Jump to content
SurvivingAntidepressants.org is temporarily closed to new registrations until 1 April ×

Search the Community

Showing results for tags 'risperidone'.

  • Search By Tags

    Type tags separated by commas.
  • Search By Author

Content Type


Categories

There are no results to display.

Blogs

There are no results to display.

Forums

  • Support
    • Read This First
    • Introductions and updates
    • Success stories: Recovery from psychiatric drug withdrawal
    • Tapering
    • Symptoms and self-care
    • Finding meaning
  • Current events
    • In the media
    • From journals and scientific sources
    • Events, actions, controversies

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start

    End


Last Updated

  • Start

    End


Filter by number of...

  1. Pearl was 10 when she had some anxiety and hormonal issues and started having crying spells. She would go to her room and start crying. She was given Antidepressant for that. Initially it helped but then within 2 months she reached tolerance. So dose was increased. Higher dose worked for 2 more weeks. Then crying spells returned in worse intensity along with some mental confusions and distorted thinking. A benzo was added along with Antidepressant. No improvement was found. She started showing behavioral changes, psychosis symptoms (delusions only , no hallucinations). An antipsychotic was added. By the time we realized the drugs are harming her more, and are not the cure, it was almost 7-8 months. We started discussing with doctors and tapering was started. Tapering was done over a period of 1 year. She suffered bad withdrawal symptoms: Loss of sleep Crying spells returning Anger/Rage Zombie/Glazed look Entire day sitting at one place , not doing any thing Hygiene went to hell Memory and Cognitive decline She stopped going to school at this point. We also supported her as she was not able to comprehend what was being taught and it was giving her stress because she was not able to understand. She is drug free from 4 months. Still boiling rage is continuing. Some of the mental confusion/delusions are coming back. Cognition is not at all getting better. She is now 12. Even if we look at her, she starts throwing stuff at us. I being her mother is taking care of her hygiene and health. It will be 5 months of being drug free this week and still not much of an improvement. She is my child and her suffering like this is too painful for me. Is there any way I can speed up the recovery?
  2. Hello everyone. I had a psychotic episode in August 2022. Cannabis induced. Cannabis was possibly laced or sprayed with chemicals. I became very paranoid, didn't have visual or auditory hallucinations, but definitely was living in my own reality. Same month I was put in mental hospital for 3 weeks. Was given Risperidone 2mg tablets while I was there then when I was released and was put on compulsory treatment order and also put on Risperidone Consta injections 37.5ml. First Injection I had was on 1st of September. Then an injection every two weeks. After couple of injections I started noticing that I get exhausted by afternoon (About 3 pm) which was surprising. After more injections I noticed that by late afternoon all I wanted to do is lay in bed and do nothing which was alarming. Until one day, in October, I woke up and I felt extremely exhausted and extremely fatigued. I couldn't do much, but eat, lay in bed, even watching TV was very difficult, I had to force myself to do anything. I wanted to kill myself from the way I felt. I begged psychiatrists to cancel the injections, but they didn't. They changed the dose in December down to 25ml, but that didn't seem to change much. Only stopped them in Jan 5th 2023. I used to be a very active person, used to walk a lot (couple of times I walked 20km in one go, but 2-3hours on average a day), used to train 6 times a week, run 12km in the mornings, make music, draw, read a lot, play video games, have many interests, was very talkative, basically always doing something, I was alive 9 weeks later after the injections stopped. I don't really want to do anything, but lay in bed. I'm sort of able to watch TV now. I have to force myself to cook a meal, to go for walks, there is no enthusiasm or excitement about things. Just feel weak and unmotivated. I'm really worried about what's happening to me. Psychiatrists really haven't answered this question "what is happening to me and why this is happening" Thank you for your time
  3. Hi all, I had a toxic break in mid 1990s. Was self medicating due to unresolved childhood trauma. I wasn’t coping with how difficult my life had become. I wasn’t making wise choices - but not all of us in our early 20s do… Parents called crisis team and I was told by psychiatrist I had a chemical imbalance and would require endless drugging. I replied I know my life is out of whack - I’d read R.D Laing at uni and asked if there was somewhere I could go to get help sorting everything out properly without the chemicals. “No.” My parents believed the genetics/chemical imbalance myth. I tried stelazine and mellaril but the akathisia was instant and felt awful. I stabilised without them for some time. I had a couple more toxic breaks and in 2003 my parents arranged a forced admission with the same psychiatrist. I was shot in the arse with god knows what. I had bad akathisia and they gave me cogentin. I was supposed to have skin ointment nightly as well but half the time the orderlies just couldn’t be bothered with that even when I told them it was part of the regimen. Not reassuring. After two weeks I was out of there and my father demanded I take the prescription if I was to stay with him. At no stage was a physical done. I would’ve been malnourished to say the least - couldn’t afford decent food. I moved away with friends, took 10mg olanzapine daily and became obese - ugh. It was a pretty relaxing time though, which helped. I was able to return to work. Later on I came back and my mother helped me get diet and exercise happening to lose some weight. Thank heavens I didn’t have an office job then or it wouldn’t have been possible. I lost 30 kgs. Keeping it off is hard though with the olanzapine. I tried risperidone for a couple of years to lose weight but it was of marginal help and was more uncomfortable to take. I asked the psychiatrist since I’ve been stable for many years can we look at getting off. “No.” Do you ever work with addressing the root causes with therapy? “No, we don’t believe it affects this.” I discovered yoga which has been enormously beneficial and I’d recommend to anyone. I wish I’d listened to my aunt and done this when I was first having issues before my break. Exercise is another must. A few years ago I had an abusive neighbour move in next door who beat his de facto and he wasn’t friendly to me either. Somehow my psychiatrist thought this would be a good time to try me on aripiprazole. At first it was liberating as I had much more energy but that rapidly turned into overstimulation and anxiety. I switched back. I moved away from the violent neighbour. The two nice things I’ll say about the psychiatrist are a) he didn’t stack me on multiple drugs and b) he was ok with me setting my own dose…to a point… I was easily able to get down from 10mg olanzapine to 7.5, then 6 2/3, then 5 with a pill cutter within a year. So my script was now for 5mg. After some time I tried 3 1/3mg and it was obviously a no-go zone. I just hung out on 5mg for a bit longer. I found a clinical psychologist who helped me with the usual family patterns, boundaries, spoke to trauma, helped with relationships etc. This has been very beneficial and I drink much less after that. A friend observed “I think you could get off your meds”. I was skeptical but started researching. This was an eye-opener: https://www1.bps.org.uk/system/files/user-files/Division of Clinical Psychology/public/CAT-1657.pdf It was validating my initial understanding that this was all about how I wasn’t coping with trauma, rather than innately ‘broken’. This was the first document I gave to my mother who was initially terrified but is now supportive of me coming off. I discovered Peter Breggin, reading “Your Drug May Be Your Problem” in horror. But it was empowering as well. His book “Guilt, Shame and Anxiety” helped reduce my anxiety substantially. He has a newer book “Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal”, which I also recommend. There is Peter Lehmann’s “Coming off Psychiatric Drugs” too, which is valuable but a harrowing read! I told close friends and some family what I was doing. Having a safety net is the way to go. Over five months I was able to taper down from 5mg to 2.5mg by agitating a crushed tablet in a known volume of filtered water, then removing a gradually increasing portion with a large syringe (no needle!). I came down listening to my body 0.1 or 0.2mg at a time then holding for a few weeks. It was a bit of a bumpy ride but have been able to hold down my job and relationships ok. Not that it’s pleasant or easy, but it is navigable. Thanks Rhiannon for sharing your experience on making suspensions of the compound in water. I hung out at 2.5mg for six months or so. This is the smallest tablet size they sell. My family and friends have been commenting on how much more ‘with it’ I am, able to join them in more nuanced conversations again. This is extremely welcome and I realised how much I’ve been missing despite having a lot of good people and things in my life already. I took my mother for moral support and went to see the prescribing psychiatrist (same one all the way through). I started explaining that I was prediabetic, had high cholesterol, was having (apparently undiagnosable) joint problems and rheumatism, getting allergic rashes (I saw the other day the NPS web site advises people with this reaction not to take this drug!), getting hot flushes and unable to stand heat (pretty hellish in Aussie summers), and more. He didn’t want to hear about my plan - his reaction: “Keep taking it.” I said as if that wasn’t enough, what about TD? He said “Oh, it’s not that bad.” I was glad mum was there as a witness to this appalling advice. I asked him for a script for 2.5mg but he said “It’s too low. I can’t support this. I will not see you any more.” Good riddance! I got the script from my sympathetic GP. Many of these horrid symptoms have reduced or abated with the lower dose. Some remain. Fatigue is a bear. The stragglers are just a waiting game I suppose. My clinical psychologist has been supportive the whole time and confirmed my essential stability during the reductions. Her reaction to that was “well, if he says 2.5 isn’t enough, yet you’re stable, it’s a good sign that you can probably do without it altogether”. I’m now working with a clinical psychologist on the trauma I perceive as the root of all the major issues. If I’ve learnt one thing, it’s that you have to take charge of your own healing. No one else can do it for you. Shop around and find supportive crew who will back you up - they’re out there. Breggin observes that signalling helplessness is what lands you in hot water in this rather unhealthy society. I’m continuing my taper, coming down around 2mg olanzapine at the moment. Thanks to this site I’ve found the importance of the compound taper and have made a spreadsheet to manage it. I'm doing a microtaper - it's going reasonably at 10%/mo for now. It's not comfortable and some days at work are hard. But I know it's worth it. Looking at the receptor occupancy curves for olanzapine I found via this site I can see I’d already be over half way through the dopamine adjustments. That would explain why I’ve got more animated for a bit after each cut. This initially concerned mum but she’s now learnt about withdrawal symptoms. The 5-HT2 curve lies ahead, for the most part. So this could take another year or two - I’ve been poisoned with this garbage for a long time. Better though to ride it gently down and not hammer my body too much, or destabilise my life, for the best chance of a good outcome. Despite every day wanting to be rid of it ASAP. Epsom salt baths and yoga are helping me a lot. Thanks for creating this forum, Altostrata. Before the net, I probably would’ve just concluded 3 1/3mg wasn’t enough rather than learning about the taper, and been stuck.
