With all these people saying they didn’t want to take their meds, I thought I would start a thread asking and encouraging all of you to stay on your ANTIPSYCHOTIC meds !! I would lose everything if I stopped my meds! Please stay in close contact with your psychiatrist and do what they say !! You won’t be sorry !!
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If I went off my meds I would end up dead (suicide) or in a hospital (where they would put me back on meds).
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If I got off my meds, I would probably end up in jail or the Hospital.
I am grateful for Risperidone and Depakote.
Nothing else really works as well for me.
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I owe the community my sincere apology for my complaining lately. I do take my meds everyday, but I get frustrated.
I am with you all in solidarity, these medicines do help. If I didn’t take mine I don’t even want to think of where I would end up.
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Thanks for the reminder! Good thing for meds or I would land up in hospital an eighth time!
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Thank you, this is a nice contrast to the ‘meds cause cancer’ and ‘meds shrunk my p3n1s’ threads.
(Hey, if your meds give you a tumor on your Willy and then the tumor shrinks, that’s not a total loss, right?)
I am grateful for my meds.
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Yay !! Hearing from people that believe in their meds !!
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I left my meds and took 2 months until I relapse, so I have already learned it !
I know I complain about the meds sometimes. It helps to remind myself that they’re there to help. People did research and tests proving they help sufferers of mental illness. It’s not some random drug, it is a medicine designed to help deal with positive symptoms.
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I was supposed to set an alarm to take my meds because I kept forgetting to take my meds and then I forgot to set the alarm 
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meds have saved me. thank god for meds.
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If you have a Fitbit you can set it to vibrate to remind you to take your meds.
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Glad I’m not the only one lol
Absolutely! Thank you for saying this.
Over the years I’ve stopped my meds for various reasons, like the time someone posted a whole lot of YouTube vids where some psychiatrists or whatever had said that anti psychotic meds seriously damage the brain and this that and the other thing, and I paid a very high price for coming off them. Silly me.
At the end of the day, lots of meds damage you in some way, and Chemo kills about a third of all patients, and some meds damage the liver or something else, and very few meds are totally and completely safe, so the question is - “Do I want to be, feel, think and act well?” It is as simple as that. Regardless of side effects or potential damage (or even real damage) to whatever part of my body.
If I have to choose between being psychotic, delusional and helpless, causing all kinds of trouble, or being a bit brain damaged from my psychotic meds, I’ll choose the brain damage without blinking, because my schizophrenia is no worse than brain damage, and without my meds, life is worse than it would be if I got brain damage. Simple.
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i’ve had four psychotic episodes in six years. I was very anti meds to begin with but I find Clopixol works great so I’m going to keep on taking it. My negative symptoms of psychosis are gone.
Even though I am going to be taking my meds I am open to the fact that it is not the only form of treatment. I find it fascinating the way Other cultures don’t view psychosis as an illness but as a spiritual emergency.
I have been blogging about it.
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I have problems with taking my meds these past few months. Mainly because mental illness isn’t taken care of seriously where I live and there is only a handful of psychiatrists. I had one for a few years and he did nothing for me. He didn’t listen to what was wrong, instead he pushed pills and I mean a lot of pills. He then put me on olanzapine and sertraline. I don’t have to many problems with sertraline but olanzapine I hate. He just kept on pushing it more and more. He gave me so much of it that I would do nothing but sleep and eat. When I was taking it I would sleep in till 3-4 pm if I had the day off and go to bed at around 10 the night before. If I had work/school I would go to that and once I got home at 6 I would sleep all night. Not to mention it made me hungrier then hell, when I went on the pills I was 90 pounds in about a year I was 170. I told him they aren’t working and what did he do? He pushed more and more olanzapine down my throat in higher doses. So now it’s been 3 weeks without the damn meds and I would personally prefer to deal with my mental illness on my own and not go back to him. I’m sick of him pushing more and more pills on me that don’t work and him not listening. I see a new doctor on Thursday he’s one of the only other ones in my province who is a psychiatrist and I hope he actually helps me unlike that useless doctor I had before.
I sometimes question whether I need meds but stay on them because (a) going off meds being used as an excuse to deny me benefits and other help and support (b) the possibility that others may be able to see reasons I need it that I can’t.
It’s not the ‘evil’ antipsychiatrists make it out to be but neither is it, for many, the wonder medication that others make it out to be.
It’s certainly never brought me near a point of recovery. Probably because there were things that medication was not equipped to help with and that required a more comprehensive approach to treatment.
When I last saw my pdoc when my NP was off ill he said I was doing better. Suggesting the meds at least help to some degree.
I try and rationalise things by saying that, contrary to what the anti psychiatry crew say, they don’t hand out APs like sweets to children.
When I admitted to poor compliance due to forgetfulness they could have decided to say “ok,forget about the AP” but instead put me on a depot. That would have been decided on past psychiatric history and not decided on a whim.
Even more than oral meds there isn’t a great rush to put the general population on an antipsychotic depot.
Given my regular comments about ASD/Asperger symptoms I was interested to note that risperdal along with aripiprazole is one of the meds approved of in the US for autism irritability and outbursts.
Irrespective of psychotic symptoms I’ve also been less prone to emotional outbursts when stressed since being on the depot.
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I know how I feel off meds. Life is a living hell. So I stay on them, even higher doses are often not enough for me. My versionof psychosis is likely more difficult than yours. I cant imagine coming off meds.
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People here will vary. I’ve always stated that any psychotic symptoms of mine are probably at the milder end of that spectrum . My worst thing is social interaction difficulties. With that I may well have it worse than you and several others here.
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Dont forget to stay away from drugs or alcohol also.
Some say they dont want to stop drugs or alcohol but if I would use them I would lose everthing.
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