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Mental Health Anyone here have experiences with Antipsychotics?

We should develop a new antipscyhotic and make millions. =D

I'm refering to the ridiculous prices of some antipscyhotics (e.g. Abilify)

Tell me about it. It's the exact reason why i'm stuck with the options of either Quetiapine, risperidone or a typical anti-psychotic instead of the anti-psychotic that works best for me with the least amount of side effects which is olanzapine. A 10mg generic olanzapine tablet costs $8 (the oral disintegrating wafers cost even more) and i would need 10mg's everyday atleast and 15 or even 20mg's if i was having a really bad manic episode. There is just no way i can afford that and my insurance doesn't cover it so i'm stuck with drugs that give me alot more side effects and don't work nearly as well for me as zyprexa does. Even at 20mg's a day which is the maximum recommended dose of olanzapine i don't get any side effects from it unless you count feeling normal as a side effect.
 
It doesn't sound like he is taking this with docs approval...though I apologize if I am wrong. As a nurse for 20 years I would strongly suggest not taking anti psychotics as a sleep aid. They are bad news drugs and if a doc prescribed seroquel for you to help you sleep I would run like hell to find another doc. They have absolutely horrible side effects some of which can be long term or permanent. If they are actually prescribed for psychosis, schizophrenia and other mental health issues they can be very beneficial, though one should always, with the assistance of a doctor weigh the benefits with the risks upon deciding to take them.

I have worked in a psych hospital for many years and anti psychotics are heavy duty drugs that can have some really shitty side effects and are nothing to mess around with without medical supervision. Again, even under a docs advice I would still make sure you research and weigh benefits and risks.
 
I take seroquel amd it takes my nightmares away some nights......Um, well if it is working for you and I know you care about SE like weight gain and diebetes but if it benefits you at 100 mg that isn't too high and it may of been a blessing that was hidden....But also if your Gad and ADHD didn't seem to bother you that much then well the answer is obvious. Now I didn't read any of the other post's so I don't know how long you have been on it. Did you get it from a friend or something? Also when it somes down to withdrawaling you'll just have to tough it out. I know easier said then done but I'm also on risperdal and I can't seem to go below four mg's because I start to feel hot flashes and nightmares everyday that leave me with anxiety all day long. So you have to just make up your mind what you want. Do the benefits outweigh the risk's? or do they not?
 
It doesn't sound like he is taking this with docs approval...though I apologize if I am wrong. As a nurse for 20 years I would strongly suggest not taking anti psychotics as a sleep aid. They are bad news drugs and if a doc prescribed seroquel for you to help you sleep I would run like hell to find another doc. They have absolutely horrible side effects some of which can be long term or permanent. If they are actually prescribed for psychosis, schizophrenia and other mental health issues they can be very beneficial, though one should always, with the assistance of a doctor weigh the benefits with the risks upon deciding to take them.

I have worked in a psych hospital for many years and anti psychotics are heavy duty drugs that can have some really shitty side effects and are nothing to mess around with without medical supervision. Again, even under a docs advice I would still make sure you research and weigh benefits and risks.

I agree that Quetiapine in particular is being used off label as a sleep aid way too often now. Though it seems not to be used as much for that purpose in my part of Canada anyway. In my opinion Z-hypnotics, sedating benzos like temazepam or nirazepam or even a tricyclic like amitriptyline or dexepin would be a safer option to use as a sleep aid. Quetiapine has a low chance of causing movement disorders like tardive dyskinesia, pseudo-parkinsons or akathisia then less sedating and more potent dopamine antagonists like risperidone but things like diabetes or in rare cases cardiac problems are still a worry even in the lower doses.
 
100 mgs isn't really a high dose. And actually at that dose Seroquel is more of a sedative than an antidepressant than an antipsychotic. It has to do with the fact that Seroquel has differential binding affinities to various receptor sites and the high binding affinitity sites like Histamine (which is what causes the sedation) and 5HT2A ( which gives it the antidepressant effect) are the ones that "fill up" first. Dopamine receptor antagonism doesnt' come into play until you get to 200 mg+ doses. That's when it becomes a true antipsychotic.

