I tried over 100s of times stopping without success, I thought being stable for 10 years would help but it does not. The longer I am on meds the harder it is to stop. At the beginning I was able to stop for several months without having symptoms, last time I stopped was 10 days until symptoms came back. Now after stopping and restarting it takes longer for symptoms to go away. Dr said its dangerous as meds will lose efficacy or completely stop working but I keep thinking about stopping.
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I have nonstop symptoms on meds and I know it would be even worse off meds
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You have good insight. I struggle with it as sometimes I believe I don’t have sz.
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I appreciate that. Lol I have times where I feel a great technology is running experiments on me. I also know they are nicer to me when I take my meds!
And yes more than likely I just have schizophrenia.
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You really want to quit meds and have your lost life back?
So do I?
But the truth is your former life is dead.
You think you will gain something by quitting meds but it’s the opposite. You have more to lose if you quit them.
My life sucks but I can still enjoy myself! Like now I watched a movie. Something I couldn’t do before when I was psychotic.
Hopefully I’ll be able to read more, study and enjoy life. All thanks to meds!
You really need to accept that your old life is over. How long have you been sick 2-5-10 years?
How long have you been wasting your life thinking about the past? Dude, come on. There must be something else you want to do with your time?
I’ve been psychotic for 13 years. With hearing voices non stop. And my psychotic break came from severe trauma. I publicly humiliated myself. Everyone knows I’m sick. They call me names.
You still have a lot going on for you. Nobody is messing with your life like that.
If you keep taking your meds you will probably be able to recover to the point that you are able to do things for yourself.
I don’t have many friends. I don’t do social media. I don’t date because I’m too ill. But it gives me other things, there are perks in being a hermit. Everyone and everything revolves around being popular these days. Fu-ck that, it’s a trap! Those people don’t know what love is.
Stay strong my friend!
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I was stable for five years without them, then I had to take them again when my illness returned. Since then I tried stopping numerous times all without success. Within a week I’m very ill without them
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I tried going off, but the meds actually worsened things for me. I’m prescribed 3mg rexulti but i take half a pill, so around 1.5mg a day for 3 years and no psychosis. However I have harm ocd basically and am angry all day.
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I am pretty stable even without aps but ever so slowly start to drift toward symptoms without drugs. So it is not worth it to try to combat this deceptive illness without help of medicine.
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I am the same. I can get along for periods without AP’s but the longer I am off them, the more I drift into psychosis, and I if I’m off too long, I become floridly psychotic and difficult to help.
I am better off staying on them. I have pretty much zero positives symptoms when medicated properly. Maybe some slight paranoia if I get stressed.
I am not a huge fan of these types of threads because you know that some people are eyeing the escape hatch. Hoping that someone will come on and say “Yes, I am completely symptom free with no meds! COme try it too!”
Facts are that the vast majority of us are dependent on the current AP’s. Now, and probably for the foreseeable future, until something better comes along.
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I tried once to come off them, it didn’t work . That was enough embarrassment for me to stay on them.
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I’m currently on the lowest dose and lowest number of meds I’ve ever been on (well, while having sz). I still have symptoms, but I like that I’m only taking one AP, and at only a moderate dosage. I don’t think I could come off meds completely
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Its been 16 years but only on risperidone I keep stopping the meds because it makes me depressed.
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I was stopping meds, decreasing dosages etc in the beginning of this illness.
Now i dont play with doses.
I’m relatively stable.
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I can cope off meds whilst being asymptomatic. It’s my plan again.
I use exercise and other things to keep myself mentally well. I’m one of few who see’s neuroleptics as big pharmas snake oil.
I have recurrent brief psychotic disorder, not chronic schizophrenia or schizoaffective. So I get long periods of remission off meds.
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Are you meds causing you to be depressed?
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Yes, negative view on life and about myself. I tried an ssri but it made me tired and less motivated, it suppressed my thoughts. Wellbutrin helped but at 300mg worsened positive symptoms.
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That’s a side- effect of this illness. I also battle with these thoughts.
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No but I’m looking into alternative therapies. Although meds are the strongest solution they’re not the only one, especially if your sz is very slight. For most people meds might be necessary especially if they have deep psychosis. Ive been managing the last 5 years or so on 5mg of abilify tho which is every low… so I’m trying to see if there’s some kind of supplement that can give a strong sedation effect.
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I really wanna come off that stuff!!
Maybe in like 10 yrs time i try.
Im only on 2.5mg the standard dose of abilify is 10 to 20mg
So it might work. But probly not.
Never has as of yet.
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Youve probably got similar sz as me
I get by on a low dose
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