hayduke: coming off olanzapine / Zyprexa

[Venkat]

Happy New year to you too hayduke. 

Wishing you a medication free year.

Regards, venkat 

[hayduke]

@morgana cheers, the flip side of wd's gruelling lessons in patience is keeping life liveable and sometimes enjoyable along the way!

@Rrsfc thanks, I'm starting to wonder where I might be able to 'jump off' now

@Bobblehead thanks, I hope it smooths out for you before long

@BadMedicine nice work, how's that going?  Hope your therapist is agreeable, else I'd find one who is 🙂

@Venkat cheers mate, you too.  I hope your taper can be a smoother ride this time

 

[hayduke]

Probably about time for an update 🙂

 

Back at work this week - longest stretch of time off I've had in years.  The therapy has been intense but fruitful.  Minimising contact with my family at the moment is helping a lot.  I've been taking a breather from the EMDR for a couple of weeks to settle and rest, which is nice.

 

Working out more, eating tons less, drinking a fraction of last year's grog.  My body feels like it's waking up, which is great.  I set up a standing desk this week which feels good for work duties.

 

I feel like my metabolism is reverting to its natural modes under 0.5mg - hunger, exercise and energy levels just seem better and many days I'm happier in the heat than previously.

 

I did get a tooth infection and was given flagyl which was hard on the system, but I took a lot of care not to let it hammer me - spaced it out with meals, lots of yogurt.  That was a week ago now.

 

Feels like the therapy and time off has let my body return to a more relaxed baseline.  Of course infections love to pounce after you've been running red hot and finally take the stress off so I can kind of take it as a good sign.

 

One more cut in this set to 0.39mg this Sat then another hold.  I feel like I could keep going quite comfortably right now, but I'll see how that seems after another week or two back at not-slavery, I mean work 😉

 

Cheers

[hayduke]

Another update.

 

Doing well enough overall, feels like the therapy has got to a good point. Just as well, was exhausted after that and the tooth infection. The dentist is happy with that now so no more travel to the big smoke on my days off, yay. 

 

Still feeling the benefits of curbing my drinking this year, and working out several times a week. Starting to shed a few drug-induced kgs.

 

Sleep is reasonable at 6-7 hrs/night. There's been more stress around work and some other things, which I'm managing, and some things look to be resolving.  Still, I'm holding for an extra week at 0.39 before the next set.  It would all be so much less stressful without needing to work.

 

Definitely feeling a lot closer to how I remember before being drugged.

 

Cheers

[morgana]

great to hear your doing so well @hayduke, i wish you all the best. cheers morgana

[Venkat]

5 hours ago, hayduke said:

Another update.

 

Doing well enough overall, feels like the therapy has got to a good point. Just as well, was exhausted after that and the tooth infection. The dentist is happy with that now so no more travel to the big smoke on my days off, yay. 

 

Still feeling the benefits of curbing my drinking this year, and working out several times 

 

Definitely feeling a lot closer to how I remember before being drugged.

 

This is the happiest news a fellow taperer would like to hear hayduke. 

You really give us hope. 

All the best. 

 

Regards, venkat 

[Emily02]

I’m so glad for you hayduke. Thanks for the good update. 
Best wishes 

Emily

[Rrsfc]

Great news, keep it up 😊! You're such an inspiration... 

[BadMedicine]

Really good to see you doing so well. Not far to go now. A drug free life is in your sights.

[hayduke]

@morgana@Venkat@Emily02@Rrsfc and @BadMedicine thanks for popping by!  I hope you are all doing ok.

