Nikitis: Moderate dizziness for 9 days is this due to risperidone withdrawal?

[Nikitis]

Hey all, so I did a cold turkey from 17 mg of valium (1 Ativan equivalent of 10 mg of valium and 7 mg of valium) for 4 days and now the drugs are less effective as I reinstated.

How come this happens and what can I do to fix this? What is the mechanism behind it? Normally when I take ativan at 9 am I can stick it out easily till 5 pm when my next dosage is, but now I get withdrawal symptoms at around 1 pm. Also the Ativan would make me very sleepy and sedated, now it doesn't.

Your help is greatly appreciated!

[Nikitis]

Hi all, I posted a topic about my problem in the benzo section, but I'll post it here too. I started on 3 mg of Ativan and tapered my way down to 1 mg of Ativan and 7 mg of valium. I stupidly did a cold turkey of both drugs for 4 days and now the drugs are less effective. I normally could easily make it from my 9 am Ativan dosage to 5 pm, but now after the cold turkey I get heavy withdrawal symptoms around 1 pm. If I take 300 mg of n acetyl cysteine after my 9 am dosage I don't get the withdrawal at 1 pm but anxiety starts to hit me at around 3 pm. The valium also feels less sedating and effective. The Ativan would make me sleepy before the cold turkey, now not anymore. 

 

Is there any way to reverse this tolerance that has developed to these benzodiazepines? 

 

Thank you! 

[Altostrata]

Hello, Nikitis. Have you asked your prescriber about this? Why did you cold turkey?

[Nikitis]

On 6/5/2020 at 1:43 AM, Altostrata said:

Hello, Nikitis. Have you asked your prescriber about this? Why did you cold turkey?

I haven't asked my prescriber, I was desperate in quitting the benzos that's why I cold turkeyed.. 

[Altostrata]

Please talk to your prescriber.

 

You may want to join one of the benzo support groups listed here https://www.benzoinfo.com/resources/#support

[ChessieCat]

On 6/4/2020 at 7:26 PM, Nikitis said:

Hi all, I posted a topic about my problem in the benzo section, but I'll post it here too. I started on 3 mg of Ativan and tapered my way down to 1 mg of Ativan and 7 mg of valium. I stupidly did a cold turkey of both drugs for 4 days and now the drugs are less effective. I normally could easily make it from my 9 am Ativan dosage to 5 pm, but now after the cold turkey I get heavy withdrawal symptoms around 1 pm. If I take 300 mg of n acetyl cysteine after my 9 am dosage I don't get the withdrawal at 1 pm but anxiety starts to hit me at around 3 pm. The valium also feels less sedating and effective. The Ativan would make me sleepy before the cold turkey, now not anymore. 

 

Is there any way to reverse this tolerance that has developed to these benzodiazepines? 

 

Thank you! 

 

This post has just been moved from the Introduction forum and merged with member's benzo topic.

[Altostrata]

Nikitis, please join Benzobuddies or a benzo group on Facebook. We can't answer your questions here.

[Nikitis]

Hey all, I read that risperidone really affects sexual function and I have noticed that now since I have a girlfriend, I was on 3 mg for almost 2 years then went to the GP to ask if I can taper off of it and he reduced my dose to 2 mg. What I did next was stupid, every 2 weeks I reduced my dose with 1 mg and the withdrawal after I jumped to 0 was really bad, and after 4 days I reinstated to 2 mg and the next day I took around 0.5 mg and now I'm feeling a slight sickish headache feeling in my brain.

 

How should I get off risperidone?

 

Thank you very much

[getofflex]

Previous post moved to your intro topic to keep your history all in one place.  Please post questions and discussion about your situation in this one thread, to avoid confusion and duplication of efforts.  Thank you.  

[getofflex]

Hello, and welcome to SA.  We are a peer owned and run forum of people who have been or are getting off of psychiatric drugs.  

