I will try going off meds once someday. I tried it with zyprexa and got worse though. I was just hearing things so maybe I won’t try it yet.
I love how we get three or more stopping meds posts a week.
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Indeed.
As for the thread. I wouldn’t recommend it. I spent three years off meds. The first year was fairly okay, the second year not so much, and the third year I ended up in jail for 11 months. I’ve realized without meds, I spiral into psychosis with any mind altering substance like beer and even cigarettes.
Well I have no intention of stopping mine but I wish there was a better alternative out there.
After 12 years on medication and trying four different meds, I can say that I need them and can’t go off them. If psychosis wasn’t so depressing for me I might be able to function without them, but it just ends up a rabbit hole down to depression and anxiety. I have to accept I am reliant on the modern world to survive.
In a fair world, consuming excessive amounts of medium rare beef prime rib would put SZ into complete remission.
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Heck I can barely switch from one med to another without getting symptomatic/psychotic I can’t imagine being without meds.
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Many yeas ago, I got on meds and told people about it. Well-meaning, highly educated and intelligent folks told me to stop taking my meds as soon as I could.
When I did stop meds and got sick, only my doctor and my parents stood by me.
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I’m on 20 mg of Abilify right now. It’s a god-sent for me, because it allows me to function. I had to scale back by 10 mg recently when I thought there might be a shortage of Abilify because of Covid. My biggest symptom is hearing voices. Without any meds, this is unbearable. It is absolute hell. When I cut back by 10 mg, for a few days, the voices started becoming overwhelming. On the flip side, I was more alert, and got more things done. I find our society is very ableist, though. Many people put great value on those who are the most “productive.”
Have you tried therapy and CBT in addition to the meds? They helped me deal with some positive symptoms so I didn’t have to take so many meds they impaired my cognition and function.
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@shutterbug I might be starting that soon. There’s a free service available to people in my city. I’ve been doing CBT that I found in a book called Overcoming Distressing Voices (a UK book), and it helped a bit, but then the voices changed their tactics. Instead of listening to them tell me off directly, they began speaking as if I was listening in on a bad conversation about myself.
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I treat mine like a conversation about sports next to me in an elevator. Ignore. Occasionally I laugh at them as most of the crap they spout is outright ridiculous with my insight intact, but I don’t take them seriously at all. Nothing more than background noise that mentally gets shoved aside so I can concentrate on things that actually matter.
Ignoring is easier said than done, depending on the person. And if “ignore them” was a real cure, there would be a lot less people on medication. This being said, I can do it to a certain extent. But they know all my weaknesses. I have a history of being bullied, failing almost everything I try, and zero self-esteem to begin with. It’s hard to withstand it, because I agree with a lot of what they say.
Seems impossibly hard at first and then gets easier with practice. Also not a cure, just a coping method for reducing the effect positive symptoms have on you. I don’t dare go off my APs completely or I lose my insight and am no longer able to tell the voices aren’t real.