It was my pdoc who suggested it, and I tapered down for months as I was on a low dose to start with.
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I’ve always been on meds
Recently I’ve been doing well on lower doses
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Just keep a sleep and mood diary.
Rotate stuff for sleep.
For me the banned herb, some days nytol (diphenhydramine) other days a benzos.
I’m thinking even a few ciders before bed. Ik they say these things impact sleep phases, but to me sleep is sleep.
As long as I feel refreshed in the morning.
At home I also lift weights 6 days a week and go heavy and hard, so that always tires me out.
Speak to your GP about your insomnia, cos you never know there might be another underlying cause.
Sleeping with the curtain open also helps circadian rhythm with the natural daylight suppressing melatonin.
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People probably don’t come back to this site to talk about their success stories of going off their meds because this site doesn’t allow them to talk about successfully going off meds @77nick77. I know because I’ve tried talking about it.
Sure it does if it was with medical supervision. I got lots of support at the time. I just wish I had been successful.
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Last time I went off on meds I really let the meds have it.
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I’ve been off meds for about two months now. I don’t know why I’ve had trouble getting an in person appointment with a new psychiatrist. My former psychiatrist retired. I had to go to a primary care doctor to get a referral for a psych doctor.
No dates were available until July 31st. I’ll have to wait until then. I was told that if I feel the symptoms get to be too much, I can go to the emergency room. I’m hoping to avoid that. I’m slightly worried because I usually slowly begin to lose touch with reality while off meds.
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There’s a good reason this forum has a pro-med policy.
I’ve come off meds several times in the past, each time ending up psychotic.
My episodes were all different from each other and I retained some insight but that’s not the point.
The important bit is that during relapses I can’t hold down a job or have proper conversations, therefore I need my AP.
Supplements, meditation, prayer, therapy - they might help some more than others. They are collectively called adjunctive treatments.
I’ve yet to see someone overcome sz on wits alone.
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I couldnt achieve my dreams in life without meds. Meds don’t hamper me but free me from SZ to go after my dreams.
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do u take meds now or med free?
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the paranoia really makes me wanna quit my medicine. i know that will only make me more paranoid but will it really change anything much in my external world. not really. if people are after me. they still will be. if they aren’t. they still won’t be. what’s the point anymore?
Aometimes i wonder if the psychosis ive gotten from going off meds was rebound psychosis from withdrawals of APs and not the illness itself.
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I’m wondering the same thing. Thing is as i heard it the more psychotic episodes you’ve had, the more likely it is you’ll have another even if it was drug induced or withdrawal.
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it doesn’t feel like i have a mental illness anymore it is so much in the background, my life has been taken over by my me/cfs now, the only good thing about it is that my AP med helps both at a therapeutic level so i am grateful for that, & i am grateful that my expressiveness is in full flow now, i love my art and i really want to expand on it.
I tried stopping meds a lot of times, it never worked out 
it is disappointing but it is what it is, if it is my fate to be medicated then who am i to argue, i do not hold all the cards & its not a full deck anyway lol.
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Without going into too much detail, my mom (schizoaffective) is off meds and is completely insane, literally. She’s living in an assisted living facility, but refuses all meds. We’ve been trying to get her admitted to the state hospital, but there’s a huge wait list and no open rooms.
Anyway, seeing what she has become is what motivates me to keep taking my own meds. I don’t ever want to be like her. She abandoned all family, choosing her hallucinations of “god” and delusions over family, believing we are all evil.
I choose to take my meds so that I don’t push away my husband or other family. I choose to take my meds so that I don’t turn into my mother, hateful, delusional, and violent (she has assaulted multiple people since going off meds).
It’s a curse and also a blessing that I can see schizoaffective from the inside (myself) AND the outside (my mother). It helps me to decide what TO DO and what NOT to do.
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I will try to go off meds in the future, if - and that is a big if - I feel really stable and healthy mentally, and if that time will come, I will do an extremely slow taper. I hope that time will come, but I’m not staying REALLY hopeful for it, just cautiously hopeful hehe
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I probably need a higher dose of antipsychotic because im getting symptoms everyday. I cant see myself ever coming off Ap’s ever again, it was a living hell off meds for 6 months the last time i tried and i ended up making bad decisions that landed me in trouble
I’m sorry for what your mother is enduring; I hope something changes for her.
This is basically the result of going off meds no one seems to want to accept. You may be no immediate harm to anyone but you will be “insane” and completely out of touch with any kind of reality.
This is the life to be expected for anyone who think you can livd without APs once developed most forms of psychotic illness
I do wonder why people seem to think an illness of no cure has a cure by the very malfunctioned body it is caused by. I used to think like this too, then realised I don’t know a thing about genetic biology (that’s how deeply the illness goes, it’s not restricted to an organ but goes straight down to genes)
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I think the key to trying getting off antipsychotics is a consent from your doctor. If a professional believes it’s possible, it might be, plus they can help with a plan and support, and prescribe “bridge” medications for tapering.
On the other hand if you try to taper on your own, and it goes sideways, which it often does, you risk losing confidence from your doctor, and may be labeled non compliant, which gives trouble in the future as you might get forced depot injections, etcetera.
And I agree with what some say here, even if you come of antipsychotics, you will probably still be vulnerable to stress, poor sleep, and overwhelming emotions for life. So you have to be superattentive to make sure you minimize the risk of exposing yourself to these factors, so you don’t have to go back on meds.
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Its not the same thing but i think im learning another common lesson about self medicating. Ive been doing thc again and even tho its nice to feel chilled i think its slowly effexting my MH. I guess i have to keep learning this lesson.
Im either being severely abused or im extremly delusional. Either way i need to stop thc before i get introuble
Also..its cake day for me and nobody said happy cake day lol im universally disliked 
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