For those who have/had negative symptoms

Do or has antipsychotics made you feel ‘normal’ - like your old self again, despite having had negative symptoms? I was told I have negative symptoms, and wondering whether the lifeless, soulless experience with antipsychotics may eventually ‘stabilize’ me into feeling normal, despite negative and some positive symptoms (delusions).

I just spoke with my friend who’s Bipolar, and he says that Abilify made him feel lifeless/soulless for some months, until one day he woke up and just started feeling normal again. He tells me I need to tough out the experience of being on APs (feeling lifeless) and that it can take a while to work.

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The only antipsychotic meds that are supposed to make a dent in negative symptoms are

  • abilify
  • rexulti
  • vraylar

I’ve no idea if antidepressant meds help on other meds.

I’m on abilify 15mg and I have good moods and bad moods like a normal person. Whereas e.g. on seroquel I had no moods just a flat desert of anxiety.

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So Abilify basically stabilized/made you feel normal again? Did you have negative symptoms before starting Abilify?

Did you have negative symptoms prior to starting Abilify? And does/did Abilify basically stabilize you into feeling normal again?

Yes. I had and have negative symptoms. Abilify takes the edge off of negative symptoms for me but doesn’t get rid of them. I suffer from severe avolition(lack of motivation) for instance.

I honestly have no idea what feeling normal feels like but I’m stable on abilify.

Basically able to function, work, go/be outside in public around people and not feel like everyone is a threat or invading your mental space, etc.?

Yes.

No unfortunately. Maybe one day though.

Thanks for letting me know. So you’re able to feel ‘normal’ emotions and moods now, right? Not just feeling lifeless or extreme mood swings?

I’m wondering if I should have listened to my doctor and kept taking Risperdal, even though it made me feel lifeless, without deriving any pleasure from anything, etc. Maybe I just need to tough it out and hope and pray that eventually it makes me feel ‘normal’? Because my friend had this with Abilify for some months, until one day he woke up and felt normal - after having felt lifeless/soulless for some months on it.

I don’t know much about Risperdal unfortunately.

my first med didnt work very well and it was affecting me negatively but it took me a while but i tried abilify but that didnt work for me but then i tried my current med and it made a lot of difference.

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That’s probably the difference between schizophrenia and bipolar. I don’t think we’re going to wake up someday and be normal.

I’ve been on Risperdal, Abilify, and countless others. Only Vraylar seems to make me feel somewhat good and not hate myself or the meds everyday. I still cannot work or go to school and my hygiene sucks. I cannot cook most meals.

I think the biggest things holding me back are my addiction to energy drinks, chain smoking, and poor hygiene.

Maybe I have brain damage on top of everything else. My schizophrenia symptoms are not that bad, especially the positives. I seem to have poor planning and executive functioning. I get stressed out easily over planning things or preparing things and I have low motivation.

My processing speed has gone down too. My working memory is below average. I guess it takes time to rebuild my life. At least I can read well and do somewhat complicated mathematics. It’s not like the good old days but I’m trying.

I need to lose 60-80 lbs in addition to all my other problems.

Do u know what dose of aripiprazole your friend was on. I’m just curious.

I have no feelings but contentment on Risperdal, Geodon, Celexa and Seroquel. And I’m cool with that. The alternative is suicidal depression.

No idea. But he said it took 6 months to a year to work for him. He was trying other meds before that and didn’t have much luck - going in and out of hospitals.

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Are you able to enjoy things, be outside in public, etc.?

Yes. It is a possible side-effect. I love this quote and it is so true:

That neuroleptics are unpleasant for normal persons is well established. For years, I have quipped that one must be crazy, either literally or figuratively, to take these drugs. Speaking of reserpine and chlorpromazine in 1957, mention was made of restlessness, insomnia, bizarre dreams, and social withdrawal that might be followed by excitement, mental depression, feelings of unreality or depersonalization, delusions, or hallucinations. A study was cited in which 20 of 80 normal persons given a single 50 mg dose of chlorpromazine experienced increased fatigue, sleepiness, and generally unpleasant feelings (Hollister 1957). A double-blind trial of reserpine in I mg/day doses revealed that 7 of 19 patients treated for a week or less developed mental depression as well as flu-like symptoms. (Hollister et al 1960) Thirty-six nonpsychotic patients with pulmonary tuberculosis were treated with 300 mg/day doses of chlorpromazine in a double-blind trial. Ten patients in this group (none in the placebo control group) experienced appreciable mental changes. These were severe in four patients, two becoming depressed, one excited, and one with a combination of these symptoms. Six other patients experienced increased nervousness, insomnia, and vague feelings of apprehension. At the termination of the study, abrupt discontinuation produced clear-cut withdrawal symptoms in four patients, all of whom were found to have received chlorpromazine (Hollister et al 1960). These results were published in a journal not widely read by psychiatrists, but a brief allusion to this study was made in Hollister’s earlier review (1957). A review in 1961 recapitulated the adverse mental effects of antipsychotics and added some concern about those of tricyclic antidepressants. The latter drugs were noted to increase tension and insomnia as well as either aggravate existing psychotic symptoms or evoke a manic phase in a previously depressed patient (Hollister 1961).

The fact that drugs so unpleasant for normals were better tolerated by psychotic persons led to the con- clusion that "the rule seems to be that the more se- riously disturbed the patient, the better these drugs are tolerated (Hollister 1964). By 1968, it was rea- sonable to state that “most antipsychotic drugs are unpleasant to normal individuals; the combination of sleepiness, restlessness and automatic effects creating experiences unlike those from the more familiar sedatives and hypnotics” (Hollister 1968). By 1978, one might aver that “many instances of so-called post-schizophrenic depression are due to overtreatment during maintenance on antipsychotic drugs. As one becomes more normal these drugs become more noxious; one might even postulate biochemical reasons why an excess of drug might evoke depression” (Hollister 1978). Thus, early in the history of antipsychotic (and antidepressant) drugs, it was well known to clinicians that these drugs were aversive. Why did a reevaluation not occur then? The answer is simple: Nothing better was available. To some extent, the same situation applies today. The search for better-tolerated drugs is intensive. When achieved, it can be quite rewarding: a new antidepressant with no greater overall efficacy than existing drugs overwhelmed the market because it was better tolerated. What is most discouraging is the fact that the present concern about the unpleasantness of these drugs seems to have arisen without any awareness of the extensive evidence available earlier! have immodestly cited my own writings, but a thorough search would undoubtedly reveal much more. "Those who ignore history … "

For me, Seroquel has been highly effective at getting rid of negative symptoms. It increases dopamine in the prefrontal cortex, and that combined with it’s relatively low D2 dopamine blockade and short half life, make it the perfect drug to treat negative symptoms.

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Meds affect everyone differently I guess.

When I was on Seroquel, there was definitely no normal feeling for me. I felt like a zombie and was a shell of a person.
On thing that helped me was an antidepressant. Once I ditched the Seroquel and started lexapro, I slowly started becoming a person again. I could laugh, enjoy activities and felt like I had my life back. It was a long process though, took me about a year to get the Seroquel out of my system.
I am not sure if this would help you. I have depression as well as schizophrenia.

It took you a whole year to get the Seroquel out of your system? How long were you on it?