I think the key is to taper rather than stop all together. It’s like a car. You don’t want to go from 100mph to zero in an instant. You want a slow gradual tapering. Maybe decrease by 2mg or something and see how you feel.
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Thanks for advices. @POET @Bowens
I will consider it very very slowly. Maybe even in 2-3 years.
I know it is a difficult decision, and I need to take into account many things.
Firstly, talk with my pdoc. And if I will reduce them in the future Ill do it very slowly
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This is because you take your meds
This is because the meds are only working mostly, but not perfectly. That means without your meds it’ll all come back full force. Please don’t stop your meds.
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Thanks, @LilyoftheValley
You’re right. As I said if I will stop my meds, I willl do it very slowly and after several or more years.
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Now were we talk about stopping med I have something to add.
I just don’t want to disappoint t any of you but I had to do what no one should do without telling their treatment team immediately.
I hadn’t slept for 40 hours because the dose I normally took kept me awake for 40 hours.
So now I take 600 mg of qutiapine instead of 800 mg.
I slept 15 hours the next day.
I have messaged my treatment team about the issue.
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IDK, it’s a gamble for sure, very few people succeed.
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I know I know,
But I still have a big hope…
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I guess you would have no chance at all if you smoke weed. Your chances of being able to quit meds successfully, would only be 10% if you had setbacks stopping before. Setbacks can effect housing etc.
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I would hope to get off meds. But you still need to see a PDoc regularly and have to be on guard of relaps
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I had a pdoc take me off meds. I had a big relapse 10 months later. Sometimes the pdoc is guessing too.
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Now we’re we talk meds don’t do drinks or drugs or you will never succes in quiting meds.
Status.
Now I’m down on 500 mg qutiapine.
And now I tapering 100 mgs qutiapine every day the next 5 days down to zero.
I keep 500 mg Clopixol mono therapy for the future as that’s the drug that keeps me stable.
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Can you find a medicine that won’t make you gain weight?
Im usually a proponent for staying on meds. The fact that you’re doing so well should be another reason why you shouldn’t mess with anything. But maybe the fact that you had your psychosis from a drug episode is giving the pdoc hope that you could possibly be in the category that could maybe recover and go without meds. I would listen to your doctor, but honestly I’d say if you want and your doctor agrees give it a shot. I got off my meds all the time back in the day. Not cause I thought I might be ok, but because I thought maybe I could manage without meds. The longest I made it was a month. Maybe you go off meds, stay clean, but discover after a while you start becoming ill again. When I went the month I recognized the same type of symptom experience that was the start of a breakdown. I had symptoms the whole time, but this experience was deeper and familiar. I’m not a doctor, and have heard that people get worse after the second break or more breaks. The fact that you’ve maybe only had one could play a role in how well you feel. Idk though I’m not a doctor, and I don’t know how serious your doctor is about this, but I know if it was me I’d go for it though it might not be the best decision.
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Jake that’s a shot in blindness. You must try a given antipsychotic to see if it causes weight gain for you.
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If you’ve had multiple episodes or constant symptoms no matter how slight then probably no.
It’s just the breaks and it’s a dumb move.
Yeah better without the meds but consider it’s the meds keeping you close to normal. Been doing it a long time now and I’m old. I am balls to the wall on the lowest I can go with meds and doing well but wouldn’t consider going off meds…that is what the issue is.
A year. A month. I would say no but I’ve no idea your history or story. That is why we see psydocs and a good shrink will know what your symptom set is and it’s worthwhile bringing up with them if they are any good.
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Honestly, I still experience several symptoms from time to time. As voice inside my head,
Also, I have very few, but still, hallucinations.
And the fact that I work, but in my work I notice my concentration is lower than it used to be…
Yeah, I know it means I still have SZ, probably.
Just I had this idea I could be this stable like now without meds… but probably, from what I’ve read here and from what I’ve know, I could even become psychotic.
It’s still hard to accept the fact, that I probably will need meds for a lifetime, or simply for a long time @rogueone
I want to add that I didn’t had constant episodes, but the one I had on 2016-2017 was horrible. It was long and almost uncontrollable. Last 6 years I am stable, capable of things, but as I mentioned I still have symptoms which are sometimes known only to me.
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Yeah that is just it and we’ve all been there and dealt with it. Have a good talk to your treatment team but a voice inside your head is a primary diagnostic. I don’t do voices but honestly it’s a thing for me.
The real challenge is going as low as you can go on the meds you take for greater function without getting those positive symptoms. That is hard but worth trying. If you fail then it’s probably meds for life anyways.
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I’d say reduce don’t stop. It’s like applying the breaks. You never want to do it too suddenly… If anything just reduce until your off then.
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Ask your pdoc. It’s a gamble, your pdoc doesn’t know either.
Or you are well without meds, or you have an episode again. No one knows.
I would takenthe chance of beeing off meds tho.
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I’ve only watched Schizophrenics go down the drain when they stopped their antipsychotics. I’ve only stopped meds once in my life and got totally crazy two weeks after that. A more realistically way is to lower your meds.
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