[DeFyYing]

I've been on Zyprexa 7.5mg for a few months now and it absolutely wrecked my delusions, paranoia, mania, and social anxiety. Problem is I've started dipping into depression, and my pdoc's not sure if it's a depressive episode or if it's induced from the Zyprexa. Either way, my Lithium's antidepressant properties don't seem to be enough to stop this so she prescribed me Prozac 10mg a month ago and it did nothing (she started low because she was afraid of triggering mania).

She just increased it to 20mg yesterday, which I hear is the normal starting dose. If anyone has tried symbyax or just prozac, how long did it take until you started feeling better? I feel so unmotivated and apathetic, anhedonia has been kicking my *** and I'm just getting impatient

[Victoria'smom]

It didn't work for me. So the Dr. kept throwing drugs at it. it didn't work.

[HALLIEBETH87]

I got really manic on it somehow

[Tucson]

Originally Posted by DeFyYing

I've been on Zyprexa 7.5mg for a few months now and it absolutely wrecked my delusions, paranoia, mania, and social anxiety. Problem is I've started dipping into depression, and my pdoc's not sure if it's a depressive episode or if it's induced from the Zyprexa. Either way, my Lithium's antidepressant properties don't seem to be enough to stop this so she prescribed me Prozac 10mg a month ago and it did nothing (she started low because she was afraid of triggering mania).

She just increased it to 20mg yesterday, which I hear is the normal starting dose. If anyone has tried symbyax or just prozac, how long did it take until you started feeling better? I feel so unmotivated and apathetic, anhedonia has been kicking my *** and I'm just getting impatient

This is interesting. I do not think depression is a side effect of Olanzapine. Oh well. It took several weeks for me to benefit from Fluoxetine. Unlike some APs that have a relatively immediate effect, as you know, this is not the case with ADs. The combination of Olanzapine and Fluoxetine worked very well for me. The Olanzapine is one of the more powerful APs. I find that it also strengthens the effect of the AD. It is an FDA approved combo for BP. However, eventually my pdoc added in Buproprion which made a difference. The Olanzapine did make me just a little “drugged” which is not good for driving a car. My concern with Olanzapine was ending up prediabetic.

[DeFyYing]

Originally Posted by Tucson

This is interesting. I do not think depression is a side effect of Olanzapine. Oh well. It took several weeks for me to benefit from Fluoxetine. Unlike some APs that have a relatively immediate effect, as you know, this is not the case with ADs. The combination of Olanzapine and Fluoxetine worked very well for me. The Olanzapine is one of the more powerful APs. I find that it also strengthens the effect of the AD. It is an FDA approved combo for BP. However, eventually my pdoc added in Buproprion which made a difference. The Olanzapine did make me just a little “drugged” which is not good for driving a car. My concern with Olanzapine was ending up prediabetic.

I'm sorry to hear that, I'm waiting on my blood test to tell me if I'm having any metabolic symptoms from the Olanzapine. I hope it works out, but I'm glad to hear that it at one point helped you, gives me hope. It's such a shame ADs take so long to help (outside of AD-induced mania, which so far has been pretty much instantaneous for me). But definitely not going manic, still depressed and apathetic

[still_crazy]

hi. way back when, very low dose zyprexa with an ssri helped, but the once the zyprexa dose went up....my mood dipped and i developed akathisia. weird.

i personally found abilify to be effective w/o the metabolic stuff, akathisia, etc., but each person is different, of course.

[DeFyYing]

Originally Posted by still_crazy

hi. way back when, very low dose zyprexa with an ssri helped, but the once the zyprexa dose went up....my mood dipped and i developed akathisia. weird.

i personally found abilify to be effective w/o the metabolic stuff, akathisia, etc., but each person is different, of course.

That's good to hear, I'm glad it's working for you! I might have to ask my pdoc to try Abilify. I tried it on a low dose last year and it made me manic but I hear low-dose Abilify can do that since it acts like an antidepressant. Maybe at like 10mg it would work. Plus I just got my blood test back, my cholesterol and triglycerides are all outta whack so idk how much longer I can stay on the Zyprexa

[still_crazy]

yeah...that's one reason I'm kind of glad the zyprexa didn't pan out. it -is- very effective...its 2nd only to clozapine in terms of overall response and improvement, kind of a big deal, but...

abilify gets the job done w/o nearly as much metabolic stuff, plus its non-sedating (at my dose...and each person is different...). The downside is now it seems to cause TD more often than the "experts" had thought in years past, but...maybe that's because they're prescribing it to everybody (and their mama) for everything imaginable?

geodon and latuda I think are OK, in terms of weight gain and metabolic stuff. Saphris, too. I don't know much about Rexulti or Vrylar. Some of the older, now generic drugs are surprisingly helpful for some people, and they're cheap and usually have fewer metabolic adverse effects. loxapine, perphenazine, navane.

sorry you're going thru it.

[GoldenSnitch]

I was just on zyprexa and Prozac but my new pdoc took me off of both. I think for the most part zyprexa helped me stay pretty level but I gained a ton of weight. Prozac did nothing for me. At all. So we are trying some new meds. Hopefully they help you!

[DeFyYing]

Originally Posted by still_crazy

yeah...that's one reason I'm kind of glad the zyprexa didn't pan out. it -is- very effective...its 2nd only to clozapine in terms of overall response and improvement, kind of a big deal, but...

abilify gets the job done w/o nearly as much metabolic stuff, plus its non-sedating (at my dose...and each person is different...). The downside is now it seems to cause TD more often than the "experts" had thought in years past, but...maybe that's because they're prescribing it to everybody (and their mama) for everything imaginable?

geodon and latuda I think are OK, in terms of weight gain and metabolic stuff. Saphris, too. I don't know much about Rexulti or Vrylar. Some of the older, now generic drugs are surprisingly helpful for some people, and they're cheap and usually have fewer metabolic adverse effects. loxapine, perphenazine, navane.

sorry you're going thru it.

Thank you! I don't recall if I had akathisia while on Abilify, I was also manic so sometimes that agitation can feel like akathisia. Unfortunately Zyprexa is causing akathisia for me now

I was supposed to be on Latuda but unfortunately it's too expensive and my insurance doesn't cover it.

Originally Posted by GoldenSnitch

I was just on zyprexa and Prozac but my new pdoc took me off of both. I think for the most part zyprexa helped me stay pretty level but I gained a ton of weight. Prozac did nothing for me. At all. So we are trying some new meds. Hopefully they help you!

Yeah I think I might have to stop being on both, too. Prozac is also doing nothing for me (I was secretly hoping it would make a just a teensy bit hypomanic, but nope!) and the Zyprexa may or may not be causing anhedonia (or maybe it's just a negative symptom, idk). It's a shame since the Zyprexa destroyed my mania and psychosis but I just can't enjoy anything, it's driving me insane