Mental Health

Olanzapine lists that as one of its side effects (or it used to). Sadly, it is the only antipsychotic that my husband will tolerate. I just remove the leaflets from his meds now, as he used to pour over them for hours and then convince himself that he had all the side effects.

To be brutally honest, my husband wouldn’t be here today without the meds he takes. This is particularly true for amitriptyline which, in another thread, I said saved his life and got him out of hospital. His psychiatrist has the same attitude that we do, namely that we are trying to keep him alive today, and if the meds cause him problems tomorrow then we will deal with those problems tomorrow. Because, again being very honest, he is unlikely to live long enough for us to need to worry about long term damage to his kidneys or liver, for example.

What a cheery discussion for a Friday night. :flower1:

Olanzapine is a TOUGH drug, a real heavyweight. It was designed to be the successor for the dirty drug Clozapine, which is so dodgy it requires regular blood tests, but instead of replacing it, it became a drug in it's own right. It's also good for damn nasty insomnia. I can see how it could save someone's life!

Amitriptyline is another heavy weight med, one of the older TCA types. I'm pleased that your hubby reacted well to it well :)

As for med leaflets, I ignore them now. They list what COULD happen, not what WILL happen!
 
Absolutely. There’s way, way too much stigma around mental health.

This is, sadly, very true. My best wishes to your husband.

Olanzapine is a TOUGH drug, a real heavyweight. It was designed to be the successor for the dirty drug Clozapine, which is so dodgy it requires regular blood tests, but instead of replacing it, it became a drug in it's own right. It's also good for damn nasty insomnia. I can see how it could save someone's life!

Amitriptyline is another heavy weight med, one of the older TCA types. I'm pleased that your hubby reacted well to it well :)

As for med leaflets, I ignore them now. They list what COULD happen, not what WILL happen!

I didn’t realise that Olanzapine was the successor to Clozapine - that’s interesting! Oddly enough, he can’t tolerate Clozapine either. Before Olanzapine, his best result was with Risperidone, and that wasn’t great.

He also takes a higher dose of Amitriptyline than is actually licensed (he takes 250mg/day, licensed up to 200mg/day). Each time he sees a new psychiatrist, they have tried to take him off it, so his last psychiatrist marked in his notes where they can read how disastrous it is when he comes off it. We don’t know why it works so well, but it has done for 14 years now, so we don’t ask too many questions!
 
Olanzapine is a TOUGH drug, a real heavyweight. It was designed to be the successor for the dirty drug Clozapine, which is so dodgy it requires regular blood tests, but instead of replacing it, it became a drug in it's own right. It's also good for damn nasty insomnia. I can see how it could save someone's life!

Amitriptyline is another heavy weight med, one of the older TCA types. I'm pleased that your hubby reacted well to it well :)

As for med leaflets, I ignore them now. They list what COULD happen, not what WILL happen!


Amitriptyline is considered a heavy drug? Granted, I only take 25mg but I don’t really notice anything besides it has stopped my headaches.

I’m always surprised when I hear that gabapentin is used to get high. I take 900 and feel absolutely nothing. People must be swallowing pills by the handful to get a high off it.
 
Amitriptyline is considered a heavy drug? Granted, I only take 25mg but I don’t really notice anything besides it has stopped my headaches.

I’m always surprised when I hear that gabapentin is used to get high. I take 900 and feel absolutely nothing. People must be swallowing pills by the handful to get a high off it.

People get high off gabapentin?! I felt nothing when I took it either.

Amitriptyline is problematic because it’s part of the old kind of antidepressants (tricyclics) that have a lot more, and more severe, side effects. At 25mg you probably only get a dry mouth, but when you get up into the high dosages it does nasty stuff like lower your seizure threshold (making seizures more likely) and messing with your heart. So it’s not ideal at high doses unless it’s the only thing that works for you. At low doses, it is brilliant for chronic pain and migraines though, so I wouldn’t be concerned if I were you (I also took it for many years for pain and was not concerned.
 


People get high off gabapentin?! I felt nothing when I took it either.

Amitriptyline is problematic because it’s part of the old kind of antidepressants (tricyclics) that have a lot more, and more severe, side effects. At 25mg you probably only get a dry mouth, but when you get up into the high dosages it does nasty stuff like lower your seizure threshold (making seizures more likely) and messing with your heart. So it’s not ideal at high doses unless it’s the only thing that works for you. At low doses, it is brilliant for chronic pain and migraines though, so I wouldn’t be concerned if I were you (I also took it for many years for pain and was not concerned.