  4. My brain going into dream condition but not into sleep condition every night or day when ever I attempt to sleep I have believed the information about remote neural monitoring in all over internet and browsed internet 2 years heavily which resulted heavy thought process ,doubts and suspicion over near and dear. So I went to a psychiatrist and requested to bring me out of heavy thoughts.He made me use lorazepam for 10 days ,risperidone and trihexyphenidyl combination drug for 30 days.After 30 days my thoughts reduced so I did not go to doctor again.What a mistake ,I was ignorant of how psychiatry medicines work and slow tapering nor my doctor warned me while prescribing an anti psychotic.It is happened in july 2016. From then my brain going into dreams when ever I attempt to sleep.In october 2016 again I went to the same doctor and reported about the condition I am in.He prescribed olanzapine silently.I started using olanzapine ignorantly and innocently.When i was experiencing stomach upset that is when I researched in the internet about risperidone and olanzapine. Now this is june 2017 I have tapered risperidone and olanzapine safely and became drug free safely.But the thing is my brain still into dream condition and not allowing me to sleep when ever i attempt.My querry is what risperidone and trihexyphenidyl and lorazapam [10 days]did to my brain?what chemicals they blocked.Now stopping them cold turkey did what on my brain?what chemical i should take to get my sleep pattern back.?If I wait patiently with time will the brain correct its condition naturally?Any brain researcher please help.
  5. Community of Healing, hello. In December of 2014, just a bit more than 6 years ago, I came to this site after already weathering two years of nearly life-terminating withdrawal. I'd been on psychotropic medications for most of my life and in my estimation, my nervous system had decided it'd had enough. From February 2012 to approximately March of 2014, I felt I was literally living in hell. I was hospitalized twice, lost long-running friendships and new career opportunities, tried a plethora of medications, supplements, and herbs in an attempt to "fix" withdrawal, and ultimately came to the realization that pharmaceutical medications would not be the answer to my suffering. Pharmaceutical medications had been the cause of my suffering. And what my brain and body needed was support, tenderness, forgiveness, care and time... TIME... to heal. Benzodiazepines had been the first drugs I withdrew from. That was a brutal, nightmarish withdrawal, but relatively short-lived (acute @ 8 months). Tapering from Mirtazapine proved a longer journey, a much longer journey that I shared here. So this is my success story, my chapter-turning post. This is my declaration that I have been successful in tapering from medications that had deranged my nervous system to such a degree that I was scarcely able to operate in the world anymore. I took much time to make this declaration of success as I am by nature skeptical, and wanted to be sure that healing had indeed come - and come to stay. I feel that it has. I discontinued Mirtazapine, my last psychotropic medication, on June 15, 2019. There are still some echos of it that I deal with in day to day life. My issues with histamine intolerance I believe are directly attributable to Mirtazapine's affinity for histamine receptor occupancy. I manage this issue with dietary and exercise modifications as well as use of select vitamins and herbs. It is not life-deterring. It can be inconvenient and sometimes unpleasant, but it is nowhere near as debilitating as withdrawal itself had been. Despite posting this success story, I'm not going anywhere really. I am always happy to answer questions about my journey. When I was in the worst of my own withdrawal, the feedback from moderators and members of this community and elsewhere were absolute lifelines. Not that anyone could necessarily fix my problems - but I could walk away with sound, compassionate advice and if nothing else, the knowledge that my suffering had been heard, and that someone ultimately cared about me. Your suffering is heard, and someone ultimately cares about you. I want to thank @Altostrata and every moderator past and present for their kind forbearance, compassion, and dedication. I want to thank every member for their strength, endurance, bravery, and perseverance towards a healthy life free of the chemicals that have caused them harm. You all have something, many things, to be proud of. I believe in every human's potential to heal. Take your time, taper well, make the most sound choices you can, and know that healing is absolutely within your power to achieve. Hang in there, Dave
  6. Hello all, I'm currently stuck in Effexor side effect hell ever since I decided to take a higher dose of 75 mg a few months ago. Took the dose for almost a month and felt awful, so my psychiatrist decided to taper off entirely with Prozac, it failed badly and I ended up in the hospital with suicidal thoughts and extreme anxiety. I didn't even stop taking it, I was on 37.5 mg (immediate release). They decided to up my dose to 150 mg in the psych ward, couldn't do anything but comply. Got sent home, felt alright for a few days but the side effects have come back. Feel horribly restless, anxious, agoraphobic, and what have you. Have had some panic attacks as well. I've become non functional. Is it too late to revert to a lower dose? I've been on this dose for a bit more than 2 weeks at this point and have been in and out of my psychiatrist more than I can count lately, so she probably doesn't want to see me anytime soon. What should I do? I'm also taking Risperidone (they started giving it to me in the hospital) and got my psych to give me 0.25 mg of Xanax in case of any panic attacks if that means anything.
  7. Here is my intro thread: ☼-armorall-ct-from-bupropion-and-risperidone Hello everyone! I will relay all the important things that I think serve people in WD (as did me, all I ever did was read the success stories part), then if you want to read more details, there’s a more detailed account following the abridged version, lol. Dosage and Tapering: I’m a 46 year old cis-female. I took 150 mg Bupropion for roughly 4 months alongside 2mg Risperidone for 3 months then switched to 10 mg Abilify for 3 weeks then 20 mg Latuda. So basically I took an SNRI plus an antipsychotic for 4 months. All were cold-turkeyed and no one I touched, not my psychiatrist, his nurse, his resident, my therapist or my GP said anything to warn me about it. I found this site two weeks after I started having symptoms. Trying to figure out how to reinstate drugs was too tricky amongst mod discussions, so we decided that nothing was probably the best solution. Symptoms: I couldn’t sing, write/listen to music, watch TV/music, read, take my son out to parks because I was either too tired/depressed, or the activity would send me into paroxysms of anxiety. At work, I slept through all my prep periods and had to leave early/show up late often because I was so beyond tired, even after sleeping for 8 to 20 hours. I couldn’t eat, I lost 70 pounds in 3 months, I lost 50% of my hair. I had heat dysregulation that would wake me up at night (heat would roll down my body), my skin peels off like a snake. I couldn’t eat sugar or carbs or else it would hyperstimulate me or make me super sluggish. I have tinnitus in my left ear, I still feel tremors at night. If I turn suddenly, either in my sleep or awake, my heart will start to race. Eating food or taking naps will also stimulate intense anxiety. I had to wear sunglasses while using the computer because the light was too bright. I will never be able to take cold medicine, drink coffee or alcohol ever again as it will bring me back to being ridden with symptoms. Hypnic jerks, waking panic attacks, fractured sleep, intense fatigue, floaters in the eyes, sound sensitivity while sleeping, expressive aphasia, inability to exercise for more than 10 minutes because it exacerbates symptoms, I often mix up homophones, and my short term memory suffers. Sore muscles if I do things that are slightly outside of the norm (reaching for a can on a higher shelf, using an unfamiliar computer mouse, twisting my body to tie something that I don’t usually tie, different shoes) will make my muscles sore. Recovery: Month 13 - I turned my first corner. I suddenly stopped having massive anxiety/rage episodes after napping, eating or upon waking in the morning. Month 18 - I then hit another benchmark of improvement. I could workout for 30 minutes without any repercussions. Month 22 - I found myself fully recovered!!! What had happened is that a friend was DJing on the beach and we decided that was a safe enough activity to try. We walked two miles to get there, danced all night, then walked the 2 miles back to car, then I got on the phone with a friend in distress and was up until 4:30am- I got up the following day at 11am and received house guests and never felt any ill effect, no waves, nothing. I realized then that I was fully recovered. At month 22, I could: sleep more or less normally and take naps with no consequence, wake up early in the morning without effect, exercise or