 

Adding a note that I was feeling some derealisation and getting some anxiety yesterday and today.  I realised I'd got lax and had skipped my supplements for a couple of days.  First some orange juice for the cheeky joint on the weekend (vitamin C dismantles THC), then yoghurt with a ton of hemp protein powder (omega-3) and some magnesium L-threonate for the brain, and a foot bath in MgCl and baking soda.  Had a long yak with a friend where we talked about our stresses a bit which helped too.  Then took the bull by the horns and sat down with my bank accounts for a couple of hours and planned my way around some draining but inevitable expenses that have been adding to the burden, and seeing an end to these in sight.  Reached out to a few people about ending that, and crossing my fingers.  Work will be full on for a while now but hopefully less toxic.

 

Treated myself to a nice steak tonight.  Feeling pretty good now.

 

My take aways from this are

- omega 3 is a great place to start when I feel crap, as is exercise/nature

- friends will lift my mood when I'm under the thumb

- facing stuff head on is always better than sweeping it under the rug.  It can be hard to learn, my family sucks at it, but I got a bit lucky with my hippie friends as a teenager and broke through that

- self care and learning to ground and calm yourself when stuff starts looking weird and scary is one of the best life skills you can have.  It doesn't happen much for me these days, but when things come up during therapy and in super hard times, it can.  Claire Weekes is so often recommended here, and aside from her wonderful accent her thoughts on reining in the "second fear" are super helpful.

 

Cheers

[Nomad]

On 3/21/2019 at 5:26 PM, hayduke said:

Hi all,

 

I had a toxic break in mid 1990s.  Was self medicating due to unresolved childhood trauma.  I wasn’t coping with how difficult my life had become.  I wasn’t making wise choices - but not all of us in our early 20s do…

 

Parents called crisis team and I was told by psychiatrist I had a chemical imbalance and would require endless drugging.  I replied I know my life is out of whack - I’d read R.D Laing at uni and asked if there was somewhere I could go to get help sorting everything out properly without the chemicals.  “No.”

 

My parents believed the genetics/chemical imbalance myth.

 

I tried stelazine and mellaril but the akathisia was instant and felt awful.  I stabilised without them for some time.

 

I had a couple more toxic breaks and in 2003 my parents arranged a forced admission with the same psychiatrist.  I was shot in the arse with god knows what.  I had bad akathisia and they gave me cogentin.  I was supposed to have skin ointment nightly as well but half the time the orderlies just couldn’t be bothered with that even when I told them it was part of the regimen.  Not reassuring.  After two weeks I was out of there and my father demanded I take the prescription if I was to stay with him.  

 

At no stage was a physical done.  I would’ve been malnourished to say the least - couldn’t afford decent food.

 

I moved away with friends, took 10mg olanzapine daily and became obese - ugh.  It was a pretty relaxing time though, which helped.  I was able to return to work.

Later on I came back and my mother helped me get diet and exercise happening to lose some weight.  Thank heavens I didn’t have an office job then or it wouldn’t have been possible.  I lost 30 kgs.  Keeping it off is hard though with the olanzapine.

 

I tried risperidone for a couple of years to lose weight but it was of marginal help and was more uncomfortable to take.

 

I asked the psychiatrist since I’ve been stable for many years can we look at getting off.  “No.”  Do you ever work with addressing the root causes with therapy?  “No, we don’t believe it affects this.”

 

I discovered yoga which has been enormously beneficial and I’d recommend to anyone.  I wish I’d listened to my aunt and done this when I was first having issues before my break.

 

Exercise is another must.

 

A few years ago I had an abusive neighbour move in next door who beat his de facto and he wasn’t friendly to me either.  Somehow my psychiatrist thought this would be a good time to try me on aripiprazole.  At first it was liberating as I had much more energy but that rapidly turned into overstimulation and anxiety.  I switched back.  I moved away from the violent neighbour.

 

The two nice things I’ll say about the psychiatrist are a) he didn’t stack me on multiple drugs and b) he was ok with me setting my own dose…to a point…

 

I was easily able to get down from 10mg olanzapine to 7.5, then 6 2/3, then 5 with a pill cutter within a year.  So my script was now for 5mg.

 

After some time I tried 3 1/3mg and it was obviously a no-go zone.  I just hung out on 5mg for a bit longer.

