ReginaldBaxter: Risperdal and Seroquel

August 6, 2018

So in my youth my best friend from HS took me to Tahoe on a skii trip, but refused to get me food on the way - even though I told them I was hungry. (yes my best friend turned on me in order to secure his getting a job with the paramedics). My friend and his dad called me a "worthless rich-kid". My best friend and I were rock climbing buddies. I never would have guessed that he would turn on me. It surprised me back then and surprises me today. I am just now coming out with this story - as I kept it bottled in for 20 years. And willingly accepted all the labels by the Dr's.

He and his dad then admitted me to the ambulance and managed to freak out my dad, who was home and learned of all this from a phone call. Well, maybe my father was rich back then, but he gave me zero money. (I had to work a sales job at the North Face to get all my money for clothes and climbing). And I was naive at 18 about getting to a good college and doing well with SAT's but I attribute that more to my extreme un-conformity - on my gallop poll StrenghsFinder exam - conformity is my lowest scoring personality trait.

I am and was a sensitive kid. My daughter even more so. But because I was "sensitive" maybe my friend saw me as weak and an easy target for his macho first career move.

So my dad and mom were tricked into giving me meds. They justified it because I tended to stay up too late on the computer (every once in a while - in the 1980's back when computers were fairly new on the Apple //e). Back then that was a problem, with school being so early - but today I live and work at my own home and I can sleep in as much as needed. I schedule no appointments in the early morning.

OK so onto the medications and problems!!!

Now I'm on Seroquel 2mg (which I cut in half) and Risperdal (2 mg). The serqouel pill is much smaller than the Risperdal. I'm diagnosed with bipolar disorder and affective shizo.

And here's the problem I just started having last night...!!! I've been having to take the pills 2 hours before I go to bed and then wait for them to digest before sleeping in order to avoid stomach pain.

But recently the past two days, I've been unable to stay awake for 2 hours and find myself going to bed in 1 hour. Then I have stomach pain all night and it feels like the Seroquel (maybe it's the Rispderal ) feels like a rock in my stomach.

I'm afraid it might be doing stomach damage.

So I'm eager to make friends in this platform and get to know others with problems. And also turn around and help others who struggle as well.

I've been told to moderately decrease the serqouel - as I've read other articles in this very fine forum. But what I've found is that if I taper off extremely slowly - I go into withdrawals. But if I just half it right away - it seems to give me no issues. So that's what I've done about a week ago now is start halfing it each night. And I did that also to hope to avoid stomach issues - maybe it would digest faster? No mental issues this week from halfing it each night.

When I try to half the risperdal - it seems to give me huge stomach problems. It seems maybe my stomach likes to see that whole for some odd reason...?! Anyone have a similar experience there?

Anyone have any advice???

Thanks for your interest,

ReginaldBaxter

Edited August 7, 2018 by mammaP
removed mod note

August 7, 2018

Hi Reginald, welcome to SA. I am sorry to read about your experience and how you came to be prescribed psychiatric drugs, that must have been very traumatic for you. When did you start to taper the drugs? We recommend tapering one drug at a time because it is hard to know which one is causing problems, as you are fiding out now! The stomach problems could be withdrawal, from one or both drugs. It would be best for you to hold off tapering to stabilise before restarting, and then taper one at a time. You can make a liquid from tablets to get accurate and consistent doses. It is up to you which one you taper first.

We recommand tapering no more than 10% of the CURENT dose with at least 4 weeks between cuts to be sure of tapering safely and staying off, so many of us tapered too fast and ended up staying on the drugs for many more years than we would have been if we had known to taper slowly.

I will get some links for you that will help you to understand.

It will help us if you fill in your signature with your drug and tapering history, we ask all our members to do this, you can find instructions for the info we need HERE

Tapering risperdal

Tapering seroquel

Taking more than one drug

Why taper 10%

How to make a liquid