Schizophrenics going off meds and doing okay

There is a lot to unpack in the following quote. For starters, I wonder how many of the patients who "immediately relapsed" after quitting antipsychotic meds were really just experiencing horrific withdrawal symptoms and if they had made it through the sometimes long and torturous withdrawal period if they could have added to the significant number of schizophrenics who did fine without their meds. And also, notice the ones who did the worst were the ones who were hospitalized for a much longer time. I remember those horrible experiences in the local hospital psych ward. If a person didn't already have mental problems before going into one of those places, they would when they got out. Even the psych ward for adolescents really sucked, but the one for adults was among the very worst experiences of my entire life so far.


Quote: "The data indicate that after the acute phase certain
specific subgroups of patients with schizophrenia have an
increased probability of going off antipsychotics for pro-
longed periods and opting out of the mental health care-
giving system and indicate the characteristics of this partic-
ular subgroup are. Posthospital treatment is important for
most patients with schizophrenia. The controlled trials data
on clinic populations of patients suggest that among the
patients with schizophrenia who stay in clinic treatment
settings for years after the acute phase there is increased risk
of relapse when going off antipsychotics. However, the cur-
rent data suggest that for the select subgroup of patients with
schizophrenia who are not in clinic settings, who have gone
off antipsychotics and did not immediately relapse, and
stayed off them for a period of time, a surprising number
experienced periods of recovery and continued to function
well for a considerable period without antipsychotics.
Clearly, the present longitudinal data suggest that not all
patients with schizophrenia need to use antipsychotic medi-
cations continuously throughout their lives."

There are a number of links to information about schizophrenics surviving without the nasty horrible side effect ridden meds here...

http://psychrights.org/Research/Digest/ ... ective.htm

Forgot to add this link

Factors Involved in Outcome and Recovery in
Schizophrenia Patients Not on Antipsychotic Medications:
A 15-Year Multifollow-Up Study
Martin Harrow, PhD, and Thomas H. Jobe, MD

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17502806

pdf available here.... http://psychrights.org/Research/Digest/ ... actors.pdf

with old conventional antipsycotics side effects could be torture.
however, the newer atypical antipsychotics are confortable.
problem with atypicals is weight gain not for everyone.
for example zyprexa could be a perfect drug if it did not cause weight gain.
zyprexa is a very tolerable med. it is good for depression, too.
however, zyprexa is the champion of weight gainers.

neyzen wrote:with old conventional antipsycotics side effects could be torture.
however, the newer atypical antipsychotics are confortable.
problem with atypicals is weight gain not for everyone.
for example zyprexa could be a perfect drug if it did not cause weight gain.
zyprexa is a very tolerable med. it is good for depression, too.
however, zyprexa is the champion of weight gainers.

Quote: "The incidence and severity of extrapyramidal syndrome differ amongst these antipsychotics, but the fact is that these drugs have not lived up to the expectation regarding their tolerability."
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2014/656370/

Here are videos of just how comfy the newer antipsychotics make people feel:
anti-psych/topic196511.html

Hmmm... that's what they keep telling us, that the newer atypical antipsychotics are so much better than the older generation of antipsychotics, but if you looked at the videos I posted on here under the heading AKATHISIA and TARDIVE DYSKINESIA, you would notice that the newer atypical antipsychotics cause just about as much uncomfortable feelings and torture as the old ones, and with a nice twist, the newer ones are much more likely to give you diabetes and cardiovascular disease and cause you to die about 25 years earlier than most people.

I was on Geodon, a newer atypical antipsychotic, and I developed both akathisia and tardive dyskinesia.

You seem to think that Zyprexa is wonderful. This guy doesn't seem to think so...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cca-4GJEGiY

In Norway and Finland they are trying a drug-free approach with psychotic patients.

Only time will tell if it succeeds or not, but if it does, perhaps someday, America will give it a try...

https://www.madinamerica.com/2017/03/th ... ent-111974

And I found it interesting that in Alzheimer's wards were patients often experience hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms, and because they are usually elderly and neuroleptics have proven themselves to be quite deadly with that age group (think about that fact for a moment and think about how damaging these drugs are to people's physical health), they've had to come up with non-medical ways of dealing with their agitation and sometimes violent outbursts. There are non-drug alternatives out there, it is just so much easier to use a neuroleptic chemical straight jacket on unruly people.

Zyprexa withdrawal gave all the symptoms of schizoaffective disorder a condition I did not have before, that's what the hospital labeled me after I went there sick nausea vomiting insomnia panic attacks delusions the hell psychosis coming off it.

If it can cause those symptoms in a person that did not have them before who is anyone to say when going of it its not withdrawal but the "illness" returning ?

