Y you need cogentin to go your Latuda, for sure. I take 180mg at night and without the 2mg cogentin I don’t know what I would do the side effects are just way too harsh. Also, got to make sure you get your 300 calorie meal with it because you will feel starved and sick to your stomach
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I understand what you mean. I just dont get it when people tell me meds help recovery. Imho there is simply no possibility of recovery on meds. They take away my life, my connection to myself and others. Going through life so numbed that i’m indifferent to everything and everyone including my psychotic symptoms is not my definition of recovery. I won’t give up the search for alternatives. Ever.
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Well said Marian. I also won’t give up the search for alternative treatments. I’ve tried every class of medications, but the antipsychotics are by far the worst. I’m currently on a small dose of Latuda and I find it difficult to function.
I hate feeling like a medicated zombie.
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I agree - these meds are horrible but staying out of touch is worse for me.
I lose touch with reality completely and just blank out. I can not function anymore at all.
These meds are far from perfect but they help me a lot. you need to help yourself too - as tough as it is.
I haven’t been stable for the past 5 years since i was diagnosed - but it is just a crazy path in life =)
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I can’t have another relapse. I refuse to let that happen, but when nighttime comes, and I’m staring at the latuda deciding to take 40 or 20. I usually end up playing with the dose. I can get away with it for a few days and then I have to buckle down and take the full amount.
I hate this ■■■■. I’m sure we all know how bad they are for our bodies. I would kill to be able to jog again and think clearly.
For some people i dont think recovery is an option and i dont know even for myself. BUT as far as i know alot of people have withdrawals while coming down which makes them start to relapse. My doc says he believes in coming off but at 10% at a time which takes years for most and you have to wait months imbetween…
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My life was horrible when I didn’t think recovery was an option. My life really started to improve once I believed it could be an option. The biggest difference was my attitude.
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For some of us, the benefits of the meds did not outweigh the negative. That being said, I wished I could have found more benefit, because it is hard when nothing seems to help.
Meds can ease the symptoms enough to make recovery smoother, and why should one suffer needlessly if there is something to help?
It’s your choice to take the meds, but there is nothing heroic in suffering when you don’t have to.
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I agree to a point but I also think that the meds cause a lot of undue suffering.
This is my main gripe with psychiatry. They don’t have precise meds out there. Everything screws you up.
Are you off medication?
Ah, but how are they going to ever get meds that work when there are so few out there willing to be tested on them?
That’s true for pretty much every medication out there, not just APs.
Nope. Take Rexulti twice daily. Also taking beta blockers and ACE inhibitors for the ticker. Gonna be on meds until I die and I’m okay with it.
I see. I actually do believe people recover. What i should of said is fully recover. More specifically the brain.
And maybe not my friend. You never know. They could just cure the whole thing in the next 10 15 years… 
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Been hearing that a cure is around the corner for 25 years. I don’t handle waiting well so I just chiseled out the space I needed to live in. I firmly believe that everyone with SZ can have a better life starting today. Maybe it’s not the life you dream of, but it’s probably better than the one you have now. Why wait?
MG u r on 40mg latuda, right? If I were taking that same dose of latuda it would have little to no adverse effects on me. I would need the maximum dose to manage my psychosis, even then I would have breakthrough symptoms. I guess we all have different needs according to our body chemistry.
Fair enough… and i have a somewhat happy life. I just dont know if ill be able to work… and if i cant work how will i live…? Homeless? In a state hospital? Idk what to do.
Yes but I’m a pussy. Very sensitive to meds.
I know girls that take 120mgs and they don’t complain. I just hate the damn meds.
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I would say I have recovered 100 percent on meds. I take 4 mg haldol and 200 mg of Zoloft. Not a high dosage of AP ,I got to a point where I felt I could cope and told the doc I couldn’t handle an increase because of the joint stiffness it causes. I’ve tried going off twice so I know I’m sz because I end up in the ER and months of recovery both times. If I lower my dosage eventually symptoms return. I’m different than I was when sz came. Somethings better but phisicaly not as athletic but not overweight eather, but 16 years older to so ,who knows what could have been. I have heard of people recovering and going of meds. I think I will always be on meds. Also seen a documentary of people that have never gone on meds and just therapy and hospital for like 10 years and recovered med free. That’s pretty unrealistic though. I would say I’ve been fully recovered fully for about 4 years. In this healing I think spiritual peace is part of it along with being financially stable or acceptance of were you are fanancially. Also the ability to overcome stigma of MI and basically not care what the majority of people think. But some norms deal with baggage that plagues them. Part of our recovery is what norms deal with to ,living a healthy life. It’s just more destructive to us , everything is magnified.
Start small. Pick one area to improve. When you hit that goal and build a positive habit then pick the next thing. Keep a recovery diary. Record your successes. Track your goals. Recovery is as much a matter (or more) of building positive habits as it is a matter of medication.
You can medicate someone and reduce symptoms, but if they developed unhealthy habits and they’re stuck in them, you’re not going to see much improvement in quality of life.
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