Has anybody tried tapering?

I have. But why do you want to taper off? Are you trying to get off antipsychotics completely?

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Great happy for you! What meds were you taking before? And how did you taper, do you remember?

Yes because it makes me very exhausted during the day and I sleep more than enough which interfere with my active life. What were you taking and how did you taper it in dosage and by time?

Iā€™ve taken so many different meds I donā€™t know. But Iā€™ve always gradually increased the new one while tapering off the old one over about a month

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Ah ok I thought you tapered off completely from antipsychoticsā€¦

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No way. Before I was on them I was receiving messages from God, bunnies, and crows. I was getting visits from Satan. No thanks! I still am being followed everywhere etc but at least Iā€™m not like before.

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I tried twice, both under guidance of my pdoc. First time, I reduced my geodon by 20 mg every 4 weeks. It was wildly unsuccessful. A few years later O got a new pdoc. He and I analyzed everything, and determined I was trying to reduce by too much, too quickly. Geodon only comes in capsules, and nothing lower than 20 mg. So he wrote me a script for liquid geodon, and I reduced by 10% each month, and if I felt any symptoms I immediately stepped back up for another week. I started at 60 mg morning and night. Took about a year, but I was successful. When I got down to 5 mg morning/night, I had to go more slowly. My doc thought I should be fine just stopping once I got down to 20 mg, but I really wasnā€™t. I am glad I was able to work closely with him, and glad I was able to afford paying out of pocket for the liquid geodon. Insurance refused to cover it. Said there was no medical necessity to reduce that slowly.

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I tapered off slowly enough, but a short while after reaching zero, I relapsed.

However, after 2 relapses (one quitting cold turkey, and one quitting gradually), my negatives have dramatically improved.

So Iā€™d say it paid off, even though I take meds again (AP and AD). My negatives used to be very debilitating.

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Continuing the discussion from Coming off medication:

Looks like I misremembered. I started at 40 morning and 40 evening.

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So the second time before you planned to stop you had symptoms? So didnā€™t stop it right?

Sorry to ask but what are negatives?

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Schizophrenia symptoms can be divided into 3 main categories:

  • positive : hallucinations, delusions, intrusive thoughts
  • negative : apathy, flat affect, poverty of speech
  • cognitive : short attention span, weak memory
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Thank you for the explanation! :slight_smile:

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I had been symptom free for 5 years before my first attempt to taper. I started having auditory hallucinations, so I went back on. I had been symptom free for 2 years before my second attempt. I did not want to try again, but I had no choice. My doctor saw I was developing TD, and told me I had to try tapering.

And did you also taper gradually at the first and second attempt?

Geodon withdrawal is a nightmare. Glad you got off of it.

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And did you also taper gradually at the first and second attempt??

My first try, I tapered gradually. But it was not gradual enough. Mt second try I started September 2020 and finished July 2021

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Thank you and none of them you had any symptoms before tapering, right?

Or better to say while tapering before reaching 0 you had no symptoms, right?