Mental Health Psych med induced apathy

[sonicwhite]

Okay I have always had struggles with drug's. But after my psychosis I gave my life to God.....I wasn't using and psych meds or anything for two years....I had a drive to be a preacher but I did have littl whispers in my head that kinda made me think well something ain't right. So thru that two year period that I was on nothing. I worked 50 hours a week. I loved my job. I loved life. and, most the time I was always happy. Well since I felt I had a calling to preach I would do so without hesitating. One day a woman said I think your sick because you feel like you can only date a christian gal and not someone else. So I took her advice and went to the psych doctor. He prescribed risperdal..... Two weeks after I was prescribed that I quit my job. A month and a half after that I was struck with pure o OCD. So I was put on zoloft. But my anxiety was to much so I would go out to the streets and try to buy xanax. What I'm trying to say is....These psych med's have taken my goal, my dream in life to do what I want.....I have learned not to judge people but that fire that was in me is no longer there. So how would I go about straightening this out. I'm going to tell my doc but have any of you been in the same situation where you feel the anti psychotic had just zapped you of all desire to do what you want in life?

 

[Jerry Atrick]

From your meth psychosis thread:

before all this scrambled crap happened I was using mollies and shrooms weed pain killers coke and I was using seroquel to help me sleep.

Sonicwhite, I think psych meds are the least of your worries. You clearly have a problem and you need to find a safe way to stop using the other drugs.

The doctors prescribe you medications based on what you tell them. When you use all those street drugs, they are interfering with what the doctors prescribe.

It's not your doctor's fault you are using all kinds of street drugs and abusing the legal ones.

I think you are confused and you do need help. I think your lust for life has been zapped by all the drugs you are abusing, not just the ones being prescribed to you. If you don't get a handle on this you will end up in a pine box or worse, you will scramble your brains to hell.

 

[paranoid android]

^ This exactly. You can't expect your meds to work while using that amount of different drugs. I mean holy fuck man it's a wonder your not in worse shape then you seem to be. Not to mention that MDMA (or whatever other shit is in the molly you get) and especially coke and meth are about the worst drugs you can use if you are suffering from any type of mental illness especially psychosis. Meth and coke both increase levels of dopamine in your brain as methamphetamine is a dopamine agonist while coke is a dopamine reuptake inhibitor. Risperdal is a really potent D2 dopamine receptor antagonist so meth and coke are pretty much counteracting the effects of the risperdal and vice versa.

There is little sense in taking E, shrooms, meth or coke while on any anti-psychotic especially the atypical ones as they act as both dopamine and serotonin antagonists. So you won't trip much off the shrooms, you won't get much of a roll at all off the E and risperdal especially will pretty much make the effects of meth and coke null and void. This is not even mentioning the fact that meth and coke especially are cardiotoxic with coke being directly cardiotoxic. Most if not all anti-psychotics exhibit some cardiotoxicity and both risperdal and seroquel are cardiotoxic to some degree for sure. E also affects your heart. So you could very well end up fucking up your heart for life on this mixture of drugs. Trust me you do not want to end up with QT prolongation or other serious cardiac side effects. Not to mention taking seroquel which is another anti-psychotic to sleep when you are also taking risperdal is asking for serious cardiac side effects and it is as good a way as any to get QT prolongation. Also your risk of getting movement disorders associated with anti-psychotics is going to go way up if you are mixing 2 different ones so that is a very bad idea to say the very least.

Going by your post you definitely sound psychotic and possibly delusional so i would strongly recommend laying off all drugs except the ones your doctor gives you. I wouldn't even recommend you smoking Cannabis atleast until you are back down to earth so to speak and it is not very often at all that i say that to anyone. You need to focus on getting better and getting your head on straight not on getting high.

 

[sonicwhite]

I havn't used mollies or meth in eight years......I don't do hardcore drugs anymore......You must of read my post wrong or something because thats way WAY off track.

 

[Jerry Atrick]

I havn't used mollies or meth in eight years......I don't do hardcore drugs anymore......You must of read my post wrong or something because thats way WAY off track.

I see. I referenced your other thread and overlooked the fact that your meth psychosis began in 2005. My bad.

