How I quit Risperidone / Risperdal

[Ali Khan]

*Disclaimer: I am not here to provide professional diagnosis, opinion, treatment or services to any individual. I am just providing my own experience for educational purposes only. This is not a substitute for medical or professional care, and you should not use the information in place of a visit, call consultation or the advice of your physician or other healthcare provider. IF YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY, YOU SHOULD IMMEDIATELY CALL 911 OR YOUR PHYSICIAN. 

My Method

1. Began taking time release 5-htp (you can find Natrol time release 5 htp 200mg on Amazon). Once in the morning and once in the evening. A side effect is possible GI (gut) disturbance (aka diarrhea). That never happened to me but I figured I would just take once before bed if that was the case. (see below for my reasoning)

2. Lowered my dose of risperidone from 3mg to 0.5mg. I went down 0.5mg every week. So week one I went down to 2.5mg, then the next 2mg then the next 1.5mg then 1mg the next and finally 0.5 mg. It's hard to actually do this but if one can crush it and weigh it that would be best but to tell you the truth I just eyeballed it and nibbled the tablet like a squirrel until I figured it was the right amount. Like you can break a 3mg into two 1.5's and a 1mg into two 0.5's. So yeah anyways hopefully you get the point. I got to 0.5mg and then I took 0.25mg every day for the last week and then stopped. I did have a night or two of restlessness and sweating profusely but I would just take a pinch of risperdone, almost like licking it or nibling an extremely small portion to the likes of 0.1mg. And then it all went away. I continued 5-HTP for the next month and then stopped. The 5-HTP saved my life because the withdrawals were nowhere close to as bad as they should have been. It even made me a lot happier than normal and I even lost a little weight because it makes you less hungry.

3. Ran for 5-10 mins preferably outside once a day. I didn't over do it or I wouldn't feel like doing it the next day. I couldn't run outside sometimes because of a heavy snowfall so I bought a jump rope from walmart and did it at home. (see my explanation below)

4. Ate a bag of crisp green garden salad, the crunchy type. At least once a day. (see my explanation below)

5. Took 1000IU Vitamin D every morning. Made sure it's an oil soft gel and not a tablet since it's a fat soluble vitamin and will be absorbed better. (see explanation below)

6. Changed my psychology. I can do everything for my body but I also needed my mind to be on the right track. Because when I put good stuff in my body good stuff started happening but I also needed to dump good thoughts in my head so good thoughts would come out. So I went on amazon and searched for self help books. Sometimes I would buy the book or I would get the audiobook if I just wanted to chill and listen but it helped me change the way I thought. I also used abebooks.com because they have super super cheap prices sometimes. 

7. Refrained from masturbation. (see below for explanation)

8. I ate good fats (it won't make you fat) and protein. I ate lot's of mixed nuts and avocado and drank almond milk with peanut butter (since I'm not allergic) for fats and protein bars and brown rice with lentil soup for protein. This gave me incredible energy and stamina.  

My Recovery

I did push ups every day and ate protein bars. Dr. Daniel Amen in his book Change your Brain Change your Life emphasizes the use of protein for brain recovery and I can attest to the miracles it has done for me. Since there are only three building blocks of humans which are carbs, proteins and fats I realized I was getting carbs but proteins and fats were lacking which are really important for brain function. I also drank a ton of water because that allows your body to rehydrate after the protein intake. I also put a small squeezed slice of a lemon (an actual lemon, not lemon juice) in the water. This is both slimming and allows you to drink a lot of water because it reduces stomach acid and thus heartburn so you don't feel like food is sitting in your esophagus.

Dr. John Ratey of Harvard wrote a book called Spark which emphasizes the importance of aerobic exercise aka running, which is why I try to run in the morning after breakfast or at least jump rope if there's snow outside. He says it is important to brain function, as well as new vessel formation within the brain and one interesting example he discussed was a school in Naperville who were required to do a short intense run first thing in the morning before beginning class and they ended up performing the best in the world on standardized testing, not just within the US, but compared to other nations as well. There are other variables at play of course but for the most part the school was considered average before beginning the program.

