My daughter has gotten HUGE from Risperadal - any alternatives?

Last year in February, my son’s meds were changed to Invega injectible. It was horrible! He became more sick, more psychotic. My son has said in the past. He felt like he was dying. This year is better than last year. He is back on Zyprexa but lower dosage.The issue has been energy drinks, but his therapist has spoken to him; and his pdoc will talk to him today. On Zyprexa, he has gains weight. when off the zyprexa, he drops weight fast.

Can you share with me about the orthomolecular nutrients? Does your son see a certain doctor? How are they working?

I was pre diabetic until I wasn’t (I lost weight). For a time I did take metformin for slightly elevated glucose levels but it can also have terrible side effects such as memory loss, feeling disjointed from surroundings, exhaustion, severe muscle aches, etc. I felt horrible on metformin and quickly stopped taking it. My daughter’s doctor refuses to prescribe metformin for weight loss because at one time we discussed it. He believes it’s not safe and not thoroughly proven.

My daughter is on Zyprexa as an occasional PRN. When she was on the drug daily her delusions and paranoia improved dramatically but as you wrote it does cause tremendous weight gain and health problems associated with weight gain. One can hope that someday there will be a safe drug for our kids that will keep the disease at bay and not cause any weight gain.

Not take the thunder out of Orthomolecular treatment for mental illness but I was like so many parents was desperate to find a completely natural and healthier way to treat mental illness. I was and still am concerned about the medication. I took my daughter to natural medicine specialist for about a good amount of time – probably full time two years and the rest of the times we went to assorted alternative medicine practitioners. Spent and wasted a lot of money on promises and so called research that have never been proven on a large scale.

My take on alternative medicine now is if it was that easy no one would have schizophrenia if we could give our children vitamins. Think about it – who among us would waste our time with traditional psychiatric meds if taking a vitamin would take care of it. It would be so much easier, gentler and a whole lot less expensive. There are many conspiracy theoriies out there and some of it is true but most of it is hogwash. These folks take advantage of desperate parents and just because someone says its true doesn’t make it so and the old saying … it something sounds to be good to be true it probably is.

I had one friend who was an art therapist and she continually hounded me with art therapy for my daughter. I wasted too much time being polite to her and finally I blew up and told her ---- don’t you think that I’ve tried every friggin (but I used the bad F word) thing imaginable to help my daughter. Your art therapy is nice and could be helpful BUT IT DOES NOT CURE SCHIZOPHRENIA. I yelled at my good friend but folks who haven’t been where we are have no idea what the hell they’re talking about,

Also years ago when I was on this forum there were folks who were pretending to be parents of mentally ill children but in fact had their own agenda selling vitamins … vitamin pushers – funny but true.

I just hate to see parents to go through what I went though to help my daughter. There are charlatans out there who are willing to take advantage of our grief and sell us snake oil medicine. Don’t believe them.

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Molly, much thanks. I’ve wanted to do as you have done, but so much chaos and keeping my now 25 year old on meds when he was first diagnosed (@ 15-1/2 years old) was a nightmare. I agree, vitamins are helpful, but do NOT cure schizophrenia. I understand your response to your friend/art therapist.

Today, at work I had a male co-worker mention my “looking slim” - I’ve lost 40lbs since March 2016 at which time the roller coaster started, I said, “I need to eat more, but I can’t seem to right now.”, he said, “to not think so much”. He knows I’ve been stressed, doesn’t know anything. If only I had the luxury of ‘not thinking so much.’

Thanks for the heads up on the charlatans.

I was on the forum awhile back, but have been riding the roller coaster of mental health in a small mountain town with law enforcement, etc…, so, this is the first time I’ve considered checking in with others. Thanks for responding so quickly.

Hi Betsy - welcome to the forum.

My son got ill the first time at 15 1/2 too. He’s 27 now. And, keeping them on the meds is a constant struggle, although we’re doing pretty well so far with the Invega injection. It’s only been a couple months, but it’s a relief not to have to argue about it all the time.

Betsy, we took our son to Chicago a year and a half ago and saw Dr. Judy Bowman at Mensah Medical. I really wanted to try it because he hated the antipsychotic medicine so much that I thought it was worth a shot. It is slow and all the paperwork they give you tells you it’s probably gonna be a few months before they start feeling better. I could tell after about three months that my son’s mood was lifting but he also lives on antipsychotics medication. He was doing more he was involved in a day program two or three days a week and was meeting new people there. But then he got worse and had to be hospitalized and lost ground there and we are restarting the therapy.

I did a bit of research before we went up there on the Internet. There’s a lot of YouTube videos of Dr Mensah but also his mentor Dr. Pfeiffer. It makes a lot of sense to me but it does take time.

Sorry that you’ve been through such a hell of a time with vitamins Molly - however I have to disagree that they don’t work, They work for some people at least. My son a sz for the past 15 years who had all the drugs that people talk about here, is all the proof I need
Mom2 a contributor on here posted a very good video a few weeks ago that I watched with interest. Dr Mensah the doctor who narrates the video was saying that there are 4 sz types that all respond differently to different types of vitamins.
Here is the video "Schizophrenia: An Orthomolecular Approach to Re-Balancing Brain & Body Chemistry" - YouTube

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Just thought I would update on this thread -

My son gained about 100lbs on Invega. Lost about 40 while on Geodon, but he was living in assisted living at that time also.

Went onto Risperdal injection, gained back that 40 lbs. He was living independently at that time, so could eat whenever he wanted to.

Since starting Clozaril a year ago, he has now lost over 30 lbs. He is living on his own still - with some daily assistance. He is making better food choices now as well. He feels better at the lower weight, and I really hope he doesn’t ever get back up to his highest weight ever again.

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