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I started taking 20mg of Latuda near the end of May 2022 for treatment-resistant depression and anxiety. I started taking the drug as recommended, with at least 350 calories of food, until sometime in July where I got annoyed with feeling exhausted after dinner and started taking it right before bed without food. I did not realize that this meant I probably only absorbed 50-75% of those doses. By early to mid August, I began experiencing withdrawal symptoms (unbeknownst to me) including severe anxiety, racing thoughts, SI, fast heart beat, and a lack of appetite. I spoke to my psych about what was happening but she could not determine whether my symptoms were from the drug itself or a withdrawal but later suggested that I "taper" off of the medication. I started taking 10mg of Latuda, with food, from September 19th to September 26th and then went cold turkey. Since I have stopped the Latuda, my anxiety is seemingly getting worse, I have bouts of insomnia, I still have no appetite, my heart rate is regularly raised, and have had some GI concerns as well. I am 2 1/2 weeks off of Latuda and wondering if I should re-instate and, if so, at what dose? Have I passed the point of no return? My psych does not believe that what I am experiencing is withdrawal but rather a return of symptoms and wants me to try another anti-psychotic. I have an appointment with a different psych on Tuesday to discuss. I have been out of work on FMLA to handle the anxiety from this and terrified that I am months away from being anywhere close to who I was before this all started.

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)

Hello, long-time follower here. I have a novel here but I would very much appreciate hearing someone elses thoughts. I am 29 years old and I have been on some form of psychiatric medication since I was 13 years old. I want to cry just saying that because I was never a troubled child. I was sensitive and full of life and love and hope. When I was 13, my family and I moved across the country (I'm in the US.) I had a dysfunctional home life and the move was overwhelming for me. We moved in July and I was deemed "depressed" my December because I was grieving the move. I was on several different antidepressants for two years until I was put on effexor in 2008 at age 15. I've never been able to come off. Why is this stuff even legal???? When I was 19, in 2014, my psychiatrist helped me do a five week taper off effexor. I experienced increase in energy, creativity, and heightened sexual interest. Then one morning I woke up sad and then within a week I was in the belly of depression. I became suicidal and planned of getting a bottle of vodka and hiding in my closet drinking until someone found me. I told somoeone about this though and I was hospitalized and put back on effexor. My psychiatrist interpreted these withdrawal symptoms as the development of bipolar disorder and put me back on effexor as well as 150mg of lamictal. Meanwhile, the effexor was causing me to have up to 13 migraines a month and sexual dysfunction. So in 2018, my doctor did another five week taper off effexor. So I was off the effexor and still on 150mg of Lamictal. I began to experience high levels of anxiety and insomnia. Eventually the anxiety to turned into panic level. The panic fed the insomnia and the insomnia fed the panic. My doctor then put me on Latuda and I experienced a descent into hell. And I do not put that lightly. I was in anguish, feeling like I was spiritually and mentally being put naked on a burning stove....the pain and grief sent me into a state of dissociation and I experienced psychomotor as well as visual disturbances. I was internally crawling out of my skin and externally unable to move. Every single day I was vomiting and having diarrhea. One night, my heart was racing in the 120's and I felt that familiar wave of anxiety induced nausea so I jumped out of bed, ran to the bathroom and vomited so violently that I urinated myself. It was my first breaking point and so I started the effexor again. So there was a week there where I was taking effexor, lamictal, and latuda. I felt like a terrified zombie so my doctor decided to increase the latuda. I experienced severe akathisia and almost became psychotic. So I stopped the latuda and was given a 1mg of ativan for sleep. The ativan completely broke the panic cycle that I had been in for six weeks. The depression that followed is a blur and two months went by where I essentially just stared at the wall and sat outside. It took two and a half years to feel fully recovered. Now I am approaching 30 and desperately want to be drug free. I am willing to taper slowly over several years but I want to start the process once my partner gets back from deployment in June. So here are my questions: how do I find a doctor that is experienced using the 10% taper method? How to I taper off an extended release capsule with beads? Is it sustainable to count a bunch beads every morning? Should I use a compound pharmacy? Is it stupid to taper off lamictal and effexor at the same time?

Hi, sorry, I don’t have a signature yet. I am in the process of titrating off Lurasidone and at times the withdrawals are horrific. With that in mind I would LOVE to hear some positive stories of people coming off this med. I started on 40mg 7 or 8 years ago when given a misdiagnosis of bipolar 2. I am currently taking 12mg a day (as of 7 days ago). I’ve been dropping by 2mg each time since I got down to 20mg. I tried three times to come off this med much faster and failed terribly. The drop from 16-14mg was very difficult and this recent drop has me feeling hellish! I think I may need to reduce the amount I decrease by a little. Any advice is more than welcome! thanks

Hello! I am a 22 year old woman who was first prescribed 10mg of Celexa in January 2022, then 20mg in March 2022. I had never had any issues with anxiety or depression, but at the time was in the midst of an Adderall addiction that had left me with depressive comedowns to the point of suicidal ideation. I ultimately said goodbye to Adderall in March 2023 and went cold-turkey without any lingering side effects. I continued to take 20mg Celexa daily until the end of April, when I realized that the medication was numbing my emotions and curbing my anxiety to the point that I felt no urgency over anything. My prescriber's instructions for tapering, I have learned, were much too fast – I cut from 20mg to 10mg at the end of April, and held there for a month before cutting from 10mg to 0mg over the course of June/July. My last dose of Celexa was on July 9th. Symptoms of withdrawal were noticeable shortly thereafter, but have really peaked over the past 2 weeks. I had severe gastrointestinal side effects (took laxatives for 10 days straight), feelings of depersonalization and dizziness, difficulty staying asleep, elevated heart rate, and severe episodes of hopelessness and lack of motivation. I decided to reinstate 2.5mg as of Saturday, which resolved my gastrointestinal issues but otherwise has not made a significant difference yet in terms of mental stability. I am not sure where to go from here – I plan to meet with a new psychiatrist this week, but this has been the most difficult thing I have ever encountered. Curious if anyone has had a similar experience, has any recommendations, or even just words of support. I am so desperate for my life back. Thank you so much.