Dr. David Perlmutter in his book Brain Maker discusses our gut flora which is the bacteria inside our bodies. There are good ones and bad ones but the good ones grow and help us when we feed them. And the good ones eat fiber. You can take a probiotic but an even better way is with fresh produce. I personally have found that eating a bag of garden salad, the crunchy kind that comes with some carrots and cabbage is the best. (btw this is an amazing underground hangover cure) I feel rejuvinated and bowel movements are much better especially with the addition of bananas. Dr. Perlmutter estimates that about 90% of illness arises from the gut which is incredible. 90% of the time people have something wrong with them it's because they're not putting the right stuff in their tummy. He says that the bacteria actually "talk to us" by releasing chemicals in our gut that communicate with our vagus nerve and make us feel good if they are coming from good bacteria.

Lastly I take vitamin D 1000IU in the morning. I didn't notice it immediately but within a few days I did. I find this especially good in the winter since I tend to get more sad in the winter. Maybe it's seasonal affective disorder (SAD) maybe not but I know it helps a lot. It's very subtle but it works and there is a ginormous amount of evidence to back the supplementation of vitamin D.

Also there is a growing amount of evidence regarding the silent epidemic that is sweeping the world which is porn addiction. Scientifically speaking masturbation lowers testosterone (in men), lowers dopamine and basically slowly ruins your life. However real sex in moderation is good because you actually increase your testosterone unless you over do it to the point that you are tired. So when you climax you burn out your dopamine receptors similar to the way someone does when they smoke a lot of weed. In order to rebuild your dopamine receptors one must exercise (run) and refrain from masturbation. Also, when one climaxes watching porn they think that they are being rewarded with actual sex and the brain builds an actual pathway that says "if I go on the internet and do this this is good for me." You don't realize it but it's all happening subconsciously which is why many women and men wonder why and feel guilt once they've already done the deed. Refer to the book Your brain on porn for more details.

One more thing, sleep more than anything else is the most most most important thing. If there is a bright screen in front of ones face before bed or they've masturbated just before bed their whole sleep pattern is disturbed. I find chamomile tea helps but I need to research this more. I do know that otc sleep aids like diphenhydramine and doxylamine are horrible because they make you sleep longer but they kill your REM sleep which is the golden part of your sleep that makes you feel rested.

Anyways now I'm a third year medical student so I figure things are working for the better. One major thing I've learned is balance in that I used to think if I do a lot of one thing or ingest a lot of one thing all at once it will change me all of a sudden, which is not true, it just throws you out of balance. It's better in my opinion to do a little bit everyday of exercise for example so you still have energy the next day and the day after to do more exercise and to take a little bit of a supplement for example vitamin d so that you don't have side effects from long term use because your body is not chalk full of stuff when you wake up the next morning. 

My Background

I was diagnosed with marijuana-induced psychosis following approximately 10 years of smoking after college when I began to become extremely paranoid and began to have various visual and auditory hallucinations. My psychiatrist moved me up gradually to 3mg and I remained at this dose once before bed for about 5 years. I gained weight. I had a blunted affect (medical term for severe reduction in ability to show emotion on your face). When I looked at people I couldn't show the full range of emotions I had originally shown. I got man boobs (which a result of excess prolactin from the dopamine inhibition). I tried numerous times to quit with no luck at all. I would shake and sweat and the paranoia and worry and sadness would come back so I quickly returned to risperidone. I do have to say though that the one advantage was that I had a regular sleeping schedule because I knew the risperidone would knock me out within half an hour of taking it. I would wake up extremely late though and miss classes and my interaction with people was dismal. I burned out my dopamine receptors from smoking and then the risperdone shut down the whole dopamine system so I could recover but I also lost all motivation. Hence I researched and found out that risperdone mostly blocks your serotonin (5-HT) and dopamine (it's called a receptor antagonist). It also blocks your alpha receptors somewhat and has a minor effect on histamine receptors. But the most important in my scenario were the dopamine (aka motivation/drive) and serotonin (aka happiness). The worst thing about the withdrawals was that I felt sad and alone and anxious and it wouldn't go away so I reverted back to risperidone all over again. Thus I used 5-HTP which is basically serotonin in a pill. However the instant release is fast acting and can also cause much more GI (gut) disturbance so it's better to use time release so it slowly releases over the period of the day and night.

