Anyone here stop taking their meds due to the side effects or potential for them?
I have posted here before. I have always been scared to take AP because I have a major fear of getting TD. But after my nervous breakdown, I decided I would be honest with pdoc and got on meds. I have been on them 6yrs. I was taking risperidone, sertraline, trazodone, and trihexyl. In March, my doctor asked me to stop trazodone and added in clozaril.
I had severe side effect from it and ended up with a leg fracture. I stopped the clozaril went back to pdoc. He said keep risperidone, sertraline but to stop trazodone and trihexy. I started having jitters, tremors, jaw clenching, and severe anxiety about taking my meds. So I weaned myself off all of it and now I am haing panic attacks about taking anymore meds.
I don’t know if I should talk to my pdoc or give up and not go back to him.
You should definitely talk to your pdoc. If you’re still struggling without meds, then maybe it’s time to crush those fears and try a new one. I had side effects when I first started abilify but they soon dissipated over time…did you start the med at a higher dose? I’m sorry you have to go through this. It’s a trial and error process!
I just don’t understand why he changed my drugs in the first place. I was always sleeping and tired but didn’t have side effects really. Just sleeping about 18-20hrs a day. Adding in the clozaril was my downfall and now I think my pdoc was just using me as a guinea pig. I will NOT allow myself to get TD - that is the worst of anything for me. I have seen people with it and I am already having symptoms.
My pdoc tells me at every visit if I ever stop taking the meds he gives me, he will no longer see me. That is why I don’t know whether to talk to him. I had been very compliant with taking the meds with one exception at Christmas when I had pneumonia - I forgot to take them. But I cannot handle these side effects.
Sleeping 18-20 hours? That’s a little too much and I think that’s why he might have switched it. I am switching abilify because I sleep too damn much as well; it interrupts my ability to function well.
the worst thing is not finding the right treatment for the symptoms. It’s a long process.
The key as my psychiatrist always says is finding the right medication with the least side effects and the most effectiveness. You just have to find that special one for you
Sleeping that much bothered me and I wanted to stop or reduce yes. I felt my life was passing me by. But that is nothing compared to the side effects I got when he switched my med and now.
First I couldn’t walk right and kept getting muscle cramp my foot and wrist would contort almost completely backwards. That’s how I fractured my knee - I got dizzy and then my foot contorted and I fell down the stairs, lucky I didn’t die.
When I stopped the trihexy 3months ago, I started getting real jittery like I couldn’t stay in my body. I was vibrating and then tremors and shakes in my bones, and my mouth would make weird movements. After I got off the meds and now, I have all of the above which gets worse when I think about getting back on any meds. I am having panic attacks just thinking about it which causes my symptoms to go into overdrive. My hands are twitching, my mouth is kissing, and I feel like I got to keep moving to distract myself. I want to just go hide somewhere safe until it all goes away.
My family is of no use - they are against me and say I have to stay on the meds to have money. I don’t care about the money, I just want these side effects gone. I can deal with my illness like I did before meds. Nothing and I mean nothing is worth these side effects. That is why I never went to docs in the first place because I was scared of getting these stupid side effects. For me they are worse that the anything. I can not live like this.
Is there anything that will stop these side effects? Please anyone know?
I agree but I have been taking meds since 2010 so that should have been long enough to get it right. We shouldn’t be the guinea pigs for pdocs finding something new to try especially when it can cause these symptoms to be permanent.
I will tell my pdoc all this tomorrow and see what happens. From what he has told me before, tomorrow he will tell me he can no longer see me as a patient.
Took me about fifteen years to get it right. Sz recovery is a ‘time takes time’ thing. Going off meds will greatly increase the amount of time you need to achieve recovery. Don’t recommend it, not even to people I’d like to see suffer.
I have been diagnosed paranoid schizo since 16 - except for then, I started meds again at 37. So I know how my illness effects me. Between what I feel now and during time off meds, I choose to be off meds.
That’s what I found out but too late - I trusted my doctor. Now I am stuck with these horrible side effects which to me is death. I don’t want to be a spasm for life. That is why I hadn’t gotten treatment since 16, now the first time I try to get help and trust a doctor, this happens.
I am off the meds completely since yesterday and I plan on staying off. I would rather have my ‘delusions’ and ‘hallucinations’ than to have people looking at me like I am mentally challenged or a spasm-mode and laughing. Part of my illness I already don’t trust anyone cuz they are always laughing at me and talking about me - so why give them fuel. Which is worse believing everyone is against you or knowing - Knowing is… and I could not would not live with that.
Whew! I feel for you. Side effects are hell. Have you tried Geodon and Seroquel? Those drugs have controlled my symptoms for over a decade with few side effects.
[quote]jukebox4m
you sound pretty stable without meds…are you sure you’re schizophrenic?[/quote]
Really? Who are you an undercover pdoc? why do you ask - can’t you be both?
I denied it for to many years succumbing myself to isolation, happy understanding the’voices’ were spirits I was charged with protecting, that shadow people were demons trying to capture my soul. When it got to the point that I lost all control and sanity, I did try to get help. This is where I am at now for me worse than when I before my breakdown.
It’s possible but unlikely. Out of this entire community, there are two people I would consider are functioning at a high level without meds. One has worthwhile recovery and the other thinks he does. There are more who don’t function well at all without their meds, but good luck telling them that.Their insight is long gone and I suspect permanently in a couple of cases. I wish you luck, but the odds are not in your favour.
[quote]turtle
I really think you need to see a different psychiatrist. Is there any possibility of that?[/quote]
I have no control over that - my family does. They don’t want to even tell him about my side effects. That’s how I got guilted into staying with him since last year when I wanted to get another doctor. They tell me if I tell him everything two things would happen - he will quit seeing me or I would get locked up in the asylum again. I tired of their bs and told them I was not going to take the meds anymore - they said ok just don’t tell him. Today I told them I was going to let the cards lay and look for another pdoc. I told them I would not live if I keep having these side effects or they get worse. But as I am diagnosed paranoid sz I don’t have any control and never have. They are my legal guardians even though I am a guardian for others they don’t care. Even when I tell them I will not live like this - they say the meds help. but for me this is worse than living.
[quote]pixel
It’s possible but unlikely. Out of this entire community, there are two people I would consider are functioning at a high level without meds. One has worthwhile recovery and the other thinks he does. There are more who don’t function well at all without their meds, but good luck telling them that.Their insight is long gone and I suspect permanently in a couple of cases. I wish you luck, but the odds are not in your favour.[/quote]
I don’t mean functional - I have never been functional. I can live back in isolation though - me, my voices, and I. At least then I would sometimes venture out into the real world, never around crowds though. That was the good thing about meds when I was awake I wasn’t afraid of people. I didn’t care. But if my side effects get worse and I become a spasmoid I guarantee I won’t ever come out.
