A personal review of some atypical anti-psychotics

Hello, I am a high school senior who has been in psychiatric treatment for a little over six months. I have a schizophrenic-type disorder as well as depersonalization disorder. I have experienced hallucinations since I was a small child, some of my earliest memories are of a very real (to me) imaginary friend. These hallucinations didn't start to bother me until the advent of my parent's divorce where I spiraled into a sea of depression and self-harm. The hallucinations began to become dangerous - seeing things in the road while i was driving, or not seeing things when i should have (as if they had been erased from just my vision). Before entering treatment (I currently have weekly therapy sessions and see my psychiatrist bi-weekly) I suffered from delusions and auditory and visual hallucinations, as well as depression that worsened the aforementioned symptoms. I have tried a few atypical anti-psychotics, and below is my account of each. Just because it worked a certain way for me, does not mean it will work the same for you.

Seroquel (quetiapine):
This was the first anti-psychotic i was prescribed, with a starting dose of 25mg. When I first started it I had amazing results within 24 hours, it didn't do much about the hallucinations, but it elevated my mood and I felt overall healthier - possibly because of the sleep I had gotten from it. For me, Seroquel has a pronounced sedative effect, I get tired within an hour after taking it and I sleep well (uninterrupted) for approximately 7 hours. As the dose was moved to 100mg I began to have some ill effects. Mind you, at the time I weighed 96lbs at a height of 5'4". I would become dizzy upon standing and just feel generally lethargic. I cycled through this list of anti-psychotics, but returned to Seroquel later on, at a weight of 108lbs, I am currently taking 400mg and expect the dosage to be upped very soon, but now that the dose is higher, I don't have my delusions or hallucinations except for thinking i hear voices sometimes (as soon as I listen for them they quiet)

Abilify (aripiprazole):
I was prescribed Abilify with a starting dose of 2mg. There is a black box warning regarding suicidality in children and young adults emphasizes that this medicine is not approved to treat mood disorders in children. The medication didn't really do much for me so it was upped to 4mg. I began to experience dizziness upon standing and generally feeling poorly around the third or fourth dose. I was told to wait it out in hopes that it was just temporary, but the sickness did not abate and I was taken off Abilify.

Zyprexa (Olanzapine):
I was prescribed Zyprexa with a starting dose of 5mg that was eventually upped to 15mg. I had no problems with the medication as far as side-effects interfering with my daily life. One thing is for certain though, when I was taking it, I was always very hungry. I have never been a big eater, and I often forget to eat (i rarely get hungry enough that I eat on my own without prompting) and once I do begin to eat, I can only eat a little before I become full. On the Zyprexa I gained 14 lbs in as many days. In my case, it was good that i was gaining weight, but because of the speed at which i was putting on weight, my psychiatrist thought we should try something else. My dose was slowly 'stepped down' from 15mg to 0mg over the course of 3 weeks while I was taking the next medication.

Geodon (ziprasidone):
I was only on Geodon for a short amount of time, and for me, it was terrible. One of the rarer side-effects, akathisia, was very annoying and in some cases painful. For me, it meant I felt like i had to keep moving all the time. When I was standing i would march in place, when i was laying down I would sort of bounce on my side (from bending and unbending my legs) and I couldn't sit still, I had to keep tapping my feet and so on. My original dose was 20mg, then moved to 40mg, and that's when the trouble really started. The akathisia became much worse, and I began to hear a voice narrating what I was doing as I was doing it. When I wasn't doing anything, the voice would just count. It was not a voice I had ever hallucinated before, and it was a man's voice that I found highly disturbing.

All in all, for me, the best anti-psychotic so far has been Seroquel, even though the dosage is fairly high I would say that I hardly hallucinate or suffer from delusions anymore and now that I have gained some weight (thanks to the Zyprexa, I have lost a few pounds since my huge gain, but for the most part I'm healthier) I don't have the ill side effects. If you are taking an anti-psychotic and suffering from ill-effects and are underweight, you might ask to be given something to increase appetite to help you put on a few pounds. In my case the extra weight has made a huge difference, though this might not be the case for others.

Also, I am on an anti-depressant (20mg Lexapro) that may have had something to do with the way the anti-psychotics worked for me. As far as I can tell from the Lexapro, the only side-effect it had on me was cottonmouth for the first few weeks.

Very interesting and thank you for sharing. Only have two questions.
1)While on abilfy, did you still have hallucinations?
2) Did you try these medications one by one or all together?