What does an anti-psychotic do?

[SorenVC]

Hi. I've been diagnosed with undifferentiated schizophrenia, asperger, psychosis when I was 16 (also have ocd [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]) and been taking Olanzapine Zyprexa in different dosages. I think they started me with 25 mg then lowered it down. I am now 28 years old so I took it for 12 years.

When I was on 7.5 mg for the last two or so years I was getting days where I wake up with a headache and the headache stays and I go to bed with a headache. That's why I tried to get rid of it with no success. Everytime I told my therapist or my mom I have a headache they just said it doesn't come from olanzapine and my therapist said I should be on it for life.

Regardless of this my therapist lowered the dosage to 5 mg and I was feeling better for 3 weeks but today I received a headache full day again... I will ask her to reduce it to 2.5 mg and then I will take that for a month or so and then not take it anymore. 2.5 mg is the lowest dosage in pill form so what more can I do. I'm too lazy to ask for this olanzapine in liquid form or do a really slow taper...

So I have two questions:

1 what does Olanzapine or any anti-psychotic actually do?

2 does God want me to take olanzapine zyprexa and stay on this anti-psychotic all my life and just live with the pain? Or does he want me to try and break free from it like I will try now?

I always got rid of it cold turkey with no success but this time as I said I will get the 2.5 mg pills prescribed from my therapist and then one day stop taking them. I mean what more can I do at this point... Hope it works tho.

[SorenVC]

I also made an appointment with a neurologist in late november. Maybe they can help me. They are also psychiatrists. Hope they can tell me what's going on and why I have a headache.

To be honest I agree there's some illnesses like ocd or autism but I don't really believe in schizophrenia or psychosis or depression. That's what they say when they don't like your behavior. And then they can force you to try those anti-depressants, anti-psychotics that mess with your brain. It looks really sketchy to me to be honest. I have a hard time trusting these drugs that supposedly help me.

[Reiwa]

Lune would explain it better, free Lune!

That drug blocks your dopa and sero receptors in the brain to short circuit positive symptoms like mania and hallucinations.

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[shovelquest]

for 2. Its ok, use all the medicines. It's only until someone can not be considered "human" that you've gone too far.

[Ekco]

headaches are a common side effect afaik, i know i get them from my generic prozac and risperdal which i'm currently not taking.

Olanzapine sounds familar idk if i was on that or not, headaches are fine it's crazy dreams/nightmares i can't hang with and all those ssri antidepressants have that as known side effect

[ShampooChicken]

I didn't find psych meds had any sort of good or useful effect on me. I tried SSRIs for a while (2 different ones) about 20 years ago and they made me feel extremely disoriented and killed my libido. When I went off them I got brain zaps that felt like I was having a mini seizure.

But, I'm not diagnosed with schizophrenia or psychosis. Maybe your needs are different. Most of my problems went away (slowly) with self-administered exposure therapy. In other words, forcing myself to do the things that made me uncomfortable, every day, over and over again, until I could handle them.

[SorenVC]

Originally Posted by shovelquest [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

for 2. Its ok, use all the medicines. It's only until someone can not be considered "human" that you've gone too far.

Ok but I will still ask my therapist to reduce it from 5 mg to 2.5 mg. I took 7.5 mg for a very long time but then I had a daily headache. At 5 mg it was much better for two or three weeks but yesterday I had that headache again. Maybe I need to reduce it more. I will try at least...

Originally Posted by Ekco [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

headaches are a common side effect afaik, i know i get them from my generic prozac and risperdal which i'm currently not taking.

Olanzapine sounds familar idk if i was on that or not, headaches are fine it's crazy dreams/nightmares i can't hang with and all those ssri antidepressants have that as known side effect

I told my therapist and my mom that I have a constant headache on 7.5 mg Olanzapine and they don't believe me and just say that I need to do more sports. I don't really know where the headache is coming from, from the pill or something else? That's why I will go to a neurologist-psychiatrist in late November.

[Jimjam]

are you able to visit a GP to get a general health check up done, including bloods and urine?

That could be helpful for identifying all sorts of gaps, including in nutrition and general health. If this isn't possible, perhaps a pharmacy would be able to check your blood pressure?

In fairness to your therapist, while generally more exercise and healthy nutrition tend to be good advice, therapists may not be the best professional to discuss medication - they are not a medical doctor nor psychiatrist? Perhaps it would be best to discuss side effects with the prescriber? Or is that who refered you to the neurologist-psychiatrist?

That all said, have you challenged your therapist that their reaction to you was a bit standoffish or unempathetic / invalidating when you've shared this feeling / belief / thought that your medicine may be causing your problems? What kind of approach your therapist incorporates? Person centred? Psychodynamic? Is this representative of how they generally work with you or other clients? How are the sessions funded and what is their motivation to help you?

[SorenVC]

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

are you able to visit a GP to get a general health check up done, including bloods and urine?

That could be helpful for identifying all sorts of gaps, including in nutrition and general health. If this isn't possible, perhaps a pharmacy would be able to check your blood pressure?

In fairness to your therapist, while generally more exercise and healthy nutrition tend to be good advice, therapists may not be the best professional to discuss medication - they are not a medical doctor nor psychiatrist? Perhaps it would be best to discuss side effects with the prescriber? Or is that who refered you to the neurologist-psychiatrist?

That all said, have you challenged your therapist that their reaction to you was a bit standoffish or unempathetic / invalidating when you've shared this feeling / belief / thought that your medicine may be causing your problems? What kind of approach your therapist incorporates? Person centred? Psychodynamic? Is this representative of how they generally work with you or other clients? How are the sessions funded and what is their motivation to help you?

I checked on google my therapist is a specialist for psychiatry and psychotherapy (in German "Fachärztin für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie"). She is prescribing me the pills since I was released from being in a mental hospital for 4 months when I was 16. I told her I had a constant headache on 7.5 mg on Olanzapine and that my sleep felt weird. I woke up and felt like I didn't sleep. But she said I can't get headaches from Olanzapine, it does not do that and I asked her if I should be on this medication for life - she said yes.

Regardless I asked her to prescribe me 5 mg and she did and I felt better for 2 or 3 weeks but yesterday I woke up with a headache again that lasted all day. I admit I'm just staying in my apartment all day. I don't like to go outside that much. Maybe it's that. Lack of connection or lack of sunlight.

I will ask her on 16th September next week if she can reduce it to 2.5 mg. I will try that dosage and see if anything's better. I hope she will let me do that and prescribe me this dosage though and trust me. If I will feel worse I can just take two pills so it be 5 mg again, right?

I made an appointment a month ago to a neurologist-psychiatrist about the headaches. I will have to wait until late November for that though... But on this Olanzapine medication I just feel random headaches. I don't know why I keep having them and some days it lasts for the entire day...

[Jimjam]

Good luck with the appointments and getting this resolved my friend [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]