beyondhope: Advice please

[beyondhope]

Hi all I need advice please on how to move forward due to being cold turkeyed off all medication. I have tried to reinstate olanzapine 5mg but feel so much worse and been refered to gp and been advised medication wont help.Psychiatrists have advised it all psychological after 4 years of medication roulette and various diagnoses. My brain and central nervous system are a total mess and im severely debilitated. I have put in my drug record to the best of my knowledge the last 5 years are a blur! Im at the point where im now scared to take anymore meds and just try to survive.

 

Thanks

 

Beyond help

[scallywag]

beyondhope -- Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants (SA)

 

I'm really sorry to read that you're suffering because you were forced off medication.  Doctors are very poorly informed about the consequences of such advice and too many are dismissive of patients suffering harm caused by the doctor's own ineptitude.

 

To help you, we need more information. A request: Would you summarize your history in a signature -- drugs, doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements, in the last 12-24 months particularly?

• Any drugs prior to 24 months ago can just be listed with start and stop years.
• Please use actual dates or approximate dates (mid-June, Late October) rather than relative time frames (last week, 3 months ago)
• Spell out months, e.g. "October" or "Oct."; 9/1/2016 can be interpreted as Jan. 9, 2016 or Sept. 1, 2016.
• Please leave out symptoms and diagnoses.
• A list is easier to understand than one or multiple paragraphs.
• Link to Account Settings – Create or Edit a signature.

 

This is YOUR introduction topic -- the place for you to ask questions, record symptoms, share your progress, and connect with other members of the SA community.

 

I hope you'll find the information in the SA forums helpful for your situation. I'm sorry that you are in the position that you need the information, but am glad that you found us.

Edited July 20, 2017 by scallywag

[beyondhope]

Thanks for your reply scallywag i have filled out my signature to the best of my knowledge.

 

Thanks

[scallywag]

beyond,

 

In three weeks, 3 weeks ago refers to this week not the last week of June. Would you edit your signature to show month/year rather than a relative time frame, e.g. "last 24 months," "3 weeks ago," "for 2 weeks"?  Account Settings – Create or Edit a signature.

 

Your current signature and my comments (in green):

 

Last 24 months olanzapine 5mg mirtazapine 45 mg abruptly stopped by psychiatrist in october and taken off all meds.

Last 24 months = started taking in fall of 2014?, october = october 2016?

Put on prozac had serotonin syndrome.

When did you start prozac? When did you stop?

Put back on mirtazapine 45mg and 10mg of olanzapine.

When did you start mirtazpine and olanzapine?

Had ect in may 11 treatments taken off olanzapine during treatment and left on 45mg mirtazapine.

On approximately what date were you taken off olanzapine?

Cold turkey of mirtazapine about 3 weeks ago due to suicide depression in hospital.

On approximately what date were you taken off mirtazapine?

Back on 5mg olanzapine for 2weeks

On approximately what date did you start taking olanzapine?

 

You probably had a strong withdrawal reaction in October 2016.  Withdrawal symptoms are the result of a destabilized CNS (central nervous system). Removing 2 drugs abruptly from the maximum dose of mirtazapine and a non-trivial dose of olanzapine would almost certainly destabilize your CNS. The introduction of prozac probably may not have caused serotonin syndrome; it's possible that the dose was too high and caused further destabilization of your CNS.  Essentially you have been dealing with the results of your psychiatrist's ignorant harmful medical advice about discontinuing mirtazapine and olanzapine.

 

The way out of this is to stabilize your doses so that your symptoms and CNS stabilize.  Are you open to reinstating a small dose of mirtazapine? Please note this would likely be much smaller than your last dose of 45 mg, possibly as low as 1 mg.

 

How are you feeling after 2 weeks on 5 mg olanzapine? Please keep notes on paper of your symptoms and the times of your dose(s). This post has a useful format for a daily log:

Take notes of doses and symptoms.

[herewego]

Hi Beyondhope,

If I were you I would stick with the 5 mg olanzapine for a couple more weeks - I bet you will feel an improvement by then. Scallywag's suggestion of re-instating a small amount of mirtazapine is also a really good idea, but if they doctor won't go for that I would at the very least stick with the olanzapine and let your system have a chance to stabilize for a few months before you consider slowly tapering off. You are not beyond hope!

[beyondhope]

Thanks both for your replys scallywag i have not got exact dates and answers my minds a blank

 

I forgot to take olanzapine wednesday evening but took last night.

 

I feel like death burning eyes throat agitated and restless legs muscles in legs keep on contracting painful weak arms and lots of cognitive disfunction. Memory loss concentration cant absorb information

 

I ended up down a&e last sunday with severe chest pain all results ok.

 

I have also been on numerous medications prior to these over last four years stopped and started on different medication with no tapering and was taking tramadol for back pain for a short time last year.

 

Im smoking lots just to cope and its obviously not helping and having to drink tea to try and function.

