I was diagnosed w/ sz and now i only hav a slight mentall illness. I take 20 mg. Zyprexa and 20mg. Lexapro. I was suffering from Meth phychosis and I was perscribed 1.5mg of risperdol. I took it for 3 months then I started felling terrable so i upped my risperdol and i felt extreamly suicidal. I then figured that the risperdol was the problem due to my symtoms worsening after I increased my dosage. I stoped taking Risperdol and in a few days I was back to my own self. After that very very painful experiance, I forgot to take my lexapro and lexapro flushes out quikly and i felt fine. I then stop taking my zyprexa and 9 days later the zyprexa was out of my system and I wasnt in any pain but I felt a little unease. Wanting to go to sleep that night I took my meds. The lexapro gave me physical withdrawals so I took it again in a week. Before I ever took Risperdol I would be very suicidal if I got off any of my meds. Could the painful experiance of taking risperdol after it took away my meth pyshcosis, parcialy healed me?
Q: Can I be cured of sz?
Hello crazy C,
To be well you will have to take the medication every day as prescribed. If you stop taking the meds your brain will revert back to chaos. The brain of someone with schizophrenia rarely if ever rights itself on its own. The medication can bring you back to life quicker than if you tried for five or ten years to do it by yourself. Nobody should have to wait five years to see relief from their symptoms. And the longer you stay off your meds, you will eventually cross over the line where you cannot tell reality from fiction, and you will revert to believing your delusions and become actively paranoid.
I tell people that the atypical schizophrenia drug I'm on is as close to a cure as I'll ever get. I can hold down a challenging job that I like going to every day and I can have friendships and romantic partners and achieve the goals I set for myself.
Given that this is possible because of the medication, the alternative is surely no option.
Regards,
Christina
It is widely believed that there is no cure for sz. The medication will take you on a ride and the body is constantly trying to stabilize itself so it is kind of hard to know if you have achieved equilibrium of some kind. The only way to really know for sure is after many years like five to ten years. If you have not had a reoccurrence in ten to twenty years, it is safe to say that you have been cured. I know there are cases of people who have been symptom free for over twenty years but there are not that many people like that. I would like to see more people become symptom free. You can't go wrong if you are always trying to do the right thing. Eat right, sleep right, work hard, play hard, relax and above all, know and speak the truth. It will make all the difference in the world.
From all the information I have gained from my doctor, friends, books, and this site I believe I can safely say that very, very few people are ever cured of sz. It is true that many times, after 10 yrs or so, medication can be reduced. I have been taking 20-40 mg of Zyprexa for most of the last 12 years. I have tried reducing the dose to 10 mg and eventually found that was not adequate and had to increase it to 20 again. My psychiatrist said that apparently I was one of those people with chronic schizophrenia who will always have to take a higher dose. Now, I have akisthesia (very restless) as a side effect of taking it for so long and am taking more meds for that.
The great thing is, after I stayed on the medication as prescribed (I had a long history of adjusting the dose on my own) I began to recover. Now I am living independently and am doing some volunteer work and feel quite well. By the way, early on, I tried to commit suicide 3 times by overdose, and was unsuccessful. I could see no way out of my predicament. So I know what that feels like. I advise you, though, to hang in there and take the medications for a while and give yourself a chance to recover.
Carolyn
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Thanks for your reply. I know not to be off my meds but I think, god forbide, I could make it a day or so after the meds have flushed out. The thing that gets me is that the walls dont close in on me like before. For the last 5 years ive gotten off my meds 2wice and when the Zyprexa was out of my system I rushed up stairs and chewed 2 20mgs of zyprexa, layed down and counted to 10 hundreds of times, occasionaly contimplating suicide. I told myself if i wouldint of pass out in an hour and a half, I was going to stick a knife in my neck. SERIOUS, crazy huh? But a month or so ago it was different, my mind was calm. I was balancing to not have to many thoughts, I was afraid of having the old off med feeling, but it wasnt there, I could have made it, it was so crazy, I was happy. but at the end of the day I wasnt tired so I took the meds. I was happy for myself. Im petty sure now I have everything exept schizophrenia mood-disorder, bipolar, anxiety and depression. My parents notice the difference in me and so do I. I dont think that ill try risperdol anytime soon to try to be better (to painful) PAIN, I equate it to dying every 15 seconds, but i had hope, cause I knew why I was experiancing what I was going threw, I knew no matter what the risperdol would flush out and things were going to go back to the way they were.