[Greenleaves]

Hi people

My p-doc (the one on maternity leave) told me that I didn't need any anti-psychotic for my borderline personality disorder paranoia. She told me I need therapy.

Anyways, I've been having lots of crises over the spring and summer. I saw my pdoc's replacement and he gave me a prescription for 0.5 mg of Risperdal. I don't know if it is a good idea to take it. It sounds like a pretty serious drug.

I'm also on 50 mg of Celexa. I never know if it does anything for me. I've been on it for about 7 months now. Anyways, now I just want to take Risperdal 'cause it sounds like it might be fun to experiment with. I don't really care if it harms me.

I don't know what to do. I just don't know if my symptoms are severe enough to warrant use of Risperdal.

How do I know if my symptoms are severe? How do I tell the difference between real psychosis and pseudopsychosis?

Green

[lenjan]

Well, you shouldn't be taking psychiatric meds "for fun," for one thing. They're for people who need them to survive.

Risperdal isn't ALWAYS prescribed for schizophrenics. I've been on it for 6 years because it helps people who have severe struggles with self-injury. It also acts as a mild tranquilizer, in small doses. I take 2.5 mg. Schizophrenics get prescribed like 16 mg.

It won't make you high; it might make you sleepy; but it's not something to F around with because you're bored.

[inkblot]

Risperdal is a common prescription for multiple things. Don't be too afraid of it. I say try it and see what happens. The doctor obviously had something in mind when prescribing it. It should relax you and help comfort you differently than Celexa. You may want to ask the pdoc about what to watch for in regards to severe symtoms so you know when to call and report something. As for knowing the difference yourself, I think it should only matter what symptoms you have and how they can be treated. I can't say for positive, but in my opinion "real" vs. "pseudo" symptom interpretation is best left to the professionals.

[Greenleaves]

Are you saying it is a bad idea for me to take it?
Should I take it? I don't want to get TD.

[BamaSurvivor]

I don't think anyone is saying it's a bad idea for you to take it. I simply think we are saying take it only if you need it, not because it could be a fun medication to try. If your pdoc prescribed it for you, then there's obviously a reason for it. So I'd say take it as your pdoc has prescribed. As Ink said, consult with your pdoc about the serious side effects if you don't know what they are so you can look for them if they were to occur. Wish you the best.

[bipolar_bear]

I hope you and your pdoc discussed the pros and cons of taking risperdol. It is not a med to be taken lightly but can be very effective when needed. Did you discuss what symptoms you were trying to alieve by taking this medication? It would appear your pdoc thought it may be benificial or he would not have prescribed it. As with any medication it was manufactured for a purpose and should be utilized as such.

Maybe I misunderstood your post but it sounded like you wanted to experiment with the med for enjoyment.. It is not one that will provide any entertainment value and I am unclear your intent. Hopefullly you have been straightforward with your pdoc so he can prescribe medication in a beneficial manner.

I hope it is working as intended for you and you are getting some benefit from taking it. Good luck and I hope it helps to alieve some of your symptoms.

[blackdragon]

risperdal, i have worked in nursing homes with people on this drug. It has some benifits mostly because i worked with people who were taken off the drug and went off on me. I would talk to ur pdoc about the side effects and why he thinks you need this drug. Ur pdoc should have a very good reason which i bet he does. As for experimenting with this drug it wont give u a high like oh say two pills of viccodin will. This drug has a purpose and ur pdoc must see that u need it or else he wouldnt have perscribed it. Good luck on the new drug.

[jbug]

I take this med. Its the only one I take now and am working on getting off of it. I don't want to be on any meds anymore and my Pdoc seems to agree and is willing to try me on no meds but if I have problems I'll have to go back on them. I have BPD also. The only side effect I've found is it makes me really sleepy.

Jbug

[Greenleaves]

The symptoms I'm trying to alleviate are my rapid mood swings and paranoid thinking, mostly having to do with others wanting me to die. I just get really really upset.

