I tried and failed not too long ago. I’ve accepted that I need meds for the rest of my life.
If you’ve tried to stop, how long did you last and what made you go back on them?
Do you know anyone that has successfully quit?
1 Like
I came off them but I think going on antidepressants at the same time as when I went off the antipsychotics was a terrible idea and caused me to get psychotic much quicker than I would have.
1 Like
I quit meds three times. The first two times I think I ended up back in the psych ward. The third time I wasn’t doing well and switched from Quetiapine pills to Invega Sustenna injections then had to go back to the psych ward again to increase the Invega to the maximum dose.
1 Like
I lasted less than 3 months
1 Like
That’s longer than I lasted. It was 1 month for me.
1 Like
The meds are not a cure and they do cause progression to worse symptoms through use and discontinuation.
I went off seroquel cold turkey and got rebound psychosis in 5 days. Never again…
1 Like
Yeah cold turkey is very risky. I even tapered off my Olanzapine over many months and it still came back to bite me in the a$$.
What meds are you on at the moment? If you dont mind me asking.
I’m on Lybalvi now, which is basically Zyprexa plus an opioid antagonist. It’s supposed to prevent the hunger associated with Zyprexa. It’s okay, not as good as the clozapine was, but had to stop that cuz it caused QTc prolongation and tachycardia. The Lybalvi helps with voices and delusions but there’s breakthrough symptoms. I’m coping with those using CBT…
1 Like
Yeah many years ago tried for a long time. Stupid AF I ended up at the ER nonstop after.
I found a tapering website and was cutting up my pills and stopping a lot
More recently after the hospital switched my psychiatrist he didnt think I had SZ and just had me on anxiety meds. Also stupid, I had a string of intense suicidality after.
It’s not only a bad idea going off meds, it’s flatout dangerous. Kinda sucks some schizophrenics get it in their heads meds are the enemy. Really not making anything easier for them
3 Likes
Amen to that.
1
2 Likes
I’m currently trying to quit clozapine for good. My schedule is to drop 25mg every 3 months. My dose is 200mg. So it will be a long project and I need to be patient. I’m not very good with being patient…
I take Abilify as well so I hope I would be able to be on it and get rid of clozapine. I hope everything goes well and I would be able to live without clozapine. Been on it for good 17 years and I think that is enough.
I hope I won’t fail
2 Likes
I only get injected with 1/3rd of the Abilify vial. Nothing bad has happened
I tried some years ago. It went well for 5 months. Turned out I was having a manic episode and at the end of those 5ish months, I got depression and paranoia.
I guess the one good thing that came from it was finding out that my psychosis is mood based. I hadn’t realized it before.
2 Likes
I suffered Sz in 1994. First I quit medicine in 1996 then completed my college study. Then hospitalized for injection after 6 months. Again I quit in 2004 but this time I wasn’t hospitalized, only high power medicine. Then I quit medicine in Feb 2022 and this time I am off meds till date. Feeling no problem now.
Well, not exactly. I did try to switch to a low dose of other AP a few times as a step to possibly quit AP’s, but it failed after a short time because of extreme insomnia. I did not feel any relapse symptoms, but I had to go back on previous med after 2 weeks or less.
1 Like
Yes, 3 weeks, my friendly voices turned vicious and started name calling again so I had to go back on them.
1 Like
Before I knew I had schizophrenia I ended up in the hospital for psychosis they put me on haldol. Well I went off the haldol cold turkey and got really sick and psychotic but after a couple weeks I recovered and was normal for 3 months until I drank at a work christmas party and got sick again
1 Like
Yes a few times not as many as people think tho tbh