I was like a damn test subject to confirm that one along with all the other people who wrote about the Zyprexa sickness online forcing those soulless crooks to admit the withdrawal even happens.

Copy_Cat wrote:Zyprexa withdrawal gave all the symptoms of schizoaffective disorder a condition I did not have before, that's what the hospital labeled me after I went there sick nausea vomiting insomnia panic attacks delusions the hell psychosis coming off it.

If it can cause those symptoms in a person that did not have them before who is anyone to say when going of it its not withdrawal but the "illness" returning ?

I was like a damn test subject to confirm that one along with all the other people who wrote about the Zyprexa sickness online forcing those soulless crooks to admit the withdrawal even happens.

That's exactly what they said when I started experiencing withdrawal symptoms from going off Geodon. They said it was evidence that full blown schizophrenia was returning and that it proved I needed to stay on the meds for the rest of my life. Fortunately I had the internet to look up information about withdrawing from Geodon and my symptoms matched theirs exactly. For a ong time I thought they were simply ignorant about withdrawal symptoms, but now I think they do know about them and they use them to try keep patients from straying. They know the withdrawals are so bad, most patients will go back on antipsychotics voluntarily to stop the withdrawals. And they can point to the withdrawals and say "see? your schizophrenia is getting worse, you need a higher dose now."

As far as our physical health, I don't think psychiatrists care about it. If we die early, so what? That's how I think they feel about us.

I think in their minds their main duty is to protect the public from the "crazies" but what they don't seem to take into account is that both antipsychotics and antidepressants cause akathisia which in some people might actually cause them to become MORE aggressive, iritated, and violent. So in a lot of cases it might be having the opposite effect they were hoping it would have.

Good old akathesia they seem not to give a crap and only gave me meds to counteract the med that was giving me issues in the first place, and only after it got so bad I couldn't even sleep! My metabolism has always been low and I gain weight easily already, on their med I gained 20 pounds in a month! Abilify, allegedly is weight neutral. How do I say this politely, my fat derrière!

It's been insanely hard to get the weight off. No way in hell am I blowing up like a ballon and getting diabetes which already runs in the family! Like I'll enjoy sanity when I'm dead.

Elizabeth22 wrote:Good old akathesia they seem not to give a crap and only gave me meds to counteract the med that was giving me issues in the first place, and only after it got so bad I couldn't even sleep! My metabolism has always been low and I gain weight easily already, on their med I gained 20 pounds in a month! Abilify, allegedly is weight neutral. How do I say this politely, my fat derrière!

It's been insanely hard to get the weight off. No way in hell am I blowing up like a ballon and getting diabetes which already runs in the family! Like I'll enjoy sanity when I'm dead.

Really good point. How does it help a psychotic patient to add weight gain, diabetes, and akathisia to their already long list of problems? And sadly, they really don't care if we die early and if our lives become an absolute nightmare from akathisia and tardive dyskinesia.

Too many people make the mistake of thinking they are on our side and only trying to help us. Until recently I felt that they were mostly ignorant of the side effects and withdrawal symptoms, but then it dawned on me that I was able to easily find the information with a google search. They already know all about the side effects. They know what these drugs are doing to us, and they prescribe them anyways, and then lie to us about them and don't warn us about the nasty side effects and monsterous withdrawals.

The only solution is to stay as far away from psychiatrists, psychologists, and the emergency room as possible.

epthe wrote:

Elizabeth22 wrote:Good old akathesia they seem not to give a crap and only gave me meds to counteract the med that was giving me issues in the first place, and only after it got so bad I couldn't even sleep! My metabolism has always been low and I gain weight easily already, on their med I gained 20 pounds in a month! Abilify, allegedly is weight neutral. How do I say this politely, my fat derrière!

It's been insanely hard to get the weight off. No way in hell am I blowing up like a ballon and getting diabetes which already runs in the family! Like I'll enjoy sanity when I'm dead.

Really good point. How does it help a psychotic patient to add weight gain, diabetes, and akathisia to their already long list of problems? And sadly, they really don't care if we die early and if our lives become an absolute nightmare from akathisia and tardive dyskinesia.

Too many people make the mistake of thinking they are on our side and only trying to help us. Until recently I felt that they were mostly ignorant of the side effects and withdrawal symptoms, but then it dawned on me that I was able to easily find the information with a google search. They already know all about the side effects. They know what these drugs are doing to us, and they prescribe them anyways, and then lie to us about them and don't warn us about the nasty side effects and monsterous withdrawals.

The only solution is to stay as far away from psychiatrists, psychologists, and the emergency room as possible.

I completely agree.
I'd call them criminals,but they are allowed to do what they do.No matter what happens to the patients(even suicide or homicide).
It's scary.