I was looking for something else and ran across these articles. Apparently there has been an association for nearly 20 years now that anti psychotics, especially risperidone, used long term can be a potential cause of pituitary tumors. Recent studies are firming this up and finding an association. Great 🫢 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30531551/ https://journals.lww.com/psychopharmacology/Fulltext/2012/12000/Atypical_Antipsychotics_and_Pituitary_Tumors.1.aspx https://corporate.dukehealth.org/news/antipsychotic-drug-may-be-linked-pituitary

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.

Hi everyone, you can call me ryuusei86 or R86. I'm more than a little concerned about being on a cocktail of no fewer than five psych drugs. I started about 10 months ago on Latuda 40 mg and Luvox 100 mg, with Lunesta 3 mg for sleep, when I was in the mental hospital for anxiety and depression. When I got home I went off the Lunesta because I was afraid of getting addicted, and replaced it with Seroquel ER 150 mg. Soon that wasn't working, and I went up to 200 mg, then 225, and so on up to 350 mg Seroquel. When that stopped working after a few months, I added the Lunesta 3 mg back. I stayed on that cocktail of four drugs until the beginning of the summer, when I tapered rather quickly from 350 mg Seroquel ER to about 75 mg, or the closest I could get given how hard those pills are to cut. I see now that the mess I'm in is at least partly my fault with these decisions I made. About five weeks ago, when I told my psychiatrist that I was having trouble leaving the house or keeping up with my daily life, he added Wellbutrin XL 150 mg to the mix. He also recommended I taper within five days to zero Luvox and Seroquel, which of course didn't work as I couldn't sleep. The original prescription told me to increase to 300 mg Wellbutrin, but I didn't want to do it because it seemed to increase my anxiety. So the grand total now is Luvox 100 mg (at night) Latuda 40 mg (20 mg each morning and night) Seroquel ER 75 mg (at night) Wellbutrin XL 150 mg (in the morning) Lunesta 3 mg (at night) I saw my psychiatrist again last week and he told me to start tapering both the Luvox and the Latuda, again very quickly. I decided to try tapering the Luvox only because I didn't want two variables going. After three days of cutting the dose in half as my doctor recommended, I was having a panic attack, or something close to it. I restored the dose to 100 mg last night, and am now beginning to understand that this could take me years to rectify. I really don't want to be on five meds, especially since I think the meds aren't right to begin with. At the hospital they diagnosed me as OCD, which is why they prescribed Luvox, but I don't think I have OCD. I have, however, been on an SSRI for almost 20 years -- first Zoloft, then Paxil, and now Luvox, so I don't think it will be easy to give up. So I'm rather horrified at the position I find myself in, and don't really know where to start. I've ordered syringes, measuring cups, and graduated cylinders, and am planning to start tapering *something* as soon as they come in. I read that I should taper only one drug at a time, and start with an "accelerator" rather than a "brake." Part of me thinks I should start with tapering the Wellbutrin, since I've been on that the shortest length of time. But I don't know how well those Wellbutrin XL pills will crush. I should add that I'm especially worried about sleep, as I feel like I need everything except the Wellbutrin to sleep, and I have almost a phobia of not sleeping enough. But this post is already long enough, so I think I'll leave it at that. Thank you all in advance for your help and advice!

Hello everyone, I am seeking support and help. I was taking Wellbutrin, 150mg XL for 6 years and went cold turkey off of it in December 2022-March 2023. I subsequently smoked cannabis and took a small amount of psilocybin mushrooms which caused me to have manic symptoms. This led to a three month long intense manic phase and it got so bad (hardly slept, high energy) I finally realized I needed to take my medication again. When I reinstated it in March, I started at the same dose of 150mg. I was able to slow down and start sleeping again, but after one month I noticed I was feeling very depressed and starting to lose sleep. I have become I increasingly depressed since May of this year and been losing sleep. My nurse practitioner has tried putting me on a number of sleep meds, antidepressants and mood stabilizers. I’m currently taking Lunesta 3mg, 40mg of Latuda and just started 37.5mg if Venlafaxine. She had me do a quick taper from 150mg of Wellbutrin to Venlafaxine within 2 weeks and I’m not sure if that was a good idea. I don’t know if I doing the right thing and I desperately hope that there is some other kind of supplementation or path I haven’t tried that would help.

Here are a few resources for those who are on antipsychotics and are in the process of tapering or have already come off of them. I am noticing more resources for this class of drugs popping up over the last couple of years 😉✌️😺😺 https://psychscenehub.com/psychinsights/antipsychotic-withdrawal-syndrome-tapering/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32259826/ https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/drugs-and-treatments/antipsychotics/coming-off-antipsychotics/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352853222000165 https://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/06/12/post-acute-withdrawal-syndrome-causes-symptoms-treatment/ https://www.ucl.ac.uk/psychiatry/research/epidemiology-and-applied-clinical-research-department/research-antipsychotic https://www.madinamerica.com/withdrawal-protocols-antipsychotics/

Does anyone no longer get any pleasure from music? Has anyone experienced this and then had the joy of listening to music return? After a lifetime of loving music it’s just noise to me now. Music used to evoke strong feelings of pleasure and strong emotions. Now? Nothing. It’s noise. This makes me very sad.

Been on/off SSRIs and even a couple antipsychotics for several years. Always had some mild anxiety but major issue and reason for prescription(s) was OCD. None of the meds ever had a huge effectiveness for OCD, but within the last year or so discovered Dr. Michael Greenberg's rumination-focused ERP therapy for OCD and have learned to manage OCD using this therapy (highly recommend for others!). Have been on paxil for over a year and recently tried to taper off. Started at 40mg and went down 10mg per month, although when I got to 10mg I only stayed on for a couple weeks before stopping. Had no idea this med was notorious for withdrawals or what a problem this med is, or wouldn't have even started it. Started having very mild anxiety issues when I was sleeping while I was tapering off, but was able to go back to sleep. Kept getting worse while tapering and still while I was completely off. Symptoms peaked around week 6-7 and was having full blown panic attacks at night and eventually just all day, weird pain in the forehead like a sinus headache but from panic/stress. Had bad hand tremors, dizziness, nausea and had to miss work but eventually just went back on paxil. This time 10mg in the am and 10mg at night according to doc's orders. Now on 30mg paxil. Been back on paxil for about two weeks. Noticed immediately it helped although still have heightened anxiety and twinges of pain like a sinus headache. Feels like no one really knows how long withdrawals from paxil last; have heard 2-3 weeks, 4 months, a year, etc. Don't think its relapsing because never had panic attacks and never had problems like this getting off or switching meds. Really need to get off this med, especially because it makes me so tired which is a big reason I wanted to come off now that I have the OCD under control. Hoping to get stable again and then start tapering slowly, possibly with the liquid form so I taper in smaller increments.