Edited September 5, 2016 by Ali Khan

[Flash]

I take 4 mg Risperdal right now, without much in the way of side effects. I feel a little drugged when I wake up, but that's it. It's definitely a minor side effect. Everyone will respond somewhat differently, of course. Reading posts like yours is not really helpful, especially when someone is in desperate need of a med that works. You might scare someone away from this med when it might be one of their few effective options.

Edited September 5, 2016 by Flash

[jt07]

You are telling people to get off Risperdal? How about helping people be med compliant rather than smearing a good med like Risperdal. I took Risperdal for major depression and it helped save me at a very low point in my life. I've been on Risperdal in doses ranging from 0.5 mg all the way up to 4 mg and have never had problems like you are describing.

Also, I find it more than a little odd that you claim to be a 3rd year medical student but had to do research to find out that Risperdal was a dopamine antagonist. Around here that is common knowledge. But it is through being a dopamine antagonist that it exerts its antipsychotic effect. You also display a rather simplistic view associating serotonin with happiness and dopamine with drive. It's not that simple. If it were that simple, it wouldn't be such a hard time finding a med that works. Finally, Risperdal's actions on serotonin is more nuanced than just acting as an antagonist. But you should know that as a 3rd year medical student.

[OliverB]

47 minutes ago, jt07 said:

But you should know that as a 3rd year medical student.

I won't be surprised if a medical student or even a physician doesn't know how meds works. If you want to know about meds you have to study pharmacy, not medicine. Specialized medical doctors only know how meds from their speciality work, but not about meds in general. Medicine is manly focused on diagnosis, and share treatment and prevention with pharmacy and nursing, they don't need to know in detail what and how the meds do what they do, that's pharmacist work, as well as even if pharmacist have some  knowledge about disease, they cannot diagnose you.

anyway, I agree the thread is not appropriate for this forum. also, you shouldn't give any kind of medical advice on a forum -or internet in general, or real life- if you are just a student, It's irresponsible. you are not a regular person giving an advice, you have more responsabilities since you are a medical student, or at least that's what I have been told at college -I study pharmacy-. If you want to give someone an advice it would be better if you avoid saying you are a medical student, saying it means having more responsabilities.

Oh god, I sound coherent, why do I only sound coherent when I talk about knowledge or academic stuff? lol

 

Just to add, I tried risperidona too, but I found it too sedating.

Edited September 4, 2016 by Bixo

[HumorousCrusty]

24 minutes ago, jt07 said:

 

You are telling people to get off Risperdal?

 

He's not telling people to get off Risperdal, he's writing a post explaining how he did it. If a pdoc decides that someone should get of Risperdal, or any drug, there's withdrawals you must know this. He has done nothing to "smear" the name of Risperdal he's only giving advice on a forum where people ask advice. Believe it or not but getting off medication sometimes is part of the recovery process 

 

27 minutes ago, jt07 said:

I've been on Risperdal in doses ranging from 0.5 mg all the way up to 4 mg and have never had problems like you are describing.

Don't project dude, YMMV is used all over this forum because it's true, your mileage may vary. Are you forgetting about that post "Need a miracle OR cautionary tale," here's someone going through extreme withdrawals on Risperdal " I'm totally disabled now. One day just blends into the next with zero relief.  The only thing I enjoy is sleep because I'm myself in my dreams.  My life was ruined because I had an opinion.  I was coerced and lied to so that I'd swallow the poison." 

It's funny that you don't say that's somebody smearing the name of a good medication yet when somebody comes on to a support forum and offers support for people who might be suffering from withdrawals, you freak out?

31 minutes ago, jt07 said:

Also, I find it more than a little odd that you claim to be a 3rd year medical student but had to do research to find out that Risperdal was a dopamine antagonist. Around here that is common knowledge. But it is through being a dopamine antagonist that it exerts its antipsychotic effect. You also display a rather simplistic view associating serotonin with happiness and dopamine with drive. It's not that simple. If it were that simple, it wouldn't be such a hard time finding a med that works. Finally, Risperdal's actions on serotonin is more nuanced than just acting as an antagonist. But you should know that as a 3rd year medical student.

