How long does it take for an antipsychotic to leave your system?

How long does it take for a medication to get out of your system? Specifically an antipsychotic?

I ask because it's been a while since I stopped taking it and nothing bad has happened. I feel like this Dx is WRONG, since something bad should happen if I go cold turkey off an AP.

Meds clearly don't do anything for me. And when I was asked questions that led to my "bipolar" diagnosis, I made random guesses when I answered the questions. "I dunno, but I think ..."

Hi bluebicycle. I'm not sure of the answer. Consider calling a pharmacist. They definitely know the answer.

No one here can know if you do or don't have bipolar disorder, but from observations of others who went off meds, having a "honeymoon" period after stopping meds does not necessarily indicate one doesn't have the disorder. I absolutely know this from my youngest nephew.

If you believe you provided misleading or unclear/uncertain answers during past sessions with your psychiatrist, I hope you will clarify such things.

hi. you can look up your tranquilizer and see what the half life is...i forget how many half lives it takes to get full elimination, tho. additional drugs on board can make figuring it out basically impossible...some speed clearance up, others slow it down, plus "individual results may vary," so...???

i would, of course, recommend a slow and steap taper off long term tranquilizers. some people stop and go on with life and try to forget all about psychiatry...others stop and end up having more problems than before. its...well...crazy.

what im doing is reducing my dose with the prescriber...im being given some neurontin to help and the neurontin dose is going up as the tranquilizer dose goes down.

i hope things get better for you. :-)

My pdoc did a taper in order to discontinue Abilify, even though I was on a low dose.

I agree -- A pharmacist can likely help you to figure this out.


WC

I have always tapered off of an anti psychotic as I went up on another one. YMMV

I've stopped aps in the past. It can take months for a relapse to happen. In my experience you can go up to 6 months with no symptoms and then out of the blue they all come back.

Mine happens almost immediately but even with AP's I still have symptoms.

I went off them once and it took a few months for symptoms to come back. A second time I had symptoms come back almost immediately. Any changes in meds should be done under a doctor's care.

Thanks for your replies, everyone.

I feel a lot better since being off my Rexulti. Getting less sleep (7-8 hours instead of 9-10) and don't feel worn out. I'm also feeling more upbeat.

I took your suggestion, still_crazy, and looked up the half-life. Rexulti's half-life is 91 hours! It's been well over 91 hours at this point, though, so I'm pretty sure it's out of my system by now.

I would do that, but my psychiatrist and I don't know each other well enough. He and I haven't been working long enough together for him to help me "figure things out." My old psychiatrist just kept showing me random surveys that I had filled out before starting bipolar medication, but I know I made wild guesses on those surveys, so I don't see how that is "proof" of anything. He basically said, "Well, this is what you filled out." To me, that's a poor argument since I believe I gave the wrong answers.