Hi 👋🏼 I am just starting out on my journey to taper off antidepressants. I’ve been on cymbalta for about four years. I started it as a migraine prevention at 60mg. Over the last few months I’ve been up to 120 for depression. Now the side effects are too much for me, particularly the insomnia, and I’m realizing I have other side effects, too. In the last year I went down from 120 to 90 with no problem. My psychiatrist is suggesting doing the same now. I’m reading that 10% is the recommended amount to taper per month, but this is more than that. Should I be more conservative or or go with it since it worked ok for me before?

Hi there. I am female, 41 years old, married with an almost 18 year old. I was diagnosed in 2018 with anxiety, depression and BP2. After my diagnosis I started to see a Therapist and Psychiatrist regularly. I realized I have dealt with these mental health issues my whole life and figured medication would be my saving grace. I was wrong. They made me a zombie and I was constantly sleeping. I had a suicide attempt in late 2017 and that is what started my experience with medication. I was in-patient for 9 days and came home with an abundance of new medication (please see signature for meds). I thought this would be the right step in the right direction for me. I had another close call with suicide in late 2019 and was subsequently hospitalized for that as well. Fluctuating between depression, BP2, hypo mania and anxiety was exhausting. Husband and I decided we wanted to try for another baby so my OBGYN suggested certain drugs be out of my system, hence coming off of them. I had been wanting to stop my meds anyways because I was tired of feeling numb. Psychiatrist took me off of my Depakote cold Turkey on May 19, 2022 and I decided on June 22, 2022 to come off the rest except my Buspar. June 22, 2022 was the day my IUD came out so it was the best time to end my meds as well, against my Psychiatrists wishes. So far the withdrawals have been probably run-of-the-mill (i.e. insomnia, nightmares, headaches, irritability, sweating, dizziness, body aches). I’m taking it one day at a time and trying to rest as much as possible when I’m feeling awful (like right now, while I’m typing this).

Original topic title before reducing the length of it: I cold turkey’d too many things, the worst being Celexa, due to misdiagnosis and emotional blunting. I’m struggling. Let me preface this by saying I have had unstable mental health as far back as I can remember. I was an anxious and depressed child. I used to SH as a teenager and was put on Paxil, but I hated it and quit after a couple months. I did not use medication for any mental health reasons for at least 10 years after that. I have been told I’m bipolar by people close to me, and I think doctors eat that up and once you’re branded bipolar, that’s your identity. But that’s neither here nor there; the main takeaway from that is I was put on several different medications and hated the way I felt on all of them. My first return to psych meds was in the summer of 2015 with a diagnosis of GAD which turned into GAD and bipolar 2. I was put on Celexa 20mg. It was pretty good for a while. I was then put on Lamictal 150mg and took both, but the Lamictal made me feel like a zombie so I didn’t take that long. I kept up with the Celexa. After my gastric bypass surgery, the Celexa didn’t work as well. I was then bumped to 40mg and that’s where I stayed. I was starting to feel severely depressed, emotionally numb, and had anxiety creep back in so I was put on Wellbutrin 300mg and buspar 15mg on top of the Celexa. I took this combo for maybe a year but I was horribly noncompliant for the most part and it never really did much for me. I CT’d the buspar and Wellbutrin. I was to a point (and still am) where laughing felt like a chore. Crying is almost non existent unless it is a major sad event (death). Interest in things and smiling are difficult to come by. The only emotion I felt was rage. I was either apathetic or enraged. That’s when I was given the ultimatum to treat my bipolar disorder, as I was often verbally abusive to my SO and would have meltdowns. Jesus this is embarrassing. I finally gave in and started seeing a psych through telehealth. Big mistake, told them about my previous dx. That was enough to not even evaluate me, and I was started on some antipsychotics in addition to the Celexa. This was the beginning of a long spiral of multiple medications that ended with Latuda that made me so depressed I cried constantly. There was no tapering involved really, maybe just a two week period of dropping while introducing something else. I went through Abilify, Trileptal, Latuda, Abilify again, and Lamictal. My brain felt so fried at this point I said I’m done, and stopped taking everything except my Celexa. After stopping all of these meds I was so far depressed and anhedonic I decided I was done taking everything and needed a brain reset. I ended up taking 10mg Celexa a few weeks and then dropped to nothing after 6.5 years. After reading this forum, I realized this was probably one of my big mistakes. Now not only did I have severe mood disturbances, I felt physically sick. The physical symptoms went away after a few weeks. The last time I took Celexa was at the end of February this year. Now I am dealing with a whole host of other issues. It turns out I’m not bipolar, I have ADHD. Again, not knowing any better that I shouldn’t take anything that alters my brain, I’ve been on stimulants and back to Wellbutrin. NOTHING is helping. The anhedonia and apathy are killing me. I feel no emotion towards anyone. I am not interested in anything. Every moment is painful. ADHD meds are doing nothing for me. I guess I am looking for support. Advice. Anything. Something that tells me my brain damage isn’t permanent. Something that tells me I will feel emotions again, that I won’t think my favorite past times are a waste of time, that I will feel love towards my SO and family again. I felt emotional blunting with Celexa, but nothing like this. I don’t know what to do, and my doctor is useless when it comes to this.