This doesn't do anything to take away from the advice that this person has given. How Risperdal works isn't relevant because this OPs original discussion still stands, as how he effectively alleviated some of the withrawal symptoms of Risperdal. We can worry about his explanation later but for now he's giving advice that he has found to be helpful in actually treating his problem.

 

[jt07]

35 minutes ago, Humorouscrustacean said:

He's not telling people to get off Risperdal, he's writing a post explaining how he did it. If a pdoc decides that someone should get of Risperdal, or any drug, there's withdrawals you must know this. He has done nothing to "smear" the name of Risperdal he's only giving advice on a forum where people ask advice. Believe it or not but getting off medication sometimes is part of the recovery process 

 

Don't project dude, YMMV is used all over this forum because it's true, your mileage may vary. Are you forgetting about that post "Need a miracle OR cautionary tale," here's someone going through extreme withdrawals on Risperdal " I'm totally disabled now. One day just blends into the next with zero relief.  The only thing I enjoy is sleep because I'm myself in my dreams.  My life was ruined because I had an opinion.  I was coerced and lied to so that I'd swallow the poison." 

It's funny that you don't say that's somebody smearing the name of a good medication yet when somebody comes on to a support forum and offers support for people who might be suffering from withdrawals, you freak out?

This doesn't do anything to take away from the advice that this person has given. How Risperdal works isn't relevant because this OPs original discussion still stands, as how he effectively alleviated some of the withrawal symptoms of Risperdal. We can worry about his explanation later but for now he's giving advice that he has found to be helpful in actually treating his problem.

 

First of all, do not refer to me as dude. It's rude and off-putting.

Second of all, I stated my success with Risperdal as a counterexample not that everyone would have the same effect.

Thirdly, he brought up being a 3rd year medical student. I think it is very relevant that he would not know that it was an antagonist while claiming to be a medical student.

Finally, he is smearing the med by 1. Claiming that it is so difficult to get off that you have to follow his prescription. 2. Claiming that it adversely affected him in a way that went beyond side effects, namely the following:

2 hours ago, Ali Khan said:

 Hence I researched and found out that risperdone mostly blocks your serotonin (5-HT) and dopamine (it's called a receptor antagonist). It also blocks your alpha receptors somewhat and has a minor effect on histamine receptors. But the most important in my scenario were the dopamine (aka motivation/drive) and serotonin (aka happiness).

with the clear implication that if you take Risperdal, you will suffer problems with motivation/drive and happiness. Which is INCORRECT! 

Now just go away. It's not your battle to fight.

[Gearhead]

4 hours ago, Ali Khan said:

My Method

1. Began taking time release 5-htp (you can find Natrol time release 5 htp 200mg on Amazon). Once in the morning and once in the evening. A side effect is possible GI (gut) disturbance (aka diarrhea). That never happened to me but I figured I would just take once before bed if that was the case. (see below for my reasoning)

2. Lowered my dose of risperidone from 3mg to 0.5mg. I went down 0.5mg every week. So week one I went down to 2.5mg, then the next 2mg then the next 1.5mg then 1mg the next and finally 0.5 mg. It's hard to actually do this but if one can crush it and weigh it that would be best but to tell you the truth I just eyeballed it and nibbled the tablet like a squirrel until I figured it was the right amount. Like you can break a 3mg into two 1.5's and a 1mg into two 0.5's. So yeah anyways hopefully you get the point. I got to 0.5mg and then I took 0.25mg every day for the last week and then stopped. I did have a night or two of restlessness and sweating profusely but I would just take a pinch of risperdone, almost like licking it or nibling an extremely small portion to the likes of 0.1mg. And then it all went away. I continued 5-HTP for the next month and then stopped. The 5-HTP saved my life because the withdrawals were nowhere close to as bad as they should have been. It even made me a lot happier than normal and I even lost a little weight because it makes you less hungry.

 

 

Did you have a doctor's supervision while you were doing this? Because if you didn't, you're a moron, and you're coming perilously close to violating the med- and treatment-positive nature of this website by describing a method you used without any oversight.