I took 100 mg Seroquel for years for sleep and it's antidepressant effects. When I stopped I had some pretty bad insomnia for a month or so but that's all.
 
Seroquel caused me to lose my balance. I had to go up and down stairs and being on Seroquel made that impossible so I had to go off.
 
I don't have any experience personally, but my brother was perscribed them, and used them for awhile, they scare the shit out of me. I still remeber him coming to my crying and me trying my hardest to comfort him while he was so petrified because he would have dreams about doing incredibly disturbing things that were so vivid they felt real. Me and him both have very vivid dreams that appear to be real until you ppiece them together, so they really messed with him. The symptoms came about two months after starting them, and he ended up throwing the bottle in the trash because he was so scared of sleeping at night. I'm sure these symptoms are uncommon, or they wouldn't be so readily handed out by doctors, but thats my only experience with them.
 
I have been on quetiapine (800mg) - I HATE that stuff, weight gain was ridiculous and since taking myself off it sleep is a nightmare to achieve without benzos and z drugs.
I've also had olanzapine - no thanks, astronomical weight gain.
Chlorpromazine - did not notice any weight gain AND it made me feel the closest to stable I can recall but pdoc wouldn't let me be on it long term cos of potential side effects - I'd rather risk side effects from something that works for me than side effects from stuff that doesn't but hey, I'm just the person that's gotta take the stuff!

Anyway, I'm bp1 with predominate mania and psychosis and my advice to you from personal experience would be stay well clear of AP's unless you have psychosis, schizophrenia, BP, severe treatment resistant depression etc cos the side effects just aren't worth it. Just my tuppence worth.
 
I liked them at first, but now after just a year, I can look back and see what they've done in the short term. Have been on zyprexa, invega, saffrass, abilify, seroquel, geodon, and risperidone.

Zyprexa made me sleep all day, and my genetic test came back as this not being a good choice. Invega well umm the best way I can explain it is everything was like a scooby doo cartoon which you probably won't believe or understand but it was just odd, didnt particularly dislike it though. Saffrass didn't really do a whole lot of anything but I was only on it for a week in the hospital. Abilify, ick... I had an allergic reaction to it as the dose increased. Worked ok in the beginning but I experienced 4 months of daily vomiting on it before the doctor took me off(idk if be thought it wasn't the meds or that I was just making the side-effect up but either way I feel he was at least a little negligent). My tooth enamel is permanently damaged now. Seroquel worked the best IMO because it took away the voices, but I would wake up in the morning having done things like binged on a few thousand calories of food with literally no memory of it. Risperdal, not too bad of a one, but I was way too sedated to be called functional and I put on a lot of weight with it. Total of 75lbs in the year I've been medicated. Geodon I'm on now but I can't stay awake too long. Idk they all kind of suck and ive had severe side effects with pretty much all of them. Jealous of some of you guys. Well that's my story so yeh..
 
I have had experience with Seroqeul and Respiridol. I initially began taking them as I was incredibly stressed due to poor home conditions, and was un-intentionally halucinating. Both my family doctor and hospital on call phd had prescribed them to me. It is to my understanding that all doctor's "push" mental health inhibitors, as this is supposedly their job description as opposed to say, a phychologist/therasist whose goal is to treat without meds. My experiences were so bad (pass out, if I didn't pass out I'd become very violent, memory loss, etc) that I had told the doctor's NO when they had a close friend of mine prescribed to it. Hope this helps!
 
I think the biggest issue with these drugs is off-label use. Antipsychotics make SSRI's look like M&M's by comparison. Very serious stuff. They may be useful or even life-saving for those with hallucinations/psychotic disorders, but not for insomnia, autistic children or "treatment-resistant depression". The risks are simply too high.

I found them to have zero benefit because I wasn't suffering from a psychotic disorder or schizophrenia. YMMV.
 
I have had experience with Seroqeul and Respiridol. I initially began taking them as I was incredibly stressed due to poor home conditions, and was un-intentionally halucinating. Both my family doctor and hospital on call phd had prescribed them to me. It is to my understanding that all doctor's "push" mental health inhibitors, as this is supposedly their job description as opposed to say, a phychologist/therasist whose goal is to treat without meds. My experiences were so bad (pass out, if I didn't pass out I'd become very violent, memory loss, etc) that I had told the doctor's NO when they had a close friend of mine prescribed to it. Hope this helps!

