Feeling Dulled by Perscribed Medications

Hey Lains, I was debating on if this would go in the /hun board or here, but since it's more targeted towards a specific medication, I think it goes here. Just as a bit of background info, I take Seroquel (Quetiapine) for schizophrenia. While it does help with auditory and visual hallucinations, the antipsychotic muddies my mind, making my day dreary and contributing to my depression. I asked the psychiatrist, who then said that this was a normal response, and that the medication often has the effects of drowsiness and general inhibition of emotions. Honestly, I feel like a zombie on these medications. I already switched off of Abilify to Seroquel, but I'm not sure if I want to explore other options. Obviously, it wouldn't be a good idea to just stop taking the meds, but at this point I really am tempted. Does anyone have any similar experiences, or have any suggestions on a medication that I might try in place of Seroquel? Or better yet, advice on how to reduce the feeling of anhedonia and melancholy?

Some people can stop taking meds and be fine. It is *hard*. You need people who you love and trust who can provide you with constant structure and support, if you don't have that it's probably better to stay on meds until you do. Reducing the depression, I don't know... find ways to express yourself emotionally, maybe?

I have been studying alternative treatments to schizophrenia for a while now. Learned a fair amount. Antipsychotics can sometimes cause worse long term outcome. I think it's better to find out the possible triggers for your schizophrenia and treat those first unless you're so bad you need a quick bandage then do take an antipsychotic. It can be either caused by or worsened by insulin resistance, an autoimmune disorder, malnutrition, inflamation, environmental toxins, food allergens or brain damage.

I've used Seroquel before. When you stop taking it you will get extreme dizziness and lightheadedness. Also you won't be able to sleep until you are virtually a dying corpse. I was usually up for 30 hours at a time no matter how much I slept. It's not worth it if you are genuinely sick.

I take seroquel too. it's honestly kind of nice if you just want to be complacently entertained but yeah it does make me feel like I exist less. it probably sounds stupid but I think it blocks third eye chakra. when I'm off it I feel like I can see things and "feel" them, but when I'm on it it's just like I'm watching everything. it's good to dull you into not being a nuisance to society, as that's what it's made for, but once you're on it for long enough it gets creepy. like some authoritarian mind control drug to keep you from challenging the current societal model. I feel like I only take it half of the time anymore. I can barely stand to be on it a lot of the time; it's just too creepy. I'm trying to get off it soon.

>>3724 >>3719 i should be on quetiapine for bipolar disorder manic episodes. I felt absolutely the same as you guys. Then i stopped. There was a withdrawal. Then my emotions, a bit of my motivation and freedom of thought came back to me but also my mania. Sometimes i feel like it's so bad i should start to take the medicine again, then the next day i feel i'm able to cope with it and don't take that droid bullsoykaf. Also i was on escitalopram and paroxetine for bipolar disorder depressive episodes(life threatening with suicide attempt). The SSRIs were great for 3 months, then they faded into nothing but another dependence and a tool that supresses my emotions and freedom of tought and turn me into an indifferent ignorant droid. I stopped that too, even worse withdrawals, then my emotions and freedom of tought came back to me but also my depression. I feel the same, as with antipsychotic, sometimes i feel like it's so bad i should start to take the medicine again, then the next day i feel i'm able to cope with it and don't take that droid bullsoykaf. Now i started to live consciously, studying, learning, doing sport, reading, eating healthy, making plans, trying to go out to places with "normal" people hanging around, etc, but idk how long this will last because this is like the 1000th time i'm doing this and the longest lasting was 3 months, the average was 1 week. (now i'm at 2,5 weeks atm)

Drugs to dull your mind. They dumb you down. Stop you from seeing the truth. They make you a ghost. Not even a machine. Too groggy.

Try explaining to your psychiatrist the strong negative response your having and ask directly for alternatives.

>>3719 Ask your doctor about solian (amisulpride). I take it for psychotic depression and am tolerating it a lot better than seroquel and zyprexa, in fact I haven't really experienced any side effects at all by comparison but that might be due to my dose

The first time i got to use Quetiapine it was like that too but you (or on my case) get used to it until you don't feel like a zombie.

>>3731 Also because of this i stopped taking the meds and my mom too told me that i acted as a zombie.

>>3719 Why not ask the psychiatrist? My experience with quitting meds is one, the zombie feeling is usually just because your life was so fuarrrking wild before of course it feels dulled, and two, its better than being psychotic and depressed.

>>3719 I'm on seroquel for possible schizophrenia, currently tapering off really slow (1 year total). I'm feeling better so far, but my doctor repeatedly warned me that he does not recommend I taper off and that there's a good chance I'll end up in the hospital. I'd ask your doctor if there are any options to help minimize your side effects. If you're symptom free you could maybe try a lower dose, even if you're not maybe a lower dose in concert with a second antipsychotic might help? If he suggests adding on another medication and doing nothing else, push back and make him explain why he thinks that specifically will help. In my experience, feeling zombie-like because of a med isn't something that can be helped by another med. >>3724 >>3726 May be true to some degree, still infinitely preferable to drowning in schizophrenic hell. I really don't think those effects are some deliberate form of societal control, it's just how the meds have to be to be efffective.

>>3750 Common antipsychotics are all based on the dopamine theory of schizophrenia. This is why they have the side effects they do such as the zombie effect. There are other models of schizophrenia though and other approaches available. I can't guarantee the efficacy in comparison but there are many potentially promising alternatives.

>>3752 in fact quetiapine has a higher affinity for serotonin 1 and 2 receptors, than any dopamine receptors (but still high affinity for D.Rs). Alpha (adrenergic) affinity is also higher than dopamine, which causes lots of sedation (think about clonidine, xylazine, trazodone, carvedilol). These class of antipsychotics that are stronger serotoninergic than dopaminergic are called atypical, and they cause less side effects and proved to be more efficient. Typicals, with mainly dopaminergic effects are the older ones like chlorpromazine (the infamous Thorazine) , trifluoperazine (the infamous Stelazine), and the big gun: haloperidol (the infamous Haldol). I was in a soykafty mental hospital and people who had any kind of problem (anything that made them not to be quiet and laying in bed) were given haloperidol injection and they were totally blackout for a day and zombified for a few days after.

>>3753 My bad. I wasn't aware of the degree atypical antipsychotics effect other systems. I am still trying hard to learn but my mind feels so cluttered at times. Still other approaches are being looked at such as the NDMA and muscarinic receptors. That and what was brought up in >>3722 which are quite difficult to summarize.

I felt exactly the same when I started taking it. I dropped my dosage over time from 600mg to 25mg. Now I only take it if I really, really have to, so you need to be able to recognise when you're going through psychosis. That's hard I know. Frankly the meds are mostly just there to allow us to not be a nuisance to society. NOBODY knows how the human mind works. All of these pills are just here to quell us, it's in the name ffs. Also we lose our powers, fuarrrk that, I'm me, if society doesn't like it, tough titties. Remember we are a genetic mutation, this makes us different, they fear difference, so they quell us. Learn your powers, focus on training them for effective use.

if you're John Nash, you just systematically reject your psychotic beliefs and hallucinations until you're functional again. It took him his whole life though.