 

4 hours ago, Ali Khan said:

6. Changed my psychology. I can do everything for my body but I also needed my mind to be on the right track. Because when I put good stuff in my body good stuff started happening but I also needed to dump good thoughts in my head so good thoughts would come out. So I went on amazon and searched for self help books. Sometimes I would buy the book or I would get the audiobook if I just wanted to chill and listen but it helped me change the way I thought. I also used abebooks.com because they have super super cheap prices sometimes.

Oh, so you told yourself not to be so depressed, and that worked? Lucky you.

There are a lot of people here who have been badly damaged by advice like "suck it up" and "you need to get out more" and "you need to stop feeling sorry for yourself." A lot of people who have been pressured and shamed into not taking medication they need to live better lives. A lot of people who are depresses, and to whom it is flat-out cruel to say "Just cheer up! Think happy thoughts!" Do not you dare start with that.

[Ali Khan]

I agree that my attributions to dopamine and serotonin are very simplistic. I was just trying to write something for people who are not well versed in the intricacies of various receptors and pathways and functions of these neurotransmitters. And I'm not telling people to get off Risperidone if they are fine on it. I just read a lot of posts throughout forums about how people are struggling getting off of it when and only when they want to. It saved my life too. But then it became debilitating. And that's when I wanted to get off of it. But it is extremely addictive and the current medically recognized method of quitting is by slowly tapering. I just found 5htp to be extremely helpful so I decided to share my experience. And I can see a lot of people who seem helpless so I thought I'd share my way. Maybe it was wrong but in my heart I really do think what I have written can help at least one person in need. 

 

Call me one you want. I've been there in the darkness crying and broken and you don't know what I've been through as I don't know what you've been through but I respect you and you deserve dignity without being viciously attacked. 

 

I'm not perfect. I'm still not perfect. I'm not a perfect being with all the answers. I am still struggling immensely every day but I do believe my method greatly lifted a massive burden from my life and helped me not just survive but prosper. And these are not new ideas by me they are from books from various respected scientists. I am a medical student but I also have an incredible amount to learn. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that. I just wanted to talk about my journey and what worked for me. 

[jt07]

5-htp is a supplement that can be dangerous depending on what other meds you are taking. As with all supplements, it should be run past your doctor before taking it.

Risperdal is not addicting. Please read up on the difference between addiction and dependence,

[HumorousCrusty]

He's just giving advice, there's no need to be so rude. I don't see how this has a problem being put on a board about antipsychotics. Like he said, there are a lot of people that post on this board about becoming dependent to Risperdal, he's just sharing his experience with the drug on a board that's meant for sharing experiences with drugs. He's just sharing his success story of overcoming the dependence of Risperdal on a board that's about sharing stories.

[Ali Khan]

2 hours ago, Humorouscrustacean said:

He's just giving advice, there's no need to be so rude. I don't see how this has a problem being put on a board about antipsychotics. Like he said, there are a lot of people that post on this board about becoming dependent to Risperdal, he's just sharing his experience with the drug on a board that's meant for sharing experiences with drugs. He's just sharing his success story of overcoming the dependence of Risperdal on a board that's about sharing stories.

Thank you

5 hours ago, jt07 said:

5-htp is a supplement that can be dangerous depending on what other meds you are taking. As with all supplements, it should be run past your doctor before taking it.

Risperdal is not addicting. Please read up on the difference between addiction and dependence,

Agreed. And yes I should have used the term dependent instead of addcitive. 

[Ali Khan]

6 hours ago, Gearhead said:

 

Did you have a doctor's supervision while you were doing this? Because if you didn't, you're a moron, and you're coming perilously close to violating the med- and treatment-positive nature of this website by describing a method you used without any oversight.

 

Oh, so you told yourself not to be so depressed, and that worked? Lucky you.

There are a lot of people here who have been badly damaged by advice like "suck it up" and "you need to get out more" and "you need to stop feeling sorry for yourself." A lot of people who have been pressured and shamed into not taking medication they need to live better lives. A lot of people who are depresses, and to whom it is flat-out cruel to say "Just cheer up! Think happy thoughts!" Do not you dare start with that.

