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Hello, I was prescribed olanzapine 10mg three years ago for postnatal psychosis. I have experienced side effects from this so they kept me on it sometimes upping my dose. I was also put on sertraline two years ago. I am now on 10.7mg of Olanzapine and 100mg of sertraline.I plan to lower my olanzapine 5% every two weeks until I get to a lower dose of 2.5mg then I will lower my sertraline before coming fully off the olanzapine. I have not yet discussed this with my doctor I will ask him to prescribe me a lower dose every three months when I see him as he does not agree with me coming off of it completely.

Hi folks, First of all I'm new to this site, so feel free to tell me I'm in the wrong area or redirect me.. But here's my story... I currently have what I think is severe anhedonia. Last July, I was a bit depressed (I stress a bit, not majorly).......doctor gave me lexapro 10. After taking this, I vomited on the first night and developed sleep problems. Later in the week, I was given 25 seroquel which apparently would help balance out adverse effects of lexapro.......by the end of the week, I wasn't sleeping and I was suicidal. I subsequently was admitted to hospital. In hospital, I got more and more meds thrown at me and my mid august I was on 125 seroquel, 30 mirtazapine, 20 lexapro, 20 Olanzapine/Zyprexa....My main problem was the medication ripped my stomach apart.....the docs didn't believe me and just gave me more and more meds. I left hospital anyway on the concoction I mentioned.....I spent the following four months on these meds. During those four months, I felt no emotion whatsever, nothing. I felt suicidal, and that I would never recover. I had no desire to do anything. I just stayed in bed until late in the day, even though my sleep did not feel like real sleep. By mid November, i realised that the medication was messing me up, I demanded that I gradually come off everything. On that day, the doctor dropped the mirtazapine, and cut everything else in half. There was a quick taper, maybe too quick, and by christmas eve I was off everything. There were brief windows of emotion during the taper but still 95% anhedonia. Days after I went off everything....I cried for the first time in six months.....days later I laughed for the first time in months... I'm now 6 weeks off everything, I had huge headaches up unitl last week. My stomach started to improve after going off everything and is on the mend. However, I'm still worried about emotions/desires/thoughts etc.....over the last six weeks....I've had maybe 5 occassions where I felt strong positive emotions...and maybe 3 times where I've been sad/angry to the point of proper crying. outside of those 8 occassions, there's still an awful amount of flat feeling, apathy etc... I'm worried and wonder how long or if I will recover at all. Feedback welcome!!

I would be incredibly grateful for some advice about antidepressant withdrawal. I don't trust my doctors or psychiatrists anymore. I am 40 years old with no history of mental illness until about 11 months ago, when I began overreacting to a number of problems in my life like skin issues and threats of lawsuits, and this led to a two-month period of psychosis that gave rise to severe depression (according to the doctors here). It was very intense. I live in Frankfurt, Germany. Once I began to calm down and realize that these fears were unjustified (around February), the depression symptoms seemed to get worse, and I began to have physical problems like dizziness, vertigo, and derealization. This led me to think there was some neurological damage, and so I had an MRI and EEG done but with no findings. I began seeing a psychiatrist around this time, who gave me a prescription for Olanzapine, but I didn’t take it due to my strong aversion to pharmaceutical medication. However, by mid-March I was feeling so awful and had starting having difficulty sleeping. I could fall asleep, but I would wake up after three or four hours and couldn’t fall back asleep. I didn’t see any other option but to check into an inpatient clinic, where the doctors started me on 5mg Olanzapine and 50mg Sertraline. The Olanzapine helped me sleep, and I was hopeful that the antidepressant would begin working quickly. After a few days, the dizziness and derealization subsided. However, after about seven weeks (and increases to 100mg and 150mg), I was still feeling depressed, and the doctors switched me to Venlafaxine in late May, initially 75mg but quickly increased to 225mg. It was at this time that I left the inpatient clinic with the intent of continuing Venlafaxine at home. Occasionally I tried skipping the Olanzapine, but whenever I did I couldn’t stay asleep. And after six weeks of Venlafaxine, I felt no better and decided to discontinue (against the advice of my psychiatrist). I tapered down to 150mg to 75mg to 37.5mg over a period of 15 days (each dose for five days). I completed the taper in mid-July. I didn’t notice any withdrawal symptoms during the taper, but once I was off completely, the brain zaps, nausea, and restless legs began. But I also noticed that I no longer needed the Olanzapine to sleep well, as if the Venlafaxine had been causing the insomnia. The brain zaps were not painful and didn’t bother me too much since I was expecting them to go away soon. And after about two weeks, the zaps were hardly noticeable and I was feeling much better. I was happy about this because it was just a few days before a vacation I had planned to Florida. Throughout the entire 10-day vacation site-seeing and soaking up the sun, I hardly noticed any symptoms at all and my mood was great. It was as if I was completed cured. Unfortunately, the very day I returned to Germany at 7am from a long overnight flight (this past Sunday), I began feeling unwell again, like nauseous or a queasy feeling in my stomach and chest accompanied by low moods. I was hoping it was due to jet lag, but it’s been an entire week now and there hasn’t been any improvement. I can still sleep well fortunately but I have a pronounced feeling of being unwell most of the time and I feel very fatigued and unmotivated to do much. No dizziness, pain, or cognitive issues. Given that I felt virtually symptom-free while in vacation, are my current symptoms are more likely to be a continuation of the withdrawal or some sort of (travel-induced) depression relapse, or something else? Could I already be going through windows and waves just a month after stopping the antidepressants? Just to summarize, I was on antidepressants from mid-March to mid-July, including the two-week taper. So about eight weeks on Sertraline (mostly 100mg) followed immediately by eight weeks on Venlafaxine (mostly 225mg). I was also taking Olanzapine for most of that time, occasionally taking Pipamperone instead. Thanks in advance for the help and insight!

