[shauns]

I've been taking meds since my diagnosis and noticed a few things. I'm feeling more emotionless, I'm tired A LOT, and I have no sex drive. Are there meds that won't make me feel like my spark is gone? I've read other posts and it seems like these med issues are a common thread. Does anyone have advice or words of hope??

[roseblossom]

In my own experience, I found that lowering the dose to a level where I could function better but not relapse worked better but I had a lot of opposition from my psychiatrist. I found that the dose he thought I needed to be on was higher than I actually could manage more comfortably on. This is something that needs careful thought and consideration though and I'm not advising it, only saying what worked for me. I cut my dose down extremely gradually (following advice I found online) and I had two episodes where I had relapses which happened when I reduced it too quickly - something which some people might say was a reason not to do this, but I was determined because I felt my quality of life was so poor.

Combined with this I've been doing a lot of work lately trying to understand what stressors and triggers there have been for symptoms - largely by self-dialogue and checking out what thoughts I've got or have led to me being stressed (which seems to trigger symptoms). I have firmly believed that I got this illness due to emotional/mental problems caused by childhood experiences and key relationships - which other people may disagree with. Understanding more about this and trying to build in healthier strategies for managing - like journalling and supportive relationships seems to have also allowed me to drop my dose (as well as avoiding or setting limits on relationships that are unhealthy or stressful).

[krzyk101]

Hi Shauns I felt much as you described and talked about the symptoms with my pdoc and he was able to adjust my medication to help me with the feelings of no up and no down and the lack of sex drive as well, I hope that you are feeling better than you did when you posted this and that things are looking up for you.

[DePressMe]

Hi, I've taken a lot of different meds at different doses. Some of them have different side effects. The worse for my flat feeling was abilify. I've had the best luck with seroquel but others feel the opposite. Its kinda an experiment to see what works for you. Don't tolerate the flat feeling if there are other meds you can try! Take care!