I just wanna see if u guys can weigh in…antipsychotic damage or schizophrenia progression. So I was diagnosed with psychosis at age 11 and put on antipsychotics then. Diagnosed schizophrenia at 16. I took antipsychotics consistently from age 11 to age 24 when I quit. I’m now 35 and have been on antipsychotics for probably around 16 or 17 years total. But now when i’m off them it effects me physically. I worry that they are damaging my autonomic nervous system but also masking the damage but idk. First thing is without antipsychotics I can’t really eat. If i eat i get hours of panic. Without antipsychotics I can almost not walk. I walk like a 90 year old with parkinsons or something. And the most worrying, without antipsychotics, my heart starts skipping beats 2000-4000 times a day. I forgot my dose last night and my heart is already skipping beats.
Part of me says the haloperidol is speeding up my digestion making me able to eat, my doctor said the walking problem was related to catatonia so maybe the haldol is fixing that, and maybe the skipping beats are caused by increased panic and anxiety from being without the haldol. But the other part of me is worried the medicine has damaged my brain and will only continue damaging my brain making it impossble to come off ever and maybe even quit working at some point and i will be trapped unable to walk, eat, and with constant ectopic beats.
Is there anyone else here who has been on antipsychotics for decades or had schizophrenia for decades that now has it affecting them physically. Idk whether this is schizophrenia damage or antipsychotic damage.
Probably more a question for a pdoc than here as to what long term effects of antipsychotics could be.
As for my personal experiences. I only have mental issues, not physical ones when I reduce dosage. I have never been completely off them since I got permanently on them years ago, so I cant tell you what would occur if I was completely off.
I tend get paranoid and “conspiracy oriented” when I reduce my dose too low for too long. For instance, I might think that you are referring to me specifically with your post or talking behind my back.
I have no physical symptoms when reducing dosage or even missing a dose.
But I have not been on them as long as you either. And I have been on low dose for a long time.
Yeah i wonder if taking them as a child led my brain to fully form to only function on antipsychotics. I also get mental symptoms when i come off but the physical ones are really confusing me. The walking was told to me to be a schizophrenia symptom. The eating was diagnosed as gastroparesis which antipsychotics also treat which makes me wonder if taking them during brain formation didn’t lead to it. Then the ectopic beats were written off as being caused by extreme anxiety. Which I hope that is true but idk.
Is the physical damage on antipsychotics or off? For me the antipsychotics completely solve the physical symptoms. Its being off that causes them. Idk what to think about that.
I don’t know if what I am about to say will seem reassuring to you, but here goes.
Yes, taking haldol during your formative years likely altered your entire body in a permanent way. That is a good thing. If you were having enough severe issues to be put on haldol at age 11, your body was not developing correctly on its own. It would not have learned to create the correct neurotransmitters. It does sound like you will probably need to keep taking it for the rest of your life. The same way a child who lost their leg at age 11 will need to use crutches or a prosthetic for the rest of their life. You might be able to learn to survive without it, maybe. But why would you want to, when you say that you feel good on the medicine and terrible off of it? Would you tell a 35 year old who has used a prosthetic leg for the past 15 years to start hopping everywhere because the prosthetic is altering the way they would naturally walk?
Yeah that’s kinda the line of thinking i’m on. That it could be similar to how antipsychotics can cause tardive dyskinesia but can mask it so u don’t have it while ur taking the medication but it shows up after u quit. That’s my worry. That it’s causing my brain to not regulate my heart rhythm but it is masking it and it’s only showing up when i stop the medication.
Yeah good point. It wasn’t haloperidol i was on at 11 tho. It was risperdal, then zyprexa, then seroquel. Haloperidol started around age 15 probably. Which is still pretty young and the brain is still developing at that point.
I’m not so sure that what you feel when you stop the medication is actually what is happening when you take them.
It’s probably the fact that antipsychotics after long term use change the brain chemistry, so when you suddenly stop taking medication the brain is unable to respond normal. At least it may take quite a long time for the brain to adjust if you quit medication after long term use.
If you ever do plan to quit for some reason it’s a good idea to make sure you get vitamins, minerals, amino acids and fatty acids to give your brain as much help as possible to adjust. You may not get enough through a healthy diet alone, so supplementing might be a good idea.
Regardless of the med, the point is the same. If it makes you feel healthier, and able to live a functional and fulfilling life, it is doing its job.
Antipsychotics come with a risk of damaging the body. But it would happen in the opposite way of what you are experiencing. I have had heart issues from antipsychotics before. Those issues showed up when I increased my dose. I have had tardive dyskinesia. It showed up while I was taking the med, and then stopped after I was off it long enough. The medication will not mask the damage it does. Some people’s TD gets worse after they stop the antipsychotics, but that is not because the drug was masking the effects. It is because the increased stress of withdrawal made the TD worse.