I consulted various doctors who all followed the standard method of tapering which was next to impossible for me and is also evident from other peoples experiences if you search quitting risperidone on this and other forum websites. I took things into my own hands as have many people trying to find a solution to their problems when they've exhausted what they have thought are all of their available resources. 

And no I didn't tell myself not to be so depressed or to suck it up or to think happy thoughts or to just cheer up. I'm not saying that at all. I can understand your frustration but you must understand that I was trying to find a scientific basis for my actions if you read my original post carefully. I was not extremely specific because I was trying to make the post easy to understand but I've included the names of the books I referred to. Yet, it doesn't hurt to also read and listen and watch good things that make you think about what the author is thinking about so you occupy your conscious and unconscious mind with that type of thinking. That's just basic psychology but that's not even what I'm saying in it's entirety as you've asserted. 

And yes I'm not advocating quitting, or shaming, or pressuring anyone if Risperidone is helpful for them. It was helpful for me too but then I noticed my visual and auditory hallucinations had dissipated following 2 years of taking it and then I was just taking it for 3 more years because I couldn't stop and my doctor agreed I should quit hence the tapering method which did not work. So, following my regimen in my original post actually helped me dramatically. I just wanted to talk about my experience but it's almost laughable that I've received this kind of reaction because it's so sad.

[aquarian]

11 hours ago, Ali Khan said:

7. Refrained from masturbation. (see below for explanation)

 

11 hours ago, Ali Khan said:

Also there is a growing amount of evidence regarding the silent epidemic that is sweeping the world which is porn addiction. Scientifically speaking masturbation lowers testosterone (in men), lowers dopamine and basically slowly ruins your life. However real sex in moderation is good because you actually increase your testosterone unless you over do it to the point that you are tired. So when you climax you burn out your dopamine receptors similar to the way someone does when they smoke a lot of weed. In order to rebuild your dopamine receptors one must exercise (run) and refrain from masturbation. Also, when one climaxes watching porn they think that they are being rewarded with actual sex and the brain builds an actual pathway that says "if I go on the internet and do this this is good for me." You don't realize it but it's all happening subconsciously which is why many women and men wonder why and feel guilt once they've already done the deed. Refer to the book Your brain on porn for more details.

One more thing, sleep more than anything else is the most most most important thing. If there is a bright screen in front of ones face before bed or they've masturbated just before bed their whole sleep pattern is disturbed.

I kind of glanced over your original post earlier thinking it was the usual exercise, eat healthy, think positive thing and totally missed the masturbation mention. That's a new one for me. I think I need some peer-reviewed studies for that before I put an end to my (sometimes) daily bedtime masturbation ritual.

Anyways, since we're sharing our experiences here, I have observed (totally anecdotally) that I feel like I've gotten a better night's sleep after masturbating, but hey, what do I know? Maybe my dopamine receptors are in shambles as a result. FYI, yes I masturbate (when not in the pit of depression) and no, I'm personally not into porn and am not part of the "silent epidemic" (that I'm aware of).

FWIW, I enjoyed the book Spark. Another good one is The First 20 Minutes by Gretchen Reynolds. And although not totally along the same lines, The Power of Habit was a fun read.

[San]

Jesus Christ, not a single thing in that post is true.

But the bit on masturbation made my day.

[Ali Khan]

8 hours ago, aquarian said:

 

I kind of glanced over your original post earlier thinking it was the usual exercise, eat healthy, think positive thing and totally missed the masturbation mention. That's a new one for me. I think I need some peer-reviewed studies for that before I put an end to my (sometimes) daily bedtime masturbation ritual.

Anyways, since we're sharing our experiences here, I have observed (totally anecdotally) that I feel like I've gotten a better night's sleep after masturbating, but hey, what do I know? Maybe my dopamine receptors are in shambles as a result. FYI, yes I masturbate (when not in the pit of depression) and no, I'm personally not into porn and am not part of the "silent epidemic" (that I'm aware of).

FWIW, I enjoyed the book Spark. Another good one is The First 20 Minutes by Gretchen Reynolds. And although not totally along the same lines, The Power of Habit was a fun read.

