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Mental Health Anyone here have experiences with Antipsychotics?

Do you experience increased appetite with antipsychotics?

I get terrible food cravings when taking my evening dose of clozapine.

That's very common. Clozapine is supposed to be one of the worst atypical anti-psychotics for causing weight gain and type 2 diabetes. I find that seroquel and olanzapine increase my appetite alot and clozapine is supposed to be atleast as bad as zyprexa when it comes to weight gain.
 
Do you experience increased appetite with antipsychotics?

I get terrible food cravings when taking my evening dose of clozapine.

Oh, absolutely. Weight gain is one of the most well-established side effects of this class of medications. Which is unfortunate, as it appears to nearly always compound the problems.
 
Has anyone noticed different breathing rythems will on anti psychotics? Im a musician (play the djembe) and i notice i cant keep tempo the same or incorporate cool accents etc like i used to. It seems.my breath is alot shallower as before the med my breathing went in sync with my environment/music. And sometimes my heart slows down for a.few seconds and thumps and feels like a mild murmur or something. And advice/hope? My doctor took me off invega sustenna four months ago.
Also my memory seems to be faded. Will my old memories come back (remembering the time etc.)? my life used to feel like a.story...
 
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Quietipine made me hear voices. I have never had psychotic symptoms so it properly scared the shit out of me and I ditched it super fast
 
I have very limited experience, but Risperidone has really worked to keep my anger in check. When I skip even a few doses (like the last couple days...) I find myself far more edgy and angsty. I'll start venting frustrations and lose my cool quick.
I've been on a steady diet of 1.5mg a day (not much) + 250mg lamotrigine for a year or so, virtually no side-FX, but try to quit (even with measured tapers) and you'll discover a new level of withdrawl hell. I've never been able to beat it, tho its probably for the best.

Like anything else addictive, don't mess about unless you really need it.
 
Risperidone destroyed my sexuality when I was taking it.

That's probably the main reason why i stopped taking it when i did. I could still get it up on risperidone even when i was taking 4mg's or so a day but i couldn't feel fuck all. Now i have no real reason to be off it for that reason atleast as i don't have a g/f or anything at the moment.
 
the only time anti psychotics are worth taking is if you go completely psychotic w/o them any other time they aren't worth your trouble

This is painfully inaccurate. Antipsychotics have their place in the psychiatric medication world, and they can really help some people.

To the OP. I am currently on olanzapine and quetiapine. I have been on and off assorted antipsychotics in the last 12 years, but the olanzapine has been a magic pill for me and I've been on it the longest (about 7 or 8 years, I got off it one summer, felt depressed while off it and continued to take it). I've been on an off quetiapine the last few years and now take it nightly for sleep. Otherwise I don't sleep. Even my psychiatrist comments on how atypical antipsychotics work amazingly well for me. If the quetiapine is working for you, TAKE IT. All drugs have horror stories attached to them, and yes, antipsychotics are not a class of drugs to play with willy nilly, but they DO work and can do wonders for a lot of people (I'm alive because of them) 100mg is a fairly low dose. On bad days I can end up on as much as a gram (the max dose I believe). I have never had any of the horrifying side effects from an antipsychotics that everyone tells you about, and if you're feeling fine at 100mg a day, don't stop it because some websites told you scary things. APAP and OTC NSAIDS kill people every year when taken as directed, keep that in mind.
 
My experience was with Risperdal, and it was terrible. No positive effects to speak of and a ton of toxic side effects. I gained 50 lbs in 3 months, lactated through my clothes and developed tremors in my hands despite being on an anti-parkinson's drug. All of this at age 16 without a formal diagnosis. I felt lobotomized and lost all creativity and inspiration.

I firmly believe that Risperdal killed my elderly grandmother to this day. I'm sure these drugs are a lifesaver for some people, but you need to be pretty sick for the benefits to outweigh the risks.
 
If a Chemical lobotomy is your thing...my experience was that I could neither feel or think...like I couldn't move my brain or it was heavily subdued.

You can't get over baseline (more than likely under) and it takes a shitload of energy to use your brain...very depressing to me (though I'm naturally manic).

Anyway, my verdict is that these drugs are for those clinically insanse to limit their mental and emotional activity so that (especially) those around them won't be so bothered by them. There is no peace or induced well-being for the person being treated, though, quite the opposite. A good dose of benzos would be much more effective and humane - at least it calms Down emotional and mental distress and can give some peace.
 
APS have many minuses as part of a stable medication regimen, though some drugs with ap action like, abilify remeron, various tricyclics, nicotine, benzos, ans trazodone, and others such as beta blockers have various benefits of APS without usually causing one to feel and look deadened, and preserve cognitive function better. I've been on risperidone, paliperidone, and abilify in terms of clinically categorized APS, and ability was my preference, though at a low dose.

No doubt APS are very useful though, they generally have a mild withdrawal, especially in people like me who was treated with basically the exact opposite protocol that would help me.

