the current antipsychotic medication is unsatisfactory, I take the second lowest dose of latuda 40 mg and i can’t even stand it. How do these torturers expect us to live on this Garbage? I can’t think straight, I can’t feel anything below my waistline, and my body masses increasing. How is this acceptable.
These things don’t even work! They make you look crazier than you really are too. You get “the look” When are they gonna create a god-damned med that doesnt ■■■■ us up? I used to be a health food nut now Im addicted to Atypicals
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I don’t think you look “crazy”. I hope for a med in the future that works well for you…
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the illness is bad enough, the treatments are terrible. This is why people don’t comply with their medication, and the doctors and social workers tell us to take our meds like were babys. Its unbelievable
thanks @chew That was me on just lamictal last year which is also a hideous med. Im sitting here thinking about offing myself and it occurs to me, Im unhappy about the medicine more than I am with the psychosis. If the medicine wasn’t so bad then I would take the stuff and move on, but its bad stuff. It makes my affect flat and people can tell i take meds. The pharmacist lady looks at me today like I had horns, The girl at the checkout counter looked skeeved out by me last night. I walked into dunking doughnuts today and some lady in a chair looked frightened like I mine as well have had a trench coat on and a shotgun
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Idk what to say other than please don’t hurt yourself.
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Thanks buddy Im too much of a pussy to hurt myself. I appreciate you’re concern too man, Im struggling with acceptance. All the coulda shoulda woulda’s. I was out last night and saw all these people coming home from work on the ferry from Manhattan. I thought to myself, these people have nothing on me except that I have a chemical imbalance that permits me from working.
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That’s good because I compare myself to people in suits on the train in so many other ways than just the illness. I blame the illness, I blame this, I blame that. I blame my character. I blame my laziness. I blame more. But you say I’m just as good as them…if it weren’t for the illness. Maybe one day you will feel equal 
regardless of the illness. !!
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Too true. I saw that thing about the male birth control study where it was recalled for further testing to improve it after only 20 people out of several hundred experienced intolerable side effects. All I could think of was how I wished they had done the same with psych meds! The majority of people on them experience bad side effects and a ton find them intolerable! Over half of all people with sz/psychotic disorders drop meds at some point because of side effects. How is that not a strong message that these drugs need serious improvement??
And from my experience mental health care providers are just oblivious to how awful it is being on these meds.
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My theory with meds these days is forget everything I know on it and start from scratch. It does take a good 6 months to really stabilize with symptoms and side effects. Have you change meds so many times and just not given them a chance?
Well, just want to write that anti-psychotics do work for some people. Years ago, they first tried me on Abilify, but it didn’t work because I’m allergic (dystonic reaction). Then tried me on Seroquel, and it works fine. Been on it for years. Not a cure but it improves me (helps concentration, energy level). No bad side effects. Unless I stop taking the Seroquel for a day or more.
It’s possible you don’t need anti-psychotics. If you’ve tried a variety already and all of them make you worse. Well, maybe you don’t need APs.
Medications, by definition, are supposed to help or improve you, not make you worse.
I realize there are other patients like you, but maybe … just maybe they don’t have the condition that the meds are designed to treat. So, it rises the question: why are doctors prescribing APs to patients that don’t need them?
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Let me quote part of a recent prescription information sheet I received in the mail with a refill:
“USES: This medication is used to treat certain mental/mood conditions (such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, sudden episodes of mania or depression associated with bipolar disorder). Quetiapine is known as an anti-psychotic drug (atypical type). It works by helping to restore the balance of certain natural substances (neruotransmitters) in the brain. This medication can decrease hallucinations and improve your concentration. It helps you to think more clearly and positively about yourself, feel less nervous, and take a more active part in everyday life. It may also improve your mood, sleep, appetite, and energy level. Quetiapine can help prevent severe mood swings or decrease how often mood swings occur.”
Seroquel (Quetiapine) helps concentration and energy level, in my case. Helps other things, too, listed here, such as sleep. So, I obviously have the Schizophrenia or Schizoaffective disorder that the medication is designed to treat.
I have a feeling there may be few patients here and there who think they need anti-psychotics but don’t. You can’t fake a severe mental disorder like Schizophrenia. I mean, you either have it or you don’t. The real question is why a doctor would prescribe an anti-psychotic to a patient who does not need it. Especially if the patient has tried certain medications (like anti-psychotics) and has not had success with any of them. Instead, the meds make them worse. Medications, by definition, are supposed to help or improve you.
What about chemo and radio therapy for cancer?
It might kill cancer cells, but it will sure as he’ll knock you for six.
Antipsychotics are prescribed mainly for psychosis and not just for schizophrenia. I agree they are also used off label and that is a contentious area.
Of course there might be a question as to whether someone has psychosis or not. I am not sure we, as patients, are the best judges of that.
I am not diagnosed with schizophrenia but have been described as having “psychotic symptoms” . If I am honest I struggle to see it. However a part of me considers that one is not put on a depot antipsychotic on a pure whim ,and that it is not a decision that is taken lightly.
Other people may spot things that I struggle to see.
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you probably shouldn’t worry too much about how other people look at you. you should feel proud that you are taking your meds. that’s a challenging first step for a lot of mentally ill people. usually the next challenge is adapting to the meds, being patient, and (after a period of time) seeing if it’s a good med for you.
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There may be some truth to this. Yeah, on the recent bottles of Seroquel I get, the label on it says take daily for “Psychosis” and for “Mood Stabilizer”.
Moved to Medications
I feel exactly the same way man. Exactly. I’m on Invega 12mg, highest dosage they’ll give you, plus Lithium and Neurontin. Keep gaining weight no matter how little I eat. I hate it 
When I first started taking Seroquel, it did add a little weight but not much. But for years now, I actually maintain the same weight.
I could be wrong but it’s pretty hard to gain weight if you don’t eat too much, you know? Sometimes, Seroquel can knock me out for 12+ hours of sleep. Impossible to eat when you’re sleeping. Eh?
If I eat one big meal or two separate meals per day, kind of hard for me to gain weight. I don’t even exercise, though I plan to start doing that … one of these days.
But I guess it varies from case to case.
Keep coming across these threads cant help but agree with it all! Infact people I talk to even complain of the side effects.
I was very shocked by the effects of atypicals and feel like i was tortured by them.
I am not a fan of the term ‘antipsychotic’. I prefer the term neuroleptic…
In my view APs don’t specifically tackle psychosis - more they dull our response to it. APs can be defined as meds which improve the experience of folk who suffer psychosis.
I think it is this property of neuroleptic which often makes them hard to tolerate. They greatly reduce our panicked response to psychosis (well in an ideal world). But they aren’t specific to psychosis. They influence our response to normal stimuli as well giving us side effects such as ahedonia and avolition.
Am not anti-med but I just feel in years to come doctors will look back at our current APs and wonder how so many folks tolerated them.
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