 

I found a clinical psychologist who helped me with the usual family patterns, boundaries, spoke to trauma, helped with relationships etc.  This has been very beneficial and I drink much less after that.

 

A friend observed “I think you could get off your meds”.  I was skeptical but started researching.

 

This was an eye-opener:  https://www1.bps.org.uk/system/files/user-files/Division of Clinical Psychology/public/CAT-1657.pdf

 

It was validating my initial understanding that this was all about how I wasn’t coping with trauma, rather than innately ‘broken’.  This was the first document I gave to my mother who was initially terrified but is now supportive of me coming off.

 

I discovered Peter Breggin, reading “Your Drug May Be Your Problem” in horror.  But it was empowering as well.  His book “Guilt, Shame and Anxiety” helped reduce my anxiety substantially.  He has a newer book “Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal”, which I also recommend.  There is Peter Lehmann’s “Coming off Psychiatric Drugs” too, which is valuable but a harrowing read!

 

I told close friends and some family what I was doing.  Having a safety net is the way to go.

 

Over five months I was able to taper down from 5mg to 2.5mg by agitating a crushed tablet in a known volume of filtered water, then removing a gradually increasing portion with a large syringe (no needle!).  I came down listening to my body 0.1 or 0.2mg at a time then holding for a few weeks.  It was a bit of a bumpy ride but have been able to hold down my job and relationships ok.  Not that it’s pleasant or easy, but it is navigable.  Thanks Rhiannon for sharing your experience on making suspensions of the compound in water.

 

I hung out at 2.5mg for six months or so.  This is the smallest tablet size they sell.  

 

My family and friends have been commenting on how much more ‘with it’ I am, able to join them in more nuanced conversations again.  This is extremely welcome and I realised how much I’ve been missing despite having a lot of good people and things in my life already.

 

I took my mother for moral support and went to see the prescribing psychiatrist (same one all the way through).  I started explaining that I was prediabetic, had high cholesterol, was having (apparently undiagnosable) joint problems and rheumatism, getting allergic rashes (I saw the other day the NPS web site advises people with this reaction not to take this drug!), getting hot flushes and unable to stand heat (pretty hellish in Aussie summers), and more.  He didn’t want to hear about my plan - his reaction:  “Keep taking it.”  I said as if that wasn’t enough, what about TD?  He said “Oh, it’s not that bad.”

 

I was glad mum was there as a witness to this appalling advice.

 

I asked him for a script for 2.5mg but he said “It’s too low.  I can’t support this.  I will not see you any more.”  Good riddance!  I got the script from my sympathetic GP.  

 

Many of these horrid symptoms have reduced or abated with the lower dose.  Some remain.  Fatigue is a bear.  The stragglers are just a waiting game I suppose.

 

My clinical psychologist has been supportive the whole time and confirmed my essential stability during the reductions.  Her reaction to that was “well, if he says 2.5 isn’t enough, yet you’re stable, it’s a good sign that you can probably do without it altogether”.

 

I’m now working with a clinical psychologist on the trauma I perceive as the root of all the major issues.

 

If I’ve learnt one thing, it’s that you have to take charge of your own healing.  No one else can do it for you.  Shop around and find supportive crew who will back you up - they’re out there.  Breggin observes that signalling helplessness is what lands you in hot water in this rather unhealthy society.

 

I’m continuing my taper, coming down around 2mg olanzapine at the moment.  Thanks to this site I’ve found the importance of the compound taper and have made a spreadsheet to manage it.  I'm doing a microtaper - it's going reasonably at 10%/mo for now.  It's not comfortable and some days at work are hard.  But I know it's worth it.

 

Looking at the receptor occupancy curves for olanzapine I found via this site I can see I’d already be over half way through the dopamine adjustments.   That would explain why I’ve got more animated for a bit after each cut.  This initially concerned mum but she’s now learnt about withdrawal symptoms.  The 5-HT2 curve lies ahead, for the most part.

