Has the antipsychotic drug maked my HPPD worse?

[myrslingerbult]

So, at first the doctors thought that i had a psychosis so I've been taking the antipsychotic drug Seroquel for some months. I've been phasing that one out now but i feel like crap everyday. I wonder if the antipsychotic drug may have maked my hppd even worse. Is that possible and would that damage be permanent?

Best wishes.

[Sammywalker2009]

Ive read antisphcotics in general can make it worse and read on the visual snow site seroquel made most people visual snow worse but some people it didn't effect and I think a few people who were on it long term saw benefits

[chrismo]

I think the anti-depressants I was taking were making my HPPD worse. It's infuriating that out of ignorance doctors are prescribing things that could be antagonists. I guess it's indicative of how poorly understood HPPD is generally. But then, yeah, people react differently so we have to behave like scientists and monitor what affects us in what ways.

[Sammywalker2009]

Yeah I wouldn't let a doctor prescribe me something I haven't read to be of some help I think it's good that sites like this can educate people so they might be able to make a more informed descision about what to take

[mgrade]

I think APs can "reset" your brain if taken for a few months after onset of pseudo-psychosis/psychosis breaks. It may "reset" neurotransmitter levels eventually, and up-regulate receptors to "normal" states after "short" time with AP "therapy" [..cannot verify this]. So in other words you may feel not so good on them and not so good initially when you get off them. But later on, farther after discontinuation, you will recover [most likely] faster with their use.

How long have you been taking Seoquel?

Seroquel is a drug that some doctors love and other do not love. Others prefer Risperidone, Clozapine and Zyprexa.

Seroquel virtually blocks everything [blocks NE, DA, 5HT] when you take it at night. It will make you sleepy/go to sleep (it is basically a tranquilizer).

But by the time you wake up [sometime the next day], it metabolizes into another substance that is a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. The next day you get more NE levels [..maybe kind of similar to wellbutrin and ritalin].

[John Smith]

Risperidone is known to definitely make symptoms alot worse, dont know about seroquel though.

[mgrade]

I have taken the drugs: Zyprexa, Risperidone and Abilify.

I found Risperidone [personally] to be the best of the bunch. ..But yes I read that information about Risperidone being "not -the-right-thing" for drug-induced persistent problems. Nevertheless, I don't believe that information.

..But these drugs are tranquilizers. And in the end, for me, I hate them.

[treespirit]

Hello! I haven't posted on this forum before but have been reading it for a long time. I am currently in a second bout of HPPD.

The first time round I went to the doctors (having no idea what it was I was suffering from) and they assumed i had psychosis, so put me on risperidone. This was over 3 years ago. The risperidone made my visiuals nuts the day after my first dose. I took it in the evening, passed out and couldn't see through the visual snow the next day. Anyway, my dad called the doctor and he said that this sort of thing sometimes happened and to see what happened in the coming weeks. At some point in the next few months my visuals improved a hell of a lot (hard to tell when, or why? could have been that i begun taking good care of myself and was having counselling which made me feel more accepted. not 100 percent convinced AT ALL that it was the anti psychotics that improved my vision. If anything I couldn't tell if I was better or not. I basically just had a mental lobotomy). I did stop taking drugs. Obviously, if you think you are suffering from psychosis you would tend to do this..

I was taking risperidone for probably 18 months in total. At some point I started taking MDMA again... with no adverse effects. Eventually I decided I must be fine so stopped taking risperidone as it made me put on 3 stone in the course of time I was taking it, made me depressed, sedated and a mindless zombie. When i came off it my friends started to say how amazing and alive I looked. Anyway, cut things short I developed HPPD again, maybe a year ago. I'm not going to go to the doctors again this time, I'm too worried I will be back on antipsychotics and sedated. And having counselling for psychosis, with them asking me if I was paranoid all the time made me paranoid. Self fulfilling prophecy much? In the last few months my visuals have improved slightly but then they do get worse now and again... I think the thing that has helped me most is a daily yoga practice each morning, and if I keep that up I notice the visuals less and less and feel more assured as a person. Having a routine and keeping a positive out look helps with depersonalisation and derealisation.

