based on my own experience it is something vital for them who refuse to take their meds any more or are mad of side effects of meds. If my psychiatrist which is a relative wasn’t listening to me and not changing my meds I was off the meds and killed myself one hundred times, but with this routine even in my worst state I had the feeling that next med will cure me and after a while and trying some antiphychotics I found which suits me and which is not and we invented a combination which is the best for me,now except 10 hours of sleeping I have no problem and I accomplish what I want and enjoy the life. Tell to us your experience and opinion, I think It’s an important thing cause I see persons here lived for years with terrifying side effects of their meds or symptoms of their illness without changing their med cause their psychiatrists don’t believe in changing meds or are prejudiced about a med, they cant and don’t feel the agony we go through while they are busy with their own scientific routines.
my psychiatrist is very nice. she is willing to try any med i request, so long as i’m briefed on possible side effects. we had a long chat on tuesday about raising my dose of haldol to 150mgs. she said i would know by 8 weeks of that dose whether it was going to do anything or not. personally, i don’t think it will but i’m willing to give it a try. like u, i think that u have to experiment. unfortunately, there are some meds i can’t even try simply because i have kids and the sedation is too much to allow me to function properly. i can’t sleep for ten hours as i have to be up at 6am with my son every morning. if i was on my own, maybe i’d try them but not whilst my kids have school or college or i won’t get up in time to take them to those places. plus, i have to drive and i don’t want to b sedated for that either. i’m sticking to the injectible meds right now and see how that goes. they r longer release so not so sedating and that’s what i need to be able to function as a parent. it’s all very well for people who don’t have kids or jobs to try everything but i and many others don’t have that luxury but i agree in principle with trying whatever you can. xxx
My current psychiatrist will move on to another med or easily switch doses if I am not doing well. She is willing to try different meds when I am uncomfortable. My last pdoc, kept me on the same meds out of caution even when I was not doing so well - same med different doses. I am no longer willing to stay on a med for a few months if a med is not working - I talk to my doctor and she waits a while and if there is no result she will change doses or move on to another med - I was on Abilify for years and 2 doctors, especially my last one, kept me on it because she was not very familiar with meds for schizophrenia or bipolar for that matter and was also afraid to rock the boat sort of speak
glad to here that you found the right way but I wrote this post cause I see people here who has been tortured by not changing their meds even for years.
I like my psychiatrist, she listens to my concerns and if I want to increase etc, she will.
My experience of changing meds isn’t pleasant, I wind up back in my engrained psychosis or depression which was my last experience, they took my of Citalopram due to prolonged QT interval, I slowly went down hill and if my mum and nurse didn’t intervene by having my doc put me on sertraline, I would either have attempted suicide or wound up with a psychotic break.
I hope one day I’ll be able to manage med changes, that I’d been on meds long enough that my brain has sorted itself out but if I can’t even come off my anti depressant how would I handle coming off my anti psychotic when even on it I’m still unstable… It scares me, more that a med change would lead to my impulsivity and suicide. When I’m psychotic, I self harm severely and get suicidal, thinking I have to stop them killing my family or save the world etc. I’m sure people can resonate with this.
I like the control, however limited I have at the moment, I can leave my house, speak (most of the time) properly and have the logic to not hurt myself and I can challenge my thoughts/voices with doubt which I never had before.
I hope I don’t have to go through a med change for a while!