Intentionally or unintentionally.
It’s my 10th day without ablify (while I am still on vraylar) and I am doing really well.
Strange though, my apetite became way bigger, but maybe the reason could be that I stopped smoking ‘Glo’. Now I am vaping.
Also sleep is worse, but I am non stop thinking about my breakup, so I believe it could be the reason of poor sleep.
So, longest periood you’ve been without meds and how did you felt?
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i have a long time because i started them in 1998. took them non stop almost for about 14 years. then basically fled everything and disappeared for about 9 years…where some GPs gave me antipsychotics a couple times but i didnt really take them much. basically my life went way way down hill and is still worse off now even after taking medicine for the past 3 years…but im off now again for 4 months.
i spent those 9 years “moving” constantly almost. or living in vehicals. running and hiding from the government. burned all my belongings. lost my disability cause i was scared of the government. cut off all contact with any friends i had before that 9 years. basically lost everything i had.
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I know it will be strange what I say… but the fact you’ve been through so many different experiences (even those experiences were bad) creates you as more experienced and wise person.
Like, the more person goes through, the more wise they become. That’s what I noticed in most people.
Stay strong. 
I had some similar experiences too, but it was more about obsessing about one man, which led me to spent evenings in the streets and searching for him, I was literally delusional and I thought that man is in every person’s mind. Clearly delusional I was. (What I mean by streets - Not prostituting, simply walking and sometimes encountering dangerous situations) But nothing horrible ever hapenned. I always was a “observer”, directly no one hurted me.
But those weeks, months, sitting in a bus at night or late evenings, or walking in the city made me realise way more than school ever did.
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yeah i think this is true. i wouldnt change it. people can learn from anything especially things that are hard. thats when u learn the most.
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My longest period was before diagnosis, about 8 years!
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Yes, no voices, just delusions, very symptomatic, plus very functional (going to university and stuff).
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Wow.
for me it was very fast. Maybe half a year symptomatic, but I was probably the most delusional person you could know - and then hospitals.
But two years before hospitals I started feeling depressive. Not laying in bed or smth, I just started feeling suicidal. Then during psychosis I was terribly suicidal.
But wow, 8 years without meds is achievment in my eyes.
Well, in my case, I didn’t know I was ill then. When I got diagnosed (initially for Bipolar), I was reluctant to take medications for another 3,4 years. Only when I realized that I was going through psychosis, I realized that I needed to take meds. But, that initial break didn’t happen for a long time, perhaps 8 and and 4=12 years.
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probably just a few months, my psychosis is like an all consuming nightmare with voices and visions.
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I can go a week without meds before that familiar, scary, weird feeling of psychosis starts creeping in. I’ve only done it twice in 43 years but I don’t like that feeling and I’m not tempted to go off my meds anymore.
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I started taking two days a week off and it felt better the next morning. But by the evening I became t nervous and psychotic. Also became depressed because antidepressants need to be taken daily or they lose all benefits with me. I love medication “give me drugs”. Just have to work on diet and exercise to lose the fat build up from the meds.
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I was 6 months off meds after my first psychosis before I relapsed and was hospitalized again.
I’ve tried reducing but it never ends well.
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Not even a single day I went without meds.
If I have missed it I immediately take it when I realize.
Tried to reduce and the lowest I have come is 10 mg Aripiprazole,
after that have increased it because of symptoms.
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I tried going off my olanzapine a while back. I was off/on a lower dose for a few weeks. It didn’t go well.
I remember trying to go for a walk (it was like 9 PM, pitch black out, I’m a female and live in a busy city, it was frigid outside/winter).
So I was very delusional and hearing voices and I made it outside. But I then decided to sit in the middle of the freezing cold, pitch black garage on the dirty garage floor. I sat there like that psychotic for an hour or more.
I think that night I was persuaded to take my full dose of olanzapine and things improved. It could have been much worse, I realize like past psychosis episodes I’ve experienced. I’m very lucky!
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About a year. It was intentional. I had a very bad, very expensive relapse that nearly ended my marriage. I did it behind everyone’s back including my doctors. So, so dumb.
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7 weeks, yes I counted lol.
It felt possible at the time, ended in not being able to.
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I’ve been on some kind of meds since 1990, initially lithium when they thought it was bipolar, then years of antipsychotics and being in and out of hospitals. I’ve been more stable the last 3 years than I have been for the last 20 years…never more than a few weeks off meds. I need them.
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From 1983 to 1991 I was acutely ill, undiagnosed and unmedicated. I needed meds and wasn’t on them yet.
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