Should I be concerned about Geodon withdrawals

Long story short, I decided a few months ago to get off all meds once my dental work was complete and it finally is. I got my pdoc to grudgingly agree to go along with it but he thinks I will collapse. I think he is going along because he knows I will do it with or without him. The reason I want to is that, for the most part, they don't work very well and I am tired every day and feel hollow and weak for lack of better words.

Once he agreed I started having second thoughts but my physical last week changed my mind. For the third time in less than a year I have gotten really low testosterone results. My primary doctor thought it was my weight but I have lost about 40 pounds since my first test last December and it is not any higher. I am awaiting results on thyroid(which was normal 8 months ago) and a bunch of tests of my pituitary functions. My doctor didn't think the tests were necessary but I freaked out because some bad things can cause low T. Thankfully my wbc, rbc, lipids, liver and kidney blood work were really good. She said if she was going to put money on it, it was the Geodon causing Hyperprolactinaemia which is a rare-ish side-effect and can depress T levels.

So the day I finished my dental work I marched across the VA hospital and talked to my pdocs nurse about stopping Geodon. My pdoc still says he is against it, but I know the visual and auditory hallucinations are not real and the paranoia caused by my psychosis isn't really that bad. Measured against the risks of low T and the tiredness, it is an easy decision to get off Geodon.

So much for long story short. Sorry about that. My question is should I be worried about withdrawal because I am only taking 20mg, when normal dosages can exceed 100mg a day. I used to be on 40 a day and dropped to 20 without issue due to nasty side-effects (I usually take low dosages because I am extremely sensitive to psychotropics). I always read up on stuff and the possible withdrawal effects are pretty scary, and I went through an effexor taper two summers ago so I know about painful tapers and this is a little scary to me.

My plan is every other day for a week then, every two days for 7-10 days and evaluate from there since 20mg is the smallest dosage. Does that seem reasonable? The only message my pdoc gave me was be careful and report any serious issues, yeah thanks.

If you're going to do it and it sounds like you are, you must taper off slowly and be prepared for an unpleasant few weeks. I quit cold turkey once and I felt tingly and strange and suicidal. I tapered when I was switched to something else and I was very emotional. I couldn't handle much seemed disoriented. It's hard to describe but go slow if you have to stop at all.

Tough to taper from Geodon when the capsules only go down to 20mg. I'm in a similar situation. I was taking 160mg daily and have tapered down to 20mg over the course of four months.

Ideally, it would be best to get a prescription for the oral suspension of Ziprasidone which you could use to measure out doses below 20mg and taper that way. Unfortunately, where I'm living we can't get the oral suspension so I'm planning on taking my 20mg capsule without food for a couple of weeks. This will result in only about 50% of the drug being absorbed into my system and in effect reducing my dose to 10mg.

Thanks for the responses.

My labs came back and my prolactin levels are through the roof so I think getting off it is a good idea.

I have skipped two doses a day apart and no bad effects, other than the voices are coming back but what choice do I have? High prolactin is caused by dopamine which means that no antipsychotic will be useful to me.

I'm sorry to hear that. I am also experiencing some health problems due to the use of antipsychotics. I've been trying to make do with an anticonvulsant but it's not working out so well. It's very frustrating to have tough choices like these.