I’m not worried about it. The dr will have to pry it from my cold, dead hand lol

I don’t get a dry mouth or anything from it. I take eight different pills every night and everything is working well at the moment..look, I just jinxed it.

There was a girl here who was murdered five or so years ago and it was a big part of her trial that she used gabas to get high.
 
I didn’t realise that Olanzapine was the successor to Clozapine - that’s interesting! Oddly enough, he can’t tolerate Clozapine either. Before Olanzapine, his best result was with Risperidone, and that wasn’t great.

He also takes a higher dose of Amitriptyline than is actually licensed (he takes 250mg/day, licensed up to 200mg/day). Each time he sees a new psychiatrist, they have tried to take him off it, so his last psychiatrist marked in his notes where they can read how disastrous it is when he comes off it. We don’t know why it works so well, but it has done for 14 years now, so we don’t ask too many questions!

Boo Risperidone! I took a VERY low dose - 2mg - and was literally unconscious ten minutes later for 14 hours. Not sleep - physical unconsciousness.

Aripiprazole was cool. The positive effects DID dwindle, but when it worked, it was pretty nice. Very cool coloured tablets ;)

I guess it all comes down to how your body reacts and how heavily. "x"mg of one drug never equals "y"mg of another. Who knows? Maybe you can find comfort in Quetiapine, maybe you need to go old skool and take something like Haldol.

Different strokes for different folks.

The truth is, whilst psychiatry has advanced oodles in the last 50 years, it's still a blunt science. All you can hope for is a drug with positive effects and minimal side effects.
 
I’m not worried about it. The dr will have to pry it from my cold, dead hand lol

I don’t get a dry mouth or anything from it. I take eight different pills every night and everything is working well at the moment..look, I just jinxed it.

There was a girl here who was murdered five or so years ago and it was a big part of her trial that she used gabas to get high.

I understand - once you get a combination of meds that work, you don’t want to mess with it. Pregabalin changed my life, so there’s no way I am ever giving that up!

That’s sad about the girl who was murdered. I wonder whether she was actually getting high, or just thought she was. I’m very surprised as I didn’t think gabapentin would do anything along those lines. They seem to be moving more towards it here for all kinds of pain, which is interesting. My gran was given it when she broke her pelvis, and a friend for another broken bone, presumably in an attempt to get away from prescribing stronger opiate painkillers.
 


The drug du jour to get high is Xanax, one of Mothers Little Helpers. Essentially a tranquiliser with muscles, this will mess with you at very high doses and is addictive. It DOES have a role in modern day psychiatry - short term anxiety alleviation - but can easily be abused.
 
Boo Risperidone! I took a VERY low dose - 2mg - and was literally unconscious ten minutes later for 14 hours. Not sleep - physical unconsciousness.

Aripiprazole was cool. The positive effects DID dwindle, but when it worked, it was pretty nice. Very cool coloured tablets ;)

I guess it all comes down to how your body reacts and how heavily. "x"mg of one drug never equals "y"mg of another. Who knows? Maybe you can find comfort in Quetiapine, maybe you need to go old skool and take something like Haldol.

Different strokes for different folks.

The truth is, whilst psychiatry has advanced oodles in the last 50 years, it's still a blunt science. All you can hope for is a drug with positive effects and minimal side effects.

Very true - we have faith in his psychiatrists, but it’s very much a case of trial and error. We are more cautious than we used to be about trying new meds, as now he is relatively stable.

Haldol is one of the few meds he hasn’t tried. Aripiprazole made him loopy and he kept falling over, which was fun. I know he tried Quetiapine, but I don’t think it did anything much. I tend to only remember the meds that he had a bad reaction to.

It really does seem to come down to individual biochemistry and interaction with other meds. That’s scary about Risperidone. I hope that you have been able to find meds that work well for you.
 
I understand - once you get a combination of meds that work, you don’t want to mess with it. Pregabalin changed my life, so there’s no way I am ever giving that up!

That’s sad about the girl who was murdered. I wonder whether she was actually getting high, or just thought she was. I’m very surprised as I didn’t think gabapentin would do anything along those lines. They seem to be moving more towards it here for all kinds of pain, which is interesting. My gran was given it when she broke her pelvis, and a friend for another broken bone, presumably in an attempt to get away from prescribing stronger opiate painkillers.


I honestly don’t know. Maybe she was using other drugs and gaba was just part of the cocktail?

It was a very sad case. She was only 15 and had been seized from her home by Child and Family Setvices. She bounced from home to home without any real structure. She was found wrapped in a blanket and dumped in the river. I was almost selected to be on that jury. The accused was found not guilty and there was a lot of outrage. Missing and exploited native women is a real problem in our country.
 
