Another voice for moderation here.

The problem with all the psych drugs is that of balance: balancing the risks against the benefits. In the case of Zyprexa, that's the risk of diabetes against the beneifts it provides as an anti-psychotic. If the doctors had something better, I'm sure they'd use it.

If you take an historical perspective on ADs, you'll see that the changes haven't really been in effectiveness per se -- they're primarily changes in side effect profile. The MAOIs had very broad actions, and caused a rather broad spectrum of side effects as a result. TCAs became a bit more specific, so their side effects were somewhat more limited. SSRIs were yet more specific in effect, so had more limited side effects. And so it goes.

As Larry pointed out, the traditional anti-psychotics caused a lot of problems that included things like TD, but if you needed to be on one, you needed to take that risk. Now there are more choices, with the atypicals, and those give you a chance to choose which side effects were worth the risk.

I, too, am sorry that you've experienced such side effects, and hope that you can build a good enough relationship with your psychiatrist that you will be able to talk to her about these issues, so that she can put your mind at ease about the risks.

Good luck.