Hi Everyone! A friend of my recommended this site where l hope to get some support. For 2years ago around the covid l collapsed mentaly and the Anafranil l used to take did not worked anymore. After that my doc tried 10different antidepressants (ssri ssrn etc) none of those seemd to work. I feltbso bad that l spent 4week in a mental clinic where they described my Parnassan (10mg in the evening) Agomelatin (50mg in the evening) Lamolep (100mg in the evening), but somehow l dont feel better. At the moment my anxiety is that strong that l had to take Frontin (benzo) 0,25mg to calm down. I am so fed up this meds those are poisoning me l am sure. I dont know what to do, how to start getting off them. l take also some supplements like magnesium, omega3, copper, zinc, b complex, probiotics l would appreciate some support! thank you

Hi there, I am hoping to be able to leverage the wisdom of this community to shed some light into my personal situation and help decide possible courses of action. The only people I can speak to in real life about this are my well-meaning family/friends (who think Doctors have all the answers) and my psychiatrist/doctor/psychologist who only respond with medication-related suggestions. Up until this point I have been relatively ill-informed of the pitfalls of withdrawing from psychiatric drugs and I’ve clearly made some big errors along the way. However, my goal (like many I’m sure) is to be drug-free but of course this isn’t something my psychiatrist supports. I am sorry in advance this is such an essay. [And apologies for all bold - my javascript bold function is broken!] About me: I’m a 30 year old British female living in Amsterdam, with a full-time job in Marketing. Where it all began: Just over 5 years ago, at age 25, I experienced a very intense mania with extreme psychosis and was hospitalised. The psychosis was triggered by a melange of stress, diet, lack of sleep and smoking a joint (which I used to do regularly in my teens and 20s with no ill-effects). In the psychiatric ward I was given Olanzapine at 7.5mg dose and gradually over a few weeks, the psychotic symptoms disappeared, and I was discharged. My doctor gave me the loose diagnosis as either Schizophrenia or Bipolar I, but was leaning towards Bipolar--so that’s what I’ve stuck with (but to be honest I’m not sure if it’s correct). After my discharge, I reduced the Olanzapine from 7mg to 5mg and then to 2.5mg over the next few months, and stopped taking Olanzapine completely since the side effects of weight gain and libido loss were not tolerable (with my Doctor’s blessing). For a few months, all was well, until I started getting insomnia, characterised by heart palpitations, feeling of mini panic attacks when trying to fall asleep (and therefore not being able to drift to sleep), and very poor quality sleep when I did manage to sleep. My psych recommended I try taking Seroquel instead, and started me off on 700mg per night. The (Good) Seroquel Years Over the next 4 years, I led a perfectly normal and healthy life--even moved to a new country and changed my job--taking Seroquel with minimal side effects. I managed to reduce the Seroquel from 700mg down to 100mg over 2-3 years, and was feeling better and better the lower the dose (with much less sedation and grogginess the lower the dose). I also switched to a vegan diet & cut down on booze and partying in this time which also helped a lot! Finally, I went from 100mg to 50mg around May 2017, and still felt no adverse affects (only positive improvements). My only concern was the niggling fear that I had become dependent on the Seroquel for sleep. The Disruption - coming off Seroquel cold turkey and switching to Olanzapine In August 2017, completely out of the blue, I suddenly stopped being able to sleep. What then followed was a few months of terrible broken sleep and heavy reliance on Zopiclone (alternating nights) to be able to keep up appearances at work, do my job and maintain normality. My therapist at the time suggested I increase the dose of Seroquel to counter the insomnia, so in October, I moved back up to 100mg Seroquel (occasionally 150mg). This worked a treat for the insomnia, however I suddenly started experiencing very regular involuntary muscle movements (more than a twitch, less than a jerk, around 2x per minute in all different areas of my body), and became very worried this was Tardive Dyskinesia. My Doctor (I didn’t have a psychiatrist at this point) told me I should stop the Seroquel immediately, since this was a serious side effect. I quickly got referred to a psychiatrist, who put me on Olanzapine 5mg instead. The twitching stopped, the sleep was fine, but I hated being on Olanzapine (heavily sedated/low mood/very withdrawn/binge eating/weight gain etc.). Recent struggles with Olanzapine After 2 months on 5mg Olanzapine and its shi*tty side effects, I halved the dose to 2.5mg and stayed on that for 6 weeks with no WD, but annoyingly only a very light reduction in the side effects. Complaining to my psychiatrist, she suggested I try the antipsychotic Abilify (10mg) instead, and told me to switch directly (a hard stop of Olanzapine!). Abilify does not block histamine receptor like Olanzapine and Seroquel, and it did nothing for my insomnia. My sleep started to deteriorate the second I stopped taking Olanzapine, and as soon as it was fully out of my system my insomnia returned with a vengeance - I was not able to sleep without Zopiclone, and even with Zopiclone I would only get 4 hours sleep then get woken up by loud, piercing tinnitus and moderate anxiety. I managed to live like this for only 10 nights, some nights getting no sleep at all, other