Schizophrenia is a genetic basis illness which has over 1000 mutations which leads to almost an infinite possibility of outcomes. With drawl from medication even in patients with bipolar typically results in acute psychosis. Withdraw of antipsychotic medication in patients with depression sometimes can trigger psychosis. I am wondering if anyone has had any previous attemots coming off of antipsychotics. It is obvious that the with drawl can trigger the same illness the medication treats. With 1000 genetic mutations and almost unlimited amount of variants of the disease somehow the medication affects us pretty much all negatively in the same way. Fatigue, hunger, depression, negative symptoms. I am not against antipsychotic medication or medication in general. However, I do not think the drugs that are available work well. Heck, this drugs or being prescribed to people with autism. If something incredible was on the market I would rush to get it if it worked well. I am not against antipsychotic medication or medication. However, I do not think the drugs that are available work well. Lily pulled in $50 billion and gave us no third generation medication. ITI which is supposedly the next generation antipsychotic gave me pre ventricular contractions, odd for a medicine that doesn’t “affect the heart”. To me medicine is pushed. The studies that they release are always positive. They never have to release a study that is negative being that they are a corporation and the studies are not funded by government. How effective are these medications if the only information we see is positive information supporting the enormous almost industrial like distribution of these drugs which sometimes make us sicker than we otherwise were to begin with. I’m sorry this is on my iPhone using speech to text and it doesn’t necessarily work properly or will. I’m sorry this is on my iPhone using speech to text and it doesn’t necessarily work properly or well.
has anyone come off the medication and stayed off of it even if it triggered a break?
i find it very ironic that before all this i was very anti drug basically straight edge but I didn’t call myself that. now I’m on this stuff and it only validates my still current beliefs. I’d like to just manage my sza without meds and continue seeing my mental health facility.
the combination (two) of drugs im on is good for what it is but what’s better than being stone cold clean and manageable
? if i had to say it (i know im not the only one) i am not a fan of medication
I was once confused and took double doses of my medications for one day. My pdoc ordered me off all meds for two days and this triggered a psychotic break in me and I had to be hospitalized. It indeed might have been caused by withdrawal from the AP’s.
I came off it and it was very hard. But once I got through it I felt so much better. I regret ever taking the meds. I was told that I had to and there was no other choice. And I listened. After years of being sick because of the meds to point where I didn’t want to be alive anymore I finally told everyone, either I die or I get off these. That’s what I have left. That’s where we are now.
It was very rough though. The itching was so bad I hurt myself several times and had to start sleeping with gloves on. I threw up a lot. But then I threw up constantly on all the AP meds I ever took so that wasn’t anything new for me. I also didn’t go cold turkey. It took me almost a year to get off seroquel. I stepped it down very, very slowly.
I didn’t have a psychotic break. None of the terrible things they told me would happen if I went off my meds happened. I’m doing well. I have sleepless nights here and there where my symptoms are bad but I had sleepless nights several times a week on APs where I was barfing my guts out and wanting to die so it’s actually better now. Plus I don’t have to lug around the 50 pounds the damn pills put on me anymore. And I can sleep 6 to 8 hours and feel great instead of sleeping 10 to 12 hours and still feeling exhausted like I did on the pills.
The reduction of symptoms simply wasn’t worth destroying my physical health for me. I’m not violent. Society is not at risk of me hurting anyone. There’s just no reason to destroy my life with these side effects. It wasn’t making my life any better or anyone else’s.
I wish I was off meds, it seems they have caused me more harm than good and trying to get off them is such a hassle… It just doesn’t feel right…!
