confused - should i change meds?

[sunshine1989]

Hi there
So I'm not officially bipolar but I've had to deal with highs and lows for a long time, with antidepressants either not working or sending me walking with angels and talking to trees....After this I took olanzapine 5mg. I think it worked on the mood but it's hard to tell because they made me so unbelievably anxious, whilst sedating me so that I felt I couldn't participate in conversations because my thinking was so slowed. I also lost a lot of my energy and drive to do anything. I'm now on 2.5mg. However I recently moved home and changed job and started doing cartwheels in the cathedral and playing loud music and hoovering in the middle of the night, but then feeling both on top of the world but lethargic and stuck to my chair at the same time...occaisonally I felt racing thoughts too and it was like I was an observer in my head watching the negative spiral of thoughts downwards....there were times when all I wanted to do was self harm .....because I hurt so much. I have an appointment with a pyschiatrist a week on Wednesday and want to change my meds because the higher does makes me a subdued anxious mess and this does doesn't seem to work.....
However - good news - it lifted yesterday and I feel normal!! I haven't felt this well in months.
I'm scared about going to see the doctor because when I go over these things they just sound that they weren't real - how is she going to believe me? And do I still change my meds...knowing I could be destabilized for months again? I just don't feel safe on this dose knowing how the past few weeks were.
Wow. Sorry for that. Think I just needed to let it out!

[Amy4891]

Maybe you could ask about a mood stabilizer if you are not on one yet. It may help with the mood swings.

[adel_ezz]

if i remember olanzapine/zyprexa dose is 5-20mg. so 5 is the least and 20 is max though some take more of course. now because the range is small monitoring the dose is difficult. for example i am on seroquel 150mg which makes me sleepy while 125 is little. so i fix my dose to 125 and each 5 days or so i add 25mg once only and this adjusts my dose. sometimes i take a daily benzo of 1.5mg but not regularly. As i become sleepy again after a while i reduce it to 125 back again and fix it for a while. But seroquel range is large in the sense that 900mg of seroquel (theoretically the max therapeutic dose) is equivalent to 20mg of olanzapine (again max therap..) which means that reducing olanzapine by 2.5 is like reducing seroquel by about 100mg which is very large (google for the equivalence of antipsychotics e.g. 1mg risperidone is equivalent to 100 seroquel, etc...)

i suggest you fix your dose (ask your pdoc of course) to 2.5 but add 1mg of benzo say to supplement it.

I have no other solution

[schizofriendia]

You should only change medications if your doctor thinks so.  It's good to keep them notified on changes to your mental health.  They aren't going to doubt you most likely because they've probably heard nearly everything there is to hear.

[stormbear]

yeah man , go in and see your psychiatrist and be honest that's the best policy so they can help you out , I have to keep reminding myself that they are there to help me to , because my anxiety and paranoia get's pretty bad some time's i don't leave my house .