There are people who find that medication helps them long-term. My hope is that my son will be off meds eventually, or on a very low dose, or taking them as needed. But I can't deny that some people find them useful.

One problem I see with the long-term use for a lot of people is that the drug becomes less effective over time. My adopted son has five bio siblings from his mom, two of whom are dx'd with sz. His brother Dustin is my fb friend (btw, he is so lonely and isolated it breaks my heart). He told me he has sz, that it's a biological disease, a chemical imbalance in the brain, yadda yadda yadda. I told him that wasn't proven, there were other theories, etc. "Well," he says, "the meds took care of my problem. I'll just take the meds." Two months later he says the meds aren't working anymore.

Anyway... the last time we lowered my son's dose to 5 mg (Nov. 2011), he immediately started having a lot of what I call 'magical thinking' - which is okay. But then he started having rages, totally unpredictable to me what would set them off. He'd be in my face screaming so the spit was hitting me.

The last one before I absolutely insisted he put the dose back up, he threw the kitchen furniture around. Right now he's at 6.125 mg which is a compromise I asked the pdoc to do for me - b/t 5 and 7.5. The pdoc told him to put it up to 7.5 last Monday, but he hasn't, and I haven't the heart to insist on it.

So, I'm scared of 5 mg. But I see him struggling with depression, total lack of initiative/interest, and taking no pleasure in anything. All could be med side effects. A lower dose makes sense. And when he was on the lower dose he said he felt "great" - even though I was miserable.