nights getting less than 4 hours with Zopiclone. Annoyingly all the Olanzapine side effects stopped and I felt great, except for the crippling insomnia which stopped me functioning. I gave in and reluctantly switched back to Olanzapine, which almost brings us to the present moment. Where I'm at Today Ever since going back on the Olanzapine (2.5mg), my sleep problems haven’t really gone away: I can get off to sleep fine, but keep getting woken up by the piercing tinnitus and ‘high energy’ around 4am; often I can’t get back to sleep. I’ve tried increasing the Olanzapine back up to 5mg and that isn’t helping much. Before anyone goes there, my sleep hygeine is pretty good. I've also stopped drinking alcohol completely and have a regular bedtime of 10pm. Now I am starting to panic that not even Olanzapine can help me live a normal life. I am plagued by the fear that I am dependent on Olanzapine to get any sleep and that beneath it lies an incurable insomnia. Regardless, I cannot fathom living my life long-term on Olanzapine and I need an escape plan to give me hope (even if I’m not ready to come off it yet). Where I could use some guidance: >> I am not sure if a lot of what I am experiencing with regards to the insomnia is related to withdrawal, even though I am still on the Olanzapine - is that possible? OR is it more likely that my insomnia is the beginnings of psychosis/schizophrenia and therefore I need antipsychotics to not be psychotic. >> Clearly, I’ve messed up my system somehow with all the medication switching and dose changes (none of the reductions have been that gradual). Is there a good strategy to get me back on track? >> Has anyone had any luck with undergoing biochemical nutrient therapy to help support their taper? This is something I'm looking into. >> (Not really a question) I just find the prospect of tapering and inevitably re-living through insomnia for a sustained period of time incredibly impossible, especially with a full-time job. I just don’t know how anyone does it... I can barely last a week - and I also have the threat of having another psychosis &hospitalisation being induced by insomnia. I realise my situation is not that extreme at the moment, but I am already losing hope and am in a pretty dark place with depressive thoughts about my prospects. I am not sure how I will manage mentally and physically if things get worse (which I suspect they inevitably will). Thank you in advance for reading this far.

Hello, first, I want to emphasize that English is not my native language. A brief overview of my medical history: Since the age of 21, I have had depressive episodes treated with Seroxat and Zoloft. Between these episodes, several years could pass. I easily stopped taking the antidepressants, even though I didn't gradually reduce the doses. Due to mild depression, in September 2021, I asked my psychiatrist to prescribe me an antidepressant again. After just two weeks, I felt better, my energy returned, and the depressive thoughts disappeared. I wasn't aware that the antidepressant had actually triggered hypomania. In March 2023, I stopped taking the antidepressant again. In May, the depression returned with full force. I went back to the psychiatrist and told them about the hypomania. She prescribed Zoloft (50mg), lamotrigine (50mg), and olanzapine (5mg) for sleep, even though I didn't have sleep problems at that time. My condition didn't improve; in fact, I felt like I had lost myself, my emotions, and the will to live. I also experienced a rapid heart rate. The diagnosis of bipolar 2 was not confirmed. My psychiatrist even claims that I don't have bipolar disorder. I suspect that olanzapine is the main "culprit," which is why I tried to stop taking it CT. Immediately, insomnia appeared, and I had to restart taking it. That's when I started researching how to safely taper off this drug and found this website. Since September, I have been gradually reducing the dose of the medication every 3 weeks. At first, it was more than 10%, so now I'm at a dose of 1.125mg since January 10th. I usually notice withdrawal symptoms after about 6-7 days. Initially, I had nausea, diarrhea, difficulty sleeping, anhedonia, and depression. The nausea and diarrhea are now tolerable, and I think kefir has helped me the most. My sleep is between 4 and 8 hours. It's hard for me that my emotions have dulled. For a while, I couldn't even cry. I have managed to do so twice in the meantime. As contradictory as it may sound, I was happy that I could cry. I live in constant fear of how intense the withdrawal symptoms will be. On this difficult path of getting off olanzapine, I would like to hear about experiences. With a reduction in dose, under the condition that the dose is reduced by 10% from the last dose, do the symptoms become milder? Will my emotions at least return a little during the reduction? Will I be a little happier? Is it possible that Zoloft is not working because I'm taking olanzapine? Regarding a potential bipolar disorder, I am going through real agony. I constantly question the last 27 years - have I ever been hypomanic without realizing it? Was the hypomania caused by Seroxat really bipolar disorder? Will I have to take medication for the rest of my life? I have lost trust in psychiatrists. I feel lonely, ashamed, and I'm not even able to talk to my husband, sister, or mom about what I'm currently going through. My husband doesn't even know how olanzapine affects me or that I'm trying to get off it. By the way, as I write this, I'm crying, which I suppose is good. I wonder what I have done so wrong to go through what I'm going now and if I will ever be the way I used to be.

