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In defense of my HMO dragging their feet on filling Clonazepam (can take up to two weeks to mail it out to me), my psych doc upped my dosage so I can stockpile them until I get my order delivered. The minute he increased the dose, my HMO pharmacist had him on the phone berating him for increasing the dose. The dose is now for 60 tablets in one month which I don't think is too high, that's 60 tablets of .5mg. He was pissed he got that phone call. Anything my HMO can do to screw up my mood medications, they will. My HMO restricted the frequency of refills to once every 30 days, so I can now longer get a 30/60/90 day supply anymore. So, to combat this, my psych doc increased the number of pills per prescription to prevent me from going thru withdrawals, which I have been going thru once a month. I have to say benzo withdrawals are wicked. I have to write up the mailorder pharmacy once a month for all their "delays" and misplacing my psych prescriptions, which I am sure at this point is on purpose. Medicare is partly to blame due to the opioid crisis. I appreciate my psych doc and all he puts up with, with my HMO. I am trying to get away from my HMO during open enrollment.

Hi I have bipolar and have been on Latuda for 2 and a half months and am on 60mg. I had my first panic attack on 40mg and it’s only gotten worse . I used to think my panic attacks were triggered by sleep but now after learning about akathisia, I realize I most likely have that because I’m restless and have tremors and want it to end so badly. I’m in Canada so I could go to the emerg but the likelyhood of me seeing a pdoc is low and my appointment with my appointed pdoc is in ten days. I started to go back down on 40mg and today tried to take it in the day but the irritation is horrible and I don’t know if I can function at work with it. Its worth noting that I was doing okay on Epival and they took me off it but things wnt to shit. Now I’m back on it and so I will have a mood stabilizer to help me if I get off the Latuda. Anywyas i I hope this makes sense. My brain is kind of everywhere. I wanna know what the side effects will be and I suppose some reassurance? I’m not sure. Thank you for anyone who contributes.

