I always thought of going off med, when i become around 50 yrs. old, but few months ago i went down to 1mg of risperdal and in 12 days i started having depression, i went up to 1.50mg and the depression didn’t go away, now i am back on 2mg., i even cut just a little bit from the tip and i feel fine, no symptoms of depression at all. I think my brain is used to taking this med, thats why i started showing symptoms of depression very early but no psychotic symptoms. My psychiatrists never seen me in psychosis, except the one at the hospital when i was diagnosed and its been 8yrs. Now. My diagnosis remains schizoaffective. Maybe if i didn’t have depression i could go off med, but depression i cant tolerate, it brings all kind of negative thoughts.
I still hope I will be off meds some day. I’ve only had meds for 4 years. Still can’t cut back on them because I get psychotic. But some day I will.
I would love to be off meds. But for now I know it’s not going to happen. I got tapered off Seroquel and put on Geodon and with in a week, started crumbling. I had a pull psychotic episode that my sister had to clean up and I ended up in a full blown paranoid panic.
I got put back on Seroquel and Latuda and I felt back to my normal strength with in a few days. I’m quitting smoking in hopes that I can got to a lower dose without the nicotine blocking the effectiveness of meds.
I’m not there yet.
I wouldn’t try going off meds. I went off of Geodon and tried Latuda instead and the result was a complete relapse, during school. At night I was completely psychotic and my parents had to take intensive care of me. I just twitched and fidgeted and hallucinated my way through a few days of class, then I was told to go right back to Geodon. Not the best experience, I never even dream of getting off my meds now.
I see meds as a good thing, maybe the best thing ever. I am very schizo without my meds and very not with them. I am sitting here eating breakfast, about to take a handful of meds. I feel like I am doing the best thing I can do for myself when I take the pills.
I tried to come off my meds but I really couldn’t handle the withdrawals from Seroquel it was awful
but I have heard that even sane people experience phycosis during withdrawals from anti phycotics I think its really difficult and they should give us this information before they put us on them.
Cool post.
I’ve been on Risperdal for like 3 yrs. I don’t experience any side effects, except for the weight I’ve gained and diabetes.
For the longest time, I was on 2mg. It did the trick for keeping depression at bay and general mental stability.
Now I’m on just 1mg…and this does the trick to beat depression and feel mentally OK.
Earlier this month I tried to go off Risperdal, and when I did, I felt overwhelmingly depressed. Just majorly feeling like crap. So I needed to go back on it…then I felt fine again. In fact I felt fine one hour after I started taking the pill again.
But here’s the thing: I feel as if I can NEVER come off Risperdal, because whenever I do, I feel like terrible. Perhaps I’ll be able to swap out Risperdal with something else, but I am unsure.
It does suck, being stuck on a med only because of how you’d feel if you were not on it.
the truth is, i don’t know what i would b like off meds. when i took pills i was up and down like a yoyo, i guess because i didn’t the side effects i didn’t take them properly sometimes. since i’ve been put on the injection i’ve relapsed twice in four years. i don’t know what the future holds for me but i don’t think i’ll risk going off meds just yet. depending on how bad things get i might try clozapine. u know if i didn’t have the scars i would swear i was a schiz, but i know different but the meds do help stop me running away with myself. no, i won’t risk it just yet.