How long was he on Zyprexa and how much Gaba and the other supplements do you give him?
I can’t find any help with what to give him and how much?
It really makes me mad after reading Zyprexa is used when other meds fail. It was horrible what he went through after his brain injury. While in the hospital for 3 months after TBI they would put him on a psych med in the morning and then literally by that evening another Dr on a different team would change it.
So he was never on anything with less side effects they just settled on Zyprexa and Depokot just to help themselves they over medicated him.Now 2 yrs have passed and now they are trying to lower the damn things it will probably come with a lot of pain and anguish. I hate for him to be on these meds like everyone else. I hope and pray it will be a smooth transition to Vaylor. I’m sorry but I’m so damn mad they are just playing with our loved ones minds!!! No one really has the answer!
He also isolated himself at the group home. It’s very disturbing. He keeps himself locked in his room alone only to go out and eat yet when he is here he is always with us.Im so fearful of him turning in us like he was before meds that it paralyzes me to bring him home.i know the system will do nothing to help us if he is back home. 
The only way my daughter was helped was things that happened away from home (police/arrests/hospitalizations/court ordered meds). She has been released back home each time, this time on the Haldol dec shot once a month. She has been on Zyprexa in the past, it was the 2nd medicine ever tried on her, and the 2nd best for her. Haldol is like a miracle, along with supplements, food and sleep. I too feel that the mental health industry is sort of like a large dice table where medicines and outcomes are gambled with. The doctors have to take their best guesses way too often.
I believe that if my daughter hadn’t ended up in “the system” she would never have achieved the relative sanity she has now because it was the forced meds that gave her a new normal.
I wish you all the best of luck navigating the system and the medicine dice table for your loved ones.
I know the situation you’re in. We all just hope they can find the right med(s) that will help them to NOT turn on us, damage things, commit illegal acts, and just overall exhibit strange behaviors.
The problem is I know of NO AP that does not come with side effects. I guess I should say, ALL DRUGS. They all do, if you look up the side effects of most of these drugs, it’s paralyzing.
I never thought I’d be on a sz forum posting about the worries of side effects or the sad condition of my son’s life. I don’t think any of us thought this.
I’ve never heard of Vraylor, is this supposed to be better? I see that this is used mainly for Bipolar disorder. Was your son diagnosed with sz or was it due to his brain injury?
There is a great book I have called Prescription For Nutritional Healing. My husband had a lot of food allergies when he was younger along with asthma. When he was a teenager he started showing signs of depression so his mom took him to the doctor and they tried him on a few antidepressants but most of them made him go manic so she tried alternative options like homeopathics and changing his diet. I think she had some better results with that.
As we know each person is unique as far as what will work for them. I have Sarcosine on order which he responded to well before. We have also tried NAC 600mg which seemed to help as well.
He’s on 1000mcg of B-12, 500-1000mg of flush-free niacin, 1000-2000mg Flaxseed Oil, 50mg zinc and 750mg of GABA.
Whenever transitioning from 1 med to another we have come to learn we have to go very slow. He does not do well just doing the straight switch from 1 to the other. When we were going off of Zyprexa we kept the dose the same and slowly added in Rexulti. We started the process in June last year and the lowest he was able to go on Zyprexa was 5mg and that was in November so it took about 6 months for the switch. It was the easiest transition he’s been through. We are doing the same right now going from Rexulti to Vraylar. Very slow.
I would say on most days he functions well with the illness. He reads or draws or plays video games. He is pretty isolated from most of the friends he had but that is due to the sz because of the paranoia. When he was diagnosed the pdoc advised us to apply for SSDI so we did. It took a while to go through but we do have that small income along with what I get at my job. We still have to live with family because we are not able to afford living on our own. I’m going to look into public housing assistance but I also take care of his dad who has Parkinson’s disease. Needless to say I have a full plate!
Okay. Happy Sunday all and I pray for best days for you and your loved ones.
I believe I have that book.i will take a look.thank you so much for all your information. I am praying he will make the transition to Zyprexa With ease. How much of increases of the other meds is considered slow and how much per week or month?
I just tried to gage the med transition by how he was feeling. If I noticed any increased agitation I waited a little longer to decrease the old. I also contacted his pdoc to let her know what we were doing. I think we were going every 3-4 weeks before we would decrease. I did some research on decreasing Olanzapine and others experience with it so that was helpful. I think we’ve been at it long enough that he knows what to look out for as far as how he’s feeling. He’s able to make the connection with how he’s feeling and it possibly being his medication. It’s not always like that but it’s gotten better. He still has his moments where he’ll shut down and shut me out for a bit so I do my best to let him have his space when I think he needs it. We also have better communication as far as me being able to ask him how he’s feeling and he knows I’m talking about symptoms of the illness. It’s a constant learning experience so I just take things as they come.
They aren’t sure and once you have a brain injury and haven’t had a prior diagnosis of MI then it’s just TBI to them. He’s had multiple bad concussion in his life and his father and his half sibling on his fathers side all have bipolar. He symptoms are all sounding like SZ but TBI can do it as well so where does he fit in.
He had something going on prior to this last TBI but amazingly enough i had him admitted but they never diagnosed him. He was completely bizarre and out of his mind.I still can’t believe they just let him go and wouldn’t listen to a thing I was telling them.Once he was out of the hospital a few months later he walked in front of an 18 wheeler. I blame the system for this tragedy. We should be able to press charges for negligence on the so called professionals.
As for Vraylor it’s not suppose to have as many side effects but like you said they all have them. I can’t read them without having s panic attack.