Quote:
Originally Posted by epthe2
Psychiatrists, sadly, are usually not very helpful about coming off neuroleptic meds. A word of caution... even a slow taper down off any neuroleptic drug may result in significant withdrawal symptoms. Read up about the withdrawal symptoms so you won't be caught off guard when you start to experience them, if you do try to taper down.
Although schizophrenia itself can cause cognitive problems, neuroleptics do, too. They have a lot of side effects, and unfortunately, over time they can damage your body, including your brain. There have been research studies done about their link to metabolic syndrome in humans. The best thing you can do is to become better informed about them. Read all about them and learn as much as you can about them.
This is just my opinion, but I think neurolptics may help to tranquilize a patient during an acute psychotic break, but then the patient needs behavioral therapy to learn how to cope with and adjust to their illness. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helped me more than neuroleptics ever did.
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Yeah. Heck, if I was okay with switching meds instead, he probably would not have wanted to switch them because he didn't believe they were causing the side effects. I have done some reading up about withdrawal symptoms. I started tapering my dose about 3-4 days ago and so far no symptoms to note of yet. And that was with a 1mg drop in dose.
I do indeed worry about the side effects and long term effects. To my knowledge APs have some of the highest profile of side effects and adverse effects of any meds I've seen. I always research my meds I'm on because knowing these things is important. Fortunately I don't have schizophrenia, but I do get delusions and hallucinations periodically, as well as episodes. Either way, I know I am not half as sharp as I was even 2-3 years ago, and I want to see if this will help me.
When I've had delusions get bad it's been hard to tell what's real, but hallucinations are pretty easy for me to dismiss as such. Though APs have made their occurrence less than they used to. Maybe that's why I'm in denial that I even experience them...I've been living without them a lot more lately.
I'm so frustrated that I'm not thinking clearly. I know I'm not...which is just making matters more difficult. My emotions about all of this are all over the place so what I'm thinking at one part of the day can change later in the day. Mood swings suck.