Hi, I'm Guile, and need help on tapering olanzapine. I am interested in buying a scale but all the milligram ones on amazon seem to have bad reviews of people complaining they're not accurate for milligrams.

Hi, I have previously been on Olanzapine for around 3 years and I managed to get off ok. However, I have vaccine injury and M.E and I started again 3 months ago on 10mg. The olanzapine was doing me no favours so I came off which I took around a month to do. I feel absolutely terrible. The fatigue is so bad and the stomach issues are horrendous. After about a week of stopping, I had an awful taste in my mouth and felt as though I had been poisoned. I am not sure if I should start again and taper much more slowly or do I have to ride it out? I feel lost and would appreciate any input.

Hello everyone I have severe insomnia since I went off Olanzapine 2 years ago (February 2022). I sleep for 90 min only and then wake up. So my sleep is very poor due to this interruption. My psychiatrist ignored the problem and gave me promethazine (25 mg) to mitigate the effects. One year later (March 2023) I saw a specialist, she prescribed me a better sleep hygiene and 2 mg of melatonin, but this came to an halt when I got Long Covid in May 2023, due to its severe fatique. She said it’s curable later as well. But I am suffering and therefore tried to get back on olanzapine. The usual side effects reappeared but I still wake up every 90 minutes. I am currently on 7,5 mg. Its effects feel less potent than when I last took it. Shall I increase the dose maybe up to 15 mg? What would you advise me to do? I would be thankful if you can make transparent where you got your knowledge from (own experiences, etc.). Please keep in mind that my ability to read and concentrate is compromised so I am not able to do a lot of research on my own. Thank you Nouyoudo

Hello all. I'm glad to have found this community. So back in March of 2015, I was forced to go see a psychiatrist after coming out of a mental hospital. I was only in the mental hospital from January to March of 2015. My doctor first put me on 10mg Lexapro and 10mg Olanzapine. Some months later, I complained that the Lexapro wasn't doing anything for my depression, so he switched me to Prozac and lowered the Olanzapine to 5mg. He prescribed both Prozac and Olanzapine for depression and the Olanzapine for what he believes may be schizophreniform disorder, which I'm pretty sure I do not have. I think it's a misdiagnosis. I have not nor have I ever heard voices or had hallucinations or delusions related to schizophrenia. I do have depression though. Fast forward to today, I've tried quitting the Prozac and Olanzapine cold turkey on April 26, and then I had to resume them on May 4 because I suffered bad withdrawals, especially the insomnia which was from discontinuing Olanzapine. So I've now learned the hard way that you cannot quit these meds cold turkey. The reason I want to quit these meds is because I believe they're not doing anything for my depression and I feel like I'm just a slave to these drugs and I'm just taking them to not experience the withdrawals. I believe I don't have schizophreniform disorder, so I don't need to be on Olanzapine. In fact, the only reason I take Olanzapine is just help me go to sleep. And I don't like the Prozac because it dulls my emotions/makes me emotional numb. I don't feel sad, but I don't feel happy either. There are days where the depression comes back and then it's gone, but the depression is still there. The meds are just masking it. Now, I spoke to my psychiatrist on April 26, 2021 and I told him I don't wanna take these meds anymore and I want him to help me taper off. He told me he doesn't recommend I stop taking them because he's afraid I might end up in a mental hospital again. He said if I really wanted to, I could just quit these meds cold turkey. Well, I learned the hard way that you cannot do that because of the withdrawals. So my doctor is of no help and not listening to me. I was trying to search for information on how to stop taking meds like Prozac and Olanzapine. And the posts I've read on Reddit say to just taper off of them and never go cold turkey. But it doesn't really go into great detail of how to taper off the meds or what the process is. And then I found this forum and I found lots of helpful posts and tips. But what I didn't anticipate was that I didn't know tapering off of meds was going to be such a tedious process.

