Considering taking Zyprexa

I took Zyprexa for a couple months 2 years ago or over 2 years ago. I only gained 4 or 5 lbs. It was for depression and it really worked! I felt great. I'm on invega and I feel it makes me more depressed, though that may not be true. I know Zyprexa is approved for bipolar depression and Latuda gave me so much anxiety and nightmares I had to stop it. The St. John's wort is helping, but I feel like if I need to pick an AP it should be Zyprexa. I know about the weight gain but I exercise multiple times a day. I am just hoping to get some relief from the lethargy and multiple naps, sleeping in, morning depression. I haven't decided if I should talk to my pdoc next week about it, but I start training for a job captioning with suicidal deaf people on January 3rd and I need to feel better by then or else it will be another failed work attempt. I don't want disability just yet. I could wait it out a little bit longer and see if the meds can help. Does Zyprexa make anybody lethargic? I was on a low dose so I didn't seem to be, but that was a long time ago. Anyone have any good experience with it? It seems like my last option before work starts.

I'm curious to know about the answer to this, too. I'd like to hear about anybody's experiences with Zyprexa or Symbyax when they've used it because I'm currently taking Latuda and it is so expensive (and I'm not sure it's working so great anymore) I'm considering changing to Symbyax (which is zyprexa and prozac combination). I've heard equally good and bad things about it. I'm glad you asked this question!

I did well on zyprexa but had to change because I gained 14 lbs in 3 months and didn't want to increase the dosage.

Zyprexa worked well for me for several years but I gained a ton of weight and my cholesterol is 700 without statins.

I've read that some people take metformin with zyprexa to reduce weight gain and metabolic problems. Maybe your prescriber would know more about all that.

I took Zyprexa and while I felt better I gained weight and had a bad appetite. I went off of it a while back.

I've been on Zyprexa for years and love it. At first I gained a lot of weight, but it eventually stopped and now I've lost over 50 lbs. (much of it due to losing my appetite after my husband died and not drinking soda anymore). But even if I'd stayed at my original weight, I wouldn't want to give up Vitamin Z because the stuff works.

I would recommend Zyprexa. I take 20mg at night and 2.5mg twice a day on top of that. The 2.5mg tabs sedate me a bit and helps with the anxiety and the 20mg at night helps stabilize my mood. I still have issues sometimes and I reach out to the crisis hotlines in my county, but I'm doing a bit better.

I hope you feel better soon!

Let me give you one datapoint from my experience: when I take 2.5 mg, I do not experience an increase in appetite, but when I take 5 mg or more, I do.

I always said I would never touch zyprexa because of weight gain and I have an ED. However lately I've been sleeping horribly and am thinking of trying it as a PRN ONLY. Too scared to take it regularly.

For those that gained weight on it... was it just because it gave you an appetite or did you gain weight regardless? That's what I REALLY need to know lol.

I was on and off Zyprxa for a few years. It works really well for agitation. I didn't feel bombed out, I could still goto work on 10mg. However, it does cause weight gain, mostly from a massive desire to eat sugar and fat but I felt it put it on regardless of what I ate sometimes. Recently I was put on it for mania while IP and it did not bring me down and I put on 8lb in 2 weeks so I asked my pdoc for a switch. He put me on Abilify and I lost the weight and also came down from manic psychosis in a week.

Thanks for all your input. I think I'm going to try 5mg and see how that goes. Today is a much better day. I slept well last night, 10 hours. And I'm thinking that maybe I only need the 5mg. Ill have to see. But if it's worked so well for many of you, I might have to try the vitamin z again.