antipsychotic "poop out"

[Überpolarbear]

hi.

i've taken all of the atypicals (but geodon, including clozapine) and a low dose of a typical (flupentixol).

i'm supposedly schizoaffective and I can understand the doc who sais I am but i'm not really sure as i dont have the classical signs of schizophrenia (hallus, dellusions, thought disorder etc.)

the only sign that could be looked at as a psychotic sign is a hellish sort of undescribable dissociative symptom ehm... let me try to explain. it can be described as derealization. or a sort of deja vu that wont go away and is there all the time. basicly i dont feel where i am. i'm on the street but feel like i'm somewhere else but most of the time i have the feeling that i'm not anywhere at all.

out of all the antipsychotics, only risperdal and zyprexa did at least something (as opposed to abilify and seroquel which sent me to ER due to agitation and made me actually hear voices, respectively)

risperdal at 1mg made me symptom free for one week or two and then started to make me feel worse. so i stopped. a year later i recieved 2mg a day and it didnt do shit (actually it did. it made me feel even worse and made my mood cycle really badly)

later, i recieved zyprexa 5mg as emergency med and it worked instantly, making me feel where i actually am which lead me to asking my new doc like months later to prescribe me some. again, it worked for some weeks but then it stopped working (well i'm still taking it and it's quite good for agitation, but the dissociative symptoms are totally back.)

my questions are:

does this happen frequently? if yes in what cases? (bipolar or schizophrenia?) my doc sais normally it's the other way around. which means people with schizophrenia need to take the med for weeks before it begins to work. for me it works instantly and then stops working suddenly (and doesnt work again when i take them after a long break. are these meds damaging me or changing something in my brain?)

why dont the other meds work? clozapine for example? it's supposedly much stronger than zyprexa and risperdal.

what sort of relief am i getting from these meds? antimanic sort of relief or antipsychotic sort of relief?

cheerz

polar bear

[Generica]

Hi Uberpolarbear, I just saw this unanswered thread, and while I might not have a complete answer I thought I'd jump in...

I took Seroquel as an antimanic & I guess for it's antipsychotic properties as well given that I was also kinda delusional.... It worked great for a few weeks then pooped out on me. I was on what was meant to be a pretty effective dose so my pdoc did not think raising the dose would help; we're actually lowering it now with an aim to get me off it.... and on to... who knows at this stage (I am on a mood stabilizer as well). It may have still had some effectiveness because when I lowered it I felt worse... that could have been a rebound effect though.

The effect we should be getting from these meds is either and/or both antimanic or antipsychotic, depending on what we need & depending on if they're the right med for us. Thorazine actually worked well for me at one stage but a new pdoc quickly took me off it as he was against the old-schools, I was glad anyway because of the whole TD risk.

I don't know the answers to your other questions but I do know - yes, antipsychotics can poop out. And I know other bipolar & schizophrenic people that have had this happen too.

Good luck with the next step & I hope you're feeling OK.