Mental Health Coming off sertraline and respiradone?

[Markomarkh]

Hi all, I'm 35 and have been on sertraline a anti depressant for 7 years and respiradone a anti psychotic for 15years due to mental health issues since 18years old, I can be obsessive, they think I'm aspergers and have mild scitsophrenia and depression. I'm up and down like a yo yo and when really bad I go to the doctors, all they say is increase ya dose which I refuse to. I feel by reading reports that anti depressants or psychotics don't do a lot and no better than a placebo or do they make me worse? When I was young I was intelligent but now I feel behind and dumb feeling and have struggled to get a job or keep up with modern life. Are the tablets dumbing me down to stop me having a full life, it feel like it has?

Should I ask the doctor to come off them?

 

[herbavore]

There are many things that you can do to become healthier mentally but coming off the drugs you have been on for over a decade is a huge change and one that should definitely be overseen by trusted medical professionals. Is your psychiatrist someone that you trust? Someone that listens to you? Finding doctors that see medications as last resorts rather than first lines of treatment can be like looking for a needle in a haystack but it is well worth the effort.

Though the drugs you have been on (are on) may dull your mind somewhat I don't think they have to define you. Life is full of hard choices and weighing whether one's life is better served on or off a psychiatric drug has to be one of the hardest choices I know of. Good luck with your explorations.

 

[bees_knees]

Risperdal is known for its tendency to cause/worsen the negative symptoms of schizophrenia - amotivation, no goal directed behaviour/planning, lack of pleasure, absence of nearly all emotion. It's supposed to be good for the positive symptoms like hallucinations and disordered thought though, and it must be pretty good for these because it's usually the first one they put you on. I however noticed no improvement on my disordered thought on Risperdal. Flupenthixol also did nothing for it, it's only Abilify that has changed the thought process for me back to something far more normal and reminiscent of my healthy teenage years.

They've seriously had you on the same med for 15 years? They should be swapping and changing if you're not saying you're feeling better. Are you reporting back to them accurately?

You might be interested to know that if you look on Wikipedia there is evidence that antipsychotics shrink brain volume long term in monkeys, something which they were not tested for during clinical trials.

Short term they shouldn't make you stupid, like 1-2 years of use which is what they aim for, they should indirectly make you smarter since you're not disordered and hazy or completely without mind as schizophrenics sometimes are. But 15 years... geez...

I would ask for a different antipsychotic before dropping it altogether.

 

[BlazeBabyGurla]

my biological Mother and her twin sister were both schizophrenic. they started exhibiting symptoms in their teen years.
since you sort of implied that you are schizophrenic also by what you said, and since you seem so knowledgeable, i was hoping you could answer a couple of questions, i hope you don't mind because i'd really like to know. the only reason i ask is because i am of course, afraid of becoming schizophrenic also and the doctors seem to have no idea whether i will or will not become schizophrenic later in life, just that i'm not now. i'm 23 right now, and i have depression and anxiety which also run in my family, but fortunately for me my medication controls both very well.

the most important things i want to ask you are; first, how old were you when you were diagnosed? this is of concern to me because of obviously my own age and because you mentioned your teen years being healthy, i read that most people become schizophrenic in their teen years, do you know if that's actually true? i was also curious what were your first symptoms like, if you can remember did it start subtle or did you just one day wake up with the illness? also, you seem to be doing very well, would you say that you are?
and i have just one more question, just curious if you know the answer to this or not; my biological Mother and my Aunt were also on drugs for a number of years before and we assume while they were diagnosed. we believed that my biological Mother had been off of drugs for a number of years before she unfortunately passed away a few years ago, however she still had severe symptoms. she talked often about her hallucinations and delusions, believing all of them were real no matter how much we insisted they weren't. however, the nursing home she was in didn't provide to say at minimum the best care, i believe the medication she was on she had also, like Markomarkh, been on for a number of years. and as for my Aunt, she is still alive but is still hooked on drugs and while she was living with us we ended up being forced to tell her she had to move out or go back into a nursing home because our landlord was about to throw us out due to all the complaints from neighbors and all the times we had to call 911 because her symptoms were that severe (we didn't know she was on drugs or we wouldn't have had her move in). i have read that it is mostly hereditary but i'm hoping the drugs played some factor in them becoming schizophrenic, not just in worsening their symptoms.

i am SO sorry for this incredibly long reply and all the things i have asked you, this is just something i have worried about for awhile and i saw your post and had to ask. if you do want to answer but not publicly you can of course PM me!! i probably should have just PMed you, i just joined this website and i'm not sure how or if people even do things like this so please forgive me! any answers you have to my questions would be SO incredibly helpful and i wish you the absolute VERY best luck!!!