People with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder are no strangers to medication changes (Mental Health Medication Changes Require a Doctor’s Input). Maybe the medicinal cocktail prescribed isn’t relieving symptoms or the medication is causing too much weight gain. Or maybe you’re getting headaches all the time. Medication changes are a big part of having schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.
Why Medication Changes Scare Me
With schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, meds changes can help, but sometimes they can be a setback. Find out more about meds changes in schizophrenia.
I used to request medication changes for my schizoaffective disorder all the time, mostly due to weight gain. It was unfortunate, because I was in graduate school and all those medication changes made it so much harder to finish my degree. (But I got it.)
Now, however, I’m scared of medication changes. I’m especially wary of changes in the antipsychotics used to treat schizophrenia. But now I’m skittish about any medication changes. Of course, if I were doing really badly and it was obvious I needed a medication change, I would go for it. The reason I say I’m scared is this — I used to frequently ask my doctor to tweak my meds to see if I could get even better — and sometimes the results backfired. I don’t do that anymore.
Recently I went off birth control pills because they were giving me migraines. The change in hormones messed me up for a week. I was really depressed — crying jags hit every day. This is not uncommon in schizoaffective depression. But if that messed me up so much, imagine how much a psychotropic medication change would affect me.
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