 

So this could take another year or two - I’ve been poisoned with this garbage for a long time.  Better though to ride it gently down and not hammer my body too much, or destabilise my life, for the best chance of a good outcome.  Despite every day wanting to be rid of it ASAP.  Epsom salt baths and yoga are helping me a lot.

 

Thanks for creating this forum, Altostrata.  Before the net, I probably would’ve just concluded 3 1/3mg wasn’t enough rather than learning about the taper, and been stuck.

Could you post a link to this page: “dopamine receptor occupancy curves”. Sounds very interesting. 

[Nomad]

Just now, Nomad said:

Could you post a link to this page: “dopamine receptor occupancy curves”. Sounds very interesting. 

I read about that in your introduction.

[hayduke]

3 hours ago, Nomad said:

Could you post a link to this page: “dopamine receptor occupancy curves”. Sounds very interesting. 

 

The best convo on it I think we've had starts around here

[hayduke]

Still holding at 0.39mg.  Just too much up in the air to make the next cut until things take a bit more shape.

 

Govt "culture war" cuts under the excuse of covid mean my old permanent job is toast, and will run out this year.  It's hard to find suitable ethical work.  I will see if I can find something more fun while I'm looking.

 

Family stuff is very strained.  Ironically my mother really doesn't want to try and sort things out with my psychologist present.  One way streets suck.

 

There may be a move on the cards too.

 

I've been getting good quality time in nature and with friends, so it's just a case of holding my nose and pressing on for now.

[BadMedicine]

Hey @hayduke. Very wise to hold given your external stressors. Olanzapine is a particularly difficult drug to get off and stability is necessary to be able to cope with the withdrawal effects. A good hold will help make the next reduction more tolerable as well when you feel you are ready. I think your patience to hold when necessary is part of the secret to your success.

 

sorry about your job but hopefully you will find something better and it will a good thing in the long run.

 

Family stressors are difficult to deal with. Sounds like you are doing your best to resolve the issues. There’s nothing you can do about your Mums unwillingness to help with this situation. You should just feel proud of yourself that you have done your best to try and sort the problems out. Sounds like you have some good friends to confide in so that is good.

 

You have done really well to get as far as you have and I’m sure when you are ready the rest of your taper will go really well.

 

 

[Venkat]

Hi hayduke 

 

Sincerely hope everything gets sorted out soon. 

Will pray for you .

You have been a ray of hope for many of us and will continue to be so.

Wishing you all the best. 

 

Regards, venkat 

[Emily02]

Hi hayduke 

 

Thanks for the update.

You’re on such a low dose, amazing, well done. As Venkat said you really give us hope. You said before that you don’t feel the negative effects of Olanzapine since being on low dose, which is very good. 
I wish you luck and strength to sort things out. I’m sure you can.

Best wishes

Emily

[Nomad]

On 3/6/2021 at 2:18 PM, hayduke said:

Still holding at 0.39mg.  Just too much up in the air to make the next cut until things take a bit more shape.

 

Govt "culture war" cuts under the excuse of covid mean my old permanent job is toast, and will run out this year.  It's hard to find suitable ethical work.  I will see if I can find something more fun while I'm looking.

 

Family stuff is very strained.  Ironically my mother really doesn't want to try and sort things out with my psychologist present.  One way streets suck.

 

There may be a move on the cards too.

 

I've been getting good quality time in nature and with friends, so it's just a case of holding my nose and pressing on for now.

Congratulations on your progress! Great to hear you have been spending some time in nature. Nature is a healer for the body and the mind. I hope your are able to find new employment. Good luck to you with everything.

[Emily02]

Hi hayduke 

How are you doing?

Can I ask you something?

Did you have any side effects from Olanzapine? Are they subsiding now that you’re on a low dose?