A great thing about benzos is that they're largely devoid of the debilitating side effects of APS.
 
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Sould destroying, stupor inducing shit.
But I could fucking do with some now - I'm off into the wilderness of the diseased mind, manic and depressed simultaneously, it's fucking awful and frankly terrifying.

Stay on meds, I fucking wish I did.
 
me too! im totally on the fence with this drug! jus please don take it in the morning or midday as they might get you to do.. I am currently on 600mgs (i am a shortish medium-weight girl who drinks s***loads of warm water with lime juice an Gatorade so thts why i thnk they upped my dosage as i was basically flushing it out everyday thru my kidneys, but even then i still felt dozey and confused all say. So now I take the *enough to tranquilize, sorry 'quiet the mind' of an an elephant. I personally find that if I take my couple of Genuine valium (the ones with the cute little hearts on the back, a total life saver for me, it does calm me down I have anxieties too. And I take Zopliclone at night for sleepers. The quetiapine makes me fully dozey in morning tho, my eyes take a age to focus an I sort of stagger around for a bit :(
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:/I apolgis:\ i was trying to put up a pic and emoticon by my because my Mac iO is Snow Leopard 10.6 an nt a SL 10.4 an 10.8 or or even the very latest would be cool lol :) i read a random fact about quetiapine causes wrinkles.. u talking to a girl here who has cared for her skin religiously since my childhood and doesn't even know how to frown.. not from being scared of wrinkles, a little laughter lines are cool but i physically an am unable to frown lol it does n look to too .. peaceful and I hate people doing it, especially my friends an family wahhhhh this is long post
 
2 months off risperdal, still not able to get propperly high. Also don't get a kick out of music anymore, feels like something has turned numb inside me. Will this ever go away?
 
I have been taking Quietapine for about 4 years. I was taking it for C-PTSD, and started withdrawing from a 500 mg dose about a year and a half ago. The first 450 mg weren't too difficult, except for some occasions when I lowered the dosage too dramatically (100-150 mg) and began to get psychotic (disorganized thought, very irrational, very emotional, and very suspicious and afraid of my good friends), but when I lowered it by 25-50 I had no problems until 50 mg. At 50 mg i started to get some allergic side effects from going down to 25, and from 25-0 was even worse. I had such bad itching all over my back that i couldn't get up from bed for more than 10 minutes. The reaction may be particularly bad for me, but i have read that many people have experienced it as well. I highly recommend benadryl if you do try to stop taking seroquel, it curbed itching while helping me sleep and i've just begun the last drop from 25mg-0 with no itching so far.
 
Sleek65 said:
Has anyone noticed different breathing rythems will on anti psychotics? Im a musician (play the djembe) and i notice i cant keep tempo the same or incorporate cool accents etc like i used to

This gave me shivers to read. I'm a DJ, drummer of 17 years and avid percussionist (the djembe being by far my favorite ;)) and I had this same problem. I believe some medications have side effects that pertain to auditory processing. For instance, I couldn't beat-match when DJ'ing, even at slow tempos like 70 bpm. I'd go to do a flam on the snare drum and end up just hitting a single quarter note, but with two sticks.

Edit: Did a lil' research:
Though each of these articles involve patients with schizophrenia, the evidence could be applicable to the general population without schizophrenia, as the data very clearly demonstrates that antipsychotics have a measurable clinical effect on auditory processing and event-related action potentials.

Interesting...

~ Vaya
 
This gave me shivers to read. I'm a DJ, drummer of 17 years and avid percussionist (the djembe being by far my favorite ;)) and I had this same problem. I believe some medications have side effects that pertain to auditory processing. For instance, I couldn't beat-match when DJ'ing, even at slow tempos like 70 bpm. I'd go to do a flam on the snare drum and end up just hitting a single quarter note, but with two sticks.

Edit: Did a lil' research:
Though each of these articles involve patients with schizophrenia, the evidence could be applicable to the general population without schizophrenia, as the data very clearly demonstrates that antipsychotics have a measurable clinical effect on auditory processing and event-related action potentials.

Interesting...

~ Vaya
Haven't you noticed that the music sounded a bit flat after taking AP's? I just don't "feel" my favourite tracks anymore, and I'm 1.5 months off the drugs. Did you get your sound comprehension back?
 
Abilify at a very low dose (2.5mg daily) has kind of been miraculous in terms of controlling my depression, anger, impulsivity, and suicidal ideation juuuust enough. Its price is frightening though. But let's not get into that. I've been on SO many things, and I guess I'm relieved to have found the one that actually works. I sometimes worry about long term effects (tardive dyskinesia in partic) but the fact that its a below-starting dose kinda relieves that. It makes me a bit lightheaded when I get up too quickly, but it's manageable.

However, I can confidently say that I hate seroquel :p
 
We should develop a new antipscyhotic and make millions. =D

I'm refering to the ridiculous prices of some antipscyhotics (e.g. Abilify)
 
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