Mental Health Coming Off Invega Sustenna (Paliperidone) v.2

[Gdvffh]

These are not the poison, they are the remedy.

Are they pleasant to take? No. Are they harmless to take? No.

But I hope you realise I take them because I have an illness/condition that is worse than the pills' both main and side effects, so i just have to weight the pros and cons to see which is better for me.

I have already stopped taking them 3 times and had 3 psychotic episodes as a result, this might not be the case for you, and you are free to read whatever message confirms your beliefs, that's what I did last time I checked this thread, i read it all, discarding any message saying the opposite of what I wanted to read.

Why i take the pill form? Because they give me quality of life. I would even smoke them in hash form or eat them in cookie form if it means a good quality of life. Hell, let's be humorous, I'd even take them in suppository form, peppermint/eucalyptus flavoured.

To be serious about this, remember some people are suffering from conditions that are a *lot* more constraining where they have to do dialysis every day or inject every day. Not even talking about terminal diseases here, just day-to-day comfort.

I'm sure some people even are ok with injection form, it's just that this is a thread about Invega Sustenna, so, generally, people with negative experience come and post here, people with positive experience don't bother to even search for bluelight / mental health / "coming down Invega" forums.

The only reason why i came back and posted was to give my neutral experience, over the course of a year. I hope I picture it as neutrally as possible, never do I mean that what I write applies to everyone nor do I say that there are no mis-diagnosed people.

Last piece of advise, if you feel your doctor is not ok, change doctors, if you feel your medication is not ok, talk to your doctor about it openly. I hope the best for you, my friend, i think it's important you bear in mind positive experiences too, don't forget that life can be OK...borderline good!

Cheers!

Are you sure the psychosis is not a withdrawal effect from getting off the pills? If you taper you might be fine

 

[Invegaman]

I'm with lazar, I've had extremely weak muscles and lowered stamina since being on Invega and 6 months off it I still feel the same, the muscle I had pre Invega has been turned to body fat and it's just adding to the list of issues Invega has caused me. I'm amazed how some guys manage to train so soon after stopping Invega my body just doesn't want to.

 

[Babylon5]

Unlike most people here, I haven't managed to stop taking antipsychotics yet. I want to so badly! My psychiatrist said that she's "scared to reduce my antipsychotics any lower," and that she doesn't think that lowering it any more would improve my motivation and anhedonia. Thankfully, I have Concerta and Ritalin to counter the side efffects of my Risperdal, but they barely help at all. So I've been saving up money to get a second opinion from a naturopathic physician (I have an appointment in September. Really looking forward to that ). How did you guys discontinue use without causing any "rebound" symptoms?

 

[unexpected175]

Babylon.. are you ok man... Risperdal is way too powerful... which AP's are you on brother? taper by switching to 25mg of seroquel in the evening around 8pm and wake up by 9 the next morning your gonna improve the overall quality of your life that way... than stay on the seroquel as long as you feel you need 2 it may take a year... but once your ready and think you don't need take it every other day than 2 days and so forth... but your a long way from that man... I would suggest a mood stabilizer as there side effects are mild.. depakote and lamictal are good ones... once you stop taking antipsychotics you will feel so much more alert and sharper I can't even begin to describe it, words don't do it justice... you'll be driven hungry and prepared to tackle life's daily challenges...

Just make sure you remain very calm around your psychiatrist and simply and stoically (with no emotion)tell your P-doc that these pills are not an acceptable options by any means and that your willing to take a mood stabilizer so she doesn't have to worry about losing a client.. just be straight up with her and under no circumstances allow your self to lose your cool and she should take you off of them... that sucks man that she won't let you taper just to see the results and experiment.. thats the very nature of what people in the medical field are supposed to be open too.. is trial and error!! you've trialed risperedal and its clearly not working (what a dumbass your doctor is or evil) you'll get thru this buddy... just respond on here if you have any questions.....

remember guys eat healthy drink water take multi vitamin get good sleep, walk get sunshine and exercise and this shit should be over by next summer!