[hayduke]

23 minutes ago, Emily02 said:

Did you have any side effects from Olanzapine? Are they subsiding now that you’re on a low dose?

Hey Emily,

 

Most of them, probably!

 

Sleeping 11-12 hrs/day

Dulled emotions

Stupor

Little sense of nuance or subtlety in conversation.  Poor sense of social cues

Subsequent poor communication and limited insight in relationships

Feeling like life was a party but I was stuck in a different room

30-35% weight gain, lots in belly fat

Prediabetic blood sugar levels, two or three times - lucky I discovered fasting

Raised cholesterol

Body temperature dysregulation

Autoimmune/rheumatoid features, notably undiagnosable joint pains in feet and ankles

Often feeling like I'm surfing the edge of dyskinesias, one of the limiting factors in withdrawal rate.  Likely correlated with dopamine levels and rate of their change

Passivity where I ought to assert myself.  Increased vulnerability to manipulation by various parties

No decrease in anxiety.  No decrease in self medicating with alcohol, weed etc

Reduced access to emotions and insight into cognition, limited healing potential

Probably pretty close to chronic fatigue 

Weird reactions to fatty foods

 

I bet there are more, but that's just off the top of my head.  I probably should compile them all in one go.

 

Many or most are abating, but I'm not out of the woods yet.

 

Cheers

[Rrsfc]

And now on a low dosage how do you feel @hayduke, any better from the side effects? I'm curious about your experience, at 2,5mg I live a pretty normal life, although I may have dulled emotions. But I don't feel it, I feel normal. Maybe when I start to taper down again I'll improve. 

[Hopela]

That's a good list of effects hayduke. Now that i'm mostly dealing with lingering residual effects and withdrawals the list is a good reminder of how nice it is to be off the chemical and it's direct effects.

 

In my book those are not really side effects though, those are main effects of the chemical and the expression side effects is another scam by the pharmaceutical companies.

 

Wikipedia has a page called "List of adverse effects of olanzapine". "Adverse effects" is a good expression since it does not mean they are to be seen as secondary by any means.

 

I'm not sure people really understand what it means that there's a list of 50-100 adverse effects with some percentage probability for each. Meaning you'll definitely get quite a number of them.

 

And going through that list it appears to not take psychological adverse effects into account. It's mostly just physically observed damages, half the story.

 

And given such a range of effects it's pretty clear that olanzapine causes a systemic disharmony in your system whether you develop any specific symptom or not.  For example weight gain has a cut off definition of 15% body weight (I only gained 9% which is still something), and various blood measures have a span of accepted levels so you can and will be worse off even without having any clear symptom. So on top of all clear physical and psychological adverse effects you will have a feeling of and actually be worse without being able to pin point exactly what within the normal ranges.

 

And then one pairs that with equally long lists of withdrawal symptoms and one will really begin to see how good the pills are to get on

 

[Emily02]

Thanks very much for your reply hayduke,

 I really appreciate it.

I hope you will be out of the woods soon

You’re doing so well with the tapering, I wish you full recovery.

[hayduke]

Thanks everyone for your well wishes and support!

 

@BadMedicine I read a couple of books on narcissistic mothers and was pretty stunned how much of all that seemed to resonate.  Supposedly a good recipe for C-PTSD...why would that not surprise me!  I am feeling muuuuch better with the distance from her.

 

Happy I've been able to talk with my old man a bit about all this, to his credit he's hearing me out. 

 

@Emily02 and @Rrsfc it definitely all improves as you keep going, which is a motivation even in the bumpy patches.  I used to think getting off was literally impossible, now I can't imagine not continuing towards zero.  Going slow enough to let your body catch up and heal along the way lets you balance the withdrawal symptoms against the drug side effects. 

