antipsychotics in bipolar

I feel/think that antipsychotics/tranquilizers in general are kind of a mixed blessing, at best. Whether its psychosis or mania or...whatever...they usually work, but it seems they come at a high cost.

As a group, the severely mentally ill in the US have a lifespan over 20 years shorter than 'normals.' Poverty is an issue. The high rate of drug and alcohol abuse is an issue. However, some critics thing the psych drugs are part of the problem.

I'm just thinking out loud. I take a ton of Abilify (30mgs.every.single.day), and it works, but now...I dunno. Every drug--legal, illegal, prescription, whatever--taxes the body and can cause problems. The tranquilizers just seem to be an especially noxious class of drugs.

Have any of you out there tapered a long term antipsychotic/tranquilizer? Or at least reduced the dose? I'm doing massive doses of vitamins with my tranquilizer (Orthomolecular), and that seems to keep the tics, tremor, dysphoria, etc. at bay. I would think+hope flooding my body with b-vitamins and antioxidants has additional benefits as well, but...there's not a whole lot of data on Orthomolecular, at least not compared to pharmaceuticals.

My long term goal is either to get down to 10-15mgs/Abilify --or-- get off a daily tranquilizer and reduce the antipsychotic use to when I'm on edge. I guess an inbetween solution would be to try a low(ish) daily dose and then ramp it up to a higher dose when needed (if needed...).

What are your experiences with the tranquilizers? The new(er) ones aren't as rough on people w/ mood problems as the older ones were/are. That's what's strange...there's some indication that people with mood problems are more prone to TD and other problems from the tranquilizers, but now everyody (and their mama) is on a tranquilizer, usually for non-psychotic problems.

TD? Tardive Dyskenisa? (spelling??)
I've bounced around on various A.D.s and mood stabilizers and am still wondering if there are natural medicines/vitamins that would help. I went to naturopaths but found their promises (oh, we'll get you off of all of those meds) difficult to believe.

Have you tried B with Gaba? If so, what did you think of it? I've been thinking of trying that

i take high dose niacinamide, b-complex, c, e, and other stuff as my core line up. lately, i've added in tons of l-theanine, for anxiety. seems to help. i buy the 'suntheanine' brand. i've never taken gaba because i read that it doesn't cross over to the brain very well. there's picamilon, which is supposed to be much more effective, but i've never taken it, so i can't really tell you either way.

I'm in the process of slowly stepping up abilify sneakily to kill paranoia without triggering those side effects; but won't know for a while if its truly successful. Still I feel something, so I have to assume it does something.

And I'll be blunt, now that I know its possible to live without. I'll take living to 75 without paranoia as opposed to 90 with. Or whatever the break point is. Seriously, I've had enough. Can't get a refund, so an exchange will have to do.

I agree, I'd rather have a shorter, fulfilling life than live the hell I was living. If an AP is what it takes, I'm on board.

If taking a AP means I die at 75 instead of 95 I'm all for it as I'm already fed up with physical aging.

Even though the APs may cause damage we also know that bipolar itself causes damage. I'd rather the damage that lets me live outside of an institution. Honestly I am just so, so glad that there are meds that work. I tried so many and while I can't say I love everything about clozaril it is giving me things I've never had in my entire life. So as long as my blood counts continue to stay rock solid stable I'll continue taking it and dealing with the constant sedation, big weight gain, labs, etc.

I don't really think it's about the age of dying. It's the quality of life. some people have no quality of life on ap' s because of the side effects. other people have good quality of life BECAUSE of the ap . Quality of life is important to me and that does include physical health.