I find this interesting

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Some sz people, if they come off the antipsychotic the voices get worse and worse until you are prepared to do mad things.

But some people they don’t even take antipsychotics and the voices are there but don’t get worse. These people choose to live without the antipsychotic eventhough they hear voices.

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I choose to live on a lower dose with some positive symptoms rather than nuke the symptoms with meds and have my cognition stripped away.

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Yea its a spectrum. Some have worse symptoms than others. Myself I am violent off meds.

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I am even a bit violent on low dose meds. High dose is my only option. I am on 5mg risperidone, was on 6mg before.

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I am the same. I choose to be on a low dose because even a moderate dose seems to make me very ‘lazy’ and emotionally ‘empty’

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I think with just psychosis the voices are fairly neurtral… but with psychosis + depression they become terrible…idk

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I wish a low or moderate dose would work for me. My 5mg risperidone=38mg Abilify and you’re on 2mg lol

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I came off APs and decided to just live with my symptoms.

The medication was killing my personality and joy in life.

Now I try to cope as best I can.

I have bad days, but not more than I did when I was heavily medicated.

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I don’t have depression and my voices were horrible. They insulted me all day, told me to do dangerous, suicidal and criminal stuff, etc

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I see. I just mean for me they seem to be worse when ny mood is down.

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CBT was the game changer for me. It changed how I reacted to the voices and got me out of the positive feedback loops I would keep getting stuck in. Now I can fly steady on a fraction of the old doses because the symptoms can’t wind me up like they used to (so long as I maintain my insight).

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I agree about CBT.

I’m currently in therapy,

Have a workbook I complete everyday and am still on other medications for different symptoms.

Without that backup,

No way I’d be able to go without APs.

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I cannot cope off AP’s I’d be too violently agitated and depressed and my avolition will be bad. I’m starting therapy soon and hope it will help with coping strategies but I doubt I can cope completely off meds.

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This is my strategy as well. I’d rather err on the side of incomplete symptom relief than unnecessarily tolerating side-effects. Besides, some APs have a “ceiling effect” wherein higher doses yield side-effects without greater benefit.

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15

Did someone just mention Olanzapine?

Blech.

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I just take aps as needed. If im not coping or feel like things are heading dangerous then i take.

Also i have a few workbooks i use when needed.

Cbt for psychosis
Bipolar workbook
Ocd workbook

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I’m on the lowest dose of Invega trevicta. Cognition is OK. Emotionally I’m quite flat,but have been laughing a bit more recently. Experience functional hallucinations + irrational fear/paranoia of people getting into my flat. Can reality test but it’s a persistent f****r

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Are the people who are off meds or on a low dose some variation of bipolar though or sz

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I have bipolar 1 with psychosis.

Id say after 11 years of it my psychosis has definitely toned down but the mood instability is chronic.

I used to hear voices everyday for years. But now its actually quite rare.

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I have schizoaffective bipolar type. I take high doses of Seroquel, Latuda, and Lithium Carbonate. I gotta take really high doses in order to stay sane (mostly).

I’m trying to go down on Seroquel, slowly. I’m currently at 750mg, down from 800mg. But I probably can’t go down very much, cause I’m already having a bit more symptoms going down to 750mg.

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