 

@Venkat  and @Nomad thank you guys

 

@Hopela yes it really does seriously bugger up your metabolism.  I still find it extraordinary that they're allowed to issue this substance to people.  I doubt I would have survived another decade or two on it.  It seems convenient for the drug mfrs to make it so intimidating to stop taking them, but I expect ultimately it will be an enormous liability for them.  At these lower levels of intake I'm finding gradual changes towards my natural modes - I can eat fattier foods again, ate a lot of bacon for a couple of weeks 🙂

 

 

[hayduke]

An update - continuing in therapy, which is a great support as I've been dealing with the stress of breaking contact with my mother till she'll own her s**t (she probably won't start now).  It's helping.

 

Meditating when I feel inclined.

 

Been on a hold for nearly all of March, now making cuts again quite happily.

 

Work is finished so I've been training up for other work, which I hope will be less stressful while I finish tapering.  Looking at studying again - hopefully enough cognitive capacity without the constant firehose of new tech at the old job flooding my brain all the time.

 

So enough big life changes, have put some other things aside for the moment.

 

Started making a lot more salads a week or two ago and just now a bit over 36 hours into a fast, which is going comfily enough.  I have the time this week, and it's a good reset from times of stress.  There'll be more, so I'll use this lull 🙂

[hayduke]

Broke my fast after 160 hours.  Got a lot out of this one, 'broke through' on day 5 and had a couple of really active, full days.  Felt calm and good that whole time, though my body was saying good run, let's call it today by day 7 (yesterday).

 

Had some nuts, salad and fruit, gonna try and keep it healthy for a little bit at least.

[Emily02]

Hi hayduke

Were you fasting?

Can you tell a bit more about it?

[hayduke]

Hey @Emily02

 

I started looking into it a few years ago when I was showing prediabetic blood sugar levels on a test. 

 

Overweight, fatigued and concerned for my future, I figured I had little to lose by trying a fast.  I started with a 24hr one and encouraged, a 3 day one a bit later.  These ones were a bit challenging as I started getting the hang of it, but nowhere near as hard as I thought.

 

To my great relief and some surprise, it had reset my resting blood sugar back to normal.

 

I went through all this another time and decided to make it a semi regular thing.  Since then, when I feel the urge, I try and line up some quiet time when I can do this.  I was able to get to 5 days last time, and almost 7 now.  After a few days your body starts burning fat and your brain adjusts to running mainly on ketones.  It's a pretty interesting state. 

 

Autophagy is another demonstrated benefit - your body goes into clean-up mode and starts scavenging scrappy cells and breaking down weird crap like cysts and plaques, recycling their amino acids to build healthy stuff.  It's a very natural process that western culture tends to exclude so they can sell us more food.  My instinct is that this is a very useful process to avail myself of, especially after the biochemical, metabolic and neurological chaos of tapering, and of course the drug itself.

 

Aside from the insulin response 'tune-up', I'm hoping for lower cholesterol, and trying to use this as a good moment to overhaul my diet.

 

If you were considering it, there's some good doco out there to read first.  Thought Dr Jason Fung's book was ok.  Talking to a physician may be advisable.

 

Noting that SA doesn't advise people to fast, as the drug/s and tapering may add unwanted complications.

 

Cheers

[Emily02]

Thanks hayduke!

It’s really interesting. Did you drink only water or some herb tea?

wow nearly 7 days! That’s amazing. 
Did you have more or less withdrawals symptoms during the fast?

[hayduke]

It's pretty much a water fast, but I did have a decaf each morning (just coffee, nothing added) and a herbal tea at dinner time.

 

Good to start each day with a lemon slice squeezed into water.

 

A tsp of various salts a day helps keep thing in order, I finally found where the right balance is this time. 

 

I had berocca and vitamins, too.

 

Bone broth is said to be a good option, but I haven't got around to it yet.

 

Withdrawal symptoms are roughly the same, but some good pervasive clarity and calm much of the time.  During an earlier fast I tried larger cuts than usual to see if there's any short cut with it - my experience was no there isn't.