 

Can you please give us specific information about your drug history for all drugs you are on and have been on, especially for the past 18-24 months?  It would be especially helpful to have the details of your drugs in a concise list (no symptoms), only drug names, specific dates (as best you can say for example early March if you don't recall the day) and dosages of each medication decrease or increase.  Please read the link below for instructions.  This will allow us to give you the best guidance.  

 

How to List Drug History in Signature

 

Here is some information about how these drugs actually work.  This explains why it is important to taper off very slowly and cautiously.

 

How Psychiatric Drugs Remodel Your Brain

 

 

This helps you understand what withdrawal syndrome is: 

 

 Video on Recovery from Psych Drugs

 

What is Happening in Your Brain

 

What is Withdrawal Syndrome?

 

Tapering is best done extremely slowly, and we generally taper by 10% of the current dose no more than once every 4 weeks, so that the taper becomes exponentially smaller.

 

 Why Taper by 10% of my Dosage  

 

Tips for Tapering Risperidone

 

 

Also, as we are recovering, we suggest keeping things slow, simple, and stable. This is extremely important.  My suggestion to you is to stay on your current dose of risperidal, until advised otherwise here.  Please do not jump around on your dose, as this may cause significant symptoms and major disruption of your nervous system that could take a long time to recover from.  Read the following 2 links for more information about stability: 

 

Considerations About Stability Stop Jumping Around

 

Keep it Simple, Slow, and Stable

 

 

When we recover, there may be times of feeling OK mixed in with times of feeling bad.  This is called windows and waves.

 

Windows and Waves Pattern of Stabilization

 

Here are some techniques to cope with symptoms: 

 

Acknowledge, Accept, Float

 

Non Drug Ways to Cope with Withdrawal Symptoms

 

 

We don't suggest many supplements, but 2 that many of us find helpful are magnesium and omega-3 fish oil. Here are the links for info about those. It is suggested to add one at a time, and start with a low dose to see how it affects you. 

Magnesium

 

Omega 3 Fish Oil

 

Finally, going back on a small dose of your drug, which you've already done, which we call reinstatement, is best done very carefully.  This is temporary, and after stabilizing you would then taper gradually off of this.  There is some risk involved.   Here is some information about reinstatement.  

 

About Reinstating and Stabilizing to Reduce Withdrawal Symptoms

 

Please take the time to read and digest all the information I provided in the links here.  I know there is a lot, but it will be very helpful to your situation. 

[Nikitis]

Hi all. See my signature for my medication history.

 

5 weeks ago I tapered my risperidone dosage from 2 mg to 1.5 mg. I suffered from severe withdrawal symptoms the first week. Then I started feeling better. Then, I took an exposed tablet that had been outside of the blister packaging for a few days. It had been exposed to possible moisture, air, heat and light. The 3 days after I suffered from withdrawal symptoms again. The withdrawal symptoms were a heavy pulling sensation inside my brain and feeling overall bad.

 

Then a week after, I suddenly felt really dizzy one evening. And since that day till now, I have been having dizziness every day to various degrees. I noticed drinking adequate water throughout the day helps alleviate it to an extent. The dizziness can be quite severe with a heavy sensation in my head and feeling like I am being slowly pulled forward or to the ground while standing.

 

I also am 8 months post taper of a rapid taper off 3 mg ativan.

 

Is my dizziness related to my risperidone withdrawal?

[Go2zero]

Why and when in 2024 was you risperidone dosage increased from 0,5 to 4mg?

 

And when did you started to taper again from 4mg to 1,5mg?

 

Please write down all steps (dosages and dates) you made in this tapering process from 4mg to the current 1,5mg.

[Nikitis]

1 hour ago, Go2zero said:

Why and when in 2024 was you risperidone dosage increased from 0,5 to 4mg?

 

And when did you started to taper again from 4mg to 1,5mg?

 

Please write down all steps (dosages and dates) you made in this tapering process from 4mg to the current 1,5mg.

My risperidone was increased again from 0.5 mg to 4 mg in February 2024 because I had a new psychotic episode in that month and was admitted to the psych ward.

 

I was given 2 mg in the morning and 2 mg in the evening.

 

In the following months about every 2 months I tapered down a 0.5 mg reduction until I reached 1.5 mg. 