I have depression and anxiety. My former prescribing ARNP started me on Latuda to augment sertraline (an off-label use) but I didn’t notice any effects. We then switched 150mg sertraline to 20mg trintillex from November-December and I felt good but I had eye twitching and found out it was expensive so I decided to try an ADHD medication as recommended by my prescribing ARNP. I lowered my trintillex (I think to 10mg) and started the ADHD med but I was anxious and nauseous on it so I stopped and went back up to 20mg trintillex. A few weeks after that, I started having severe symptoms (see below). I have a feeling that increasing the trintillex caused my current symptoms but Latuda is not covered by my insurance so I want to get off it as well. I know I need to titrate slowly but I don’t know which one to start with. I was working with an ARNP and we discussed starting sertraline and then decreasing trintillex but she dropped me after I asked started asking questions about and wanting to change the tapering schedule. She discouraged me from stopping the trintillex alone and said my depression would get worse. Since January 11th, I have been experiencing debilitating anxiety, crying uncontrollably (for the first two weeks), nausea, vomiting, racing heart, heat sensitivity, insomnia, stomach pain, suicidal ideation, obsessive thoughts, memory issues, cognitive issues, itching, agitation, feeling detached, irritability, waves of panic, self doubt, and constipation. My questions are as follows: Should I start decreasing the Latuda or the trintillex first? Do you think decreasing the Latuda could help my anxiety symptoms even though it didn’t seem to have a positive affect on me when I started taking it? Would it be unsafe for me to start decreasing trintillex without adding another SSRI? Would it be safe for me to start on sertraline before dropping the trintillex? To the best of my memory: 2006-2010: sertraline 2006-2007: risperidone 2010-2016: took fluoxetine and citalopram as mono therapy 2016: trial Effexor for a few months 2016-2020: escitalopram (polyrugged with Wellbutrin) 2016-2020: Wellbutrin, months on and months off May 21-Nov 21: tapered from escitalopram to sertraline 150mg August 21: trial of lamotragine (rash) August 21: started latuda (off label) at 20mg, then up to 40mg and 60mg but back down to 40mg November 21: two week taper from sertraline to trintillex 20mg, experienced eye twitching and itchiness (5mg trintillex for 5 days, day 6 decrease sertraline to 100mg, day 10 decrease sertraline to 50mg and increase trintillex to 10mg, day 14 stop sertraline, 10 days of 15mg trintillex and then up to 20mg trintillex) December 21: quick taper down on trintillex to I think 10mg and trialed dextro-amphetamine for a week, 10-40mg, anxious and nauseous (1/2 of 40mg pill in am, then 1/2 pill am and 1/2 pill pm, then 20mg am and no pm, then 20 mg am and 1/2 pm, then maybe 20 mg am and 20 mg pm) December 21: quick taper back up to 20mg trintillex, some lip and foot twitching January 22: lorazepam for a few days January 22: clonidine .1mg-.4mg per day, currently taking .1mg am and .1mg pm January 22-March 22: ashwagonda, L-theanine, and probiotics Current medications: Latuda 40mg Trintillex 20mg Clonidine .1mg am and .1mg pm Fish oil Vitamin D Levothyroxine .112mg

Hi all, glad to be here. Relatively new to the world of psychiatric medication. Here is my journey so far. I was on Latuda for a few months for mood issues (formal diagnosis of bipolar 2) and the stability was very nice. I also was placed on Guanfacine for ADHD. Back in early July I sunk into a kind of depression, I realized I took no joy in anything in life, whether it was hobbies or even loved ones. I had flat affect and lack of motivation and couldn't gain pleasure from anything. On the night of July 13 when I was laying in bed about to sleep, I had what felt like a multiple hour panic attack, with intense shaking and thrashing around. I was begging my partner to take me to the hospital but they wouldn't get up and I was unable to drive. Since that night I have been unable to sleep. I am not sure what caused that attack but I feel like my body is stuck in a state of constant fight or flight and the insomnia is intense, I have no idea how to treat this. Psyc. doc. thought the episode was a manic break. Seroquel was added to help with sleep, but it's been hit or miss whether it helps me get sleep or not. The dose has been continually increase to help with the supposed mania. Latuda was fast tapered and I got off by the end of July. Psyc. doc. thought the sleep issues were due to mania so I was placed on Lithium 600mg recently. I do not believe I am manic, and I feel the sleep issues are a trauma response. Recently I have been taking the Seroquel at various doses from 75-200 mg. I hate the way 400mg made me feel, like I was drunk and still didn't help me sleep. I think my body is stuck sympathetic nervous system dominance. I never get that sleepy feeling. Last night I took 100mg Seroquel and spent the night in a light sleep state where I couldn't tell if I was awake or asleep all night. This is exhausting, non-restorative and common experience for me lately. The other day I talked to my primary care physician re: insomnia and they suggested to not go to bed until sleepy. I ended up staying up until 3am then took 75mg Seroquel and got 3 hours of sleep. I am trying to be pragmatic about the sleep issues and pursue two treatment modalities: Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Insomnia and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Insomnia. As far as personality, I am feeling more alive on the days that I am able to get some sleep, which might be once a week. I am just scared of being on Lithium, I don't think I need to be on it. I am worried I won't be able to sleep at all without the Seroquel but I hate taking a pill to sleep, especially since it is not even reliable. Tomorrow I have an appointment with my psyc. doc., we have been meeting about once a week since July because they say I am in crisis mode and I just don't know where to go from here.

Not sure how to make this post shorter, considering how much time has passed and how many different meds I’ve been on. I first got referred to a psychiatrist at the age of 14, for Clinical Depression. At the age of 15 I spent most of my days at an Eating Disorder Clinic, after being diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa. Switched from antidepressant to antidepressant, mood stabiliser to mood stabiliser and never seemed to find the right fit, thought I was maybe just overly sensitive to negative side effects. At the age of 19 I got diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and “suspected” Bipolar II because I experienced hypomania when having SSRI withdrawals, and again when I was on a high dose of Venlafaxine. I also got put on a Benzodiazepine for Anxiety, and got dependant on it for years, whenever I tried to stop taking it I’d get physically ill and have panic attacks all day. Eventually I tapered it off, although not as slowly as I should have, and got off them. At 21, I got diagnosed with C-PTSD. I am now 22 and have recently changed psychiatrists, since the one I had would put me on a cocktail of meds. I’ve been prescribed Wellbutrin (bupropion), 150mg at first, and Latuda (lurasidone), 20mg. After a week, they upped my Bupropion to 300mg. I’ve experienced many unpleasant side effects, such as dizziness, headaches, increased heart rate, inability to sleep for more than 2-3h etc., since starting these medications. Two days ago, just a few days after increasing my Bupropion dosage to 450mg, I had a seizure. I had never experienced that before. After reading about it, I found out that people with history of Anorexia or Bulimia should not take Bupropion since it does lower your seizure threshold. My psychiatrist was aware of my history and prescribed it to me anyway. I am extremely scared that it will happen again, especially if I’m alone. I don’t think I should be taking these things. Most of my issues come from trauma, and I believe the best way to overcome them is to discuss better coping mechanisms in therapy (I currently do DBT with an amazing professional). I really don’t think these meds are any good for me, but since I’ve been taking them for so long, I’m scared I may have damaged my brain and reached the point of no return. I have now lowered my Bupropion dosage back to 300mg, as advised by my psychiatrist. Does anyone have similar experiences, or tips on what I could do next?

