Are you living free of symptoms and successfully taken your life back? Did you lose the weight and live a healthy life?
I have never been able to successfully go off APs in over two decades of having SZ. I feel better for the first few weeks, and then I start going downhill with positive symptoms. I’m one of the lucky few who can go without meds for extended periods without hospitalization, but it’s a horrible existence. Better just to stick with the meds IMO.
Pixel.
Are you currently taking antipsychotics?
I would love to get off of the Risperdal I am on, but the sad truth is that my pdoc said that i need to be on an antipsycotic, probably for the rest of my life.
Antipsychotics are just bad for your physical health - they mess with your metabolism and heart too much.
If only there was another way 
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I seem to always crumble and relapse when I used to go off my meds…
I lost weight when the meds got switched up and I got put on Latuda and then I was up and doing more… and that helped me loose weight.
Feeling better? I feel much better being on level ground and having a spike of paranoia or panic…
Me my doctor and my psychologist are going to discuss about my meds next week. But im going to skip my usual 28 day cycle Xeplion shot which would be tommorow, see what happens. I told my psychologist about the skip but she didnt even care about that. My doctor said i would be taking the meds for 1 year and thats exactly the span ive been taking them since then. I hope i wont be feeling bad again because i had a strange ‘relapse’ when i was still in hospital after not taking my meds for like 1 day.
absolutely i wish people wouldnt be having such severe side effects from the AP. we came light years since the invention of these meds but they still need to be refined alot to lessen the side effects.
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How many times have you tried to quit? When was the last time you tried to stop taking them?
I generally feel at my best on a low dose of my meds. I was off them for a couple days last week because I thought I might be pregnant. I enjoyed having my incredibly high sex drive back, but the mood swings were less fun. In the end I decided to go back to the meds so I could feel like I was on even ground.
Maybe about seven or eight serious attempts to go off them, usually no more than for a month. Probably four ended in hospitalizations. My last attempt to go off nearly ended my marriage and left me with some debt since I made some purchases based on delusional thinking. I’m stable enough now that it takes longer for me to go sideways once I quit meds, but it does happen eventually. I really can’t stress just enough what a bad idea it is to play with your meds.
I’ll point out once again as well that my experience over the years is that the more people play with their meds over the long run, the lower quality of recovery they achieve. I’ve seen some SZs that have probably permanently damaged themselves through years of rejecting meds early after their diagnosis. I suspect that being floridly psychotic for years can permanently rewire the brain, and not in a good way.
I don’t like my meds. They make me tired and fat. All of my other alternatives suck worse so I keep taking them.
Pixel.
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youre a female right? just asking cause your avatar is a super hero.
I lasted 6 months without meds with positive symptoms coming in around the 5 month mark, nearly ended our marriage as I had stopped taking meds and was self medicating with anything I could get my hands on. Im on clozaril now and the trust has gone regarding meds so its like being in hospital making sure I take them .
I would make a sarcastic comment about how I could possibly think I was pregnant if I was a guy, but I realize that might be a legitimate worry on this forum. But yes, even girls are allowed to like superheroes. Although I question whether Deadpool as an orange lantern would be classified as a hero.
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cool. im not saying its a guys thing just was surprised to hear the previous post (pregnant etc) from you because in another thread i perceived you to be a guy for some reason.
Lots of people online tend to assume I’m a guy. It must be something I’m putting out there.
is it a bad thing for you?
Nah I mostly find it funny. I just have a masculine personality, I guess.
I think you could give it a try. I know I would’ve tried going off meds before my relapse. I was even planning it but having a relapse for a period of five months, it took me a while to get my life back. I wouldn’t risk it again unless I have a legit reason like getting pregnant. Good luck with your decisions.
To everbody who has tried to go off meds unsuccessfuly: How long did it take you to become psychotic again? Did you feel alot better when dropping the meds or was your mood the same?
I’ve been symptom free since I started Geodon and Seroquel over ten years ago.
When I first tried going off meds about a year ago, I felt amazing and unstoppable for about two months. Then I began having some paranoia and hallucinations, and I became very clingy to my friends and boyfriend. Whenever I was alone I would just be miserable and hear constant screams. Of course, I also got a pretty severe concussion around that time, so I don’t know how much that played into it.
did you try to get off the meds completely? how severe was your psychosis after doing that?