Have not been to this site for a long time, but has probably been the best support Ive ever had. Have been dealing with my sons disease for 19 years. He has schizophrenia. He was a heavy drug user for a long time. but has been clean for 2 years. Now, he is feeling a lot of his symptoms, and I think a little more aware. I know that his anxiety is terrible but the nurse practioner will not give him anything for it because of his past drug abuse. At one point, he was given neurontin. He took too many and always ran out. I feel that he has turned some corners in the last 2 years and that his anxiety is holding him back. Has anyone had this experience of not being able to get even clonopin? He also gets an injection of prolixin which does not seem to be helping anymore.
Antidepressants also work for anxiety. My prescriber gave me Lexapro for my anxiety. I haven’t started it yet but it worked for my mom. Benzodiazepines are not good long term as you tend to build a tolerance and need more and more. They are also easy to get addicted to so doctors don’t like to prescribe them even if you were never an addict. Good luck to you and your son.
My son complains of high anxiety and due to his past addictions I don’t want him on benzos. He is prescribed Neurontin/Gabapentin. My son lives with me so I keep his meds with me. He goes through periods where he will miss use Gaba for the effect. He is also part of a program called ACT/PACT so if medications become an issue between us then I will hand them over to PACT and they will come administer them daily or as needed. My son seems to call a lot of things anxiety. Withdrawal, cravings, excess energy.
Has he ever been tried on Abilify or another Anti-psychotic that also has mood stabilizing qualities? I guess after 19 years he has probably been tried on a lot. It was a struggle and still is keeping my son off marijuana.
Welcome back to the site 
Thanks Barbie! My son has also been on neurontin, but he misused it-so no more. He would get a script for a certain amount, and use too much-then run out. I know that now that he is dealing head on with this is very stressing for him. He never says that, but I know that when he is getting overwhelmed, he gets punchy. These days, I am doing my utmost to let him try to run his own life. If he asks for help-I`m there. He has been on zyprexa, depakote, resperidal, and a lot of other things in the beginning. He has never been compliant, so we had injections. He still gets them. I think the zyprexa did a good job but he could not stand the weight gain. I am so grateful for this site!
It’s a catch-22. When I took my meds, I was too tired to function, but because of prior addiction, they wouldn’t give me anything. So I self medicated. Not good I knew, so I eventually stopped the meds (not my choice really, I lost my medical insurance). Then what do you know, the self medication stopped as well.
I think if they prescribe something to counter act the side effects, perhaps a months supply at a time, and only fill them once a month, no matter how quickly they get used up, it’s better than the garbage on the street.
They don’t seem to care if we suffer more from side effects, once the addict label is in your charts, you get denied any relief legally.
Such a shame really.
With schizophrenia there might be some OCD traits. Anxiety medicine is good for this, and very good if he has intrusive thoughts, not voices. I’ve been on Ativan 2mg at morning and night and it takes my voices away for hours at a time (I was someone who used to have voices 24/7)