For me I was originally on 10mg but was stable on 7.5mg for a year 5mg was far too low for me at 1 year post psychosis..I was really irritated and anxious. For psychosis the minimum dose is 10mg if you can go lower then great but there is no guarantee it will be protective. The lower doses are meant to be used in addition to other drugs for depression.

As far as being on meds forever I don't know if you've seen the wunderink study but people who go off meds at 6 months do tend to relapse more and you do need to treat the relapse but in terms of long term prognosis 7 years out they do better off meds than on. You don't mention a tapering period but you need to taper off these meds with a doctors help or you increase the chance of relapse. Anyway...I might give it one more try maybe after a year or two on meds...8 months off is great.