dance as much and as long as I wanted to, eat sweets with no effect, listen and enjoy music, movies and other media. I feel like my old vivacious self again. I can work all day, plan parties, and am very active as an activist. I am fully present to my family. My husband and I are now seeing a sexologist (highly recommended) since we had lost our sex life before in withdrawal. It’s fun! At 29 months off now, I still cannot drink coffee, juice and most likely alcohol. I also can’t eat massive amounts of starch (but I will) it makes me beyond tired. It did before WD but it is brutal now, lol. If I’m out doing some activity, I don’t notice it, but if I’m home, I’m asleep from the effects. My short term memory is slightly taxed (you know when you walk into a room and then can’t remember why you’re there? I have more of those), and I have more moments when I’m not talking rapid fire (like at work) and in a more relaxed situation (like laying in bed with my husband) where I have to search for the words I mean to say (ex. So…I was at the store and I uh…trying to remember what words represent my experience at the store). Nothing big and nothing noticeable to others. If I get too hot (while I’m asleep or during the summer sitting in the heat) my heart will start beating faster, but it doesn’t do anything to me emotionally. The biggest tip I can leave here is about “turning the corner”. When I was in withdrawal, I kept scanning and scanning people’s success stories and feeling hopeless. Like, they still list symptoms they still have and it made me feel like no one “really heals”. What I found though, in that month 13 when I turned the corner, is that turning the corner is really the most important event on your healing timeline. Of course you want to heal and feel like your old self again. But, what I learned from that corner turn makes so much of a difference in relief, that once you do it, you know you can handle everything that come after it with ease. I often tell people, don’t worry so much about gauging when you have totally made it to the other side. Just hold on until you turn that corner (which will come way earlier to you than when you completely heal), because I swear, once you do, you know you can handle the rest and you are not suffering so much. That being said, when people post their success stories and they still list some lingering symptoms (like me) know that they probably felt good enough that the bulk of their suffering is over, and that’s why they felt good enough to post. I know it’s true for me, I’m so happy to be able to be happy every single day and have energy to enjoy life and get things done. I do feel resilient and capable, and if I can’t drink coffee anymore at the expense of that, well, no biggie. Only detriment is that when I feel really tired, I have to go to bed, there’s no more pushing through it to keep working with coffee, and I’ll take that exchange over what I don’t have to suffer with anymore. Life is beautiful again, and it will be for you! - ALSO thanks to the crew here at SA, aside from trying an acupuncture/herb regimen at the very beginning of withdrawal (which was completely disastrous), I never ever took anything to try to alleviate the WD state. I think that helped me a ton even though I kept asking in the forums about various things to try and noticing how risky it was. I never ended up taking/doing any of it. Just sleep, fish oil and magnesium. That lack of tinkering with supplements, drugs and weird devices probably got me here quickly and in a solid manner. So, please hold off on those for temporary relief whenever possible, it will help your receptors come back earlier in the long run! - I encourage everyone to start dropping reviews and doing what you can to get the word out about our suffering (like sharing the movie “Medicating Normal” - I have the link you can use so people can watch the 56 minute version for free! https://www.pbs.org/video/medicating-normal-kinbho/) once you are healed or feel up to it. I am available to help you write your reviews if you want. Just contact me here or via FB. Link is in my signature. Here is a breakdown that I had on a calendar of what new symptom was showing up/then later going away month by month. Month 1: Insomnia Month 2: Tinnitus Month 3: sore muscles from slight, but unfamiliar activity Month 4: fatigue/depression Month 5: nervous stomach Month 6: getting worse, turmoil Month 7: just absolutely awful Month 8: muscle twitches at night Month 9: more depression, more muscle twitches Month 10: inner tremor Month 11: expressive aphasia Month 12: dry eyes and mouth, more head pressure Month 13: Doing better! No anxiety anymore after dinner or nap. No new symptoms! Month 14: lots of muscle soreness as I try to increase my time on elliptical to 10 minutes Month 15: I can now listen to music and watch movies Month 16: my menstrual period stopped becoming erratic and is a normal cycle can workout for 16 minutes Month 17: Can eat sweets again! No cortisol from taking a nap. Month 18: Can workout for 30 minutes! Can eat A LOT of sweets and nothing happens to me. Month 19: Workout 40 minutes, sleep well even after exercising late in the day Month 20: Average heart rate lower. Up to 1.5 hours of exercise! Can listen to music and it feel the way I did before withdrawal Month 21: Doing well! Month 22: Breakthrough! Dance and walked 4 miles, stayed up all night, still felt good the next day! Month 23: Done! Functioning and feeling normal and good. When to write success story? Extra special thanks to @Shep, @Altostrata and @Undiagnosed1 for dealing with so many questions and keeping me grounded and unmedicated. Special thanks to the following SA members for their constant positive feedback and support: @Superwoman, @mustafa, @Erell, @Glosmom, @coldturkmama, @Hanna72, @ChessieCat, @manymoretodays, @Sassenach, @DrugfreeProf Here is the long and detailed version of my account if anyone wants to read it, otherwise take care and ask all the questions and requests for support that you want! As you can see from my drug history, I started out taking Bupropion and Risperidone after practically forcing (meaning I didn’t know my rights in the hospital, I thought I *had* to do what the psychiatrist told me, I found out later I was wrong. I was hospitalized on my own decision, so I didn’t have to take anything) me to take it via the hospital psychiatrist. Interestingly enough, her reviews show that polydrugging and overdrugging were definitely her thing. One complaint said that someone’s wife was on 9 medications because of her. Anyways, so after debating with the doctor on how deadly psychiatric drugs were (and my crappy therapist calling my husband to tell him to coax me into it because “it’s the only solution”) I was on both. Two months pass and even though I was spellbound from feeling better when I first took the drug, in retrospect, I was the same or worse. What was making me nuts prior to being hospitalized was probably how crazy I was while breastfeeding. I had learned before that I really don’t do well with hormonal changes- couldn’t take the pill without it driving me crazy, couldn’t take the Mirena IUD- just made me hungry and I bled for 6 straight months while others usually lose their period using Mirena. Anyways, so when I took Bupropion and Risperidone, I guess one of the side effects of the latter is that it ups your prolactin levels (related to lactating). So, even though I quit breastfeeding because I was on psychiatric drugs, I was still as jacked up or worse on them. The wellbutrin was super activating for me, too. I remember taking it and at night my eyes just dried out into raisins and I couldn’t sleep until 3am. So later, once the risperidone built up enough, I started getting suddenly sleeping at 11pm and couldn’t stay awake if I wanted to. My psychiatrist took a blood sample two months after I started and noticed that my prolactin levels were high. The next time I saw him, he said he’s switching me to Abilify, and that I should cut the Risperidone in half, take one the next day, the other half the next, then start a half of Abilify and the other half the next day. Yeah, that’s his idea of switching me out. So, 21 days pass and I’m slowly becoming more restless. I can’t lay in bed long enough to put my son down for sleep. I go get a facial and they cover my eyes with something and I freak out and rip one eye cover open. Simultaneously, I’m becoming more lethargic. I stop caring about hanging out with my adorable toddler son. I’m a teacher so I’m off for the summer, but I keep dropping my son off at daycare instead of spending time with him. The idea of having to make him breakfast seems overwhelming. I call the resident (because I can’t just get a hold of my shrink) and the resident approves me going off it. My shrink puts me on Latuda. I have crazy insomnia, then I go off of it. I continue to have insomnia. Mind you, I’m still taking Bupropion. My therapist says that bupropion is too activating for some of her clients. I go off it immediately in hopes of sleeping. After a week, I could finally sleep on my own, no melatonin or anything. Mind you, my psychiatrist knew, my GP knew, my therapist knew- I had happened to see each and every one of them within a week of quitting. NO ONE told me going off cold turkey was dangerous. No one. A month later, I start the heck that is withdrawal. And I’m so lucky I found Surviving Antidepressants at that time, or else I would have been even more kindled. I did go back to my psychiatrist to confront him about not protecting me (the psychiatrist in the hospital *also* never said anything about cold-turkeying drugs being dangerous). He said that withdrawal only lasts two weeks and when I asked him what he thinks I should do, he said he’d prescribe me Wellbutrin again and Trazadone for my insomnia. I never saw him again. So, that was my “taper plan”! And, I was scared to death. Like many of us, my symptoms changed every month, and for the WD-addled mind, it’s so scary. Looking back, some of the changes were very benign, too, like muscle twitches. You can see it all in my history. Through all this, I read success stories over and over. I also got in touch with Michael Priebe of the Lovely Grind as well as Undiagnosed1 who had posted his story here and offered to be an ear to anyone who is struggling. Both helped me, I paid for coaching from Michael (and Baylissa for a time- yes, I talked to EVERYONE- Stuart Shipko, Ann Blake Tracy, you name it!) I know you are not supposed to cling to other people’s timelines and compare yourself to them, or stick to a designated time on when you’ll think you’d be done, but I did it anyways (and yeah, got yelled at by one of my coaches- I won’t say which one). I tried to tell them, it’s just a goal, like when people