What’s up people?
It’s been a bit over 7 months off the injection now. Only thing I battle with now is the weight I’ve gained while on Invega. Depression, anxiety, insomnia etc. are all gone by now. I still feel kind of detached from reality/derealized but I’ve felt like that since I was like 14, so it’s not the invega to blame. I went to the endocrinologist like a month back and he took some tests from blood and found out I had a deficiency for lutenizing hormone. I’m not sure if I’ve had that condition for my whole life or whether Invega is to blame. But overall I feel pretty much like I did pre-invega. I’ve been taking 300 mgs of Wellbutrin/bupropion a day for a few months now and I can assure you that bupropion helps a lot with the side effects caused by invega. I felt undescribably bad, depressed, anxious etc. before I got the prescription for Wellbutrin and right after I started taking it, I started to feel gradually better. Like I’ve said in my previous posts, most of the side effects are caused by the lack of dopamine. Bupropion inhibits the reuptake of dopamine, so there’ll be more free dopamine available for your receptors to receive. Invega blocks the receptors receiving the dopamine, so when there’s more dopamine available than usually, you will feel a lot better. The side effects I can think of right now that are caused by dopamine deficiency are lack of motivation, having no libido, depression, anxiety, insomnia, restlessness/akathisia, drugs not working, and the list goes on... Now that I’ve been 7 months off the shot (I received 150 + 100 mg shots) I can certainly feel weed like I used to and alcohol is working as intended too. I’ve been drinking today and had 8 beers and I could definately feel drunk. The feeling didn’t last as long as it used but definately felt it. And weed works like it used to, I’ve been smoking daily for like 2-3 months now and I kinda feel like I can thank weed for my quick recovery, can’t tell for sure though. I’ve done some research in the past and found out that cannabinoids activate a protein which shuttles drugs from brain cells to the bloodstream, and from the bloodstream to kidneys, and from
kidneys to urine and so on. I still don’t suggest anyone who’s been diagnosed with psychosis to use psychoactive substances. I got my psychosis from using harder drugs and being awake for too long/not eating anything, so I felt like I’m on the safe side, and right I was. First month and two off the shot I felt so fucking paranoid and psychotic when I smoked that I first thought I got my psychosis from weed but that passed eventually. But anyway, being in the situation that I am right now, I can tell you all that it WILL get better eventually. A few months back I thought my life was over and that I would die to the side effects, but now I feel like my life will continue like it was supposed to. I’m just happy to be alive right now, I did a lot of stupid shit while in psychosis.. But yeah, hang in there if you’re feeling like shit, I PROMISE you that it WILL get better as time passes. Distract yourself from thinking about your situation and do the stuff that used to make you happy. Eventually you’ll see that it actually makes you happy again/you enjoy doing it. I’ve been spending my time with my girlfriend and playing pc games with my friends and it’s been a lot of fun! And stop browsing through this forum daily, it’ll just remind you about the shit you’re going through. And if a day comes when you feel like shit, try to think about the worst days on invega, and you’ll realize you’re not feeling as bad as you could. That helped me a lot. The first month-2 on Invega were the worst days of my life and everytime I feel like shit I just think about those days and realize I’m doing pretty good afterall. Stay positive! Feel free to send me a message if you wan’t to or got anything to ask, I’ll be happy to respond, peace!
I really suggest you to substitute invega with a better antipsychotic like quetiapine. Invega is the worst poison ever made by pharm industry. Most of the drugs rely on dopamine, once you drink a beer, smoke a joint etc. your levels of free dopamine in between neurons raise a lot. But Invega antagonizes the receptors which are receiving the dopamine, so you won’t feel the effects of dopamine. And every single antipsychotic on the market, except abilify, are dopamine antagonists, but Invega is the worst of them. By far. I really suggest to get off of Invega asap.