Hello everyone. I am currently on 20 mg of Latuda. I was on 40 mg of Latuda and it took a year to go down to 20. The problem I'm facing now is that 20 mg is the lowest dose. 1. I've tried making a liquid of latuda using instructions on this site but it doesn't seem as effective. 2. I can cut the tablet using a pill cutter, but to get to 10% (2 mg) is extremely difficult. 3. I asked about compounding but my insurance won't cover less than 20 mg. I called and asked and they didn't know really what I was talking about. This medicine without insurance is over $1000 a month. I am not wealthy. 4. My doctor said to take a half pill (10 mg) every 4th day. I told him I didn't do well with alternative doses. Even after I told him I'd pay for his time to authorize compounding with the insurance company he said it would be a hassle and a difficult conversation with the insurance company for little benefit. 5. I bought a precision digital scale from Amazon that measures 0.0001 g. I'll see if that works and if not return it. My story is a lengthy and complicated one to the point where it inspired me to write a novel based on my experiences, which is currently being edited. But I will keep it short. When I was 16 or 17 I was prescribed many different drugs I forget. Of course I had little to no say in this. One of them was Zyprexa. It made me stupid and gain a lot of weight. When in my early 20s seeing a different psychiatrist he said I was put on more Zyprexa than the maximum dosage. Eventually I tried Risperdal. Still felt stupid and had problems with weight, but since I wasn't on a Herculean dosage I did better. I then tried Geodon for various dosages that I did better in. I lost some weight and was mentally ok (felt like walking up from a dream). Then in 2014 I tried Latuda because I thought it would help with weight and help me sleep. Well I do sleep better but I've gained weight. Mentally I'm ok but sometimes I feel stuck and drink lots of caffeine and sugar to help "wake me up" which lead to their own problems. I was on 40 mg and over the past year worked hard to lower to 20 mg. So I think I can do it I just need some guidance. This is just my history with antipsychotics. I'll spare you my history with antidepressants, benzos, and mood stabilizers. But one of my great questions in life is should I have ever been put on antipsychotics in the first place and if they've done more harm then good. I've become pretty depressed lately because I'm 40 and single and overweight and feel like life is passing me by, and I think the antipsychotics are a big part of that. I have been labeled as "schizoaffective" and I know I'm not "normal" but no one ever sat down with me when I was a teenager and did a cost benefit analysis of what appropriate action to take. I was simply put on this medication without any discussion of long term consequences or alternative solutions. I'd appreciate any guidance or kindness you can give and I will do my best to offer the same in return.

I developed paranoia in 2014-15 related to negative experiences at work. I was put on risperidone. It made me very sedated. For a long time, I did not realize the sedation was because of the drug. Then I discontinued the drug, and had a psychotic episode in 2016. The psychotic episode involved delusions and no other symptoms (other than negative symptoms due to the distraction and destabilization of delusions). During the psychotic episode, I lost my job and then was hospitalized. I was put on Latuda, but myself discontinued the treatment. There was something like remission, at least in functionality, although the delusions were never challenged and never resolved. My career got back on track in 2017, although my marriage was scarred by the first episode. The delusions came back in the Spring of 2020 after I had COVID19. I was put on Olanzapine and Fluoxetine. Because of sedation, I went off the drugs about two weeks after starting. I had severe insomnia, which magnified the delusions. This was my second episode. I was hospitalized again. I took Olanzapine (15mg) and the insomnia resolved. I was also prescribed Lithium. Later, I would realize that severe insomnia is the result of Olanzapine withdrawal for me. I retained my job but my wife divorced me, taking away our five year old son, in the summer of 2020. I am a professor, and I taught for a semester in the Fall of 2020. During the Fall of 2020, the delusions resolved through conversation with my sister. I feel that I have insight and that delusions are a mental process from which I now am largely protected, and which is not truly addressed through medication. I withdrew from Lithium during the Fall of 2020, and tried to withdraw from Olanzapine -- but could not without severe insomnia returning. I went on disability in the winter of 2021 and with the help of a psychiatrist and Ativan, cross-titrated from Olanzapine to Latuda between late December 2020 and early April 2021. Over the course of that time, the insomnia got better but far from resolved. Slowly, I came off the Ativan between December and early April. In late April 2021, I attempted to withdraw from Latuda (40mg). Latuda was causing cognitive side effects, which are my primary concern as they interfere with my line of work, as well as sexual dysfunction. Although I had no trouble withdrawing from Latuda in 2016, I had severe insomnia when I tried to withdraw in 2021. I believe that Olanzapine withdrawal has had long term adverse consequences for my sleep regulation. My psychiatrist was against the discontinuation of Latuda and when I told him about my discontinuation and the severe insomnia, he advised me to go up to Latuda 60mg. I have gone up to Latuda 40mg and the insomnia is slowly resolving, again, with support from nightly Ativan at decreasing doses to increase sleep. The discontinuation and resumption of Latuda has been a painful learning experience. I had been off Latuda for about three weeks before the insomnia became severe and was off Latuda for a total of about a month. During the first three weeks of discontinuation, I felt sharper and my sexual dysfunction was resolved. However, after the insomnia started, I could not deal with the 2-3 hours of sleep per night. It made me irritable, depressed, and cognitively deficient. So I had to go back on Latuda. At first, when I restarted Latuda this Spring, I had bad sideeffects (restlessness, nausea) but they resolved (they may also have been due to the higher doses of Ativan I was taking then rather than the Latuda). I am now waiting to come off of Ativan, and then for sleep to stabilize. I do not expect sleep to be great as it was before I started the Olanzapine adventures. But I need it to stabilize before I will try to slowly reduce my dosage of Latuda. I plan on titrating down as follows: 40mg->30mg->20mg->15mg->10mg->5mg->5mg w/o food to reduce its metabolism->0mg. I would take 2-3 months between each step, or however long it took for sleep to stabilize. I am also wary of titrating down while teaching (as opposed to during breaks). Potentially I may not be able to come off the Latuda (in 2016, it was significantly sedating but now, while taking it, I have insomnia that I believe is largely an after-effect of Olanzapine discontinuation). In late July, my disability period ends and I have to return to work. This will be stressful, although, I am doing my best to prepare for teaching this fall. The pending divorce is also stressful, and I feel a great loss because my son had brought so much joy into my life. My parents and sister are supportive, but they are on the West Coast and I live on the East Coast. I am lucky in many ways, including in that my sister is a doctor and we have become increasingly close through this difficult experience. I spend a lot of time reading psychiatric studies and ruminating on the future. That is how I came across ****** Framer's article, "What I have learnt from helping thousands of people taper off antidepressants and other psychotropic medications". Although I had come across your website before, ultimately, it was this article that led me to express my gratitude for your work and reach out to see if you may help. I am currently on Latuda 40mg and Ativan 0.5mg, with expectations that the Ativan will soon be discontinued.