say they will lose weight by a certain time- if they don’t hit it, they just make a new goal, but it at least gives me hope. So the strange thing is, my timeline was very close to Michael and Undiagnosed1. I was suffering pretty badly about 3 months in, I wasn’t asked back to my school of employment because I was struggling so much at work, my husband served me divorce papers at 7 months in because he was done with me being a wreck in front of our kid and blaming him for my medication usage. The only thing that really saved me was Covid- the courts weren’t in session so my husband *couldn’t* divorce me. We saw a therapist and she said to take advantage of this time to see if we could heal together. With Covid outside, I was able to rest a lot at home. My husband somehow trusted me to be with our son after all that and my son and I would just lay in bed and watch cartoons together and eat or go out to the forest and explore, it was actually really nice as my body continued to buzz with withdrawal. The insomnia portion had really died down after month 5 and I was really, really tired more than that, but of course deeply depressed/anxious. My husband and I still argued, mostly it would be me waking up anxious after a name, then being frustrated from the toxic nap and us getting into it. At month 11, a new symptom was expressive aphasia (it was hard for me to respond with the right words). I was so freaked out and contacted two different people who had had it on SA. Both said they recovered from it (I eventually did, too). Miraculously, at month 12, something in me settled. Like, eating and sleeping stopped triggering such a harsh response from me. I was still pretty messed up, but the fighting stopped. I stayed on that level and taught from home that year, which was also much more relaxing of course than managing behavior and teaching in person. I stayed at that level, then at month 20, I realized I could listen to music fully and it didn’t make me anxious and I could find it pleasurable in the same way that it did before WD. Month 22 we went out dancing and I realized I was probably mostly recovered. Before, I was only doing like 10 minutes on the elliptical (exercise) machine and that was enough to bring on symptoms. Here, we parked the car almost two miles away, danced all night, walked back. Nothing happened to me, it didn’t throw me into a wave or anything. Then on the way back to our house, my friend calls in turmoil. I get on the phone with her and stay up until 4:30am, yet another thing that would have taken me out in WD. Nothing happened to me. We even had guests the next day at noon and I was fine, didn’t feel wavy or even wiped from the night/early morning before! So, I’m sure I’m leaving out a lot about symptoms. I kept a journal the whole time as well as every month I would list on a sheet as it passed, I would write down any new symptoms each month, then after month 13, started writing improvements at each month. I will leave that list in another post as I’m getting tired now. One thing I did notice, expressive aphasia was probably my worst symptom, and after I experienced that one, a month later is when I finally started to get better instead of worse. I remember Undiagnosed1 had kaleidoscope vision right before he got better. So, I wonder if you do get some crazy symptom right before you start feeling better. The biggest tip I can leave here is about “turning the corner”. When I was in withdrawal, I kept scanning and scanning people’s success stories and feeling hopeless. Like, they still list symptoms they still have and it made me feel like no one “really heals”. What I found though, in that month 13 when I turned the corner, is that turning the corner is really the most important event on your healing timeline. Of course you want to heal and feel like your old self again. But, what I learned from that corner turn makes so much of a difference in relief, that once you do it, you know you can handle everything that come after it with ease. I often tell people, don’t worry so much about gauging when you have totally made it to the other side. Just hold on until you turn that corner (which will come way earlier to you than when you completely heal), because I swear, once you do, you know you can handle the rest and you are not suffering so much. That being said, when people post their success stories and they still list some lingering symptoms (like me) know that they probably felt good enough that the bulk of their suffering is over, and that’s why they felt good enough to post. I know it’s true for me, I’m so happy to be able to be happy every single day and have energy to enjoy life and get things done. I do feel resilient and capable, and if I can’t drink coffee anymore at the expense of that, well, no biggie. Only detriment is that when I feel really tired, I have to go to bed, there’s no more pushing through it to keep working with coffee, and I’ll take that exchange over what I don’t have to suffer with anymore. Life is beautiful again, and it will be for you! So, what are my lingering symptoms? At 29 months off now, I still cannot drink coffee, juice and most likely alcohol. I do try every couple of months to drink coffee, because it was my only religion before, lol. Even decaf messes me up (not terribly, but I really don’t want to feel bad at all). I have found though that I’m much, much more peaceful and less anxious than I ever was before WD, because I was a coffee fiend in that past life. I didn’t ever believe that coffee was making me anxious, but looking back, it was. It wore me out, it made me more irritable. Nothing like withdrawal, but still. I am much more peaceful than I was back then and much less irritable. I also can’t eat massive amounts of starch (but I will) it makes me beyond tired. It did before WD but it is brutal now, lol. My short term memory is slightly taxed (you know when you walk into a room and then can’t remember why you’re there? I have more of those), and I have more moments when I’m not talking rapid fire where I have to search for the words I mean to say (So…I was at the store and I uh…(trying to remember what words represent my experience at the store). Nothing big and nothing noticeable to others. I’m really bursting over with life now, constantly enthusiastic, met all the dreams I had when I was in WD, teaching my kid soccer and music, really being there for him and my husband. Gone back to being an activist and loving it. My husband and I started seeing a sexologist (yeah, I had never heard of one either, she’s a friend of mine who was licensed recently, that’s how I knew about it- I can refer you if you want! She works with a lot of people who are suffering from PSSD), and now we are embarking on improving our sex life. I’m at 29 months out. I would have written my success story around 24 months, but I wanted to wait until I was teaching in-person full time so that I could really celebrate being in the space that was destroying me when I was suffering with withdrawal fatigue. One step or one yell too many and it was like I had lost all life and energy. I wanted to come back to the space and see how much I could finally handle it again, with all the love and energy I have for the profession and my children. But…it looks like with how often schools are closing and opening because of Covid, it may be a while before I can actually go back into the classroom (I am privileged in that I can make that choice), so I thought now, while it’s the beginning of the year, is best. I am absolutely indebted to all the staff here (which reminds me I need to make my yearly donation). Without you, I would be kindled and who knows what else. I’d like to shout out Altostrata, Shep, and so many others that helped me along the way. You are incredible and save and improve so many lives. Please please ask any and all the questions you want. I also included my facebook link in my drug history signature if you need to inbox me and it is full. As those before me, I am here to support you, and remind you that you will heal soon.
  8. I read that it is more difficult to withdraw from a drug with a short half life. It is suggested to switch to a different drug with a longer half-life of the same category (i.e., antipsychotic) before tapering off (mind.org.uk). I have been on Risperidone for 5 years. I started tapering in April at 1.0 mg and am now on 0.70 mg. I am considering asking my doctor about switching to Zyprexa, another antipsychotic, and then tapering off Zyprexa. Does titrating off one drug and onto another need to be done as slowly as withdrawing from a drug, i.e. 10% every month or something like that? Has anyone had experience titrating off an antipsychotic onto another antipsychotic? Since Risperidone has a short half-life, I am concerned that it will be hard to switch onto a drug with a longer half life. According to Medscape, the half-life for Zyprexa is 21-54 hours, and the half-life of Risperidone is 3-20 hours. Thank you!
  9. I want to taper my antipsychotics, is it possible I stay symptoms free and not need meds anymore?
  10. So since last 8-10months until 21st april this year i(24years age)was rebellious because of physical and mental torture by my parents.Actually they are just a bunch of uneducated socially backward people.I shouldn't have expected much from them.This 21st april they say you are the cause of our troubles(i used to argue against them for them being too unreasonable in treating me like an animal)and took me to an indian psychologist.The psychologist for their monetary benefits put me on 1 mg risperidone for a week and also threatened my parents and me that i am the one who is illogical and trouble causing person in our home quarrels and must be forcibly given these tablets(God our indian society those psychologists even didn't listen to any what i got to say just took report from my parents).So i stayed on them for 2-4 days and developed mental and physical retardness.(I am being specific of retardness because i researched on wikipedia that these tablets actively reduce 2 brain hormones namely dopamine and serotin and our brain only produces about 50 hormones!).So on feeling extreme weakness i researched on web and after 3days left taking risperidone.Now my parents thought i will again become rebellious against their inhumane behaviours so they tried to force me different antipsychotics from same practitioner.But this time i was clever and searched the whole web how even these antipsychotics and antidepressants work at molecular level.And determined my parents being highly backward villager people who just want whatever they feel i left home and quit risperidone suddenly ie cold turkey.Now i started living alone for a month in another region doing odd jobs but feeling psychologically a lot better to be away from inhumane treatment by parents.Even today the withdrawal symptoms are real bad.After 25days i arrived at this website and learnt a lot from you all people.According to you all i will recover in 12-14 months and this alone gives me hope.Today i am a new person socially and financially independent(almost).Never will i ever reach out to my backward parents or such people.I learnt majority of us all people were misdiagnosed on such antidepressants and only a little simple guidance from a good hearted elder to be financially and emotionally independent from inhumane people could have helped us all escape from such risperidone kind tablets but alas life is not always meant to be so!