I've been on a course of Luvox, Klonopin, and Lamictal since 2009 for the treatment of a very rare Dissociative Condition (Chronic Depersonalization and Derealization) I "inherited" in 2008 (due to Zyprexa withdrawals and medication mismanagement by my Psychiatrist at that time). Since that time I've been very lucky to get the proper diagnosis and receive treatment that is in tune with the University of London Depersonalization Research Institute and have had some very good Psychiatrists and Neurologists work with me. However, now in 2016 I've tried to improve my quality of life and productivity by adding "stimulants" to my regimen to help me be more productive and less sedentary all of the time. This is also in line with some Dr.'s thought on Chronic Depersonalization (Such as Dr. Alan Torch in the book "Feeling Unreal" - as he finds it helps "lift" people who suffer from Dissociation out of that state and closer to reality - along with the SSRI and Klonopin - which is a staple in treating Depersonalization). I tried Adderal - which was great - but exacerbated my facial pain syndrome (another condition I have) - so I had to discontinue. I tried Ritalin - which was GREAT - it helped with my depression, ruminations, and my productivity - however it too exacerbated my facial pain - so I had to discontinue. I met with my Pdoc following this and was very distraught - as these medications were helping me reach my full potential. So I asked if i should lower my Luvox. I currently take 150mg (50mg 3x daily) - to see if that would help with the sedation and apathy I experience (after being on Ritalin it was easy to see how sedentary and apathetic I really am) - we also discussed the addition of Strattera - given it is a stimulant but won't stimulate the central nervous system so it likely won't exacerbate my existing facial pain. The plan we came up with was to lower my Luvox by 50mg - skip the afternoon dose - so I would continue with my 50mg in the morning and 50mg at night. I was to do this for a week and THEN (if no problems were present from missing this dose) begin the Straterra. I skipped the Luvox afternoon dose as planned - and for the week I was "okay" other than a few days I didn't have any excessive ruminations or songs playing in my head or depersonalization like symptoms. Then I introduced Strattera at 18mg. After 2 days I stopped - It caused me to depersonalize more and additionally it caused EXCESSIVE ruminations - songs playing in my head, words repeating themselves when I'm watching TV, before I say something in person I'd say it in my head, and so on. It also made me feel "weird". It has now been 2 days since stopping the Strattera and I am still experiecing these symptoms and more - although I can focus and I do have similar symptoms like this from time to time (when my depersonalization is really bad) I've never had it be this consistent (although I'm not full blown depersonalized which I know all too well - its a horrible horrible thing to lose your sense of self - this is something different - although since I'm stuck in my head partially there is an extent of depersonalization and derealization involved). I'm also experiencing dizziness, anxiety, and I can't stop these ruminations. My questions are - 1) Could this be the Luvox withdrawal? Despite feeling "okay" during the first week - is it possible that it took a week or so for the withdrawal affects to kick in? From what I've read Luvox should be titrated very very slowly - not at a drop of 50mg but from 10% of what your dose is - over a longer period. My Psychiatrist is quite good so I'm quite alarmed at this advice. 2) Since I introduced Strattera which seems to have exacerbated and/or caused this - could it be the Strattera? And if so, why is it still continuing when Strattera has such a short half life? It should be out of my system by now! I only have 2 options - wait this out and see what happens - perhaps the Strattera is still playing havoc in my head - whether its in the system or not - but perhaps its exacerbated my existing ruminations that were well..."at bay". Otherwise, my 2nd option is to reintroduce the Luvox 2nd dose and see what happens. I would have been down to 100mg for 9 days. Had I not introduced the Strattera after only a week of lowering my Luvox dose it wold have been easy to see that the lowering of my Luvox is causing this and I would have just gone back to my regular dose. However Strattera was what really exacerbated or caused this - so I'm not sure what to do - Any advice would be appreciated! Thru my research I’ve found that Strattera can cause “mania” in some patients which it seems what I am experiencing – along with the other symptoms I’ve mentioned above. So I’m not sure what to do. Its almost afternoon and I'm REALLY considering just taking the Luvox afternoon dose (going back to my regular dose 9 days ago) just to see if it helps. I figure worst case is I'm going to be dependent on the medication for this kind of thing but if it helps and gets me back to where I was PRIOR to this - then I can live with that. But I can't continue like this! And then, if it does work - in the future I can plan a LONG LONG titration of Luvox (I'd like to go down by 50mg, but I sure as hell won't be going down 50mg like I did) I'd go down very slowly on my afternoon dose. So is it the Strattera or the Luvox? And if I introduce the Luvox (even though I was okay during that first week and before introducing the Strattera) how much harm would I be doing? I've been on that dose for over 3 years so I figure It could at least provide me some relief. I feel like the affects the Strattera brought on aren't getting better but getting worse - so perhaps its a combination of withdrawals from both drugs? Not sure. Please help. Really suffering right now guys.

I recently started reporting to someone new at work and I got in trouble for coming in late too often. My previous manager and I had a system of communication and she knew the severity of my conditions and was ok as long as I kept her informed, which I always did. Geodon is all that keeps me out of in-patient but it makes me CRAZY drugged-feeling unpredictably in the mornings no matter what time I take it or what my dosage is. I feel like I've tried every combination possible. It doesn't happen every day and I've tried really looking at other factors to try and isolate why it happens when it does but it's been this way for years and I can't predict it. So I'm doing a relatively fast taper off Geodon to not be late to work and in that regard it's worked - I'm not sleeping much so I've been early to work all week, but I'm a mess and feel like I need to be in-patient already. I'm so paranoid, I have tremors, I'm cycling between hot and cold, and did I mention SO paranoid? :( My anxiety is through the roof and I don't even feel like I can do my job right now even though I haven't missed any deadlines. I'm having those feelings like everyone/thing is out to get me and I'm one second away from being fired no matter what I say or do. I talked to HR and they've told me we'll have a meeting on Monday but everyone's out of town tomorrow for a company-wide event. They said in the meantime not to worry about it. I'm crying in my cubicle writing this. I'm waiting for my doctor to call me back but I can't leave for an emergency appointment and I can't take anything that makes me sleepy. I'm not covered yet by FMLA because I've only been here 6 months. I like it here, I'm good at my job, etc. but I feel like I'm under a cloud of horrific panic/anxiety and I can't distract myself. Has anyone else had to go through this? My worst fear is this going on for a long time, I've been back on the drug for a while. I feel sick to my stomach and I'm just faking being ok.