I have been lurking on this site now for about 2 months. I find myself coming here for reassurance in my darkest moments. Today, I am suffering so badly and I finally have the courage to share my story. I suppose this is my way of saying “I’m desperate”. It is it so hard to admit this – that things have gotten so out of control and I am legitimately afraid. I’ll do my best to recount my story but there is much that I don’t remember, the reason for my poor memory may become clear as I tell my story. Apologies for the length. After the birth of my second child in ’99, I was diagnosed with post partem depression and that was the beginning of the on-again-off-again latest greatest anti-depressant at modest doses over the course of 10 years. I never had classic depression, but had an “imbalance” that led to the blues now and again. I never noticed any withdrawal symptoms as I moved in and out of SSRI’s and SNRI’s – or at least I didn’t know what it was if I had them. In 2010, I started having a cascade of health problems. I’m sorry I do not recall what anti-depressant I was on at the time but I do know as the many random and disjointed symptoms came and went, the doses to help me cope and the strength and number of drugs increased. I really don’t remember. I spent 4 years trying to figure out what was wrong with me – at some point, I was diagnosed with Lyme disease and began taking all manner of medications to fight that and relieve my symptoms. By the time 2014 rolled around I was taking a basket full of drugs which included a good strong dose of Lamictal and as much Hydrocodone and Benzo as I wanted/needed, which, unfortunately, was a lot. Eventually, I took to my bed and couldn’t function. After months, I finally cried uncle that I couldn’t take it anymore – the pain, the fog, the drug side effects, etc. led me to ask to be treated at John’s Hopkins depression/pain unit. 6 weeks in-patient. I don’t remember most of my time there as they detoxed me, told me that I didn’t have Lyme and labeled me with Major Depression. They convinced everyone around me that I needed ECT to get my life back from “depression” and although it scared me to death, I went along for numerous sessions. My memory will never be the same. I left the hospital in the fall of 2014 feeling better but with prescriptions for Latuda (lurasidone) and Lithium. I believe I took those for 2 years as I hid out in my house in the dark, alone, feeling completely bereft of all emotion, motivation or joy. So around 2016, I changed psychiatrists to a “famous” Hopkins doctor and he took me off the Lithium and prescribed 80mg Latuda, 120mg Cymbalta, a low dose of Trazadone (for sleep issues-he never mentioned it was also an anti-depressant) and 50mg Adderall (to keep me awake and able to focus because I was always so fatigued). Still feeling stunted and dulled, lifeless & fatigued, I gradually reduced down to 40mg Latuda, 60mg Cymbalta, the low dose of Trazadone and 25mg Adderall and that is where I was in April 2020. Over the years after my hospital stay, I barely left the house and the couch. I was able to accomplish a few things and contributed to the workings of the family, but I really have had no life for about 10 years now. In January 2020, I began to be very agitated, anxious and fatigued every day- as opposed to the consistent hum of dull. I would get up in the morning, take my Adderall, drink 2 cups of coffee and go back to sleep 2 hours later. I wasn’t able to really function until after 1:00pm and really not function productively until after 4:00pm. Obviously, the meds were not contributing much good to my life. At that point I began to question everything, I really just needed to know where my baseline was so that I could make medication decisions going forward if I really am majorly depressed. Since 2018, I often discussed going off the meds with my doctor. And we discussed reducing down and going off should not be a problem just to do it one at a time and if I felt uncomfortable it was due to my underlying diagnosis and I should raise back up. So, I followed this advice. In hindsight, I should have clarified what dose to reduce to but I never had the impression it was much of an issue. I first went off the Trazadone “without issue” as I really wasn’t looking for “issues” to arise. Then I stopped Cymbalta at 60 mg. In retrospect this is when my “issues” started, but they were I did not know what the cause of the issues was. I began having ALL of the known side effects of stopping Cymbalta but it was inconsistent and not too intense and thought my Lyme had returned. I broke out in sores/blisters on my face, neck & back, started having stomach issues, tingling sensation in hands and feet, episodes of vertigo, flashes of anxiety and a general overall feeling of dis-ease. During this time, late Spring to Fall, I spoke to my psychiatrist twice and he assured me that my symptoms were not medication reduction related and inquired what doctors I was seeing to help me with my skin issues and my obvious illness. I told him that I was quite emotional and had a bit more anxiety and he told me to go back on the meds because I obviously need them. But I did see doctors. I saw the dermatologist and she could not diagnose my issue with the skin blisters after many tests. I am still having blister break outs to this day as they rotate around my face and neck, last forever, and have left scars up and down my arms. She gave me a steroid and told me not to scratch them. I sought help from a “world renowned” infectious disease doctor from Hopkins who ran all the preliminary blood tests on me and found no issues, referred me to another dermatologist and assured me that I do not have an infectious disease. At this point, in September, still not understanding what was happening to me, I was stable at 10 mg of Latuda and feeling somewhat normal. With the exception of the blisters, I was feeling better and the doctor told me I could stop Latuda at any time. I stopped Latuda completely at 10 mg in mid-September and I have been in the storm ever since and I finally went searching online for answers that doctors couldn’t/wouldn’t give and I found you. It was then that I realized what was going on…maybe beginning of October. The first 6 weeks were like nothing I’ve ever experienced in my life with the nausea, rushing anxiety, suicidal ideation, rapid thoughts, nightmares, horror upon waking and all the rest of the works. Coming and going in an onslaught. I can literally say, I have been toughing it out bravely, watching weekly as I made minimal progress but determined never to eat the poison again. I finally reached a point where the baseline was “livable”, no nausea, lessening anxiety, fewer racing thoughts, and stable enough emotions . I always had good days, followed by bad but the trajectory was improving and I was gaining confidence. Unfortunately over the past two weeks, I’ve felt increasing unease and been feeling progressively worse with fewer and fewer windows. I told myself I was going to tough this out until New Years before I would attempt to reinstate. Over the past week, I spent most of my days listening to solfeggio frequencies and trying to keep my nervous system calm. My breakouts got worse, I started having heart palpitations and really rough reality thoughts with anxiety surges and then all of a sudden, I couldn’t sleep. Until this week, I was sleeping fine, except for the cortisol surge in the morning but now I have to sit and ruminate in my own pity at 3am. So I cried uncle and reinstated Latuda at 1mg. My husband is a chemist, so this was no problem but I’m worried that this 2 days of reinstatement may be causing me to feel worse and symptoms have returned that were gone long ago – like hot flashes, crying spells and feelings of doom. I’ve also developed what some have called “electric anxiety” and my scalp seems to burn whenever I have an emotion, of any kind. So, I know reinstating was a crapshoot because I went off of 3 drugs within a 4 month period and there is no telling which of these poisons is causing my torment but I chose Latuda because, other than the blisters, I seemed to have stabilized for a couple of weeks very well at 10mg and when I went off the hounds of hell were released. I’m sorry this could not be a short story. It is SO difficult to write. To realize what I’ve done to myself and to look in the mirror at my blistered face and sunken eyes with the overwhelming disappointment of having failed myself and everyone around me. And I cannot find a hopeful timeline anywhere to get out of this torture chamber. I’ve gleaned a lot of great info from my fellow travelers on this site, but it seems ultimately the answer is that there is no definitive answer but that eventually I will heal. I’m trying to come to terms with that. In the meantime, if someone could please tell me what to do about this reinstatement process. After two days, I’m feeling worse, not better, but I was in a bad place when I decided to go for it so I don’t know what to do now. Obviously, my biggest fear is making things worse and extending this even longer. I feel a strong degree of responsibility to preserve what is left of my brain and nervous system after all of this. My humble thanks to this site and Merry Christmas everyone, K

