I was on Latuda for 18 months on 111mg. I was stable and built an independent life for myself. In the end that drug was toxic to me, I had unbearable akathisia.
I did not experience any withdrawal from Latuda. My pdoc stopped it straight away and put me on Haldol.
I am now on Abilify, but I was too ill to remember what it was like when I first started taking it. All I know is now, I am alert for work - which is good as it’s not to sedating, I have broken sleep, I take Procyclidine 20mg as I have EPS (Not sure if from Haldol or Abilify) Terrible anxiety, which I don’t think is the drug as it’s being going on for a while - but it could be. I also take 30mg of Diazepam a day, so not sure if the above will change once they force me off that.
Give it a chance though. I was taken up to 30mg and that seems to be cutting it, and it’s working ok for much of my symptoms, but not completely getting rid of them.
Best of luck with it, I hope it works for out for you. It’s probably just your body getting used to the changes.
For quite some time I was also on 111mg Latuda and quite stable than ever before but eventually the restlessness was unbearable (and I couldn’t mix it with my sleep aid Mirtazapine because of the interaction) that I dropped down to 37mg and added 2.5mg Zyprexa to keep the positive symptoms at bay.
Yes, I think my body needed to adjust to Abilify and after a couple of days taking it at night it did luckily. I must admit, I’m only on 5mg and am quite impressed by Abilify’s effectiveness because it’s strong antipsychotic effect but also by surprise it’s strong antidepressant effect which I didn’t take in consideration when asking for it. The only downside so far is that it provokes me in serious compulsive gambling way more than Latuda did.
Since Abilify is known to cause severe anxiety in a lot of people I’m lucky that I’m also taking Clonazepam. As long as Diazepam is helping you my advise would be to tell your doc to “■■■■ off” if he/she wants you of it. It’s been more than 8 years that I’m on Clonazepam and it’s still works like a charm. When I changed from pdoc, my current pdoc wanted to stop me from taking Clonazepam, my answer was: as long as it’s working for me it’s non of her business, if you stop prescribing it to me, I will change pdocs, just as simple as that and she never brought it up again to wean me off of it. I rather be paranoid and anxiety free in exchange for being a little dumb.
I miss Latuda. No drug has really worked properly for me since. In the end it just became debilitating when I was taking it. It’s weird it did the same to you as well. Must be quite common for that drug. I put up with it for a while but then went cold turkey and ended up in hospital again.
This worries me a bit. If this is the cause I think he will change my meds. My choices are running out now but I refused to even consider Clozaril. I will just have to stand my ground on this one, as you say it seems to be quite effective.
This advice I think is how the appointment will go tomorrow. I will probably try and do it nicely though to start with as he is a pretty nice guy. But coming off is not an option. He told me to cut down 5mg every two weeks last time and by time I got to 10mg everything went to ■■■■. I need to work so I cannot afford to take the time off and as you say if it works whats the problem.
I think you need to make a bold statement so they will take you seriously. Sometimes you need to take charge even if you’re pdoc is a nice guy. If you sum-up your reasons why you want to stay on benzo’s, he should listen.
For example: My last and current pdocs are nice too, but I’m the one who take pills and I won’t let their choices make me suffer more. When I first met them they wanted to take charge and make decisions for me on what I should/shouldn’t take, I simply refused and threatened them that I will discharge them as my docs. With time I earned their trust on what I’m doing and I’m pretty much my own doc and they’re OK with it. Once in a while they do the same and refuse to give me certain meds I ask for and I’m OK with that.
My first pdoc made so many mistakes that I suffered from severe depression and schizophrenia that I lost 5 years of my life and ended hospitalized for 2 weeks. After that and becoming familiar with psychiatry and educating myself on medication I pretty much took charge over my treatment.
I did this yesterday. I told him I am not concerned about taking benzos long-term as I have been on them for months already and I take AP’s which are even worse, so I said whats the issue.
He did try to increase my Procyclidine but I refused to take more as on 20mg the EPS I can cope with.
I feel like I have now also achieved this.
Thanks for your advice. I don’t think my pdoc was entirely pleased with things, as he looked pretty frustrated when I left.