Is he better? I got off meds and I am literally better no voices or anything. Sometimes psychosis goes away, my grandma dated a schizophrenic whose psychosis came back and went away. I also read an article that said only 1/3 of schizophrenics need meds the rest of there lives.
If he is not better be might just need to find the right medication, maybe that particular medication didn’t work well for him. I will never touch zyprexa again, it made me feel like I needed to eat everything in my refridgerator daily. You couldnt pay me to go back to that. Risperdone caused me Gynecomastia so I couldnt be paid to go back to that either but for some people thats the best one because it causes the least amount of weight gain (although it causes pituatary tumors)
Abilify is the only 3rd generation antipsychotic and its supposedly makes you feel less depressed and gives you happy feelings which can lead to weight loss in some and weight gain in others. Just be careful with abilify because it has the highest chance of Tarditive Dyskinesia (a permanent nuerological condition that doesnt have a cure)
Also, he might need to add antidepressants or anxiety meds to the risperdal to feel comfortable in his own skin.
Unfortunately these meds arent like taking an advil and it takes months for you to get used to some of them. Anehdonia is a reason a lot of people stop, because feeling emotionless is not good. This could mean the dose was too high. Sometimes doctors overshoot the dosage if things dont appear to be getting better, mind overshot it. I needed 3.5 MG to feel comfortable but because there was no .5 MG pill he just kept rounding it up for some reason
Imagine this, if someone said you had to live with an uncomfortable plastic bag over your head the rest of your life for your protection and sanity would you want to? Hell no these meds sedate us and suck, even cause anxiety with some.
So basically you gotta find out the reason he hates the meds so much (if he truly needs them, which like I said I dont my psychosis it gone now) if its causing him anxiety or shakyness, if its too sedating there are ways to cope. The sedation is fixed by simply drinking coffee. Otherwise just find out what about the medicine makes him uncomfortable. Haldol is an old ass medicine why did they give him that one? There are Generation 1, Generation 2, and Generation 3 antipsychotics. There are also seizure medications like depakote and bipolar meds like latuda that can work as well. He doesnt have to pick the first medicine the doctor prescribes, the doctors only prescribe them half the time because the get a kickback unfortunately, and they have literally no empathy for the patient in this regard.
If you cant get him to open up to switching and trialing meds til his “plastic bag over his head” is comfortable and livable enough to enjoy daily life, you might need to commit him if you are truly afraid for him going to jail or getting in trouble. The pot thing is a little scary because some evidence shows it can cause schizophrenia in some but that evidence is still sparse so no reason to freak out.
Take this from someone who has had drug induced psychosis twice (im just really sensitive to ADHD and Depressant meds) the doctors most of the time just go off what Pharm Reps train them to say, information and articles about side effects are skewed by pharmaceutical companies to make them look rare when in actuality they are extremely common (this sounds like a conspiracy theory, but think about it in this light, have you ever worked for a company that had sketchy ethics in how they paid employees, treated customers, withheld details regarding product recalls, etc? I have, and so if you think about it, it doesnt sound so farfetchd Pharmacuetical companies would do this too)
I used to work at Whole Foods, one time the protein powder had been recalled because a prescription drug for heart attacks added to it instead of an enzyme and we were all told to downplay the situation to the customer, not tell them at all what happened and just said there was a quality issue (so they could buy it next time when it came back in stock)
So basically dont be afraid to question the doctor. Chances are you and him are more aware of what the meds are doing to your mindset and brain and if you need to switch meds you need to switch!