2-3 months