These past few weeks have been some of the best for a few months. Mentally I have been excellent. Anxiety is at its lowest point for years having gotten my motorcycle fixed and the weather has gotten better - it's practically summer here. Depression isn't even knocking on the door, although it's still out there somewhere. And, I don't talk about this one too much because there's there's an nearly impenetrable thicket of stigma around it, psychotic symptoms are where they always been for the last 2 years now, barely there at all. (Just for the sake for the reader, if you have no idea what psychotic symptoms are it doesn't mean being an axe-wielding maniac. Psychosis is about experiencing hallucination and delusional thoughts. People erroneously use 'psychotic' when that actually mean 'psychopathic').
This is, in a condensed version, what I told my psychiatrist three weeks ago. Whilst I was there I agreed to do swap with medication. I have started taking aripiprazole (try pronouncing that without using Google) at 10 milligrams with an aim of 20 milligrams in a months time. And with the next appointment I'll be dropping risperidone because it's not been that effective. What I'm hoping is that the aripiprazole will be enough for me to drop lamotrigine too, dropping the total amount of tablets I'm on down to two, aripiprazole and another non-psychotropic drug that helps alleviate the need to go to the toilet at night - because apparently my body thinks I'm 80.
So far I have no real side effects from the aripiprazole, I had problems for the first two nights going to sleep because I was taking it before bedtime as no one told me when to take the sodding stuff. Pro tip: if you've agreed to take medication, make sure you know when to take it; doctors are absolutely useless in that regard. Since getting the times right I'm not having problems with sleep so everything is good now. In terms of good stuff happening from it, well, I haven't had a decrease of tics (that's why I agreed to take this new drug) but I have had more motivation and been more productive, I've clean my motorbike, walked the dog several times a week, did yoga, picked up learning to 3D model on my computer. So I'm wondering if my productiveness is going to increase at 20 milligrams, I'd like that quite a lot.
Apart from that, I did have an argument with my sister. Things haven't been good between us for the last 6 months. For me the argument was a good thing, it helped get rid of a bit of frustration I have bottled up. So I've felt better. I don't know what my sister feels like now. I said some things that needed to be said. And I'll leave it at that.
Here's to hoping these waters don't led to a waterfall.
This is, in a condensed version, what I told my psychiatrist three weeks ago. Whilst I was there I agreed to do swap with medication. I have started taking aripiprazole (try pronouncing that without using Google) at 10 milligrams with an aim of 20 milligrams in a months time. And with the next appointment I'll be dropping risperidone because it's not been that effective. What I'm hoping is that the aripiprazole will be enough for me to drop lamotrigine too, dropping the total amount of tablets I'm on down to two, aripiprazole and another non-psychotropic drug that helps alleviate the need to go to the toilet at night - because apparently my body thinks I'm 80.
So far I have no real side effects from the aripiprazole, I had problems for the first two nights going to sleep because I was taking it before bedtime as no one told me when to take the sodding stuff. Pro tip: if you've agreed to take medication, make sure you know when to take it; doctors are absolutely useless in that regard. Since getting the times right I'm not having problems with sleep so everything is good now. In terms of good stuff happening from it, well, I haven't had a decrease of tics (that's why I agreed to take this new drug) but I have had more motivation and been more productive, I've clean my motorbike, walked the dog several times a week, did yoga, picked up learning to 3D model on my computer. So I'm wondering if my productiveness is going to increase at 20 milligrams, I'd like that quite a lot.
Apart from that, I did have an argument with my sister. Things haven't been good between us for the last 6 months. For me the argument was a good thing, it helped get rid of a bit of frustration I have bottled up. So I've felt better. I don't know what my sister feels like now. I said some things that needed to be said. And I'll leave it at that.
Here's to hoping these waters don't led to a waterfall.