I went to a presentation once at my college provided by our neuroscience institute given by someone who used to work for one of the big pharmaceutical companies as a researcher, and couldn’t tolerate the corruption so she left as soon as she found a different way to support her family. Now she works on a nonprofit organization that runs quality checks on pharmaceutical companies and confirms research results to try to combat the corruption. She said as a researcher they were pressured to find positive results for medications, and given impossible deadlines that forced them to rush their process. She said it was incredibly common for researchers to underreport negative side effects or minimize them and embellish the positive effects, and their organization often found this. These companies also incentivize doctors to prescribe their new medications, so a doctor in need of extra pocket change may prescribe a new med with no long term studies done on it (by the way, very few psych meds have had actual long term studies done on them-as in over a decade, etc, and most were not created with the initial intention of remaining on them for life, despite all of these meds being recommended by doctors generally to be stayed on for life) and not significant research demonstrating that it even is very effective for sz.
She says the industry is in desperate need of more outside quality control organizations that are not being paid by the same companies that create the drugs, as you said.
As for your question, I have gone through the process of going off of APs numerous times, dealing with mostly rebound psychosis but sometimes also physical withdrawal. It can be miserable, and at times for me has been a dangerous process. I have found that I can function fine off APs and be pretty normal so long as I get an excessive amount of sleep regularly. However my stability is highly precarious off APs, because literally anything can result in my sleep getting thrown off, and a lot of times it’s just too dang hard to get as much sleep as I need in general. So I am still really trying to find one to get on (like you I have not had any successful experiences yet) so I don’t have to be paralyzed with anxiety if I get a crappy night’s sleep that I’m going to be tormented by demons and paranoia the next day.
I am not anti-meds either, not at all, as there is still a ton of significant research out there backing (not all of them but some of them) up that they are very effective treatment methods for psychosis. However this does not mean I am willing to turn a blind eye to the flaws of medication, and of the pharmaceutical industry that produces them.
I remember when I was first diagnosed I was on Haldol injection and I believe Olanzapine and all I was doing was sleeping 16 to 17 hours a day. I gained almost 30 pounds and I was basically just like a zombie. Eventually I decide to get off the medication cold turkey because I started to feel a little bit better.
I ended up getting a job where I was working almost 12 hour shifts so I was constantly walking and running around and I was very active. I had a hard time in the beginning getting off the medication because the drowsiness would stay there and I would wake up super groggy but it eventually went away after a week.
I started to lose weight and I slimmed down to my normal weight. I worked like that for about 10 months and during that time I was symptom-free. I was not hallucinating, I was not delusional, slightly paranoid but overall I was functioning very well, not talking to myself, memory was sharp, and I was basically back to my normal self.
Eventually once I left the job I was able to function for about a good year until the illness slowly started to come back very very slowly to the point where I didn’t realize what was happening. I eventually became delusional became paranoid, started hearing voices and ended up flipping and totaling my car. (Walked out with only a scratch). My sister finally got me baker acted because I had basically lost my mind again.
I finally started getting treatment and I was put on Invega Sustenna 234mg monthly injection. It took about 2 to 3 months for me to come back down to reality and eventually the racing thoughts, worrisome thoughts paranoia can back full blast. All types of delusions that I had slowly started to go away and now it’s been almost 11 months that I’ve been able to maintain stability. I still have slight paranoia and random worry some intrusive thoughts here and there but what I basically learned is that if I come off the medication I will lose my mind and end up in psychosis.
I’m also in 100mg of Wellbutrin for depression. Doing good so far and it seems to be getting better with time. Just thought I’d share my experience and hopefully it helps.
im also on 100mg wellbutrin. it really helps with negative symptoms i find. also i had a terrible speeding problem when driving when I was manic and once tried changing lanes too fast at night on the highway and slid off into the grass on the side. my tire busted and I was so manic i didnt change it and drove home like that with eventually the wheel sparking on the asphalt. had intense delusions the whole way home and eventually got pulled over for sliding through a red light. I’m currently fighting the dui case i now have that has prevented me from getting valuable jobs. I also lost the good one i had.
I’ve been off aps for about 6 months now and I feel better but still not fully recovered I still can’t talk to people like I used to eye contact is so hard for me I can’t maintain eye contact with anyone and can’t hold a conversation to save my life but overall everything else seems to be getting better