How I Cope With Psych Meds

I want to share with you a short story about my experience with taking psychiatric medications. Please note that I am not a licensed medical professional. I decided to share my story with others going through the same thing.

My prescription was started in August 2018. My doctor prescribed me Rexualti in August of 2018. I was given it for two weeks to see how I would respond to it. My symptoms included terrible thoughts. At the time, it was hard to cope with these symptoms. What I wanted most was for them to disappear. 2018 was a challenging year. I have almost been prescribed a medication that would not have worked for me and would have made things worse. The medication was called Risperidone. I am not sure how many of you are familiar with that medication, but thank god I did not take it. I have heard some bad things about it. Risperidone wasn't the proper medication for me; I only took Rexulti for two weeks. Even though my symptoms weren't as bad as before, I needed group therapy and one-on-one sessions with my doctor. I took my medication every morning. In 2019, I was prescribed another medication called Prozac. This was the second medication that was prescribed to me. That medication may be familiar to many people. I think Prozac relieved my symptoms, but I gained weight. I gained weight like crazy. I gained a pound a day. Prozac caused my weight to double every week when I started taking it. I had an average weight of 120 before taking Prozac. In one year, I gained 100 pounds.

Throughout 2019 I took both Prozac and Latuda. Latuda caused me to have restlessness, and my legs hurt. The side effects were detrimental to my mental health and my physical health. You cannot choose between your mental health and your physical health. That was one downside of the medications I took. After 2019, I continued taking the pills because they were helping me, but the downside was the side effects. Every medicine has side effects, but I wish they weren't so severe. I was only worried about my weight now. I was in good mental health, but I needed to lose weight. Throughout 2020, I enrolled in a gym membership and began working out there twice a week. My weight wasn't coming off despite working out for a long time. This led me to stop taking medications entirely in the summer of 2020. You should not stop any medicine without consulting your doctor first. I stopped the medication because the side effects became unbearable

Much. The choice was literally between my mental and physical health, so I chose my physical health this time, The medications were stopped in May 2020, and I was fine during the summer. Still. after September, I relapsed and ended up in the hospital again because of my symptoms. This time, they were terrible. During my one week in the hospital, I was put on trintellix, and I can tell you, this medication didn't work for me. It worsened my symptoms, especially when placed on Rexulti and trintellix. It's as if the two medications are incompatible. I tried taking them and doing group therapy, but nothing worked. Then, I had a long talk with my doctor, and he prescribed me another medication. He was trying to find a medication that would not cause me to gain weight. Aside from my mental health problems, I have dealt with the weight gain issue. In December 2021, he found me a medication with fewer side effects. The medication was Abilify and clomipramine. After taking it for three weeks, I noticed a big difference in my symptoms.

On top of that, I was losing weight as well. After a month, my symptoms had improved by 60%. It felt like a miracle. Right now, I would say that I am 90% recovered. I am not perfect, I still have my bad days, but I am much better than before. My diet is very healthy and I love to walk and hike. Participating in groups and doing activities were really helpful to me as well. I completed a year of group therapy and graduated from the program. After approximately five years of searching for the proper medication, I would advise anyone going through the same thing to talk to their doctor about it and listen to their body simultaneously. Mine took five years, but yours may take less.