Thanks, will check The First 20 Miutes out. I did get a chance to read The Power of Habit which was great  

Here are some studies I think you may be interested in:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4600144/

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.13315/full

http://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/6/3/17/htm

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763416302627

http://diyhpl.us/~bryan/papers2/paperbot/Brain Structure and Functional Connectivity Associated With Pornography Consumption: The Brain on Porn.pdf

http://www.akademiai.com/doi/pdf/10.1556/JBA.4.2015.Suppl.1

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00154/full

[Ali Khan]

9 hours ago, aquarian said:

 

I kind of glanced over your original post earlier thinking it was the usual exercise, eat healthy, think positive thing and totally missed the masturbation mention. That's a new one for me. I think I need some peer-reviewed studies for that before I put an end to my (sometimes) daily bedtime masturbation ritual.

Anyways, since we're sharing our experiences here, I have observed (totally anecdotally) that I feel like I've gotten a better night's sleep after masturbating, but hey, what do I know? Maybe my dopamine receptors are in shambles as a result. FYI, yes I masturbate (when not in the pit of depression) and no, I'm personally not into porn and am not part of the "silent epidemic" (that I'm aware of).

FWIW, I enjoyed the book Spark. Another good one is The First 20 Minutes by Gretchen Reynolds. And although not totally along the same lines, The Power of Habit was a fun read.

Oh and here are a couple studies on viewing screens before bed:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003687012001159

http://www.pnas.org/content/112/4/1232.full.pdf

 

[Ali Khan]

21 hours ago, jt07 said:

You are telling people to get off Risperdal? How about helping people be med compliant rather than smearing a good med like Risperdal. I took Risperdal for major depression and it helped save me at a very low point in my life. I've been on Risperdal in doses ranging from 0.5 mg all the way up to 4 mg and have never had problems like you are describing.

Also, I find it more than a little odd that you claim to be a 3rd year medical student but had to do research to find out that Risperdal was a dopamine antagonist. Around here that is common knowledge. But it is through being a dopamine antagonist that it exerts its antipsychotic effect. You also display a rather simplistic view associating serotonin with happiness and dopamine with drive. It's not that simple. If it were that simple, it wouldn't be such a hard time finding a med that works. Finally, Risperdal's actions on serotonin is more nuanced than just acting as an antagonist. But you should know that as a 3rd year medical student.

 

21 hours ago, Bixo said:

I won't be surprised if a medical student or even a physician doesn't know how meds works. If you want to know about meds you have to study pharmacy, not medicine. Specialized medical doctors only know how meds from their speciality work, but not about meds in general. Medicine is manly focused on diagnosis, and share treatment and prevention with pharmacy and nursing, they don't need to know in detail what and how the meds do what they do, that's pharmacist work, as well as even if pharmacist have some  knowledge about disease, they cannot diagnose you.

anyway, I agree the thread is not appropriate for this forum. also, you shouldn't give any kind of medical advice on a forum -or internet in general, or real life- if you are just a student, It's irresponsible. you are not a regular person giving an advice, you have more responsabilities since you are a medical student, or at least that's what I have been told at college -I study pharmacy-. If you want to give someone an advice it would be better if you avoid saying you are a medical student, saying it means having more responsabilities.

Oh god, I sound coherent, why do I only sound coherent when I talk about knowledge or academic stuff? lol

 

Just to add, I tried risperidona too, but I found it too sedating.

I quit risperdal prior to attending medical school which is how I discovered it was a dopamine antagonist. I didn't realize it was common knowledge here. And yes the drugs action is far more nuanced than I have said. I didn't talk about upregulation and downregulation and the various types of serotonin and dopamine and their various receptors and long term potentiation and all the other jargon that we use because I seriously thought I was talking to a different audience. So I'm sorry.

It worked for me though and I'm not saying anyone needs to do what I said. It's been a while since I was able to stop risperidone and I saw other posts about people struggling to get off of it when they really wanted to and were dependent and most importantly were not required by their physician to take it anymore. Not to mention the commercials on TV from various law firms suing the manufacturers of Risperdal because of so many cases gynecomastia. So I decided to share my story. 