I've been reading this site for a few weeks and while I know what I did goes completely against most of the advice here, I seem to have successfully beaten the ill effects of Zyprexa/Olanzapine. Here's my story...after going from 15mg to 12.5mg from my psych, I knew I had to get off these meds because they were causing many, many health problems. I was exhausted, I was swollen, I was experiencing severe muscle pain, and I was having memory issues. I was prescribed this for schizophrenia, but I had gone cold turkey off the meds before and guess what? There was no difference. I have a wonderful husband who was in support of this. After the psych kept me on 12.5, he agreed to taper me off in September. We went down to 7.5 for a week and then I decided to just call it quits against his judgment. He thought I was playing with fire and guess what? I was! I immediately spiraled into negative thinking and wasn't getting much sleep. However, he was really supportive of me the entire time. Rather than encourage me to get back on the meds, he helped me to figure out the root cause of everything. Once we talked about childhood trauma and anxiety triggers, I was able to start recovering. I also got away from two major stressors in my life (a church that made me feel guilty all the time and a job filled with negative coworkers). After a lot of long nights and taking action (and a lot of quality discussion with my husband), everything happened. I stopped thinking in negative loops. The voices stopped entirely--without meds!! We agreed to put the past in the past and went forward with looking at living in the present and the future. At first I barely slept, but now am getting just shy of 6 hours a night--not bad for only having been off for 5 weeks. I'd like to get 6-7 but considering I was barely getting 5 a week ago, I think it will happen. I'm rarely having negative thoughts now. All the adverse effects of the meds are gone now too. Now...I have a bigger question. I have a psych appointment next week. I haven't told them anything about this taper!! (If you can even call it a proper taper!) What do I say to them, if anything? Should I try to cancel? The one roadblock here is that I still don't have my husband on as my consent person. The one on there is an abusive family member who refuses to believe I can ever exist without meds. Here's my plan, and please let me know if this is a good one...go to the psych, change consent to my husband and tell them to never contact the abusive family member again, have the appointment as usual but not mention the taper, say how well I'm doing, and cancel the next one. I just don't want the psych to think I'm "crazy" or anything.

Hi everyone. Below is the Zoloft tapering schedule I have followed to the present. I didn't notice any withdrawal until dipping below 25mg. As I've gone down from 75mg towards the 50mg and 25mg marks, I began noticing huge improvements (needing less sleep, better/clearer thinking, more sex drive, caring more about work and meeting deadlines). Now I'm experiencing withdrawal (insane bloating, brain fog, needing way more sleep, vertigo, dizziness, lack of coordination, and irritibility) Schedule I followed: March/April 2017: began Zoloft 75mg November 2017: I went down from 75 -> 62.5mg by reducing by 2.5mg every couple of days December 2017: stayed at 62.5mg all month January 2018: went down from 62.5 -> 50mg, reducing 2.5mg every couple of days February: stayed at 50mg all month March to April: went down from 50 -> 25mg, reducing 2.5mg every couple of days early May: stayed at 25mg for 2 weeks late May to present: went down from 25 ->12.5mg, reducing 2.5mg every couple of days. I've been on 12.5mg for one week. The current side effects are almost debilitating. My question is what you think is best to do now? Should I go back up to 25? Should I wait until I stabilize at 12.5mg and then do the 10%/month taper? My worry is that I probably won't stabilize at 12.5mg because it's not even a therapeutic dose, so if I just wait here for a month I'm just prolonging the withdrawal. Any feedback would be much appreciated as I'm torn on what to do next! Thanks to anyone who responds ❤️