  11. Hello, I've just recently found this site and kept reading and absorbing all kinds of information. I am so glad to read so many inspiring stories and would like to share my son’s story. On Nov 2022 last year, my son, Gogo, a recent college graduate and athletic, who has been suffering insomnia since pandemic began was put in Psychiatric hospital for 3 nights after emotional breakdown in public place. Police said he trespassed and his speech was not coherent. He was prescribed Risperidone 1mg in the morning and 1mg at night, 250mg Depakote in the morning and 500mg Depakote at night, as well as 7.5mg Mirtazapine in the evening for helping sleep. When he was discharged from hospital, we saw his speech was disorganized and had deliriums kind of symptom most in the earlier morning and evening sparsely. I thought it was due to the shock by police and medications. So I tried to reduce his med several time, but the symptoms didn’t go away. I paid to ask online psychiatric doctor about it and I got an answer said he most likely has schizoaffective disorder. After I was convinced that his breakdown most likely caused by his sleep deprivation and self medication with recreational drugs, I become more adapted with his continuation of those medications. But I don’t think he has schizophrenia. He still not has any diagnosis. He started to sleep better with those meds but most of day time is tired and lethargic. He was not doing well for his online class because of the lethargy caused by the meds. He was also diagnosed with mild sleep apnea short after discharging from hospital. We don’t have psychiatric doctor for almost 4 month after discharge from the hospital. But we tried to tape Resperidone especially, after consulting a friend who is neuron doctor, but failed, scared by the relapse of symptoms like self occupation and mood issue. I know now from here that the taping is way too fast. We are like walking in the fine line or water with medication management, and still now. His PCP only manage his Mirtazapine. I’m going to tell later what his PCP’s taping strategy for Mirtazapine. On 2/26 still suffering depression and sadness, and noticed that his chest is painful, Gogo insisted not taking any medication. I learned some knowledge about withdraw symptom from online, but find noting about detailed strategy. So my son and I agreed to stop taking the morning med. For the first 2 weeks, he become lively and being more like old himself I know, and had lots of self reflection of the past but more connected, even sometime he experienced strong emotions. But on 3/15, he has another emotional breakdown after visiting a friend. We decided he was not appropriate to drive and take him back in our own car. After this incident, with my knowledge from online study and search, I knew that we may withdraw too fast. Then he started to take the morning meds every other day. I know now it’s another mistake. We did that, and only realize not so late that it make thing worse in a few days. It seems fine for the first few days, then one day he insisted to drive himself without abling to speak logically and express his feeling. He was indecisive when driving. We reinstate to the original dose fully. Actually, I know now that we could have reinstate to lower doses, but we have no guidance. His pcp is not able to offer any help with his psychiatric meds except for Mirtazapine. I just wish we could find the site earlier. Only when I included the word ‘tape” instead “reduce” or “withdraw" in my search that I found this site. On 2/26, Following his PCP taping strategy for Mirtazapine, he started to take 7.5mg mirtazapine every other night for 4 weeks, till 3/26, then 7.5mg twice a week for 3 weeks till 4/18. His sleep seems fine with every other day’s 7.5mg mirtazapine. However, during the twice of week 7.5mg mirtazapine period, he started waking up in the middle of night because almost at the same time he started to taping 250mg evening Depakote on 3/30 following a RN's advice. I think that is another mistake to tape the evening Depakote first. We also finally saw a Psychiatrist on March, who recommend my son to take all 2mg Resperidone in the evening to avoid his daytime lethargy. We are reluctant to do that considering his most recent unstable situation. The Psychiatrist talked to me and asked why, I said I am afraid that the moving medication around the day might make my son unstable again. I shared my son’s med log to her and it seems she never read it. She also email me that she never heard of Resperidone withdraw symptom. She then said how about reduce the morning to 0.5mg. In a mind that want to tape all meds, we took it as she want to tape my son’s Resperidone. So Guoguo took 0.5mg in the morning and Kept 1mg in the evening. It came strong resistance from his Grandma. So I waited for few days before I reduce the morning dose, started reduction on the next Monday after seeing the psy doctor. During the following Thursday appointment with psy doc, my son told her he is doing fine after 3 days 0.5mg Resperidone in the morning . I again see my son begin to come back to be himself, having back his sense of humor, etc. But the weekend is a mix feeling. We went to outing, he was happy and enjoying the trip with friend. But on the way back, he started to show self-occupied without talking here and there, easy to get angry with small things. We start to reinstate his 1mg Resperidone the next morning. During the next appointment, we found out that his psy doc actually want to him to take 1.5mg Resperidone in the evening. She did NO intent to tape. I was so frustrated that why she did not emphasize that to keep the current daily doses unchanged. I also blamed myself for not asking for clarification with his Doc because I was so eager to get him out of those meds. She said we could continue as we have done like 2mg twice a day. She was also very unhappy we didn’t follow her advise, as well seeing an RN. My son did not have an appointment with her last week. I think we are going to find another one. We went to RN again, she gave us 3 options, 1) Go back to take 7.5mg Mirtazapine in the evening or 3.75mg 2) Reinstate the original Depakote of 750mg a day. 3) Move the morning 250mg Depakote into the evening, no Depakote in the morning. Concerning with moving the medication from morning to evening might make my son unstable, we choose to add 3.75mg mirtazapine because my mom is doing really well on that dose for a year and eventually taped off. A few nights he seems well with 3.75mg mirtazapine not waking up, but felt very tired and sleepy in the day. He stopped taking for few days because of that. But that makes him woke up in the middle of night. We also add megnesium 150mg 3 times a day, along with 50mg B6 twice a day and 1.5mg melatonia in the bed time. He went back to 3.75mg mirtazapine again and had only few night not waking up. One night he is so tired and not want to have Mirtazapine and any supplements. But I observe that he is doing fine when waking up. He had two nights not having mirtazapine, his mood seems fine. It seems for me he woke up feel good for those 2 nights without taking mirtazapine. Even he woke up earlier, but he has quality sleep in the first half of night.(we use apple watch to monitor sleep cycle, it’s said AW is close to EEG study). The day before yesterday, he woke up 5pm and stay in the bed for an hour and got up with good mood and took a nap in the afternoon. But he is not having a good sleep yesterday with 3.3g mirtazapine. It was 3.3mg because he did not take mirtazapine the previous 2 days. It’s the right dose? I read here that we need to keep the same dose and same time, some time we dont have the medication at the same time specially in the morning as my son is very hard to get up in the morning becasue of sleep issue. My son really wants to tape all of his medications, which make him gaining almost 20lb for an athletic as him in 3 months. That’s why he agreed to do Keto diet on 3/20. But after the outing incident in front of his friend, he told me he might need take all these med for his life. I said to my son that you don’t need to. I’m sure you will have good sleep without any of those med some time soon and enjoy your life drug free. When my son is stable with Depakote and his sleep, I believe he can start with taping Resperidone. Now just stuck with this Mirtazapine issue and sleep issue, do you think Gogo should take half of the 7.5mg or reinstate to 7.5mg or just stop taking Mirtazapine completely. I'm reluctant to let my son go back to original dose of 7.5mg, which make him gaining so much weight and sleepy during the day. Or take one of the NP advice to keep current doses unchanged and move morning 250mg to evening to make 500mg Depakote in the evening? Or move the Resperidone around to the evening to make him sleep better and less sedated in the day? BTW, I got a jewry scale from the recommendation link here for Mirtazapine 3.75mg, it rounds to 0.0mg, and too sensitive, reading often changes. I still have no clue how to do the liquid form for small doses, any advise will be helpful. Thank you for bearing me and appreciate so much for your help. Best Wishes, Dshine
  12. Hi,everyone. My name is Manny.my psiquiatrist wants me to reduce the cymbalta from 60 to 30 mgs. I know it is a 50% reduction.i should decrease only 10%.how do i taper off 10%? And how long it takes? Should i open the capsules and count the number of beads and remove that 10%? How do i ingest the 90% remaining? With water? With juice? Can i do water tritation? I take cymbalta 60,abilify 25,ativan 2.5,risperdal 7.5 mg.