 

[unexpected175]

Btw anyone new to this should know that every 2 months you should be experiencing a mild alleviation in your symptoms and a noticeable change every 4 months (as I will be at 4 months in the next 3 days). i really think that generally, by 12-16 months certainly by 18 months (unless you got shot up with AT LEAST 100+ once a month for a full year with Invega Sustenna) that you should be just about 75-90% back to your old self and certainly able to live your life without spending a significant portion of time thinking about this horrible injection... but Hey everyones different and I respect that.. I just don't want this to get anyone down.. because the first 4 months were really torture.. but i got through it and me realizing it has gotten better continually every month just signals to me that I will be able to look back one day and simply just say "well that was a big mistake....OOPS"

and I know that everyone else on here is gonna reach that point too... just keep busy and do something... anything watch netflix... play video games.... read the bible... learn a language at community college for really cheap and make a couple new friends in class. attend meetings (like AA and stuff like that) because I'm willing to bet, of course i could be wrong, that a decent sized chunk of us have battled with sobriety before or got diagnosed with a mental illness of some kind... those are REALLY the only 2 ways I can see a person ending up on Invega sustenna...

Unless your in jail or the psych ward and your just exhibiting violent uncontrollable or wildy irrational behavior. Still doesn't justify this ungodly injection you can put a guy in restraints and isolation and eventually the dude will fucking get it, might take some longer than others but eventually everyone breaks.

I mention that everyone "breaks" because i don't want this medicine to crush or break anyone and stop them from their dreams or thinking that life is over or never gonna be what it could have been.. that's a cognitive distortion (your mind playing tricks on you... talk to the survivors and the ones who made it listen to their stories it will inspire you) and if you can keep a little faith in the future and envision something that you can see yourself being dedicated too and living for.. you will see a silver lining... I guarantee it

 

[Joey2358]

I'm with lazar, I've had extremely weak muscles and lowered stamina since being on Invega and 6 months off it I still feel the same, the muscle I had pre Invega has been turned to body fat and it's just adding to the list of issues Invega has caused me. I'm amazed how some guys manage to train so soon after stopping Invega my body just doesn't want to.

Hey invegaman are you still suffering from not getting a natural erectiion? It's my 5 month off now and I still can't get a natural erection.. I also can't run and I can't loose weight no matter how hard I try.... My vision was once blurry but it is no longer blurry... I hope we fully recover. 6 months off and you still feel the same. Same here. How many shots did you get? Do you think we will fully recover. Some people have been off it for more than a year and still haven't recovered.

 

[Koz26]

I'm with lazar, I've had extremely weak muscles and lowered stamina since being on Invega and 6 months off it I still feel the same, the muscle I had pre Invega has been turned to body fat and it's just adding to the list of issues Invega has caused me. I'm amazed how some guys manage to train so soon after stopping Invega my body just doesn't want to.

I know you feel like shit both physically and mentally right now, but you can force yourself to train. Even if it's just something small, like a 15 minute walk and a few push-ups/sit-ups once or twice a week. Don't tell yourself that you are "unable" to do it cause your "body just doesn't want to." You have to take control over your physical health as much as possible, otherwise it's going to take much longer to recover and your going to keep feeling worse and worse as your physical health continues to deteriorate further.

I was doing shadow boxing and push-ups a few times a week even during the first month I had received the Invega shot. I don't say this to try and make you feel bad...but to try and motivate you and help you stay a little more positive. It's not easy to workout early on, but it is possible. My body felt twice as heavy, I was severely fatigued and extremely depressed...but I just forced myself to do at least a little bit of exercise each week.

It's really just a matter of how important your physical health is to you that will determine if you will workout or not. For me, I had been weightlifting consistently for 12 years straight and had been training martial arts 2-6 times per week for the last 7 years. So, I refused to let Invega take all of my hard earned muscle gains and conditioning away from me. I did lose some muscle and gained some fat...but it would've been soooo much worse for me to get through this whole experience if I just didn't workout at all. I ended up losing a decent amount of strength and gained roughly 10lbs of fat over the first 8 months I was off Invega Sustenna, but if I just didn't workout at all I probably would have gained at least 20lbs...maybe more cause I put on fat really quick when I'm not exercising at all.