Hello. I´ve been doing a taper from Olanzaine, on and off, since middle of 2017. Now I´ve come to a stop, and I am ever greatful for any input. Let me explain. This is what happened: Started at 10mg in early 2017. After a few months i started to taper, with a cut of 2.5mg every 3 yeeks. I ended up at a dose of 2.5mg, then stopped taking it all together. 2 weeks later I went back to 2.5mg and stayed there for 8 months. I felt fine but very dull, as what this medicine does. Then went ahead and tried again. I cut 1 fourth of the tablet (2,5mg) and stayed for 3 weeks. Went fine. Then did another fourth, and was down at a half tablet. Went fine. At the next cut, down to 1 fourth of a tablet,, it got too much for the nervous system, and there was a panic attack. To stop it, i took another half tablet, then continued by going back a step, taking it slower. Then down at 1 fourt of a tablet. Stayed for 3 months. All felt fine. No symptoms and the side effects from the medicine, was minimal. Later, 1 year ago. I started again. This time harder to get a precise dose each day. (Did not know about liquid tapper) By crushing a (eye-measured) fourth-piece, then removing 1 third of it. Means that about 33% was taken off. I stayed for 3 weeks, then took away another 33%. This got too much a short while after, and had another panic attack. Had to take 6 tablets of 2.5mg to stop it. Then I went back to 1 fourth of a tablet again. Felt fine, and stayed for 2 months. Then i started again, much more slowly. Still measuring by eye. After a few months the current dose was a 16th of a whole tablet. Nervous system was not recovering at that rate and got issues with sleep and could not have regular days any longer, with all the stress. Then I started measure by liquid, thinking that a stable precise dose would help. It did not. Started having panic attacks again, and develope symptoms as chronic tinnitus, dark spot in my vision, indigestion. I went up slowly, going from 1ml to 2ml then up to 3ml (which would be 1/8th of a tablet) Panic attacks happened more frequent, and felt worse the more i raised the dose. Went back to 1 fourth of a tablet which was the last dose i was stable at. This was 1 week ago. I still have these attacks, or nervous system attacks. I cannot even read and process a book, or watch a televesion without feeling extremely tense. Nor going to the supermarket, without feeling of panic. "Processing" things seems to be the issue. Still having chronic tinnitus and vision issues. Also heart pains. Why do I not get the effect off 1 fourth of a pill as i did 1 year earlier? Is it a matter of time? Should I give it time? Could taking 1 big dose of 10mg make things better, seeing that last time i was fine after a big dose? Should I raise the dose a bit and then give it time? And so, by how much should the raise be? I´ve read this, https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/topic/22025-fluctibelle-don´t-know-what-to-do/?do=findComment&comment=463258 but I´d like a more personal response. I am MUCH greatful for any help or input.

I had the first manic and psychotic break at 2006, I was 28, mother of a small child. I was admitted to the ER and given a high dose of olanzapine and mood stabilizer, sleeping pills. I don't even remember those first few days, I was locked in a psych ward without any visit from a psychiatrist for 3 weeks. Then I begged to go home (still psychotic but they didn't know) and they let me go home, where I continued the treatment, although I was feeling really unwell, desperate even. With time I got better, then went to a private psychiatrist that put me on quietapine and a mood stabilizer. I took the meds 2 years, struggling to lead a normal life. My brain wasn't functioning well, I felt incapacitated. I managed to find a job but I wasn't happy there to put it mildly and even though I was taking the meds I ended up manic and psychotic again, I divorced my husband, the police went to get me at work to take me to the hospital... This time they didn't commit me and I ended up taking arpiprazol, sleeping pills, and maybe a mood stabilizer. I lost the job, went into depression, but I found the doctor that still is my doctor today. He took me off aripriprazol when he could and I started taking lamotrigine. I never sought a job again because I felt humilliated by the whole situation, I eventually got together with my husband because our separation was all due to my mental health problems at the time. I stayed home with a lot of trauma and low self-esteem for 5 years but with no symptoms. My husband gor me a part time job in his company and that's what I do now. But in 2015 my doctor went to another hospital and I got a new one. I didn't dislike her, I had a crisis that year and after depression. I was put on olanzapine and sleeping pills, and when the olanzapine was over the sleeping pills remained so my brain got addicted to them. She gave me an antidepressant that got me manic and I was miserable, I decided to take matters in my own hands. I quit the antidepressants and the sleeping pills, changed my diet, started exercising (I was fat from the drugs) and lost 15kg while trying to control my mania with olanzapine but I didn't take enough and had another crisis, this was 2017. I was committed and took a huge dose of olanzapine and all the other meds again, the doctor told me that medication was for life and I nodded. As soon as I got out of the hospital sought out my actual psychiatrist that followed me in 2009. I said I wanted the least ammount of meds possible. I started making a very detailed diary of meds and symptoms and slowly got off of everything but olanzapine. He thought I should take preventively 5mg everyday but that dose makes me less human, so I went down to 2.5mg and he was very pleased with how I functioned although I was in a bad depression. In last May the depression finally lifted and I started exercising more and lost 10kg that meanwhile I had got from olanzapine. This winter I'm reducing even more olanzapine, my plan is to wean it off and try another antipsychotic in the spring doesn't mess with my sleep. I'm sleeping badly and having anxiety but I don't want this med anymore, or at least not take it everyday. It's a long story, I started trusting the doctors and doing everything they said but today I'm way more critical. Everyone is surprised when I say the little I take. My seasonality is also something peculiar, I don't get manic or psychotic in autumn of winter so I'm weaning off now. I'll get there eventually, wish me luck.

Please help me , I have been taking 3 meds ( Olanzapine 5mg , Quetiapine 400mg and Amitrptyline 150mg ) for over 2 years , The last 2 months were very Hard , suddenly I start having Panic attacks , depression , fatigue , 0 appetite , Insomnia ; I've read that it can be from reaching the tolerance , tolerance is when the drugs don't work as they use it because the body get adapted to them , I am pretty sure that I am having tolerance because I start getting my old feelings for the first time . I didn't find anyone that had a similar experience ; Please help , Should I stop the medications ? or i have to just wait ? I don't want to increase my dose or to swicth to other drugs .