  13. It is hard to believe that I am writing Gloria’s Success Story. I always hoped and dreamed to write it, but after so many awful and traumatic months that turned to years, I seriously doubted that it would actually happen. I am very happy to be wrong. I do not plan to reiterate her story, so please find her full story/Introduction topic at this link. https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/topic/16360-%E2%98%BC-glosmom-my-daughters-taper/?do=findComment&comment=622533 On February 27, 2023 it will be exactly 4 years from when she ‘jumped to zero.’ Her progress occurred in a similar fashion as many other Success Story’s have described….it was hell to taper, the hell got worse after stopping, and then the waves of hell and windows of hope kept occurring over and over for years until the waves got shorter and less severe and the windows lasted longer and showed more and more improvement. Gloria continues to have ‘tiny waves’ that last for only minutes and can be redirected. She can actually talk through these waves now and express what is frustrating her. For years she was nonverbal during these times or merely cried, screamed, raged, paced or on occasion throw stuff and take swings at me. Time has been the only answer to make these waves of hell become waves of minor irritation. Gloria is not quite fully healed (my ultimate goal is to get her back to a part-time job) but she is much closer than she has ever been. I know now her healing will continue and my beautiful Glo will be restored, if not fully to her happy smiling self, at least to something close to that. Her biggest leaps really kicked in at the start of year 3 and then amazingly just got a lot better in the last month or so… month 46 and 47 after jumping to zero. It is really quite amazing that it takes this long; but it simply does. As some of the ‘older members’ of this very supportive website know Glo has special needs. Her recovery, at first glance, might not seem relevant ‘to normal people.’ But I disagree. I think her suffering and journey has been exactly like ‘normal people’ and is an incredible testament to her strength and courage to keep on living, even though her understanding of what was occurring was very minimal. Gloria and I had many times where I wasn’t sure she and I would come out on the other side. Our lives were on hold for at least 6 years….time lost for both a Mother and a Daughter. But now she says often, “I am getting better every day, aren’t I Mom?” Makes me smile every time and I am so darn proud of her. She is truly a Warrior!! Her beautiful smile has returned! She is excited for trips, shopping, swimming, hot tubs, putt put, movies and being with family and friends. She has returned to her Day program and is starting to go out in the community with them again. She spends up to 4 and 5 hours at a time with her ‘companion/Best Buddy’ and enjoys getting her nails done, swimming, bowling and other activities. Her vocabulary is coming back (still not fully back) but she verbalizes she wants to get a job again ‘when her brain starts working right’ again 😊 She is now back to the dentist for regular checkups and goes back with the hygienist by herself. She is agreeable to go to the doctor (for check ups) and agrees to get her labs drawn if needed. Her dad and I plan to get her on a plane soon (she used to love to fly) to see if we can start taking her on longer trips. She does ride nicely however on our long trips to and from Florida to the beach, so that works fine too…. if she struggles with flying still. Fingers crossed on that adventure 😊 Unfortunately, she has been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism recently, so we are going through that process. Autoimmune conditions run in my family (I have autoimmune thyroiditis…hypothyroidism) but she seems to be going the other way with hyperthyroidism. Hopefully whatever treatment she ends up needing won’t cause the nightmare to return. She does take Vit D, B12, L-carnitine, Iron and magnesium, L-threonate as supplements. She was not able to take any supplements for many years but has tolerated them better in this last year….and I think they are all helpful. She still has insomnia at times but overall she does sleep much better. I believe evening magnesium helps with that. I did not want to delay posting this story any longer as I have faith all will be well and I know others on this site always need a nugget of goodness to help them keep hanging in there! I want to thank the amazing @Altostrata for creating this site. Without it, I know things would have turned out differently for Glo and me. I appreciated it so much! @brassmonkey and @Gridley for your knowledgeable threads that helped me keep my cool and keep plodding along. I hope all of you are doing well! I also want to thank all those that stopped by my thread to offer advice and support. @rupa@RachelSusan @carefulprayerful @ShiningLight @manymoretodays @Rosetta @puthappinessfirst @FarmGirlWorks @Cocopuffz17 @nicolantana @RichT @powerback @Rhiannon @Armorall and many more… You are ALL ANGELS!! My words of wisdom to any who may care to listen. Just give the healing process time. Keep hanging on until the windows and wave cycle become more tolerable. They will, if you let them. Every human body is different so comparing oneself to others recovery schedule can be disappointing if you are taking longer than others did. Don’t compare your schedule to someone else’s. Gloria only took 1 antipsychotic for 3 months then spent 2 years and 1 month to taper off of it and it and then it took 4 YEARS to recover. Ridiculous….but it was/is her reality. Stay off all other drugs and pharmaceuticals. Looking for another pill or latest invention to solve a current issue will only complicate the problem, create chaos and increase the amount of time it takes to heal. When you are ready, eat a clean diet (no processed foods) and lift weights. I decided 2 years ago when Glo was starting to do better, to get my own health in order so that I can ‘outlive her’ and take care of her for as long as possible. Currently at the age of 57, I am the strongest and healthiest I have EVER been and that is due to….clean eating and weight lifting. It is the Fountain of Health. Jump in when you can…. May Strength and Peace find all of you who are suffering. You are not alone and you can get through this!! Glosmom
  14. It has been years since I took medications, I was 16 when I took them in 2009, and went through a few different brands. I have copied some of my introduction story to make things easier for me. http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/5232-%E2%98%BC-hello-charliebrown-script-free/#entry67166 Starting with Fluoxetine 10mg for 1 month. Then Venlafaxine for 1 month at 75mg then, 3 months at 150mg. 1 month of Clonazepam 0.5mg as I was tapered off Venlafaxine and onto Sertraline 50mg. Then I took Sertraline 100mg for 4 months. Still experiencing panic attacks, agoraphobia and paranoia. I went to the hospital during a panic attack and was given Lorazepam 1mg for 1 week. This is when my psychiatrist added Risperidone on top of the Sertraline. Risperidone started at 0.25mg for 3 days, then 0.5mg for one week, raised to 1.0mg for one week. After two weeks I had a check-up I told the Dr. I wasn't feeling anything and I believe he may have misinterpreted that as "no effects" but when I said it I meant that I felt no emotions. My dose was raised to 1.5mg daily. After 3 days of 1.5mg I began experiencing Akathisia with no relief of anxiety. With no options in perceived sight I took all of the remaining Risperidone. Approx forty 0.5mg pills. My Parents caught me and called 911. At the hospital I was given charcoal and passed out, waking hours later. After being discharged I continued to take Sertraline as prescribed for 2 months. With no reduction in my anxiety and my emotions being basically non existant I decided to "take the good with the bad" and feel some kind of emotion. Over the next month and a half I slowly weaned myself off Sertraline. Popping open the capsule and throwing away 3-5 tiny XR beads a day. So that's my age, meds and taper strategy. How long it took to regain all my emotions and bodily functions is a hard one to answer. It took about 6 months before I felt much of anything. Then the bad emotions came back, sadness, anger. Slowly over the next two years I had many days that were blank and void of anything, days full of sadness, but also days where a light would shine and I would be happy. Feelings were coming back in waves and leaving again. I joined this website in late 2013 and at that point I had some emotional range, a libido but no sexual pleasure. So i guess it took about 3 years off medications to regain a good emotional range and my youthful lust. I'm finally writing this success story because in the past year the lack of sexual pleasure and anhedonia are not a problem for me anymore. The feelings slowly came back in waves, sometimes weak, but getting stronger and stronger. Now I feel great when I hug someone or see a friend smile. Sometimes the feelings can even be overwhelming. Like my heart is ready to burst. I don't know what else to add except, it's been almost 7 years since I took medications and I am a whole new person! Don't give up hope! Things are constantly changing, even if you don't notice. I didn't notice the change until it was right in my face!
  15. Hello, Thank you for reading my introduction. I am desperate for the truth. 28 May 2013, I was prescribed Loxalate 10 mg and Risperdal 1 mg by a Senior Consultant Psychiatrist.I did not commence the administration of the medications with immediacy.An entire week or two weeks had passed until the initial tablets were administered.Loxalate 10 mg was administered every morning, and Risperdal 1 mg was administered every night.Anxiety symptoms were advancing while I was administering the Loxalate 10 mg and Risperdal 1 mg daily. I returned to the Senior Consultant Psychiatrist who increased the dose of the Risperdal 1 mg to 2 mg daily.0.5 mg Risperdal accompanied by the Loxalate 10 mg in the morning, 0.5 mg Risperdal administered at midday, and 1 mg Risperdal administered every night.I had approached several medical professionals with the side effects that I was experiencing and I was reassured that the side effects would all cease soon, the body and brain requiring a minimum of six months to adjust to the medication.Disappointingly, one of these medical professionals was a former friend of mine, a Registered Nurse, working in Psychiatry, someone who I thought I could trust wholeheartedly. I was opposed to prolonging the medication, though I thought that following the opinions of several medical professionals responding unanimously would be sensible, so I did.Two to three weeks prior to 1 October 2013, I decided to cold turkey. The medications were not beneficial for me, and I was literally, sick and tired of the sufferance.I had struggled with the side effects for too long. I should have never been prescribed these medications as I felt that they were unnecessary for me.I was coerced in to seeing a Senior Consultant Psychiatrist, when I was neither a personal or societal menace. At the time, I was an Australian resident, claiming a Disability Support Pension for my psychiatric impairments, and unfortunately, the Australian Government has the last word on the health of Australian citizens who are disabled and living in moderate poverty. I could represent myself very well, though the predicament that I was in was of no relevance to anyone. I had been travelling between Australia and Austria as of 2011, when I fell in love with my long term partner who I met while in Australia. Social Security cancels pensions after six weeks of being overseas and having a Disability Support Pension as my sole financial support, I had to continue to travel between the two countries, despite our patience in waiting for assistance as of 2011. 