Was for a few good months my junior year of college when I was on Zoloft & Risperidone, and taking Ativan for sleep at night. What a beautiful med combo that was. For that time, I really knew what it was like to be a regular person with a regular brain for the first time ever. And then Risperidone made me gain 30 lbs and get hyperprolactinemia so I was taken off, Zoloft messed up my bladder so badly I couldn’t sleep at night because of the unbearable urge to go that wasn’t relievable and I gained tolerance to Ativan so it stopped helping.
Sometimes life feels a bit like a cruel joke. What was your best med combo? Did it last?
My best was just 300 mg of seroquel when I first had it prescribed. Eventually it gave me sexual dysfunction which sucks. Now it seems every medication does, or maybe it is the cigarettes that cause It, I don’t know. But There was though a magical time where my meds didn’t give me side effects and I slept two hours less daily and felt more well rested.
When I was diagnosed psychotic depression I was on cymbalta, abilify, and Klonopin. It worked sooo well. I was able to work full time and mostly live a regular life. It worked so well that after a few years we thought I had magically gotten better and started the process of weaning me off the meds.
Then the next year I was in the hospital being diagnosed with sz and abilify never worked again after that.
I was good on Orap for ~25 years, although it never did work well on my religious delusions, which interfered with my music. I think the Vraylar I take now will be much better than the first generation antipsychotics. So far, so good.
Vraylar is my next one up, but I decided I didn’t want to start it at the same time I’m figuring out xyrem because I need to know what med is causing what effects. Once I figure out what the heck I’m doing with xyrem then I’ll tackle vraylar.
We’ve tried the abilify 3 times since then and it always causes crazy side effects. I’m always disappointed. I don’t know why I still get my hopes up every damn time.
I feel dumb even asking because I know you’re on top of this and have worked what angles you could, but what about Rexulti or Vraylar? Have you had about enough of tinkering or are you thinking of trying Lumateperone?
I tried going on it immediately after stopping it the first time and they got me to the max dose without it doing anything for my psychosis so it was shelved at that point. But then after being on the haldol and needed an extra something we’ve tried it 3 times and one time it caused my left lower leg and foot to swell so much in 3 days that I couldn’t even walk. The next time I lasted about 3 days again but it did something weird with my mouth or something. I don’t remember. It was years ago. But then the most recent time I lasted a whole week but head gained 9lbs in one week while still on a 1200 calorie a day diet so that want going to work. That most recent try was just in November. I probably won’t try it again. 3 times was enough to convince me.
After gaining 180 lbs I’ve all but sworn off atypicals, honestly. But I have thought about vraylar. But losing weight when I can barely walk is already really difficult. Hell, just maintaining is a chore. So I’m really nervous to try anything. But I think I need to. Something needs to change. I think I’ll try an antidepressant first, though. Maybe with less depression my PTSD symptoms won’t be so bad and then my psychotic symptoms won’t be so bad. One can dream anyways.
An AD might really help you. I get that it’s a scary leap when your symptoms get so freaking bad, but for me, anyway, controlling the depression controls the psychosis. I’m just straight up psychotic depression, but it seems like it would have to help you some, too.