Thread for people who have been harmed by antipsychotics

[HiPineapple]

Have you been harmed by antipsychotics? I have.

I am poor and overweight. I don't take antipsychotics any more and feel much better for it. But rebuilding my life is hard. I feel sad about the years I lost to taking them. Specifically I feel sad about the years of my children's lives when I was not only unhealthy and poor but also had few coping skills and little enjoyment of life due to taking antipsychotics.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? How do you come to terms? I feel sad and cheated.

I'm sorry you've gone through this. How do you manage your symptoms now?

For the people I knew, it was very hard but better than the psychotic symptoms.

What things do you enjoy in life? You can always change and improve things:)

Not antipsychotics but I was seriously harmed as a teenager by antidepressants.

Have you posted this before? It sounds familiar.

What harm do you think they've done? Have you spoken to your doctors about it?

May I ask what harm it has caused?

my antipsychotics have kept me alive for almost 10 years now. my life is VERY different now, i am Fat, i no longer have a career, a husband or a family around me and things are not how i expected them to be at this stage of my life. but, i was acutely unwell and hospitalised when i went on them and they have kept me mostly stable with the odd crisis period. i’ve actually just come out of one that nearly ended very badly. i’m too scared to change my meds, if i’m completely honest.

i’m sorry you’ve had and are having such a tough time. are you able to request some counselling via your GP to talk this through? it sounds too big to cope with alone.

i hope you’re doing ok.

I have bpd, depression, paranoia and anxiety. I also have an eating disorder I have had for many years. They an a couple of other medicines have cause some weight gain. Other people say I look fine etc but I can tell. It's caused my eating disorder to worson again and I purge most days. My antipsychotics have caused me harm in this way. Thankfully soon we will be discussing my medication and swapping it.

Lost most of my teens and early twenties and ended up type 2 diabetic at age 27 thanks to antipsychotics. I think a lot of people don't realise how broadly they're used, for conditions ranging from insomnia to depression to agitation to anxiety to mania to actual psychosis. They're powerful drugs that can have a profound impact on your emotional and cognitive functioning, and serious, permanent physical side effects. When truly needed they're important drugs, but when the psych industry switched from antipsychotics that cause movement disorders to antipsychotics that cause diabetes, they seem to have ramped up the numbers of people they consider to "need" them.

Hi @BiscuitLover09876 I don't really have symptoms. I mean I don't see things that aren't there or have off beam thoughts or anything. I feel better for stopping taking the pills. I do yoga and try to run to boost my mental and physical health but it's hard to run because I am very out of condition after years of lethargy so I keep getting muscle strains. I enjoy it when I can though.

The main problem for me now is reintegration into normal 50+ yo life. I feel like I've not experienced events or life stages most people my age have. Plus I really need to earn more money and it is hard to do so when you are 50 and have never earnt very much.

@fantasmasgoria1

I have bpd, depression, paranoia and anxiety. I also have an eating disorder I have had for many years. They an a couple of other medicines have cause some weight gain. Other people say I look fine etc but I can tell. It's caused my eating disorder to worson again and I purge most days. My antipsychotics have caused me harm in this way. Thankfully soon we will be discussing my medication and swapping it.

i can relate to all of this. i also have BPD, anxiety, treatment-resistant depression, PTSD and a lifelong eating disorder. i also take antidepressants notorious for weight gain and i have arthritis so can’t really exercise sufficiently like i used to. i’m currently being managed by an Obesity Clinic as i wa s beginning the binge/purge cycle again. i’m on so much medication i rattle.

i feel so sad that so many people are struggling. it seems horribly unfair that the medications prescribed for mental illness cause other issues that have such an impact on self-esteem. it’s ever decreasing circles, really.

@brightgreenapple it caused harm to every area of my life. So firstly, I am fat. Not just a bit chubby but fat. At 50 this puts me in line for t2 diabetes and heart disease. I also don't remember things eg words, life events, so well as my mental function has declined.

When I was taking the antipsychotics it was like I was in a fog. I slept a lot. I couldn't cope with the tiniest thing going wrong eg someone saying a slightly thoughtless thing, I'd be off on a spiral of despair.

I've had to relearn all of those coping skills.

I had no joy from life. Everything was on one note and an effort. I only realised how much of life I'd been missing out on when I stopped them and suddenly the world was there in full colour. But for years I didn't see it.

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be so poor now if I hadn't have been on antipsychotics. I took them during my peak earning years. I did have a fairly good job with a chance of progression but as soon as I took them my concentration went, I made mistakes, I couldn't handle normal workplace interaction and drifted in and out of low paid jobs and dole throughout my children's childhood.

Again I won't get those years back.