 

I first started tapering the 4 mg risperidone around may or june 2024, right after I finished my ativan 3 mg rapid taper which I was prescribed during my psych ward admission too.

 

If this info isn't enough I could check my agenda to see when my psychiatrist appointments were but I cant provide exact dates because there were appointments in between where I did not reduce my dosage but stayed on the same dosage.

[Go2zero]

Going up and down in dosage causes withdrawal symptoms, it may also cause kindling and often sensitises the nervous system. There may come a moment then that up-dosing or tapering does not seem to work anymore. This often goes together with (sometime extreme) withdrawal symptoms. The only thing that will help then is stabilise!

 

4 mg Rispiridone is quite a high dosage. Jumping up and down between 4mg and 0,5mg is asking for trouble. 

 

One is the side effects of Ripiridone is dizziness. Very often people also get the same reaction when tapering as the possible side effects are with a drug. So the dizziness you are experiencing most probably is caused by the dosage fluctuations.

 

Do you really want to get of the Rispiridone?

 

If so, it would not be advisable to go up in dosage again. For now we advise to remain at your current dose of 1,5mg until you feel stable again enough to taper further (if you want to taper further...)

[Nikitis]

1 hour ago, Go2zero said:

Going up and down in dosage causes withdrawal symptoms, it may also cause kindling and often sensitises the nervous system. There may come a moment then that up-dosing or tapering does not seem to work anymore. This often goes together with (sometime extreme) withdrawal symptoms. The only thing that will help then is stabilise!

 

4 mg Rispiridone is quite a high dosage. Jumping up and down between 4mg and 0,5mg is asking for trouble. 

 

One is the side effects of Ripiridone is dizziness. Very often people also get the same reaction when tapering as the possible side effects are with a drug. So the dizziness you are experiencing most probably is caused by the dosage fluctuations.

 

Do you really want to get of the Rispiridone?

 

If so, it would not be advisable to go up in dosage again. For now we advise to remain at your current dose of 1,5mg until you feel stable again enough to taper further (if you want to taper further...)

I spoke to my GP and psychiatrist. Both confirmed that it is the risperidone causing it.

 

The psychiatrist said its because i tapered and even 4 to 5 weeks after a dose reduction you can get side effects like dizziness and she sees this often. The dizziness can remain for weeks or months in some cases. We agreed that its best to stay on this dosage of 1.5 mg for now because of these side effects.

[Go2zero]

4 hours ago, Nikitis said:

The psychiatrist said its because i tapered and even 4 to 5 weeks after a dose reduction you can get side effects like dizziness and she sees this often. The dizziness can remain for weeks or months in some cases. We agreed that its best to stay on this dosage of 1.5 mg for now because of these side effects.

 

What is your objective? Do you want to stay on the Risperidone? Or do want to resume tapering after being stable again?

[Nikitis]

1 minute ago, Go2zero said:

 

What is your objective? Do you want to stay on the Risperidone? Or do want to resume tapering after being stable again?

I am uncertain. Reason for me to taper it was because of severe anhedonia I was suffering from due to it. That has improved a lot even though it still comes back some days. It was actually better on 2 mg and when I tapered to 1.5 mg it suddenly came back with a vengeance.

 

Once I stabilize on 1.5 mg and feel like the anhedonia is not as strong that its bothering my daily functioning, i might stay on that dosage. It depends how I will feel and function on 1.5 mg once I stabilize.

 

Right now this evening I suddenly feel sick and have a slight headache. I'm guessing this is the risperidone withdrawal as well.

[Go2zero]

13 minutes ago, Nikitis said:

Right now this evening I suddenly feel sick and have a slight headache. I'm guessing this is the risperidone withdrawal as well.

 

Give it time. Stability is the magic word. Once you feel good and stable for a longer time on a specific dose, you can decide if you would want to try to taper further.

 

Be extremely careful in playing around with dosage changes, changing brands of medication (especially generics) or adding other meds or supplements. This often triggers symptoms.

Edited January 3 by Go2zero