So many little things can trigger that in me, I hate it so much. I think it might be dangerous because I do dangerous things when I think those thoughts.

I decided to take 0.5mg last night and nothing bad happened. I read lots of scary stuff about it and I freaked out a little the first two days I only took 0.25mg and I thought it caused insomnia, headache and what I thought were auditory hallucinations, but I think I was just anxious or something. I didn't get anything like that today so they must not have been side effects.

[gardenergirl]

I'm glad that it's so far so good with it.

Take care,

gg

i have to weigh in on this. risperdal is not a "fun" drug to mess with. i had a patient that was on it and she was like a zombie. after we took her off of it, she was a new person. it causes different symptoms in different people. be very careful with it.

[Kismet]

Like all anti-psychotics, risperdal has some possible side effects. One particularly unpleasant one is that it causes some women to lactate. As with all drugs you and your shrink need to discuss the pros and cons.

[wisewoman]

Well, I am sure that no one wants to hear this but risperdol made my daughter lactate. Yup. no Kidding. We had a lot of jokes about pumping and selling milk. Poor thing. She is not yet 18 and is no longer lactating.

[Greenleaves]

I'm still taking the 0.5mg and so far nothing bad or weird has happened.

I read about that lactating side effect as well.

I'm worried about getting tardive dyskinesia. I get EPS when I'm on SSRI's. That's like the only side effect I get from them. The twitches don't bother me or anything, they are just weird.

I think maybe my pdoc wanted me to try the Risperdal, he kept repeating himself, asking for an "OK". So then I said, "OK."

Nothing bad has happened so I guess I will just take it and see what happens.

Green

[katheryn]

just a word of caustion find out all side effects so you know what you are looking out for it can also make you put weight on as my daughter knows and my son uses it to get sleep but hes not allowed to take it continually as it can make some adults go ther legs hes only 14 i also work in a old ppls home and have seen these side effects some put on weight some go of ther legs and some are fine

[SS8282]

Until a couple of months ago, I was taking Risperdal, Celexa, and Seroquel. After I 'stabalized', I took myself off Risperdal because it made me hungry all the time, and I need ot lose weight, not gain. If I get worse again, I can go back on it. Perhaps you can take it for a while and then go off it when you feel better.

If you're really worried about TD, perhaps there's another med that you can take instead.

I do agree with everyone else - meds shouldn't be taken just for the fun of it. Please take care.

[Roy21]

I am on 4mg risperidone atm and comming off the drug soon. Some advice on how to avoid side effects is to not increase the dose unless your doctor says so, when i 1st took the medication i would increase the dosage on bad days not realising that it takes around 2 weeks for you to notice any effects from a increase and i found rushing the medication up just 1mg too soon can cause very bad restlessness. I couldnt sit still or sleep for 2 days following. however when taken responsibly and as perscribed it is a very good medication. Only really big side effect i noticed from it is that i have put on 25kgs since going on the medication 2 years ago, at one point i had put on 40kgs. I weighed around 65 - 70kgs when i started the drug. I know this could have been avoided by changing the way i eat. Smaller meals and doing abit of exercise each day which is what i have been doing recently and have lost alot of weight since then. I hope all goes well for you on risperidone and remember to follow your doctors instructions on how much and when to take it. Self medicating only causes problems as i found out.

Roy.

[Greenleaves]

Yikes, this weight gain thing sounds serious. Will I gain weight with 0.5mg of Risperdal? Is it usually a given that I will gain weight?

I got some twitches a couple of days ago and got really really scared. I stopped cold turkey. I couldn't sleep that night and I still had twitches. Then I decided to take 0.25mg instead of 0.5mg.

People told me that the twitches were probably not from the Risperdal, but from the 50mg Celexa that I take. I always seem to get twitches from SSRIs, but they don't really bother me.

