For a variety of physical reasons, I need an atypical antipsychotic to be able to survive a normal day to day routine. When I look at the list, I am pretty sure I have been through them all, some twice. The one side effect that I can't take anymore with most of them is weight gain. I am up 80 pounds from the beginning, and I have told my pdoc that the depression from the weight gain overtakes the positives of the ap.
The one ap that I can take without weight gain is geodon. The big problem I now face is how to overcome the morning sleepiness. No matter when I take it, twice a day, once a day, a lower dose-I cannot overcome a sleepiness that threatens my driving to work each morning.
First my pdoc put me at 40 mg twice daily, a pretty low dose. That was miserable. Then she had me take all 80 mg right after dinner, then I went down to 60 mg...then I started seeing shadow people, but still no major depression, so I cut it to 40 mg once daily. I still have the scary sleepiness.
I go to bed earlier. I eat earlier. I have cut out breakfast, thinking that food was reactivating the effects. With all of this, still this morning my husband and I got in the car, him driving!, and within 5 minutes I was out. 1.5 hours later he was shaking me awake because we had arrived at our destination. I don't remember a thing about the trip. I am fine for the rest of the day, whether at work or somewhere else.
Any suggestions? I don't want to give up on geodon and go back to weight gain or other problems. I have tried to give up an antipsychotic altogether, but two times ended in hospital visits. I looked at the list again this evening, and I truly have tried them all. Besides weight gain I have been through drooling, stumbling, speech impediments, vision problems, choking, etc., so I really want this one to stick!
Sorry this is so long, thanks for anything you can think of!
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