I wish I new what i know now. Taking whatever was given whilst in a mess. I would like to stop the olanzapine first, I am using digital scales. Which are quite acurate but under 1mg i dont think they will cut it . Has anybody tapered using scales all the way down?

Hello, My name is Tom As per my signature I have been on Olanzapine 5mg for 2 years and Paliperiodone trinza 300 mg for about 9 months. My biggest concern with coming off olanzapine is the insomnia. Are there any success stories of coming off olanzapine. I would help with my motivation... I plan to taper 10% a week of olanzapine of each dosage. I.e. 5mg .5, 4.5mg .45 etc etc The doctors dont want to taper me off paliperiodone trinza. My next injection is due 7th of march and it should come out of my system in the coming weeks Any advice is appreciated

Firstly, thankyou for allowing me to join this group. I have come here seeking answers (hopefully). This is not about myself but a close relative. They have been suffering from anxiety & feeling low for the past year. 3 months ago things were getting worse so her Doctor put her on Zoloft (not sure of dose). After about 3 weeks she was feeling worse but her doctor told her to stick with it. At the 8 week mark she was very distraught & her Dr told her to wean off it. I believe it was 1/2 then 1/4 over a month. Approx 10 days later she tried to commit suicide. Thankfully she survived. She now has extreme anxiety to the point of shaking & saying the same negative sentences over & over & over. She is now on a cocktail of Mirtazapine, Diazepam & Olanzapine. 3 weeks later & no improvement, in fact getting worse. How does someone go from being anxious & depressed to an absolute non functioning mess overnight...I wouldn't have thought that weaning off zoloft after 8 weeks would cause this disaster. I know this isn't about tapering off antidepressants but I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else. Thankyou in advance for any insight...

Ok so I was put on Olanzapine for sleep. I was on it as needed for about 3 months. I didn't take it everyday, just when I could not sleep. I wanted to get off of it so I started to discontinue use of it. I started realizing that around day 5 of not taking it I would stop sleeping. I thought this to be strange so I started researching and discovered the issues coming off it. I contacted my doctor who told me to just stop taking it because I hadn't taken a lot of it also the med was giving me horrible apathy toward life. I was given 5mg tablets and I would cut them in half. So roughly 2.5mg was my dose twice a week. When I stopped taking it I was landed in the psych ward where they put me on Vraylar. The vraylar took my symptoms away but gave me akathasia. I stopped taking it once they discharged me. I have been off the olanzapine for a month now. At first I had anxiety but that went away after some time and I was improving. Around week 4 I lost the ability to sleep well. That is when the hell began and I have slowly been getting worse. I am miserable right now. I don't know what to do! I fear I am too far out to reinstate but I am too miserable to go on like this for much longer. I also fear getting that apathy again. Help!

Hi,Im a new member.Last night i reinstated 2.5 zyprezza as my dr took me off 2.5 cold turkey and i have been sick for 7 months.In a fortnight he wants to reduce to 1.25mg.I have heard to reduce by 10 per cent.Would it be ok to go straight from 2.5 to 1.25 after 2 weeks of use.I just dont know what to di

Hello. Not sure where to start or how much to say but here goes. I was prescribed olazapine 10mg a day by a doctor back in March this year. I was prescribed it for depression, mood swings, irritability, paranoia, and insomnia. At first it was fine. I felt better and started sleeping fine. Over time I gained weight, but I managed it by a good diet and some exercise. What bothered me was as time when on I became really apathetic, I had little to no energy to do anything, I was sleeping but having really weird dreams, and sometimes I would have these nerve twitches where my wrist would bend back and or my legs would clench...especially right as I was falling asleep. I felt like it if I stopped taking the meds I would get my energy back and regain my desire to do things. When I told my doctor I wanted to quit he didn't say a thing about tapering or withdrawal effects. So I stopped taking it. For the first few days after discontinuing the meds I did feel great. I had all this energy and I was jumping out of bed to go walk, take pictures, and do things. Then around day 3 or 4 after stopping bam I couldn't sleep at all. My stomach was upset, I had a constant headache, I was anxious and irritable. This continued and I got one night of partial sleep over the first week. The second week was more of the same except with anxiety like I've never felt in my life. I was so anxious I could hardly sit still. I could feel my heart thumping inside my chest all day long. I started doing research on the internet to see what was up and what I could do. I tried everything. Vitamins, magnesium, fish oil, CBD gummies, benadryl, nothing would let me sleep or relax. The constant anxiety and the feeling that I couldn't sit still along with the insomnia started me thinking about self harm. I contemplated going to the ER a couple times and begging for help, as if they could do anything. I went to the doctor that prescribed me the meds and when I told him about the withdraws he just shrugged his shoulders and said hugh. I couldn't take it anymore, and after something like 13 or 14 days from stopping I took a pill after dinner. That was last night. I fell asleep around 10:30, woke up once around 2:00 and fell back asleep until 6:00. My anxiety is down a noticeable amount, but my heart is still thumping and I'm not happy about this medication at all as it seems that now I must take the stuff or suffer horribly. I wish I could go back in time so bad and never start taking the stuff. The withdraws were probably the worst I've ever felt in my life and I'm almost 50. I want to get off this med. So my plan is once I stabilize on 10mg to do a tapper, I've been reading about tapering on the forums here. Word of encouragement and advise are welcome.