 

Ive never felt this ill in my life

[beyondhope]

I have been given ropinorole for restless legs scared to take it

[PoetJester]

Hey BeyondHope

 

I quit Sertraline (100 mg) and Olanzapine (7.5 mg)  cold turkey back in February 2014.  It wasn't much fun (I threw up tons and went without sleep for 5 days which isn't all that unusual in psych med withdrawal world but was pretty traumatic to me.  I also had blood sugar crashes, crawling on my hands and knees to the fridge to get whatever had proteins.  the olanzapine had caused me to gain a lot of weight and pushed me towards type 2 diabetes).  I felt a lot better about myself coming off the meds after 14 years ( I could think clearer and lost a lot of weight originally by walking a lot), but the sleep issues these 3+ have been a constant torment for me as they are to many people in wd.  Some people's sleep does get better after a year or two, while others of us linger on with pretty poor sleep even years later which can be quite maddening and stressful on the body.  many of us are almost debilitated or incapacitated much of the time from fatigue due to poor sleep quality.   I have drank coffee and smoked through this wd (I quit drinking when I started Zoloft and zyprexa in 1998 and coffee and tobacco made my mostly friendless sober life tolerable).  I don't know what to tell you. i am probably not the best person to be giving advice as I am not doing all that well myself, but it might be best to stay off the meds for a while and see how it goes if the olanzapine is making you feel that awful (you can always try a small reinstatement of something at a later date although it's usually recommended not to wait too long).  you can look around on this site and see what worked or didn't work for others who quit the pills outright and went into wd.  I have had to try some things lately to help with sleep 3+ years later because I kept having horrid hypnogogic hallucinations (dreaming before falling asleep) every time I closed my eyes to try and rest.  Coffee is known to exacerbate these hallucinations, and most people in wd don't drink coffee, but I didn't find this site until 1 1/2 years into wd so I didn't know any better and well, it's hard to quit coffee.  anyways.

 

 

Poetjester

 

[beyondhope]

Poetjester thanks for reply i dont know what to do i have been drinking copious amounts of tea and coffee and smoking too just to try and survive through this ordeal costant thurst i dont know how much more i can take. I read alot of your posts yesterday i had no olanzapine wednesday night took some last night im so ill no one I know understands and its putting a strain on people around me which is making me feel so much worse. Im sat on my bed shaking. Cold turkey on mirtazapine ive been told is dangerous but doctors dont listen and dont believe in withdrawel.

I had ect to im so traumatised. I was cold turkied on meds in hospital not sectioned just felt suicidal and still have flashbacks. Ive had halucinations when i was on mirtazapine.

Im lying on my bed shaking listening to classic music.

 

[herewego]

I think sticking with the olanzapine is the best idea as it could help offset the withdrawal of other meds you have stopped. If after a couple weeks you are still feeling really awful and suspect it is the olanzapine, try cutting the pill into quarters and take 3 of the 4 pieces each night and see if your symptoms improve. You could just be having severe withdrawal from the mirtazapine and the olanzapine is helping you through that - that's why I'd wait a couple weeks before decreasing it - you don't want to have severe withdrawal from both the mirtazapine and the olanzapine too. If you try taking 3/4 th a pill of olanzapine in a couple weeks, stick with that for at least 3 - 4 weeks to see if you improve - it takes a while for your system to show the effects of the medicine - that's why sticking with 5 mg of olanzapine for a couple more weeks is a good idea - your system is likely still adjusting and may improve a lot if you wait. My advice is make small changes over longer periods of time - give your system time to register the changes. That's what's worked for me and most people on this site.

[beyondhope]

Thanks herewego yes im going to stick with 5mg olanzapine as long as possible just hope i can stabalise has anyone heard of ropinarole. Im getting some sleep on the olanzapine if i cut it out i know i will get major sleep apnea

[Madeleine]

On 7/21/2017 at 3:11 AM, beyondhope said:

I have been given ropinorole for restless legs scared to take it

 

In my opinion, and from my own experience, the restless legs is due to the quick fluctuation in the level drugs-- getting off mitz and then going off Olanzapine could cause it (i.e. a withdrawal symptom), but it could also in addition be a start-up side effect from taking olanzapine again.  So, as others said, just stabilize at the dose you are on, and if I had to bet I would bet that it will certainly go away. In my opinion, it will get progressively better over a few weeks.   Adding another drug means you need to then deal with getting off that one at later date.

I got off olanzapine by tapering it from 10 mg, going down in small increments.  See my signature.  Once you stabilize, stay on it for a while, then, if you want off it, do it very slowly, as suggested here this forum. 

With best wishes,

M.

[beyondhope]

Hi madeliene,

 

Thanks for your reply how do I find your signature sorry im new here.

 

Cheers

[scallywag]

beyondhope - If you are viewing the site on your mobile phone, the signatures are not visible. The site software "assumes" that mobile users want minimal information and does not display signatures in the mobile version.

 

If you want to see other members' signatures, you'll need to view the site on a laptop or desktop computer.