You just gotta force yourself to do it my man. It sucks....trust me I know it sucks...but you can do it. I believe in ya!

 

[Koz26]

Hey invegaman are you still suffering from not getting a natural erectiion? It's my 5 month off now and I still can't get a natural erection.. I also can't run and I can't loose weight no matter how hard I try.... My vision was once blurry but it is no longer blurry... I hope we fully recover. 6 months off and you still feel the same. Same here. How many shots did you get? Do you think we will fully recover. Some people have been off it for more than a year and still haven't recovered.

Joey my man,

If you can't run, walk.

If you can't loose weight, eat healthier.

If you can't get a "natural" erection (I'm not even sure exactly what you mean by natural here) then talk to your doctor about it. Maybe they can give you Cialis or viagra in the interim until you recover and can get erections on your own.

You keep bringing up how people have been off for over a year and haven't recovered, while ignoring the cases where people say they got better. I'm not trying to be mean, but you really should stop posting such negative things on here. It's not healthy for people who are suffering physically and mentally, sometimes even battling suicidal thoughts, to be reading posts constantly about how "some people have been off for over a year and haven't recovered." "I don't think we'll ever recover." etc...

I can understand why those stories upset you so much. They bother me too. But multiple people have recovered within a year...I'm 10 1/2 months off and I feel pretty damn good compared to how I was when I first got the shot. Am I fully recovered? That's tough to say. But what I can tell you is that I feel recovered enough to compete in mma again. So I'm leaps and bounds better than I was 10 months ago.

Please don't keep posting about and focusing on the select few who didn't recover after a year. Everyone is different and you don't know them personally. If I didn't workout at all for the last ten months and gained 40-50lbs of body fat like some people I've read about on here, then I guarantee I would STILL feel like absolute shit. These are the types of things you should take into consideration. Stay positive buddy, you're gonna get your boners raging again one day and you're gonna recover as long you don't let your physical health go to complete shit. I read about someone on here who was talking about how he didn't feel better after 13 months and he had no idea why. Yet, during those 13months he went from around 180lbs to OVER 300lbs!!!!! ANYONE would feel like shit if they gained over 120lbs in a years time. He probably just sat on the couch and ate junk food and never exercised. If you take that type of approach, then yes you will probably never return to your old self again. Does that make him a bad person? Absolutely not. But he did not stay active in his recovery and expected to just wake up one day and say BOOM, now I'm recovered. That's not the way it works man.

Be patient. Remain calm. Stay as active as you can. And you will get better!

Sending you much love from Wilkes-Barre, PA.

 

[Joey2358]

Joey my man,

If you can't run, walk.

If you can't loose weight, eat healthier.

If you can't get a "natural" erection (I'm not even sure exactly what you mean by natural here) then talk to your doctor about it. Maybe they can give you Cialis or viagra in the interim until you recover and can get erections on your own.

You keep bringing up how people have been off for over a year and haven't recovered, while ignoring the cases where people say they got better. I'm not trying to be mean, but you really should stop posting such negative things on here. It's not healthy for people who are suffering physically and mentally, sometimes even battling suicidal thoughts, to be reading posts constantly about how "some people have been off for over a year and haven't recovered." "I don't think we'll ever recover." etc...

I can understand why those stories upset you so much. They bother me too. But multiple people have recovered within a year...I'm 10 1/2 months off and I feel pretty damn good compared to how I was when I first got the shot. Am I fully recovered? That's tough to say. But what I can tell you is that I feel recovered enough to compete in mma again. So I'm leaps and bounds better than I was 10 months ago.

Please don't keep posting about and focusing on the select few who didn't recover after a year. Everyone is different and you don't know them personally. If I didn't workout at all for the last ten months and gained 40-50lbs of body fat like some people I've read about on here, then I guarantee I would STILL feel like absolute shit. These are the types of things you should take into consideration. Stay positive buddy, you're gonna get your boners raging again one day and you're gonna recover as long you don't let your physical health go to complete shit. I read about someone on here who was talking about how he didn't feel better after 13 months and he had no idea why. Yet, during those 13months he went from around 180lbs to OVER 300lbs!!!!! ANYONE would feel like shit if they gained over 120lbs in a years time. He probably just sat on the couch and ate junk food and never exercised. If you take that type of approach, then yes you will probably never return to your old self again. Does that make him a bad person? Absolutely not. But he did not stay active in his recovery and expected to just wake up one day and say BOOM, now I'm recovered. That's not the way it works man.