Hello: I am new to this forum. I am tapering zyprexa. I was put on 10 mg in the hospital at the beginning of December. In the first week of January, I cut down to 8.50, then 7.5. for 10 days. Right now I am at 6.25 mg, and have been at that level for 1 week. They decided to put me on zoloft in the hospital as it "works fast" the doctors said, and is being used "until the zoloft kicks in". I am very impatient to get off zyprexa, and figured if I join your group, I would get support from people to help me be patient and wait enough time between cuts. Still figuring out how to do the signature. Will add it when I do. I am also on a whopping dose of 200 mg Zoloft, also given in the hospital. Before that, I had been 6 months free of Zoloft after tapering it for at least 3 years or even more. It was a huge disappointment to end up in the hospital and to have to go on it again.

I took Ativan since march 2020, I just began tapering since 2 month, (after a try 6 months a go). I get very intense waves of anxiety but what bothers me is the chest pain (left side most of time). I went to cardiologist twice, they said you heart is okay but I keep get very anxious because of it. Does anyone relate to that?? Thanks

Hello fellow withdrawers (if that's a word), I'm Bokart and I'm here on a journey to quit my medication of Olanzapine. Down to 7,5 mg at the moment (see my signature). My story short: back in February 2015 I got admitted in psych ward due to psychosis (due to my destroyed sleep because of my night-shift work). There began my involuntary medication of Olanzapine, which pulled me out of a psychosis, so at least it did some good. I was released from the hospital after two weeks of being there. Now, after jojoing with my olanzapine dose (see signature), I'm finally set to quit it for good. I found this community after searching for succesfull withdrawal stories on the internet and found this community to be great, people being helpful and supportive and giving good advice... I know it can get rough when I approach smaller doses so I do know I will need support. And hopefully I can give support too and offer people hope after and during my taper. I know lots of people are in the same boat as me. Why I want to quit? I got no sexuality anymore, my motivation lacks big time, even personal hygiene is suffering because of that. I can't memorize things like before - learning is difficult. I have very little emotions left in me, basically I'm a dumbed down version of myself nowadays with this drug. I have little social skills - which I would badly need because I plan on working with children in school so some situational awareness is needed (I might have to quit my studies due to me making no progress in my studies... due to this drug). No happines, no enjoying things, lethargy and demotivation... About my psychosis, after it was gone I haven't had any symptoms of it returning (like delusions, paranoia, hallucinations), even after trying to quit my drug cold turkey once, which I see as a good sign. Now I don't want to slip into psychosis again so I need to be extra careful with my taper. After I hit 5,625 mg I will go on tapering by feeling, so no reductions until I feel stable enough. My main concern is sleep. I have a prescribed medication of temazepam (a benzodiazepine), which I can use when my insomnia has hit a threshold of needing immediate attention. I'm trying to limit my use of it to every three days to prevent tolerance and dependence (I know benzodiazepine withdrawals can be bad). But the thing is, lack of sleep led me to psychosis once, so it is a big deal to me. I need at least one night on a while to hit at least 4 hours of uniterrupted sleep, which 40 mg of temazepam does. I've tried many other sleep aids such as low to medium dose of quietiapine (no effect), low to medium dose of levomepromazine (didn't help), low dose of doxepine (no effect), even melatonine and l-tryptophan and 5-htp and none of those helped. One thing that helped me though was phenibut combined with temazepam - I slept 13 hours with that combination! So I know I have an emergency brakes on my train now (assuming that combination works again, haven't taken phenibut in 2 months to avoid tolerance and dependency), but I'm planning on limiting the use of this combination to once a month. On this dose of 7,5mg I'm currently having 2-3 hours of good uninterrupted sleep plus 3-4 hours of bad, constantly waking up kind of sleep So, thank you all for being here! And I wish a speedy recovery to those who are withdrawing from their drugs, we are all here together.

Hi, I am Kelly, I am new here. I have been on zyprexa for 2 months at 1.25mg plus a 2 months taper that got me to 0.4mg. Everything went fine (except my sleep but still ok) until my last drop, since then I have feelings of pins and needles all over my body and a weird sensation that I believe is formication (I basically feel like there always is a hair brushing my nose or my face but there is nothing). All those symptoms are making me extremely anxious and depressed. I am not seeing a lot of success story regarding zyprexa withdrawals and everything I read online is horrible. Do you think those symptoms will go away? How should I continue from here?