[mgrade]

Getting off APs [riseridone] and immediately getting on MDMA is a really bad idea, but you probably realize that already.

[Sammywalker2009]

Yeah I would never touch MDMA again in a thousand lifetimes lol

[mgrade]

It kinda like when you see a morbidly-obese person order a Diet Coke with their McDonalds

[treespirit]

fully aware, but to be honest would any of us be on this forum if we hadn't made mistakes? hindsight is a wonderful thing, but i'm also done beating myself up over it

[David S. Kozin]

Part of recovery some(many)times includes relapse, even if the damage is HPPD (Or lost love, child, DUI w/Vehicular Manslaughter). People use hallucinogens or related drugs for a reason, and for my own reasons I have experienced different substances after 1998 HPPD onset. Addiction or the disorders or dis-ease we experience in our daily lives may lead to decisions inconsistent with logic and emotions/impulsivity leading the way.

Treespirit, thanks for coming back. Life is full of struggle, freedom from it is understanding the self and true honesty about our own spirit and emotions to ourself. To say, "David, you are lucky you are alive," and "HPPD is much better than the death that was approaching in my drug use," perhaps have been part of the most effective ways I deal and manage my symptoms.

It is hell to see what I do, feel the strange pains I do and lose night vision and end up dependent physically on a medication for over 10 years, but when I weighed 104 lbs at 5'7" what was about to come could and would have been much worse. I am lucky to be alive, and I think this makes HPPD much more managable. The moment we stop asking, "Why did I do that," with the mindset of making a MISTAKE and say, "A lesson learned," we convert our mind's perception and judgements of our experience in the now and the past.

The same roller coaster can make this person feal panic & fear and the other person rush & excitement. Same physical world, just a matter of how we take our perception of physical reality into cognitive experience.

- David

[Sammywalker2009]

I try to look at it in that way I do not regret the experience or doing it what I'd regret more is giving up and not doing what is needed to beat it I know if and when I beat hppd it will be as good as winning the lottery I look forward to that day

[mgrade]

David's got kind of a Ram Dass thing he is talking about: undermining or putting away or ignoring the demons with positive, empowering thoughts. Letting go. [i feelin that for sure].

The thing Sammy is that it's not a lights on/lights off sort of thing. It's so gradual. It's almost like going from 35% your potential to 65% of your potential is easy, compared to going from 65% to 95%. In other words, in a year you should be at 50-75% better most likely, but getting

65-95% better may take 1-4 years beyond that first year. Kind see where I'm getting at.

[Sammywalker2009]

Yeah well it's been over a year and I'd say I'm at that 65% but looking to get some meds to speed up the process I'm a strong believer in the power of positive thought it's clinically proven the placebo effect can have good effects if think you'll never recover you won't it's the self fulfilling prophecy positivity all the way man lol

[mgrade]

This is a great thread. ..And I share the same boat as you Sam. I wish this thing will get better quicker. If you have read some of my darker posts, you can tell I've personally reached some very low lows at times.

There seems to be a pattern of antagonists up-regulating receptors. Hence, according to most specialists, if your symptoms include disorders not only limited to minimal visual disturbances, relatively short-term treatment/therapy with antipsychotics should eventually re-regulate receptor density&sensitivity [and neurotransmitter concentrations] to normal/healthy default levels. The other avenues are eventual ADD med [dopamine], SSRI [serotonin], Bupropion [norepinephrine], and Klonopin/Valium/Ativan [GABA]. It seems to be the conjecture of the higher-ups that Klonopin is the most effective treatment so far and for the last 40 or so years.

I don't know; I usually have strong feelings. But I think anything can be bad given certain sets of circumstances. ..For instance, you could get one of those machines where you hang upside-down and you could throw a clot to your brain. ...Just like genetics, sometimes it's the luck of the draw.

[mgrade]

I had to re-read David's post: many more levels than you think. ..And perhaps revealing of himself personally, the pleasure principle and the state of suffering.

[idi0tboy]

Initially I was put on Olazipeine..... cue major mania whic I assume was related, doc threw in Halperidol much improved (still on Olanz though)