Be patient. Remain calm. Stay as active as you can. And you will get better!

Sending you much love from Wilkes-Barre, PA.

I'm sorry for posting negative stuff. I'm just scared that this is permanent. 13 months, how many shots did that guy get? Also by natural erection I mean when I think of a hot girl I don't get sexually aroused.... Seriously I hope the people that created Invega Sustenna burn in hell.

 

[iridescentblack]

The 27th will be 15 months off for me. At this point I think my body has mostly recovered. I'm starting to see the end of this long dark tunnel almost literally. Flashes of what it was like pre-Invega are shooting through. It's just like when Rispderdal Consta wore off except... it's taking... a lot... longer.

 

[strity1994]

how are all ya'll dudes erections today? Remember it has to come from the inside, the erection. U gots to feel the erection in ur hearrt, ursoul Don't force it...just keepin it real and flaccid

 

[Koz26]

@Joey

There's no need for you to apologize. I know you're going through a very hard time right now. I just want you to feel better is all.

If you go back to around the middle of the first "Coming off Invega Sustenna thread" you will see the posts from the guy I was talking about. I believe his name was Bob. Man would I feel like a dick if he saw my posts and thought I was bashing him. But that's not my intention. I have a lot of empathy for what he was going through. But based on what Bob said in his posts, it seemed as though he just gave up hope and let the drug win by not trying to actively recover from it. After all, going from around 180lbs to over 300lbs in the course of 13 months is insane. There are definitely things he could have done to make the weight gain less severe. Like I said, I gained weight too, but it was only 10lbs in the first 8months because I forced myself to exercise every week. I didn't do a ton...maybe 30mins on an exercise bike and 50 push-ups once or twice a week. I'm sure there was a week or two where I felt so tired and depressed that I didn't exercise at all. But even during those weeks I know deep down that I could've forced myself to do it. It's important to remember that we're all stronger than this drug...what saddens me about bobs story was that I don't think he realized this.

As a former boxer and now mma fighter, I kind of look at each persons recovery process as individual matches between someone who received the Invega shot and the drug itself. The drug is extremely powerful and can last for several rounds. But ultimately, if you dig down deep enough, you'll find that you're much more powerful than the drug...because all you have to do is survive the first few rounds and then Invega starts to tire a fade in the later rounds, so to speak. As long as you keep fighting, eventually you'll come out on top a better and stronger person than you were before. But if you just lay against the ropes and let the drug land shot after shot, without doing anything to fight back, eventually it's going to knock you out. In Bobs case, it seemed like the knockout punch was not the drug itself, but the fact that he gained over 120lbs in the course of a year. I think the drug probably wore off a good amount for him, but due to the severe weight gain he never felt "recovered." Because the truth of the matter is that there is much more to our individual recoveries than JUST waiting for the drug to wear off. We have to stay active in our recovery while we wait for it to wear off...That's my opinion at least.

 

[Lazar]

I no longer get the "high" or "job well done" feeling from working out, maybe its from the blocked dopamine and serotonin. Whats frustrating me is how weak and fatigued my muscles are . Pre invega when i would bench press hundreds of pounds my chest would be mildly sour for like 16 hours, now if i bang 20 or so pushups my sour gets EXTREMELY sour for the next couple of days! Thats not natural at all.i cant pick stuff of the ground without nearly passing out, thats no way for a creation of god to live.... Im still 17 and i can say with full confidence that in the next 60 years i still have to live, i will never encouter a time as dark, tormenting, and infernal as my time on invega.

