Lived Experience Forum

[Hanner]

Hi 

I have been taking some medicine for a few years which was given to me involuntarily. I have always been clear thinking, articulate and in good mood. It was an event that happened in the home of my parents, and they took me to hospital. I was highly misdiagnosed. I feel it is so unfair. I would like to come off medication and plan to go interstate to seek a doctor and find a reduction plan there. I feel unlike my true self on the medication, .When i take it it feels so wrong to me, it suppresses my voice. -not literally. And it stops me from enjoying life. I dont feel like myself at all. The action of taking medication affects how I connect with people, and it is so inauthentic TO me. I don't want to put this in my body. I am concerned if i move interstate this will affect the relationships i have with my flatmates...during the period of reductions. 

Has anyone had any success with Anti psychotic withdrawal and has recovered from Anti psychotics? It is a very hard journey, I feel, and I feel stuck because I am not myself. 

[EternalFlame]

Hi @Hanner, I don't have experience with antipsychotic withdrawal, but I do have experience with antidepresant withdrawal. I stopped taking my antidepressant last month after the Doctor gave me the run-around. I had already been taking it for 6 years, and it was doing nothing for me, except making me sicker. I had constant brain-fog, my sleep patterns were up the spout, I had developed involuntary muscle-tics, I couldn't concentrate and the medication made me even more depressed and anxious than I already was before. I was even losing my ability to speak and form full sentences, and I was also physically unable to cry. 

I realised that this was not normal for any person, so I made the active choice to come off the medication myself. I went and bought some Thompson's liquid hemp-seed oil (not the same as cannabis oi), and replaced my medication with that to help with the withdrawal symptoms. It wasn't too bad, but I did have a few symptoms, like disrupted sleep patterns, nausea, blood pressure/blood sugar abnormalities, but that was all part of my body trying to re-adjust after 6 years of being on something that I probably shouldn't have been on.

My main concern would be a seisure risk if you tried to come off your antipsychotics yourself. Antipsychotics are not the same as antidepressants, and I have heard of people having seisures from antipsychotic withdrawal, even if they didn't have a prior history of them. 

Hope this is helpful for you. 

[Acacia]

Hello @Hanner and welcome to the Forums

I’m sorry to hear that you feel you have been misdiagnosed and that you are not finding the medication helpful. As @EternalFlame has pointed out, there are risks associated with coming off medication, so it is good to hear that you plan to do it with the support of a doctor.

It sounds like moving interstate will mean moving away from your regular social supports, which will bring its own challenges. Have you been able to discuss a review of your medication with your current treating team?

Welcome once again and please keep sharing your story

[HappyJoyJoy]

I wasn't doing well on the dosage of medication I was on, so I lowered it. It was making me dribble and all sorts of things. Yuck!! So I lowered it till I stopped dribbling. It still works, and occasionally I have a problem, but its nothing I can't work through.

[Hanner]

Hi Acacia,

Well I am unsure about moving interstate. I tried discussing with doctor who did not want to reduce. The medicines have a mood impact in terms of making a better mood. However I found them so destructive in terms of finding yourself as a person, sexual effects and they are also a mind control drug. I took the dose in two separate parts and from that i had side effects but a few things came back. It was from this that I can tell that a I am dependent on it and b it is definitely a mind control drug. Usually you think for yourself but from that change I can tell that it controls your mind. And often I find people misunderstanding of the real actual experience of being on anti psychotics. It is I believe one of the hardest things. When being on them and coming off them your whole functioning changes. Who I was for 5 years,well I got used to this. and the change saw a different way of functioning coz I got confused. But I'd rather be in touch with my sexuality and womanhood then be totally dazy. They are huge side effects, having sexual health problems. It is hard to find a doctor who will agree to reduce. But it is so important because I really want to find myself. Which is the key to happiness. I may find another doctor and I ..also fear that I will never functin properly again. I believe I can heal but it might not be fully. I know that doctors recommend ant tpischotic medication but If you have a choice do not take it, It is so dangeours despite what people say.. Only if you have mood problems. But even then it is only for schizophrenia. I did not have schizoprehnia or schizoaffective. I am very disappointed in doctors. My advice is to try going on anti psychotics for 5 years and then give advice abbout taking anti psychotic medication. The doctors and mental health supports are not the ones taking them and not aware of how it really affects your life. How would you like it if your sex life and mind was affected for 5 years? I would not think so. mental health teams need to not give advice and stick to the formulaic advice to take your medication, it will help you. It is so much more complex than that and affects your brain and body in a myriad of ways. It is affecting homestasis, physiology, sexual health, and central nervous system which are key body parts of your body. These things are not to be changed with and we have to rememeber we are more than just our mind and we are our thoughts, sexuality, feelings, spirtutality, body, and agency! It is useful for some in situations where you reallyneed it but Sane needs to recommend that these medications only be taken for a short period of time. There is too much literature saying that we take them for life (but are we informed of the devastating long term effects? Tardive dyskenesia?!Early death at 60.Dribbling). Mental health groups are only getting advice from doctors but psychiatry is a fllawed system and they need to formulate their own opinions and follow current research on everything. Psychiatry is slow to change