Anyone have experiences with these meds?

My dr just put me on Risperidone (0.25mg tablet, 1 in the am and 2 in the pm) lorazepam (.5mg tablet- as needed 4x a day max) and upped my venlafaxine from 150mg to 225mg.
Wondering what to expect.

I took Risperidone but at a much higher dose of like 8mg I think. It seemed to work for awhile but I developed a terrible bodywide rash of epic proportions and I had to stop taking the Risperdal and Latuda and they are now on my allergy chart. So it might have helped .....oh but I also remember it caused the most horrific constipation ever. So I took stool softeners like candy.

Ativan is only mildly effective for me and not sufficient. Even at doses of 3mg. 1mg of Klonopin is effective for me. My mom takes 1mg of Ativan and it's very effective for her.

I'm not familiar with the last drug, sorry.

I was on Risperdal for a year and it worked great. However, my feet and hands swelled up and I was taken off of it. Your experience may vary.

I took risperdal and started making milk so I was taken off of it.

OMG seriously? Wierd.

Risperdal also caused me to lose my period for a few months

Yes. It can do that to men too.

Yea I just googled it. I never would have thought of that as a side effect. I will def keep an eye on that lol

I wouldn't mind that but I'm sue it's not healthy.

Venlafaxine is Effexor, an SNRI. Standard antidepressant. I took Risperdal for years. For me it was a very effective AP, with few side effects.

Ativan is pretty quick-acting for anxiety, but it also wears off pretty quickly.

I didn't like Ativan much. Over the years it seemed to work less and less.

Ativan kicked in pretty quickly for me (although not as fast as Xanax), but it wears off quickly. That's why I like Klonopin better...it may not work immediately, but it lasts longer.

I still have yet to try Risperdal. My pdoc mentioned it once to me as a possibility of something we may try at some point.

Effexor made me lose my ever loving mind. I was in such a mixed state that my therapist called my doctor and basically said I was bipolar. That was the start of my now Dx. Coming off of it was so hard, too. I've never had such a hard time coming off a drug.

Risperdal caused me to gain 60 pounds in 6 months and put me within a razors edge of type 2 diabetes. I mean, I wasn't going to be a male model beforehand anyway, but gaining sixty pounds was a little much.

My only experience with Ativan was before my first inpatient visit. They gave me so much of it that I have no memory of my first 18 hours on the ward. For what it's worth, I do remember it making me quite calm before becoming zonked out.

I don't have any experience with Effexor, sorry.

Effexor really helped me for many years. I've heard Risperadal works very well. Xanax works best for me but everyone is different. For depression, Lamictal saved my life

Yea I've been on Effexor since March, he's just upping the dosage. And I've taken Ativan before and worked for me to help sleep but my dr wouldn't keep prescribing since apparently it's addictive. I'm hearing scary things about risperidone though but my dosage is very low so who knows.

I took effexor (generic venlafaxine) to help me with depression that accelerated last winter. It didn't put me in a manic place, but it prevented my depression from sinking lower. It helped me the most in the anxiety area- where I have enough anxiety to affect my life but not enough where I need to be on a benzo. I've heard all over the place stories where it's really helped some people I know and other people got manic symptoms off of it. Doing two medication changes at once sounds really hard- keep us posted on how you're feeling.

watch out for those benzos, they're physically and mentally addictive, and if you have ANY history of drug or alcohol abuse you have to keep yourself in check with them (even if you don't). if you do have a history you might want to ask about something else like buspar, or I'm on gabapentin, and that's helped me with anxiety.

I agree with st0psign. There are a lot of great non-benzo anxiety meds available. Another one is propranolol.

Also, you can take something like Ambien for sleep since your pdoc won't prescribe benzos anymore. Or, you could do Seroquel.

But FWIW, Ativan was useless for me. It just made me feel drunk in higher doses and lower doses weren't enough to alleviate my anxiety. Though, I *occasionally* use it for sleep (like maybe once every 4-6 weeks). I use Klonopin for anxiety.

risperidone was OK for me. 4mgs I think.

ativan can be useful. i took it like candy back in the day, but I think careful use at low doses is probably what you're going for. if you need a tranquilizer long term, id personally ask about something that lasts longer, like klonopin or maybe xanax xr.

low doses of risperidone i think are well tolerated. there's always the risk of tardive dyskinesia, so do be mindful of that. some doctors will do AIMS tests.