 

[Koz26]

I no longer get the "high" or "job well done" feeling from working out, maybe its from the blocked dopamine and serotonin. Whats frustrating me is how weak and fatigued my muscles are . Pre invega when i would bench press hundreds of pounds my chest would be mildly sour for like 16 hours, now if i bang 20 or so pushups my sour gets EXTREMELY sour for the next couple of days! Thats not natural at all.i cant pick stuff of the ground without nearly passing out, thats no way for a creation of god to live.... Im still 17 and i can say with full confidence that in the next 60 years i still have to live, i will never encouter a time as dark, tormenting, and infernal as my time on invega.

How long you been off the juice brudduh man?

 

[Invegaman]

Joey, it'll be 6 months for me and I hate to state it but I don't get natural erections like I used to. I'd recommend getting your prolactin checked out because Invega is similar to rispiridel and can affect your hormones which can lead to muscle fatigue and erectile issues. Good luck bro.

 

[Lazar]

Hey koz26

Im still on it actually on it actually, my psychitrist says ill be on it for 2-3 months more hopefully needless to say my life quality has significantly worsended since my first shot, i check on this forum to see any recovery stories to give me hope.

 

[Koz26]

Hey koz26

Im still on it actually on it actually, my psychitrist says ill be on it for 2-3 months more hopefully needless to say my life quality has significantly worsended since my first shot, i check on this forum to see any recovery stories to give me hope.

Well let me offer you some hope then!

I received my last shot of Invega Sustenna (out of two total...the total-standard starter dose) on September 23, 2015. On August 23rd it wil be 11 months since I have been off of Invega Sustenna. It's tough to put a percentage on my recovery and say "I'm 90% recovered." or "I'm 100% recovered." because recovery is quite subjective in my opinion.

After all, it's not like I can go get a lab test done that says, "After 10 1/2 months, your dopamine receptors are now 95% unblocked and Invega-free." or "You are now producing 80% of your pre-Invega levels of dopamine and 65% of that dopamine is binding to what are now unblocked, Invega-free dopamine receptors." You know what I mean? It sure would be nice if there were those types of tests but, to the best of my knowledge, I don't think they exist.

So, there's just no way to objectively measure our recovery in that regard. At least none that I know of. Sure, some people say they had lab tests done that told them how much Invega is still left in their blood...but how much can really be drawn from that when we don't know how much those dosages of Invega are "objectively" effecting our brain?

However, what I can tell you is that I feel AMAZING compared to how I felt when I was first administered Invega Sustenna. My overall quality of life, motivation and mood have all improved dramatically. I actually feel like a more driven and goal-oriented person NOW than I ever was pre-Invega. Perhaps this is because I appreciate things like being able to feel emotions and having enough energy to exercise moreso now than ever before, because of having gone through this horrible experience.

In all honesty, I would say that I am actually a better and stronger version of myself right now than I ever was before being shot up with Invega Sustenna. And I also have not had another Bipolar episode since being administered Invega sustenna, which is very important to take into account when gauging my recovery progress. Before Invega, I had 4 separate episodes over the course of just two months. They really f'ed up my life temporarily. Being episode-free is a godsend for me!

Anyway, I hope that gives you a beacon of light to look forward to while you're on this dark and difficult road of recovery!

Oh and one last thing, I CAN GET NATURAL ERECTIONS LIKE I COULD PRE-INVEGA!!!!! Sometimes I wake up and my erections are actually TOO rock-hard and last TOO long... unless I'm planning on having morning sex or masturbating of course. But I generally don't like doing either of those things right when I wake up. That has nothing to do with the Invega either. I've been that way for as long as I can remember. It takes me about an hour to get myself fully awake and alert in the morning. That's just how I have always been.

 

[Lazar]

@koz26
Thanks man! You really set me apart from the feeling of never recovering. Im happy to see youv recovered. As for me i just need to be patient and simply be the most productive i can.

 

[iridescentblack]

If I threw a percentage out there and it offended you Koz, well I'm sorry.

 

[Koz26]

If I threw a percentage out there and it offended you Koz, well I'm sorry.

Nope, not at all. Maybe other people can put a percentage on it. To each their own. I just don't know how I can place a percentage on my own recovery...but everyone has their own ways of measuring their progress.