Hello I haven't seen many success stories about coming off Zyprexa so I thought i'd share incase it helps someone. I was on Zyprexa for a year and three months. I tried to come off a Zyprexa at 5mg, but found I was laying in bed awake until 6am when I'd finally nod off then have to get up for work at 7:30am (went to bed around 10/11pm) so I dealt with that for a week then went back on Zyprexa and came off slowly. I did the following: Full tablet (2.5mg) 3/4 for 1 month 2/4 for 1 month 1/4 for 1 month 1/4 ever second day 1 month 1/4 every 3rd day 1 week 1/4 every 4th day 1 week Then off My sleep started to get weird when I went down to 2/4 of 2.5 however I found if I had 2 Panadol and a chamomile tea i'd nod off and sleep through the night. I took the Panadol and Chamomile tea until a month after I came off Zyprexa then stopped the Panadol. I still have a Chamomile tea before bed. I asked my doctor if it was ok to have Panadol every night and she said if that's what will get you off Zyprexa then do it. I've been off Zyprexa for about 2 months now and I sleep from 10pm-7am (I usually wake up once during the night, but it's only once so I don't worry about it) I hope this helps someone come off this drug!

Hi everyone I’ve been on latuda since March 11th .I had switched from Zyprexa to Latuda I started at 40 mg and went up to 60 per Dr.‘s orders that being said that ended me up in the hospital for hostility and homicidal thoughts. I tapered myself down after the hospital stay from 40 to 20 to 10 into 5mg over the course of a month. June 21st I stopped. I know I went to fast that time I tried to reinstate the Latuda but it made me cry more depressed every day and gave me really bad anxiety, hair loss & a crap list of other problems. I’ve been putting up with hell for a little over 5 months. I saw another person with a success story here on the forums. I had reinstated to 20 mg September 8th through the 11th. I just couldn’t handle going back on it again my body does not like it. I recently stopped on the 11th was my last dose at 10 mg. September 12th through today September 15th has been ok I have had quite a bit of Anxiety and I can feel the nerve response that Latuda had on my nervous system trying to go back to normal. I cannot wait for that sensation to go away. I’m trying to keep busy and stay focused on being mindful and knowing I will get through it. I feel better off of it than I did on it and I’m praying it doesn’t overtake my willpower. My goal is to not be on an antipsychotic anymore. I will keep updating my progress here. Thank you for taking the time to read.