I once took both seroquel and risperdal together to try and calm down a intense manic episode. I was taking about 2mg's of risperdal and 300mg's of seroquel. I was still so hyper that i would be up at dawn and lift weights, go for a run on the tredmill and then spend most of the day smoking weed to calm the fuck down. Eventually though with the right dose of meds my manic episode went away.

I find that zyprexa works much better for mixed or manic episodes then either seroquel or risperdal but as my insurance only covers risperdal and seroquel i'm stuck with seroquel for now.
 
I take Abilify 400mg time release injection.

The dopamine blockage is horrible!
Its got me very worried of how I perceive my drug highs, all are senses and feelings are dulled and its as if the substances are dulled. 35mg dextroamphetamine should have been a wonderful high, but to me it was hardly 5 or 6/10.
At 35mg orally the dextroamphetamine was only 5-6/10 in terms of being able to feel it, it certainly had me more awake and go past my bed time. It was something I took for the anti depressant effects it gives.

What has me worried is the antichlornigernic (sp?!) effects please correct me on the spelling.

Put simple its like ingesting your antihistamine of choice!
Say you take hydroxyzine like mentioned early in the thread or taking diphenhydramine aka Benadryl, its the same high in other words its not unlike the anti psychotics, they both produce similar effects, unknown to me until recently.

When I drink I don't feel the warm and fuzzy high nor when I take my methadone I don't get a nice and cuddly buzz. I can smoke some top notch marijuana and get completely retarded as in the same as having took 6-7 Benadryls or Gravols. I find that any reason to make at studying something and remembering it is completely lost so I don't even try.
My motivation is shot and I cant get my self to do my exercises, something I heard somebody else complain about not able to complete.

I wonder if I can play this in my favor as in maybe there's some drugs that could work better for me as opposed to worse. I found that Lyrica and gabapentin have been useful in my condition where I was decreasing from methadone and on Abilify injection.
The only thing that's get me excited is Gabapentin 100mg which I find superior to Lyrica 75mg. These drugs actually worked for me in a much better way than I had expected and felt about as smooth and uplifting as GHB. I hope benzodiazepine can work better but I will have to see about that.
 
Ap’s are like operating at 50% and are destructive
 
There hard-core mess not to be played with I done serious.damage to.my brain mixing drugs like mdma and cocAine I think
 
I take Abilify 400mg time release injection.

The dopamine blockage is horrible!
Its got me very worried of how I perceive my drug highs, all are senses and feelings are dulled and its as if the substances are dulled. 35mg dextroamphetamine should have been a wonderful high, but to me it was hardly 5 or 6/10.
At 35mg orally the dextroamphetamine was only 5-6/10 in terms of being able to feel it, it certainly had me more awake and go past my bed time. It was something I took for the anti depressant effects it gives.

What has me worried is the antichlornigernic (sp?!) effects please correct me on the spelling.

Put simple its like ingesting your antihistamine of choice!
Say you take hydroxyzine like mentioned early in the thread or taking diphenhydramine aka Benadryl, its the same high in other words its not unlike the anti psychotics, they both produce similar effects, unknown to me until recently.

When I drink I don't feel the warm and fuzzy high nor when I take my methadone I don't get a nice and cuddly buzz. I can smoke some top notch marijuana and get completely retarded as in the same as having took 6-7 Benadryls or Gravols. I find that any reason to make at studying something and remembering it is completely lost so I don't even try.
My motivation is shot and I cant get my self to do my exercises, something I heard somebody else complain about not able to complete.

I wonder if I can play this in my favor as in maybe there's some drugs that could work better for me as opposed to worse. I found that Lyrica and gabapentin have been useful in my condition where I was decreasing from methadone and on Abilify injection.
The only thing that's get me excited is Gabapentin 100mg which I find superior to Lyrica 75mg. These drugs actually worked for me in a much better way than I had expected and felt about as smooth and uplifting as GHB. I hope benzodiazepine can work better but I will have to see about that.
I couldn't feel.cannabis and alcohol made me I'll on ability and I felt restless as fuck
 
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