The drug du jour to get high is Xanax, one of Mothers Little Helpers. Essentially a tranquiliser with muscles, this will mess with you at very high doses and is addictive. It DOES have a role in modern day psychiatry - short term anxiety alleviation - but can easily be abused.

I think Diazepam is still big in Scotland. My husband has had a rolling prescription for 14 years but they have really tightened up the procedure in the last 18 months.
 
I honestly don’t know. Maybe she was using other drugs and gaba was just part of the cocktail?

It was a very sad case. She was only 15 and had been seized from her home by Child and Family Setvices. She bounced from home to home without any real structure. She was found wrapped in a blanket and dumped in the river. I was almost selected to be on that jury. The accused was found not guilty and there was a lot of outrage. Missing and exploited native women is a real problem in our country.

How incredibly sad. What a heartbreaking situation for such a young girl to be in: she never stood a chance.
 
Very true - we have faith in his psychiatrists, but it’s very much a case of trial and error. We are more cautious than we used to be about trying new meds, as now he is relatively stable.

Haldol is one of the few meds he hasn’t tried. Aripiprazole made him loopy and he kept falling over, which was fun. I know he tried Quetiapine, but I don’t think it did anything much. I tend to only remember the meds that he had a bad reaction to.

It really does seem to come down to individual biochemistry and interaction with other meds. That’s scary about Risperidone. I hope that you have been able to find meds that work well for you.

I'm still battling. I've taken every crazy med under the sun and moon, from mood stabilisers to hypnotics to antidepressants to dream regulators (those ones are cool). No, literally decades on, I'm still suffering new things. Now my heart and liver are at risk and I am on heavy beta blockers to help control palpitations. We think it's the Clozapine - the Chemical Kosch - reacting with the MAOIs I'm taking one more I'm on bouncing off each other and causing mischief.

It's as if every time I find something that works new side effects, often very serious ones, pop up :( it's not funny any more!
 
I think Diazepam is still big in Scotland. My husband has had a rolling prescription for 14 years but they have really tightened up the procedure in the last 18 months.

I was given some benzos for my wisdom tooth removal. Annoyingly, I timed it wrong. Experienced the pain of the extraction then zonked out afterwards!
 
I'm still battling. I've taken every crazy med under the sun and moon, from mood stabilisers to hypnotics to antidepressants to dream regulators (those ones are cool). No, literally decades on, I'm still suffering new things. Now my heart and liver are at risk and I am on heavy beta blockers to help control palpitations. We think it's the Clozapine - the Chemical Kosch - reacting with the MAOIs I'm taking one more I'm on bouncing off each other and causing mischief.

It's as if every time I find something that works new side effects, often very serious ones, pop up :( it's not funny any more!

I’m so sorry to hear that. It sounds like you have tried every possibly combination, but just out of curiosity, have you tried Lithium? It seems to be out fashion these days (for good reason) but if you are taking Clozapibe and MAOIs then it can’t be any worse than that.
 
I’m so sorry to hear that. It sounds like you have tried every possibly combination, but just out of curiosity, have you tried Lithium? It seems to be out fashion these days (for good reason) but if you are taking Clozapibe and MAOIs then it can’t be any worse than that.

Tried Lithium, did nothing. Nada. Zilch. Except it tasted of feet o_O
 
Remember it wasn't that long ago that doctors conducted orbital lobotomies in their own surgeries? We've come a long way...
 
Tried Lithium, did nothing. Nada. Zilch. Except it tasted of feet o_O
:rotfl2:
My husband didn’t sleep for 5 weeks, so I’m not a fan either, but I know it can be helpful to people who have tried everything else.

Do you have a good psychiatrist, at least? I hope so, given your recent issues with your heart.
 
I have a great psychiatrist and a physician as well - now - as a cardiologist and a few specialists at the local hospital.

You gotta laugh! For example, I went into a sleep clinic as I was experiencing sleep paralysis and was hooked up to a TONNE of wires and gizmos - I looked like a borg!
 
I have a great psychiatrist and a physician as well - now - as a cardiologist and a few specialists at the local hospital.

You gotta laugh! For example, I went into a sleep clinic as I was experiencing sleep paralysis and was hooked up to a TONNE of wires and gizmos - I looked like a borg!

I’m glad you are getting good care. We had to move my husband to the Priory because the outpatient mental health care in our health authority was/is so sporadic. Finding a good team is key.

That sounds like an excellent way to get a good night’s sleep - how relaxing for you!
 

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