2013 and Social Security in Australia assists us after giving us the runaround for two years.An agreement exists between Australia and Austria.If pensioners on a Disability Support Pension meet the medical requirements, they are indefinitely payable overseas.As per the request of Social Security, I met with a Senior Consultant Psychiatrist, despite feeling as though they were unnecessary for me to see as I was compos mentis. Whatever, it may increase the likelihood of my Disability Support Pension being passed, and it was only several documents that needed signing with my anamnesis, or so I thought.If I did not consent to daily medication and pursue seeing this Senior Consultant Psychiatrist, my documentation would not be filled.I felt that I had little to no options than to comply. Financial support is of no worth to us now, we are instead left to contemplate if I will ever recover to be the person that I was, be it swiftly or not so. No one knows what it is that I am experiencing, emotionally or neurologically, for they cannot relate to this bizarre and frightening experience. I know that I will never experience anything like it again in my lifetime, this is a real witch that I would never curse anyone with.It is agreed that I am no longer myself, so that is why I have sought my refuge here.I do however, need to make sense of what has happened to me.Chemical lobotomisation is the most accurate description I can provide, and the recounts of persons and research statistics that I find myself mousing over seem much less like deluded untruths. I am a realist, I know that the medication has damaged me, so I refuse to submit to medical professionals trying to blame it on a foreign illness, my Vegan diet, or to coerce myself in to believing that what I am experiencing are merely figments of my imagination.I do not thrive on false hope, though it may be all that I have.It seems so impossible that I could ever be the same person with the same life, after such trauma to the nervous system.How likely are the possibilities?All of these side effects manifested while I was administering the medications.Major side effects, presentAnhedonic symptomsI am experiencing a TOTAL absence of all emotions, negative and positive, the TOTAL inability to derive feelings or physiological responses from any stimulation, not a blunted, diminished, or numbed sense of these. I am DEAD. This is the most severe side effect and the side effect that is the most worrisome. Subconsciously, I am aware of what I would normally perceive as excitable, pleasurable, or stimulative. There are no emotional or physiological manifestations. I AM NOT DEPRESSED.Feelings of detachmentThe inability to connect emotionally with animals, my partner, music is HIGHLY ATYPICAL as these are all things that I should still be OBSESSED with, music has become repetitive sounds, I am also experiencing the inability to connect emotionally with environments, objects, people, I cannot connect emotionally with anything. Loss of personality. Also a loss of creativity and diminished intelligence.Sedated feelingHIGHLY ATYPICAL for me, prior to medication I was ACTIVE and would feel INTENSELY all of the time, particularly agitation or excitability. I am apathetic and have low motivation.Post-SSRI Sexual DysfunctionSelf diagnosed. TOTAL absence of libido, orgasm, stimulation. Mild Amnesia symptoms I experience difficulty remembering my life and self prior to the administration of medications.Toxic Encephalopathy?Depressed consciousness, loss of cognitive function, low energy (fatigue, lethargy, malaise), inability to concentrate, personality changes.All of these side effects manifested after the cold turkey and have ceased.Physiological side effects, ceasedAbdominal Discomfort AnxietyBruxism, Dental PainConstipation, DiarrheaExcessive, Increased SweatingInsomnia MigrainesNausea Side effects, administrationReference major side effects, present Made me a TOTALLY different person. I was a ZOMBIE. I only remember sleeping and watching TV.
  16. When tapering, do you round to the nearest 100th decim[/size]al place? I'[/size]m getting for instance [/size]0.56902862332, etc. Do you round to 0.569? I'[/size]m trying to figure out how to taper off Risperdal. [/size] Please help![/size]
  17. Hello everyone, first post here on the forum I was prescribed Risperdal for my schizoaffective disorder a little over a month ago and have decided to taper off of it for various reasons... Firstly taking it caused intrusive thoughts to occur which is a brand new symptom for me and never occurred before taking the meds... it feels like I may be diagnosed with OCD now because of the intrusive thoughts, and they are now way worse than any other symptom pertaining to my disorder. Withdrawal symptoms so far have been fatigue, insomnia, restlessness, more intrusive thoughts, low appetite, severe cognitive impairment, cant read or watch anything on tv, words are hard to put together, and really bad anxiety. So I started taking 1.5mg on 6/29 for about 4 weeks(the month of July) and decided to taper.. and I bought a scale for the tapering process.(no idea how to use it properly) By Aug 4th I tapered down rapidly to a quarter of a 3 mg pill (roughly .750mg) and have been taking that much since. -My question is since i was only taking for a month at 1.5mg is it necessary to draw it out still for many more weeks or is a shorter taper recommended? If i do the 10% method it will take me many more months of being on the drug to finally quit it which doesnt seem logical to do considering my length of time on it. Unfortunately being on the Risperdal was never beneficial to begin with, as it was a bad fit and caused unwanted intrusive/disorganized thoughts, so the longer I stay on it, the worse I get it feels in that regard, not including withdrawal from the drug itself.. and so its just hard to tell what is withdrawal symptom versus what are the unwanted side effects from the drug.. Thank you!
  18. Hello everybody, i hope everyone is well. i would like to thank altostrata for this website and i also want to thank whoever volunteers, so thank you. anyways, i am almost fully recovered from the harmful effects of risperidone. I did not think i would recover, all in all it took 14 months to feel "normal." Here's a link of my first topic if you want more of a perspective on how i used to be: http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/12502-risperdalhater-my-risperdal-story-and-how-it-has-affected-my-life/#entry234527 I took risperidone for about 3 weeks, i recall starting off with 2mg doses daily then after a few days i complained about drowsiness and feeling weird so they lowered the dose to 1mg then after a few more days they worked their way up to 3mg daily and a long with that i received a long acting 7mg injection which can be taken once a month (as i recall). towards the end of me taking the drug i started feeling very very drowsy and i recall saying in a pathetic weak voice "I don't like this, i want to stop", so i dumped the risperidone in the trash and never took it again, i stopped cold turkey. the next week and a half or so i went through the worst experience of my life until that point. i had: - constant shakiness - could barely sleep - extreme sadness - seemingly a complete absence of happiness - serious muscular fatigue and weak blood flow these all disappeared after that week and a half except for the muscular fatigue and weak blood flow. the sadness/blah feeling got better at an extremely slow pace. libido died of course (pretty common with risperidone). thankfully i did not grow breasts or lactate like some of the victims of risperidone, perhaps they took it longer or took a higher dose. month 1-10 i was a fatigued wreck, people asked me why i looked so sad, i had to force my smiles etc. month 8-10 or so (as i recall) got slightly better but nothing big, just slight improvements. month 10.5 = more slight improvements in energy. nothing to be excited about though. month 11-14 is when the healing starting picking up its pace. i was hopeless at one point. i don't care if you've been on the drug for years, i still sincerely believe you will get better, just get off of the drug. taking this drug is not how a human being is supposed to live. so i started supplementing with niacin and my blood flow was better, i know because when i was at the gym i could actually get a muscle pump again, it wasn't that great but it was there. when someone is lifting weights, their blood is supposed to flow and the muscle that you're using will get filled with blood and become more vascular, i did not have this except for before i took risperidone. i've been lifting weights for 5 years, gym rat level; that being said, i could tell something was wrong when my blood flow became weak. don't worry about libido, it will return as long as you avoid those crap drugs. i personally put any drug in the category of "crap" whether it is prescribed by a doctor or not. i heard that when you show low libido, zinc can be a link.... yes i did try to make that rhyme. get your blood tested, i have heard that medicines can deplete certain vitamins/minerals. again, please get your blood tested. recovery won't happen overnight no matter how many methods you use to help yourself. supplements that helped me: Natural vitality calm magnesium: it's a powdered form of magnesium and has worked better than any magnesium i've tried. Melatonin __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ if you need help or advice, feel free to message me. at this point it has been 14 months and i am recovered, everything is back to normal. check your blood, supplement with what you need, eat good food, exercise. thanks for reading everyone.