Either way, you have a lot going on and I would bet that much of it has to do with past hardcore drug use. You still have not told us if you have been honest with your doctors all these years. By honest I mean....have you divulged how many hardcore drugs you used in the past?

Now that we've cleared that up, I will say that Allein's post in your other thread was more spot on than I originally thought.

If you've been having these problems for this long, maybe it would help you to quit focusing on the past and start looking toward the present and future. It took me years to finally admit to myself that I would never be who I once was. Regardless of any mental diagnosis, people change.

So you don't have the spark you used to have. Have you ever considered that it may also be at least partially due to the fact that you are just getting older? I certainly don't have the energy I used to have but I can't completely blame the psych meds I'm on. What can I say? Getting old sucks.

 

[sonicwhite]

Um Yes, my pdoc know everything i have done and has all my records back to 2005. Um, He is okay with prescribing benzo's but stim's he shies away from. Yes it could be that I'm getting older. Thanks for the advice everyone.

 

[paranoid android]

^ No doctor with a clue is going to prescribe a stimulant to someone who suffers from psychosis. Amphetamines and even methylphenidate can and often do induce psychosis in otherwise perfectly drearily sane people. So if you have psychosis stimulants in general are bad news. The benzos are ok as long as you don't abuse them and stick to the dose your doctor has given you. Benzos are often used along with anti-psychotics of all types to treat mental illnesses like a manic episode. I don't know how common or useful they are in treating schizophrenia though.

As for the apathy that could be caused by any number of things such as boredom with how your life is at the moment, not getting enough exercise, getting older (though with the right diet and exercise age need not be a problem) and also depression. Just about all anti-psychotics atypical or typical can cause depression in some people especially if the dose is too high so you have to watch out for that and if you are depressed make sure to tell your doctor. I suffer from bipolar disorder NOS with rapid cycling, mixed state and psychotic features. However any psychosis i get is entirely related to severe mood swings in either direction so it's different then regular psychosis. I have been on abunch of anti-psychotics over the years mostly seroquel and risperdal though as they are the only 2 atypicals covered by my insurance. Zyprexa works much better for me but there is no way in hell i can afford the outrageous price of that. What dose of risperdal are you on by the way? With risperdal you generally don't get much side effects at all below 2mg's but above 2mg's can cause shitty side effects one of which is the zombie effect that some people get from anti-psychotics.

I don't know how common this is among people with psychosis but in bipolar patients it is very common to misinterpret getting back down to earth as being dulled out because of the meds. If you are used to your brain working in overdrive it takes awile for you to get used to your brain being normal for lack of a better word. Hence the high rate of non med compliance in people with bipolar. I don't think the rate is as high as people with psychosis though. If the risperdal does become a problem there are lot's of other anti-psychotics you could try. Whatever you do DO NOT go off any anti-psychotic without the supervision of your doctor and especially cold turkey. The withdrawal symptoms from alot of anti-psychotics are absolutely brutal as not only do your previous symptoms usually come back but they usually come back much worse then they originally where if you go cold turkey. For some reason perhaps the strong D2 antagonism of risperdal that drug tends to cause really bad rebound symptoms upon abrupt withdrawal.

 

[sonicwhite]

I have ADND....OCD....BIpolar I Insomnia major depression and I think thats it.....They first diagnosed me with cannabis psychotic disorder because I was honest with them and said it just makes me feel like I am out of my body. So my dad and his mom have bipolar. what kind? IDK. but ihave had several doctor's say I have a mood disorder but I just can't seem to believe them......I am on 4mg risperdal 200mg of seroquel. 200 mg of zoloft. 600mg of gabapentin three times a day. Ritalin 10 mg twice daily andvalproic acid 250mg. and klonopin 1 mg PRN. I'm going to tell the doc I don't want the ritalin since it's to tempting to want to abuse and he was very scared to prescribe it in the first place because of my psychosis or OCD.What really delt me a blow was in 08 I got struck by a phobia of God's judgment. and it has taken 5 years to get where I am today.....My doc knows what he is doing...lI guess it's just my drug seeking behavior because I was addicted to meth for two years.....Other then that thats my story.