 

I think the drug probably lowers the general quality of the experience a bit, but that's the same as the rest of the time.  Overall I find fasting well worth it.

 

If you do want to try, I would start with short fasts (24 hrs) and research, have a good read up.  Keep your bullsh*t detector on :-)

Cheers

[Emily02]

Thanks hayduke!

I really appreciate it, I think I’ll try it.
I’m having some sleep issues again. How did you preserve your sleep during your taper?

[hayduke]

6 hours ago, Emily02 said:

Thanks hayduke!

I really appreciate it, I think I’ll try it.
I’m having some sleep issues again. How did you preserve your sleep during your taper?

 

Let us know how you go.

 

The main trick to getting enough sleep that I've found is whenever I don't get enough sleep for 2 or 3 nights in a row - hold until I do. 

 

After my fourth cut in the last set I was getting around 6hrs/night for nearly a week - less than I like and a good cue to hold.  With the brass monkey slide taper that conveniently winds up being on the 3 week plateau bit.

 

Other things - use something like https://justgetflux.com/ is great on everything, phones etc.  When I first started using these about 10 years ago I found I hit the hay about an hour earlier most nights!

 

And general sleep hygiene.  Blackout curtains, clean sheets, replace worn bedding with comfy.  I'm fortunate I live somewhere quiet at the moment - I try to never really take it for granted.  Way less fight or flight being set off.

 

I sleep way better after I exercise than when I haven't.

 

Nice bath in magnesium - I'm at a friend's place and about to take one!

 

There'll be other stuff but I think holding when you can't sleep enough above all.

 

Cheers

 

 

[hayduke]

Still eating healthy and losing weight, and drinking less.  The grocer's up the road has great fresh veggies and fruit, feeling pretty good and inclined to stick with it.

 

Been on the road a bit too, down with a cold which isn't too awful, and trying to rest this week.  Just back from rheumatology specialist about my joint pain - they've given me a stronger NSAID and will review in 4 months.  They had one theory about what's going on but not a lot of signs of it!  I thought they were pretty good and listened when I talked about issues with the class of drugs.  Will be interested to see if this clears up later in, or post-taper.

[morgana]

hello @hayduke its morgana its good to hear you are doing well...i also have problems with my joints since dropping from 5mg to 2.5mg...however my feet have been the main problem....my dad had rheumatoid arthritis, and its meant to be hereditary, i have had tests done by my doctor who says i have no inflammation, so no arthritis, however i ended up going to see a specialist in feet because of my pain..they took a video of me walking which showed extreme stiffness in my body while walking (zyprexa causes stiffness), she told me i was very fit and that i shouldnt have this problem i am as stiff as a 70 year old....she told me as i am very fit for my age, the only reason i have problems with my feet must be due to the medication i am on...so yeah i think its due to the medication and i hope once off it, it eventually disappears for us both, she gave me exercises to do.  dont know if this is helpful but just letting you know i too am experiencing joint pain with no reason as to why!...i hope it improves for you ... cheers morgana  

[hayduke]

Hey @morgana - interesting, my feet were really messed up 10 or 15 years ago.  I was on risperidone then.  Couldn't walk for most of a week, in real pain - went to a specialist, they did ultrasound, "there's fluid in the joints but we have no idea what's causing it".  It settled down and seems to have resolved, but my sense is that it was autoimmune and drug induced.  Recent tests show nothing weird with autoimmune, thank ****. 

 

Sorry to hear you might have to deal with rheumatism.  There is a thread on joint issues here.  The doc said yesterday drugs causing it wasn't highlighted on their radar, but was open to the idea.

 

How's your taper prep going?

[morgana]

hi @hayduke, good to hear your tests came back fine, my taper is going fine, been sitting on 1/2 liquid, 1/2 solid for a month now i will stay at this stage for atleast another month or two, no hurry, i do not think i will even start the brass monkey method until close to the end of the year. or start of next year..the change over has been a real shock to the system, so giving it time.