Mental Health Question about new meds and drug use

[busdriver]

Hello,

Recently I had a pretty bad experience in terms of my mental health and ended up in the psych ward for about a week leaving with a script for 2 new meds to treat my mood disorder. Depakote (1000mg a day) and Respiridone (1mg a day) are what my psychiatrist ended up putting me on after I left. It's only been about 5 days since I started taking these meds but I feel a little better already. Unfortunately from what I was told in the psych ward it looks like any type of recreational drug (including alcohol) seems to be completely out of the question for me to use for the rest of my life. This is a pretty tough pill to swallow for me, and I was wondering if I could get any information from the knowledgeable people of bluelight about the degree of truth there is to this. Are there any drugs in the stimulant, psychedelic, or dissociative families that pose a limited risk for me if used in moderation in terms of actually physically/mentally harming and won't do too much to reverse the effects of the medications I'm taking? I know a lot of people will probably tell me that it's a bad idea to pursue this route given the severity of my disease if I'm in need of these medications, but at the same time I believe it would be in the spirit of harm reduction to point me in the direction of things that will cause the least damage. I look forward to your responses and hope that I can get a little bit of good guidance here.

 

[a dream]

cannabis should work OK
I don't think depakote affects stimulants or psychedelics. Not sure if it affects dissociatives.
risperidone will likely reduce the effects of dopaminergic stimulants
I think risperidone will potentiate alcohol
risperidone will block most psychedelics
risperidone might reduce the effect of dissociatives

Not saying any of these combinations are safe or unharmful - just whether the drug will work or not.

I recommend instead of asking blanket questions like this you do your own research on what anticonvulsants (such as depakote) and atypical antipsychotics (such as risperidone) actually do, and what the recreational drugs you are interested in do, and the interactions between the drug classes in general. That would be a good starting point and will give you some idea of what drugs will likely work and how they might interact. For example, I don't have any specific knowledge about risperidone other than it's an atypical antipsychotic, but I do have some idea of how AAPs generally interact with other drugs, so I was able to provide the answers above.
Research any specific combinations whenever possible. However, information about drugs similar to those are you are interested in may still be useful. Hypothetically, if drug X causes a specific reaction when taken with a few other atypical antipsychotics, but you can't find any specific information about risperidone and drug X, there's a good chance risperidone and drug X may have the same interaction as the other AAPs.

 

[busdriver]

I recommend instead of asking blanket questions like this you do your own research on what anticonvulsants (such as depakote) and atypical antipsychotics (such as risperidone) actually do, and what the recreational drugs you are interested in do, and the interactions between the drug classes in general. That would be a good starting point and will give you some idea of what drugs will likely work and how they might interact. For example, I don't have any specific knowledge about risperidone other than it's an atypical antipsychotic, but I do have some idea of how AAPs generally interact with other drugs, so I was able to provide the answers above.
Research any specific combinations whenever possible. However, information about drugs similar to those are you are interested in may still be useful. Hypothetically, if drug X causes a specific reaction when taken with a few other atypical antipsychotics, but you can't find any specific information about risperidone and drug X, there's a good chance risperidone and drug X may have the same interaction as the other AAPs.

I tried to look into the specific interactions but had trouble finding the kind of helpful and reliable information I needed. Really your answer has been the most helpful thus far (thanks by the way). Do you know of any specific resources that would help me look into this further?

 

[mrflowers00]

most drugs mixtures are relatively safe in moderation