Saturday, April 2, 2011

Life on an Atypical Antipsychotic

The word sounds scary. Antipsychotic. A holistic doctor suggested I seek another opinion because of side effects, but when my psychiatrist proposed adding one to my antidepressant, I thought I'd give it a go. After all, he had known my case for years, and he saw that last month when I began this treatment I was still very, very depressed. Since my last two posts, I'm sure you can infer that things have been bad. The drug is one that's given to people with schizophrenia. Another scary word. But I trusted my doctor, and my husband, who also was up for trying something different. It was hard to tell what would happen. I was up some days, and down others. But the down days were really bad. I could cry for hours. OCD thoughts had taken me down so far, further than I had ever gone; it was terrible. It's been over a month now that I've been on the drug. I'm not planning on taking it for much longer; my goal was to take it long enough to get myself out of the ditch I was in. I'm on the smallest dose prescribed; it's used in much higher doses to treat patients with schizophrenia. I have improved. It was gradual with a few bumps in the road, and I'm still climbing. Counterproductive as it sometimes may be, I know I'm feeling better when I'm plotting ways and reasons to stop taking the medicine! But on my husband's advice, I'm taking it slow and waiting until I see the doctor... I am a little nervous about what happens when I stop, but I can't leave it in anyone's hands but God's.

4 comments:

  1. Keep taking your meds!!!!! Sorry, that came across a little bit harsh. lol. I am a firm believer in keeping something that works, though. And I know from experience that every time I feel good and quit an OCD med, I just go right back "in the ditch"...and sometimes it's worse than it was before.
    Just curious, what med was prescribed for you? Risperidone was prescribed for me, and I too was scared at first because it's used to treat schizophrenia. But holy smokes. I feel better on it than I've felt in years. Good luck in your journey.

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  2. I'm taking an atypical antipsychotic as well. And yes, it scared me, but I was feeling desperate when I started it. I switched psychiatrists and hoped the new one would take me off of it. I think he was planning to until I dropped into another ditch. Then he doubled the dose. Some day I would like to be off of the atypical antipsychotic, but at this rate, that day isn't soon. I wish you good results and few to no side effects. :)

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  3. I'm glad you're starting to feel better! You owe it to yourself to take whatever medication HELPS. Take it from me - I've struggled to find anything that helps. Right now I'm on an MAOI and it seems to help a little for the depression, but I haven't been able to find anything that helps for OCD. Sending you positive thoughts!!! :o)

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  4. I am very happy to see somebody feeling well after OCD. I have heard about music therapy, which helps in the recovery of the physically and mentally challenged citizens. In foreign countries, it is used widely for the treatment and it is just like any other medicine. Why not use PERFORMING ART THERAPY to heal those like you, it will be a great idea as I have heard it has no side effect! It is wonderful way of treating a paralyzed person upto 90%!! Even surgeons utilized the favorite music of the patient and found amazing results! They are not using anesthesia but music for relief during operations. Sounds unbelievable? Believe it! :-)

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