I've spent the last 13 years on various ant-depressants, anti-psychotics, mood stabilizers, and benzodiazapines. I was most recently on 80mg of Latuda and 900mg of Trileptal when the doctor who diagnosed me when i was 14 called to tell me she was wrong. She told me that I didn't need the drugs, and never had. My mom died from side effects of psychotropics and I had already pretty much figured out that the drugs weren't the answer for me. From February to June of this year I titrated myself off of them. I didn't trust psychiatrists to help me and I couldn't find one when I looked who would help. During this time, I finished graduate school taking a double load, started a new job as a consultant for the government where I protect children from bad medical advice, applied for a very high position and interviewed, moved in with my boyfriend full time, and he switched jobs, too. I let go of almost all of my friends during this process. When I came to, I realized that they were all really fake or bad people or just plain weirdos. I have three friends in town that I don't get to see very often, one very good long distance friend, and then my best friend/partner. A few of my family members have been really supportive and that has been really great. I take fish oil and that seems to make a big difference with the withdrawal symptoms. I was doing really great and felt like I was becoming normal again after these 13 years, but then I started having my period again. I stopped having my period on the drugs about 10 years ago. It has been so hard. I feel so weak like I am going to pass out. On top of that, I ended up not getting the big job I applied for. In addition to that, I am a social worker in the mental health/medical field and the secret motivations of others that I'm finally aware enough to pick up on feel so frighteningly devious. The most recent developments with "coming to" as I call it has been finding out that my sister was on and off verbally and emotionally abusive to me when I was on the drugs. I was easily manipulated on them because I couldn't remember things very well or keep my mind coherent. I think she would yell at me, but to be honest I can't really remember what the fights were like. I just remember afterwards feeling a rush when we would make up. She doesn't like me very much anymore the way I am now. She says we fight a lot now. The only difference is that I can remember when we fight and I don't instantly forgive her or give in to her adult tantrums. We grew up basically without parents, so she parented me. She always seemed like a wonderful mother/protector that was my best friend. It has been such a shock to realize who she really is. She was a huge support for me, but now that I understand how she treats me, i can't reach out to her anymore. There was a period of almost two years when I got into an abusive relationship. This was three years ago. I look back on that time and I can't really believe it was real. I know that I tolerated the way he treated me (the yelling, the not working, the financial abuse, the breaking objects) because I was on the drugs. My mind was so hazy I couldn't think straight. I also know that it was because of the way my sister treated me and her relationship with her boyfriend. Their unhealthy model made me think that what he was doing was acceptable. I somehow was able to get myself together and kick him out after he almost punched me. Shortly after that I started working out. Over a period of two years i lost 80 pounds working out and being able to eat health again when I had a med change in early 2016. The med change in early 2016 came when I gained insomnia for the first time in my life. I was in a relationship with a dangerous liar who was using me for sex. My hazy drugged brain couldn't figure it out, but I would become anxious and alert because deep inside of me, I knew what was happening. This turned out to be a great thing for me. We broke up when he was done with me and I got on new drugs. These had a much looser hold on me. I was studying behaviorism in graduate school and the way my "illness" had been defined,diagnosed,and treated did not make sense to me. I started dating a friend and he is really good to me. Somehow he tapped into the part of me that was most me. I got off of "sleeping pills" first, last year. These turned out to have been making me very high and "go go go". I calmed down a lot after that and started sleeping better. I was also able to identify that I was over medicated by talking to him and realized that I couldn't feel my emotions properly. That is when I saw that my psychiatrist would never help me get off of the drugs. She yelled at me when I said I was over medicated and barely agreed to lower me from the max dose (which had been placed by an entirely different doctor). I've been been hospitalized a number of times because of the drugs-three times in a mental hospital and twice in a medical hospital. The top most upsetting thing to find out has been that I never had any illness...at all. Now that I am off the drugs I don't have anxiety, depression, psychosis, or any of the weird ways these would manifest I noticed these symptoms fade away as the drugs left my system. I was and am so proud that I was able to get off of them, especially while doing so much else with my life. I've been through some awful physical side effects, but mentally I have been so clear and myself. I'm not always happy, because along with my lack of mental illness symptoms has come a level of consciousness I have never experienced as an adult. Not only do I suddenly remember all of the traumatic things I went through with my mom and her drugs, my own drugs, and my own life, I'm also painfully aware of other people's emotions, motivations, and actions. Everything came back into focus sharper than it does for most people, I think. I'm having to cope with the realities of materialism and our society-suddenly all at once. I think I get exposed to the evils of the world much more than the average person, too, in my job doing social work. My eyes are open to a lot now that I just couldn't see before. My withdrawal symptoms included getting hot every time I was hungry, food intake fluctuations, heat sensitivity, sudden sleepiness, insomnia, food sensitivity, weakness, tingling in my foot, sensory sensitivity, and general disorientation due to how aware of people's tones and body language I am now. When I came to, though, I realized I had done really good for myself despite the drugs. I have a very high powered career and am the youngest person of my type of position in our agency, but have the highest level of education. I graduated with my masters with a 3.9 gpa and got through my undergrad with a medication induced learning disability and my mother's death with a 3.2 gpa at a top university. I escaped two abusive relationships and am now going to marry a very trust worthy, kind, hardworking man who also happens to be the most handsome man I have ever seen. Somehow we were able to take care of our relationship with everything I was going through and his 70% traveling job for a whole year. We just moved to a huge two bedroom apartment in the nicest part of town and I am completely able to pay my half of the bills and all of my own bills. His trauma from being abused has been healing and we have been living together post-his traveling job for three months and it has been the most amazing life. While I have a much smaller number of friends than I once had, I have four friends I can really trust and rely on. Some are available more often than others, but four seems like a huge blessing to me. I sleep full nights most nights after 13 years of drug induced sleep. This started on day two of no drugs. i didn't get the big job I interviewed for, but my supervisor thinks it was due to administrative errors and my application being allowed to be sent through to too high a position. I was sent through to an above entry level position because of how good I look on paper. She is getting me ready for the entry level position interview in two months. Despite that, I am being recognized as a talented writer and assessor at work. The most anyone ever noticed about my withdrawal symptoms was that I talked fast sometimes and that is over. New withdrawal symptoms have been happening these two weeks I've had my period and that has been a set back in my recovery. Writing all of this down makes me feel proud of myself and know that I can get through this.

I’ve been on antidepressants for 25 years. Recently started Latuda and weaned off Trintellix over a month while starting Latuda. (Trintellix 20mg daily decreased by 15mg for 7 days, 10mg for 7 days, then 5mg for 7 days) After being on Latuda for almost a month (Latuda 20 mg for 7days, 40mg for 7 days, 60mg for 3 days. A lot of restlessness on 60mg so dose decreased to 40mg. Felt great for about 6 days then suddenly got extreme restlessness and felt like I was going crazy. My doctor had me stop Latuda immediately. Now after 2 days I’m on no antidepressants or antipsychotic medication. I am feeling foggy but okay. Is it possible I could get off antidepressants? Is it possible after all these years? I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been off them. I’ve taken almost every SSRI OR SNRI on the market. I really don’t know what’s happening in this interim. I have an appointment tomorrow and really don’t know if going back on meds is the right thing or the dire thing to do. I hope this makes sense. *want to add that PMS is the time I feel my moods are completely unstable. First time posting on a forum. Thank you.