Edited September 5, 2016 by Ali Khan

[jt07]

5 minutes ago, Ali Khan said:

Not to mention the commercials on TV from various law firms suing the manufacturers of Risperdal because of so many cases gynecomastia.

And you're not trying to smear Risperdal? Then why the need to bring this up. Law firms are hardly objective and they latch onto any side effect so they can sue even if that means advertising for people they don't have in order to sue.

[aquarian]

 

2 hours ago, Ali Khan said:

Thanks, will check The First 20 Miutes out. I did get a chance to read The Power of Habit which was great  

Here are some studies I think you may be interested in:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4600144/

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.13315/full

http://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/6/3/17/htm

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763416302627

http://diyhpl.us/~bryan/papers2/paperbot/Brain Structure and Functional Connectivity Associated With Pornography Consumption: The Brain on Porn.pdf

http://www.akademiai.com/doi/pdf/10.1556/JBA.4.2015.Suppl.1

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00154/full

First link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4600144/

Doesn't mention masturbation or climaxing (from what I can tell from my quick perusal). Doesn't appear relevant to my post and my request for sources confirming that masturbation and masturbation before bed is messing with my dopamine and to be avoided for my own good. Perhaps I could have been more clear in my request?

Second link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.13315/full

This one is just a published commentary on a full article. There's mention of compulsive sexual behavior (CSB), but the commentator remarks, "While CSB is typically excessive, excessive sex in itself is not necessarily problematic. Preoccupation with any behaviour in relation to addiction obviously needs to take into account the behavioural context, as this is more important in defining addictive behaviour than the amount of activity undertaken. As I have argued, the fundamental difference between healthy excessive enthusiasms and addictions is that healthy excessive enthusiasms add to life, whereas addictions take away from them [6]." So I'm not sure how that relates to someone such as myself who masturbates anywhere from once per day at most to once per week.

Ok, I'm giving you once last chance (3rd time's the charm?) with link #3: http://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/6/3/17/htm

This one seems to have to do with men who have issues with ED, low libido, etc. There's a decent abstract and the full article. From the abstract I can tell this doesn't apply to me as a woman with fairly normal libido, no erectile dysfunction other than the fact that as a woman, I lack a penis, and I don't view pornography (not to say I've never watched or looked at any porn but it's been pretty rare that I have).

But I'm still going to search for some sort of useful nugget. Apologizes for random quoting without context but I have other things to do today...(like masturbating!)

"Another 2015 study of men (average age 41.5) seeking treatment for hypersexuality, who masturbated (“typically with very frequent pornography use”) seven or more hours per week, found that 71% had sexual dysfunctions, with 33% reporting difficulty orgasming [30]."

Nope, still doesn't apply to me. 7 hours a week would mean several times a day for me. (TMI?) Plus, again with the pornography.

"In this regard, in order to assess patients correctly, it may be critical to distinguish pornography-free from pornography-assisted masturbation."

Ah, finally. So apparently their mostly finding problems associated with pornography-assisted masturbation. I guess I'm "safe" for now.

2 hours ago, Ali Khan said:

Oh and here are a couple studies on viewing screens before bed:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003687012001159

http://www.pnas.org/content/112/4/1232.full.pdf

 

Didn't bother viewing these links because I'm not sure what viewing screens before bed has to do with my post. Plus, I've heard all about "sleep hygiene" and screens before bed so that's not new for me.

To conclude, I'm glad you are able to locate peer-reviewed studies. However, you might want work on your ability to cite peer-reviewed studies that relate to my actual post. I understand, we all have lives outside of the internet (some of us are busy masturbating). But I think you could have put forth a little more effort and I'm a little sad I wasted some time (maybe 30 minutes?) this afternoon going through 3 of the sources only to determine they don't seem to apply to what I posted about.

Apologies if I was not clear in my prior post but I'm looking for peer-reviewed stuff regarding it being unhealthy to engage in masturbation before bed and/or unhealthy to engage in masturbation maybe once a day at most to once a week (usually without the aid of pornography in either screen or printed format). Also consider that this amount of masturbation (for me), doesn't feel like it impedes the rest of my life or like a compulsion.

Edited September 5, 2016 by aquarian
deleted double quote

[Ali Khan]

Good god. I'm out. Bye guys.