I've been of meds for 4 years now. If you decide to stop taking meds, I would definitely recommend talking to your doc about it first. I was on 20mg of abilify and 2 mg of risperdal and hated it and hated seeing my doc. I quit all of it cold and never went back to see the doc because I was paranoid about him.

So, first off, I've never done hard drugs, but I imagine that detoxing cold from psyche meds is a lot like detoxing cold from hard drugs. I spent the better part of a week or two completely delerious, and pretty much incapable of doing anything, I remember smoking a lot and using whiskey to sleep. Very unhealthy, wouldn't recommend it.

Within a few months I was a thousand or so miles from home after a very exciting psychotic episode and very confused. Went home, stayed off meds, never saw a doc again, two years later did it all over again, travelling, etc.. Came home, lived secluded (cabin in the woods secluded) for two more years under my families graces.

So now I'm trying to get things going again. I luckily didn't do anything criminal, but I junked my car (long story) and lost my drivers license. I nearly destroyed the lives of almost everyone in my social circle (another long story), and so have no friends anymore. My family supports me, but will not help me get support for illness because they don't want another crazy person in the family. Now I'm doing my best to try to find work so that I can get things going again. My one blessing in this is that I don't get depressed very easily, so yay there!

I'm wishing that I could get enough independence to go see a doc before life gets wild again. This isn't to say I haven't developed good coping strategies on my own, or that I can't do it without pills and docs, but I could picture this being easier. So ultimately I think to say that I don't want to be sick, but when it comes down to it, quitting pills and leaving the doc doesn't make it go away, or make you healthy.

I hope my autobiography was helpful, it'll come out in hardcover next month, so book a signing today. (no book no signing, only kidding)