I have read many forums looking for the answer to this question. I’m feeling like I’m heading into a tailspin. My story: Until June 2014, I was on 120mg Cymbalta, for two years. Additionally, I was on 5mg Abilify. I have discontinued that. The side effects were obvious. I really feel foolish that I did not associate my miserable physical symptoms with Cymbalta. I take so many drugs. It’s hard to nail down the cause of the worst symptoms. After reading all the forums here and at other sites, it dawned on me…Its gotta be the Cymbalta! I read about the difficulties of tapering Cymbalta and am really scared what the next year has in store for me. Cymbalta has already ruined 2 years of my life. I’ve calculated that it will be close to another year before I’m done tapering. NOW TO MY POINT: My doctor first instructed me to start tapering 30mg. I did not last a day. I was so messed up and in dark places; I was scared I really might hurt myself. I gave in and took the 30mg I’d stopped and was back to 120mg per day again. That was in May 2014. My doctor was surprised I had such a bad withdrawal experience!! So I came up with a schedule to taper 10mg every 30 days or until I feel stabilized on the lowered dose. I have attached the excel worksheet. Box 1 and 2 are percentage calculations. Box 3 is the dosage combination. Box 4 is meaningless to anyone, its just my pill count. My doctor was very cooperative and wrote the prescriptions I needed. I would need to do 10mg per month. In June 2014, I bought a mini scale from Amazon to measure the beads. Well that did not go well, at all! I simply don’t have the patience to take the capsules apart and separate the beads into smaller doses. Those little beads have a life of their own. I followed all the instructions I’ve read on removing the beads. What a nightmare. I read a lot of recommendations to by reduce 10%, but that’s back to bead counting. That’s when I came up with my method. Now I’ll get to the my biggest concern mentioned in my topic! Since I have trouble with the bead counting, I asked my doctor about using Prozac while I taper down. NOW, MY MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION HERE IS THIS. I am using 30mg Prozac now. Does anyone know the proper dosage of Prozac to use as I taper down each month? I know most of you believe in 10% at a time rather than 10mg at a time. I believe that there must be a proportion of Prozac to Cymbalta to use as I taper. There are so much success stories of using Prozac to supplement the Cymbalta tapering but nowhere, from what I researched, has ever explained how to do it properly. Can anyone help me out here? I am down 30mg, 90mg total from my 120mg starting point. For the 10% taper believers, I am still within the 10% tapering range. What I am getting anxious about is, as I continue 10mg a month, is how much more Prozac will need. I am on 30mg Prozac now, along with 90mg Cymbalta. Will I need more? It sucks I can’t rely on my doctor’s advise. After all, he did not understand why I failed 30mg at the beginning and the Prozac idea was my idea that I learned about from withdrawal forums. Can anyone help me? Thanks for reading my story. I wish everyone well that is suffering withdrawals as I am. I feel like a prisoner and an addict. I just want this stuff out of my system. Cheers everyone!

Hello I am beginning this journey to find my own chemistry. For one year I have been on Xyprexa and Lithium. I have been depressed, afraid of life, uninterested in the things I love, anti social. Every time I thought that maybe the medication was making me feel this way and I attempted to wean off the withdrawals were too hard for me to take. So, they gave me an antidepressant. Then I gained the strength to withdrawal slowly from olanzapine. It was a hard 2 weeks. I am sleeping now but I am really sad and feel a bit brain dead. I keep asking myself, "is this me or the withdrawal"? I know with the number of meds I am on this could take some time. But, has anyone felt extremely sad during withdrawals? I see lots of anxiety but not so much sadness. I would love to hear from people who have thoughts and ideas.