  19. Hi all you good Folk, I haven't posted in this group for a long-time. I posted a little bit in 2017 when I got to 0 with my effexor taper, which was far too fast. There was no choice for me given my scenario, so I know how devastating withdrawal can be from these drugs. I'm a moderator in an effexor group. My dear Mum, bless her angelic soul, has been on these drugs longer than she hasn't, and although i.ve told her much about the need for very careful tapering and drs cluelessness around this her dr has reduced her dose of olanzapine from 5-2.5 mg. I.ve told her to write down anything at all that.s out of the ordinary and tell me. My dad.s watching out for her but from his dr believing position i feel he wont be of much use to her. Nor will her dr. I guess i.m asking if wd symptoms are in the same park between effexor and olanzapine. I think i already know the answer but just want to be aware of any possible different wd symptoms between them. Another probably difficult to answer question, might dropping from 5-2.5 olanzapine be similar to dropping effexor from 75-37.5? You know, entering the danger zone as the lower end is approached? Her drs reduced her effexor from 225-112.5 in 37.5 increments over quite a while and she.s well and truly stable from that. I do cringe at the size of the drops and am frustrated by the belief some of my family have in the "wisdom" of drs in this regard. I know how dangerous this is. I.ve told her much about wd so hopefully she.ll be on red alert and ready to consider my help when the need arises. I saw a link on how to prepare a liquid solution here with olanzapine and will have a good look at it. Thanks for your time.
  20. Hello, I was wondering which antipsychotic is best suited for tapering? Regarding tapering dosages and also regarding the neurotransmitters they block. I read on holisticpsychiatrist.com that halperidol is the best to taper off regarding the amount of receptors it blocks. But I'm also struggling with the practicality of the tapering process with liquid forms etc. I was on Quetiapine before while I tapered. The tapering wasn't too difficult, but became unwell and now am on Risperdal. So deciding if I should switch to an antipsychotic that is best suited for my next tapering attempt. Thank you Reign
  21. So encouraged to find this site about experiences of withdrawal from antidepressants, because I am feeling so alone in my struggle to be drug-free right now. It is a lot of pain! I abruptly stopped long-term antidepressant pharmacotherapy when I read that new emerging symptoms I was having while on the meds, could actually be induced by dangerous drug-drug interactions of the medications I had been prescribed by my psychiatrist - and taking regularly. I had become more and more active over the summer, and it got to the point where I was getting up at 3AM to start work, working till 8 or 10PM, working on weekends, excited all the time about new projects, talking a mile a minute, and having unusually great success at all my activities, feeling euphoria a lot of the time - but it was just abnormal levels of activity and I got concerned, and looked it up. I was thinking of writing a book about my new state of mind, "Unbearable Happiness", then Googled about what other people with this experience were writing, and found many, many links to people writing about their psychological disorder of mania - and not in a good way, but from bipolar. I looked up my meds on drug-drug interaction sites, and found mania is a potential drug-drug interaction of the meds I was taking, and became distressed. What if I was developing mania from the drugs, after having depression for most of my life? What if I started doing dangerous risky manic things? So now I am in withdrawal at about 4 weeks after stopping all of them completely, all at once. I'm not feeling depressed, nor manic, but am feeling sick as hell physically. I live along with a house bunny and parakeets, as my daughters are grown and have moved on. I had been prescribed and taking a high dose of 2 different kinds of antidepressants, venlafaxine at 300 mg/day an SNRI, plus generic prozac at 80 mg/day an SSRI, along with risperidone at 2.5 mg/day for about 5 years, all intended to treat a psychiatrist's diagnosis of depression, and later, schizoaffective disorder. When I read that these medications are clinically contraindicated - not to be taken together - because of serious drug-drug interactions, and that the doses I had been taking were very high, I stopped taking them. That was about a month ago. Since then, I get waves of sleepyness coming over me a lot. Every hour or so when I try to work at something, and often I am just sleepy and napping all day long, and have trouble concentrating on things I would like to do, in addition to unbelievable constant pain. It eases up when I take advil and Benedryl, but how much of that can you take? Not a lot. I am home from work (I'm a research scientist) and most of the time unable to do my normal things like cook and clean and exercise because of the pain and fatigue. I have sneezing and coughing and GI upset all the time, but no fever or anything like that. Pulling myself together to go out into public is a real effort. I have pain all over my body - electrical pricks all over the surface of my skin, deep pains in my muscles, aches in my joints, terrible headaches, and the only relief comes from going to sleep, and I am sleeping a lot. But then I have the worst nightmares of my life, with horrible things happening to all my prior loved ones and pets, and wake up terribly disturbed. I think my nerve cells are all in disarray. I used to meditate and do yoga but right now, I can't seem to do them at all. What has been helpful to you, if you have been going through antidepressant medication withdrawal? How long does it last? With gratitude, Bunnymom
  22. Hi all. I have been on a combo of Risperdal and Zoloft since 2012. I reached 3mg risperdal and 200mg zoloft in early 2016, tried to taper off both starting in June of that year, and had a bout of insomnia in November, at which time I reinstated along with an additional 15mg remeron. Adding the remeron, I've learned, was a huge mistake and most likely unnecessary. Since then I've slept at most 6 hours instead of my usual 8. For the first 2 months on remeron I avoided caffeine and tobacco. Then, after picking up both again, my sleep suffered, and I eventually had nights with 2-3 hours. I've since learned that caffeine and tobacco induce the enzyme CYP1A2, which metabolizes remeron, explaining this. By abstaining from both, my sleep has returned. I have also tried shaving a sliver off my 15mg pill with no luck...getting a full night without sleep. I would like to be able to drink coffee and smoke again. That leaves me with 2 options, get off the remeron (seemingly impossible) or tolerate the lack of sleep. If I do the latter, will my sleep eventually not recover even when abstinent due to repeated withdrawals? I had been planning to use coffee and cigs only sporadically, letting my sleep return before using them again, or using only on the weekends. If I that is not sustainable, then how do you recommend I get off the remeron, given my sensitivity to even a small dose decrease? My doc has suggested trazodone as a replacement, but that med interacts with my other meds and a post about it here scared me away. Thank you so much for your help.
  23. Hello All I am mother of 5, turned 40 this year Ihave been on anti deps and anti anxiety meds since 2002 multiple trials of weaning off led me to reduced meds fron 2014 -2017 but not a day I have been completely off meds since 2002 I am on so many meds that I feel there is no hope of getting off completely but even lowering dosage will do Start of April I tried to reduce clonazepam just by 0.15mg and started having anxiety and brain zaps had to go to same dose I have to try again in May guided by my psychiatrist but Brain Zaps throw me off literally and I start having panic attacks I feel it is totally impossible hence i was searching for success stories on google and landed here. Right now after being stable I haven't done any changes to my dosage and since two days getting brain zaps Any help,advice,support is much appreciated Love and prayers
  24. Hi , I am Andra. Thank you for this amazing site. It is very useful. I am helping my 23 years old daughter to taper off clonazepam, risperidone and sertraline. The doses were not so abysmal, however the psych recommended ECT. When we refused the psychiatrist ramped up the dosage to maximum. From cannabis induced psychosis the diagnostic morphed into MDD with psychotic elements. Under a different psychiatrist’s supervision we began tapering of the benzo . Starting tomorrow August 4 , it will be 0. The next is The AP and then the AD.
  25. Hi, I am happy to know this site exists! After coming off of a couple of other antipsychotics (see below) I am finally on one that seems the lesser of evils. That being said Lurasidone is not perfect. I’m on 30 mg, soon to be 20 mg of Lurasidone. I have been on 30 mg (from 40 mg) for 3 months now so I feel it is time to trial a reduction. So far I haven’t had any withdrawal symptoms, but I’m pretty sure I am a poor metabolizer of this medication, so I’m expecting a delayed withdrawal. I think it will take some convincing to go down any further than 20 mg because I am on this medication for Schizophrenia which I have been newly diagnosed with, and literature with being poor metabolizers on antipsychotics is limited (I only found an article stating if you’re on Risperidone you should be on 1/4 of the recommended dose). It took enough convincing to get this far, as the normal starting dose for Schizophrenia is 40 mg. I haven’t had any hallucinations or other symptoms on 30 mg so I am hoping 3 months was long enough to go ahead and trial 20 mg. Overall, I find Lurasidone the lesser of evils for antipsychotics as I am not drowsy at all, and don’t have akathisia as bad as I did on other medications. I have had some weight gain, my hair is thinning a lot, and I have a bit of akathisia in the afternoons so I’m hoping the reduction will help with this. I wish I could go off of all medications, and part of me still believes that there is a possibility that my short-lived psychosis episodes were because of medication withdrawal, not schizophrenia, as I was coming off of medication both times the psychosis happened. Or, I have entertained that there is a possibility I have both Schizophrenia, AND had withdrawal psychosis. Either way the psychosis which presented as auditory hallucinations was super scary and I don’t think I want to experiment with being completely off a medication for now. If I was able to convince my psychiatrist to taper completely off of it at some point, I would probably want to be in hospital and because of the delayed withdrawals I experience, it would be quite a lengthy stay, so not ideal right now. July 2020 - Feb 2021 : Risperidone March 2021 - April 2021 : Abilify September 2021 - March 2022 : Clopixol March 2022 - Current : Lurasidone (Latuda)
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use Privacy Policy