I was on 15 mgs and now I'm on ten. But the goal is to try and be off off APs altogether. I don't think I can do it. I'm already having a hard time sleeping. I've had to take benadryl along with my other sleep meds. And I take 2 mgs of lorazepam at night for sleep and she wants me to come off that. I'm just scared I'm gonna end up in a mixed state that could end up in a psychosis.

I had a really scary psychosis in 2011 and have been on APs since then. It's me who wants to try going without an ap. I think I've changed my mind. When I see her on the 17th I think I'm gonna see about trying invega, abilify or latuda just at a lower dose. Maybe even saphris. But I have to come off the zyprexa. I've just gained too much weight on it...it sucks bc it helps with so many other symptoms too...

[ComfortablyNumb5]

Have you ever considered seroquel? I've been taking it at low doses at night time for sleep for years now. Currently on 150mg

Yeah I was on seroquel and gained 40lbs on it. And for some reason it makes me feel zombiefied. Makes me feel numb. I was on 200 mgs. But it did work for sleep. But I can't take the weight gain. Thanks for the suggestion though.

[raspberrytorte]

I'd be more scared about coming off lorazepam!

Is she going to give you a new sleepy med?

Hugs! Wishing you luck.

She's going to increase the trazadone. Yeah I'm scared to come off the lorazepam. But she said she'll do it slowly. I don't want to go through another psychosis. That was horrible. I think maybe ppl think mixed states are psychosis on here. No it's completely losing touch with reality. And mine has some abuse I suffered in it so it's partly true. It's horrible. But yeah I know coming off the lorazepam will be hard too. Ugh!!!

[newtothis31]

I'm sorry! I went off Zyprexa after my moods stablized post four months after diagnosis. Journaling helped; and the other medicine that I was on was depakote.

Depakote really helped me post diagnosis.

Despite really helped me. But my hair fell out in clumps, even with the vitamins they recommend to stop it. Maybe we could try increasing my mood stabilizer though. Thanks for the suggestion .

[BeyondtheRainbow]

Have you tried trileptal? People seem to like it in general. I tried it but the only way it didn't make me sleep 20 hours was at 1/32nd of a pill and my pdoc said that was not going to work (surprise) so I moved on pretty quickly. It definitely helped my sleep though.

I can see why coming off Zyprexa is hard. But you've made it this low without psychosis and that's a big thing. Do you think that your psych nurse would let you keep some so that if you felt anything starting you could take some immediately and then contact her for help? I know if it were me I'd feel more comfortable knowing I could stop the psychosis as soon as I saw a hint of it.

[~Christina]

They are options that are weight neutral . Not sure if you have tried any of them .. Geodon , Invega, Ole school Haldol too ..

Its really never an idea to taper off more than one med at a time.

Originally Posted by BeyondtheRainbow

Have you tried trileptal? People seem to like it in general. I tried it but the only way it didn't make me sleep 20 hours was at 1/32nd of a pill and my pdoc said that was not going to work (surprise) so I moved on pretty quickly. It definitely helped my sleep though.

I can see why coming off Zyprexa is hard. But you've made it this low without psychosis and that's a big thing. Do you think that your psych nurse would let you keep some so that if you felt anything starting you could take some immediately and then contact her for help? I know if it were me I'd feel more comfortable knowing I could stop the psychosis as soon as I saw a hint of it.

I'm on trileptal right now. I'm on 900 mgs. Might see about going up. Yeah I'm definitely going to have some zyprexa on hand just in case. Thanks though.

Originally Posted by ~Christina

They are options that are weight neutral . Not sure if you have tried any of them .. Geodon , Invega, Ole school Haldol too ..

Its really never an idea to taper off more than one med at a time.

Geodon gave me akathisia. But I am going to see about invega. I'm not tapering off the lorazepam yet. I'm sure she'll wait until I'm off the zyprexa. Thanks.

As of yesterday I'm off Zyprexa. I was on 25 mg and I tapered off slowly during about half a year. I was mostly afraid my insomnia would return - it did a little, but not much, and during the last few steps I was already on Clozapine (Clozaril) which is also sedating.
I think pdoc attributed some of my increased PTSD symptoms to the decrease in dosage.

BTW - I'm not bipolar. Just MDD, PTSD and a couple of other issues. I took the Zyprexa for (psychotic) MDD.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

So are you glad you did it or can you tell yet?

I'm glad your taper is over and now you can only have one thing changing in your brain chemistry at a time.

I'm not sure. If I was sure these PTSD symptoms are because of the decrease in Zyprexa, I'd ask my pdoc to get back on it. But I personally doubt it. Pdoc is a bit more certain, but isn't completely sure either.
We (pdoc and I) hope I'm depressed (partly) because Zyprexa numbs, and so we hope the depression will improve without it. But it's too soon to tell.
I did lose about 15 kg (33 lbs) without trying during the taper off. (I gained 30 kg (66 lbs) during my time on Zyprexa - I went from a BMI of 16.5 to one of 26.3. Current BMI is 22.0, so perfect )

Yeah, I'm also happy I'm on less meds. It's all rubbish. I really hate that I need them.

I'm doing better, yesterday and today, than I was the last few weeks, though. For the past two weeks I couldn't even wear clothes without sedating myself (with benzo's) because they felt too confining, constricting, choking. And I was having flashbacks literally from waking till falling asleep. I'm doing better now - my last benzo was 13 hours ago, half a dose, and I'm coping. Still flashbacks, but not as bothersome/panicky anymore. So maybe the clozapine is doing something. Or maybe the flashbacks ran its course - I don't know, but it's good.

Originally Posted by Breadfish

As of yesterday I'm off Zyprexa. I was on 25 mg and I tapered off slowly during about half a year. I was mostly afraid my insomnia would return - it did a little, but not much, and during the last few steps I was already on Clozapine (Clozaril) which is also sedating.
I think pdoc attributed some of my increased PTSD symptoms to the decrease in dosage.

Thanks so much. So good to hear a success story! Yeah I've already had to increase my trazadone by 150mgs. I can't believe I went off so fast, big mistake. I went down to 10 mgs for 2 nights and bc I was still sleeping down to 5 mgs. By like day 4 of that, I had a major return in symptoms. Felt very paranoid and scared. It was awful.

So how did you do it. Like how many mgs did you do it each time? How long was each decrease spaced out?

I went 25 mg-20-15-10-7.5-10-7.5-5-2.5-0. We tried to make a step every 3 weeks, but sometimes there was a longer time between steps as I was also tapering off other meds.
The last few steps were about a week apart, but by that time I was already on clozapine. Which meant I could taper sooner.

I'm still really worrying about this. All the weight neutral APs have given me akathisia. I'm willing to try abilify and invega, but god I hate akathisia. I'm gonna see if maybe I can stay on zyprexa just have topamax really increased. And this having appts every month and a half apart isn't going to work. For right now I need every 2 weeks until we get my meds figured out.

Sorry just venting...