The twitches I got didn't really bother me, but I just got scared from reading about tardive dyskinesia. Someone told me that twitches and TD are very different things.

I got pretty darn unstable, I'm not sure whether or not taking less Risperdal had anything to do with it. It was a very bad place that I went to...very bad...also wasn't thinking straight.

Anyways, I'm taking 0.5mg again and I don't always notice twitches. I'm unsure whether it is the Risperdal that causes my twitches. I got them on Celexa when I first started taking them, but then they went away for a while and now they are back again.

Should I be worried about my twitches?

<font color="green">Greenleaves</font>

[wisewoman]

I too have questions about T.D. Back in the old days they perscribed cogentin to help guard against it. I wish I knew more about this drug as my son has been on it for bipolar for a few years. He is not fat and he does not have ticks or twithches. However, what can be done to reduce the chances of T.D.?

[Genevieve]

Greenleaves, you've even written it yourself here: you've been told the twitches are from Celexa, you've been told that twitches and TD are very different things, and you've told us that you got twitches from Celexa when you first started it. Chances are very good that the Celexa twitches came back when you started Risperdal either because of your anxiety about it, or because the combination changed the blood levels of Celexa just enough to start them again. The twitches will go away, is my bet.

Also, the best thing you can do for yourself is to continue taking your meds as prescribed by your doctor. Even if this is the doctor filling in for YOUR doctor. Give it a chance, see if it helps with your problems. You've already seen that you had a hard time when you stopped cold turkey. That really should tell you what you need to know.

Good luck.

the patient that i was taking care of, on risperdal, twitched and picked at her skin constantly. when we took her off it, all of those side effects stopped. she would pick until she bled. and the twitches really disrupted her sleep. at that time she was on a very lost dose of zoloft...

[cms39]

I had the lactate symptoms of Risperdal and stopping of menstrual periods. I was told I was one of the rare ones and my T said only one other woman she worked with had that problem. They immediately took me off it and replaced it with a newer drug.

[SandraGinCA]

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
Greenleaves said:I got some twitches a couple of days ago and got really really scared. I stopped cold turkey. I couldn't sleep that night and I still had twitches.

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">

Don't ever quit one of these medicines cold turkey. I quit zyprexa cold turkey and have symptoms that didn't go away when I reinstated. it's very important to taper these drugs very slowly to come off of them!

Do you really need to be on Risperdal? You responded to my post about Tardive Dyskinesia and see how scared I am of it. I wish I had never taken zyprexa. TD is nothing to play around with. It can be permanent. Check out Peter Breggin's book, Your Drug May Be Your Problem. He has some scary things to say about these antipsychotics. They cause chemical imbalances, they don't cure them. They are effectively giving you a chemical lobotomy.

[sharita]

I took risperdal involuntary for a month at 18, 15mg, it's the only drug that I refused to take again. I felt like a zombie. It took so much of my energy to walk, eat, and talk. My family couldn't understand me when they came to visit me because my speech was extremely slurred. I also lost 40 pounds and that's the only reason why I was taken off, because it became a danger to my health, physically. I don't remember twitching, but then again I slept most of the time.

I suggest you only take for medical reasons there are other drugs to experiment/have fun with, this is definitely not one.

Although it is good for paranoia, that's not why I took it though, but I must admit no thoughts whatsoever was getting through.

Take care, I hope you find the best med/s for you.

[Greenleaves]

I'm taking a pretty low dose, at 0.75mg. I don't know if I really need Risperdal. This new p-doc I'm seeing wants to solves my problems with meds. The other p-doc I saw gave me psychotherapy. This new guy mostly talks about meds.

I sometimes think that other people want me dead. I think that is why I was given Risperdal. I get extremely upset and it gets dangerous for me. I start acting on my thoughts.

Right now I'm not noticing much twitching at all. Maybe it wasn't the Risperdal after all. I do notice that sometimes I feel like I'm not in reality, but that could just be me.