I learned to detect sz symptoms very fast

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With time I am able to detect the gradual symptoms of sz everytime I stop meds. Last time I stopped meds for two weeks before getting anxiety and heart racing which are my first sign that I am shifting into psychosis. I didn’t get any sz symptoms but I know these will come after the anxiety.

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I had stopped 6mg risperidone cold turkey.

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Why do you stop taking your meds?

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Cause they make me tired, sleepy and make negative symptoms worse.

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I’m in the same boat. But I take my meds because being psychotic isn’t an option.

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Yea I still take my meds, I can’t stay for long without them as I eventually get psychotic. Once my Dr stopped my meds for 2yrs but I became psychotic. Sometimes I think being without meds psychotic for 2yrs damaged my brain and made negative symptoms worse.

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I remember you talking about vraylar. How did it go with that? Were your doctors responsive of your treatment and changing meds?

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It was recently approved here but insurance refused covering it. I can’t afford it without insurance. My Dr was good and he did what I told him to do except he refused prescribing me stimulants. I have tried Abilify, Latuda, Zyprexa, Risperidone.

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My Dr is ok with me playing with my dose and stopping meds but he told me if I have to stop meds to go slowly reducing the dose and not cold turkey. I don’t have a pdoc now as he wrote that I am too stable to need him.

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Ok! I understand. Yeah I’m on vraylar and it’s expensive. I have to pay out of my own pocket. But it’s no wonder drug, I still have to take Zyprexa with vraylar.

Hopefully your insurance will cover it in the near future. I think that people with Sz should be prioritized because it’s one nasty illness. And we need all the meds that are available.

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hey @Aziz how old have you been when you stopped meds for two years?

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I was 24, I went back on meds when I was 26.

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ah okay. you already made so much experience! i would like to have the same relationship to my doctor like you, i think thats the right way :slight_smile:

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two years is a long time. maybe you have more like a episodic psychosis and the other psychosis were because of stopping meds to fast… :slight_smile:

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I was psychotic most of the two years lol, paranoia and delusions. I was just not involuntarily hospitalized. Though later when I smoked weed while being on Abilify my parents called the cops as I was destroying the house lol, they gave me extra meds at the emergency then I got out. But yeah that happened after I stopped meds for 2yrs, I am sure if I have never stopped meds I would be better now, brain damage. My original diagnosis was brief psychosis. I never got psychosis on meds unless I smoked weed. I think weed triggered my sz, I stopped smoking it since last time I went to the hospital.

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i understand :slight_smile: did you had positive symptoms all the time or did you have also episodes when there was nothing. when i was psychotic the first time i remember that there was also time when i was symptomfree. i didnt worked or had any other things to do. just go outside for a walk :smiley:

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It was not 24/7.

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Whenever I stop my AP I feel very anxious and thinking about a lot of things at the same time, I can’t concentrate on anything, I also have the perception of knowing when I’m going to have a crisis, I’ll never stop taking my medication again, I feel very euphoric. I also hear a lot of voices when I stop.

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