Another experience for the parenting someone with mental illness experience wallet.
I wonder if at the end of it you will think you had expected more or less from the ingestion than you actually end up experiencing?
Donāt feel bad because I did the exact same thing early on when my son first started taking clozapine, I hadnāt even realized I took it because his medicines were next to mine. I went to work and had to be driven back home because I could not stay awake at all. I slept it off. Never made that mistake again. No harm though other than unavoidable sleep. After that I separated our medicines in two different places.
Oh hope you are ok, let us know how you get on.
Do they plan to keep your son on Invega Sustenna and Clozapine? What dose of Clozapine? My son is currently on Invega Sustenna but he is still hallucinating and having paranoid delusions.
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They plan to keep him on Clozapine.
Itās about 28 hours after I took it, but, I felt more than sleep., th
I was so out of it was slurring my words - my son wanted to call 911.
My hand eye coordination kind of left too, so it would take be forever to put my hand on the right thing then more time to grip it - then, almost evertime drop it again. Itās even effecting my typing skills.
I didnāt get a lot of solid sleep - I just kind of went in and you.
I understand why people donāt like the drooling. Itās more like you accumulate the saliva in your mouth whlle you sleep, then you get a drowning sensation
All that being said, heās not complaining of any of that, so weāll keep moving forward with it. Heās only on 200 mg/day, so weāll see
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Wow! Glad you are ok. Can see why they work them up so slowly on the med now, to give their body time to get used to it. Take care,
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It was miserable and Iām still a little foggy headed & my body feels like itās pushing through water.
If they felt this way all the time, I wouldnāt blame anyone for not taking them.
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Your posts about how well your son is responding to clozapine are so good to read! I understand COMPLETELY the hesitancy to be even cautiously optimistic. My sonās response hasnāt been as good as yours, but it has been life-changing nonetheless. I can often enjoy a sense of peace that I couldnāt experience for years.
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Thank you guys for sticking through this with me & all the advice about going ahead with the Clozapine.
He has a long way to go, but it feels somewhat in control for the time being. Except for when he gets talking about his delusions, heās pretty good.
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Have you thought about taking it for a few more days to see how long it takes the side effects to go way? 
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Me? absolutely not. Iād be a zombie - when I couldnāt speak clearly he wanted to call 911 for me. It was like being drunker than Iāve ever felt with 0 fun. Iād reach for things and my hand would be about a foot off from where the item was, then when I adjusted enough to get it, Iād drop it. Then the fun would begin again.
Iād also get to the point where internally Iād think I felt kind of OK - then Iād try to move and it was like I was stuck in someone elseās body. Itās been about 36 hours now & I still donāt feel right - I just want to crawl into bed & sleep. However, the sleep isnāt all that restful - I still wake up a lot, Iām just going back to sleep a little better - I think.
I donāt like how it feels, but just because I feel that way doesnāt mean he does all the time because everyoneās different.
And, they give him exactly 14 pills between blood tests. I have some extra because of how his dosage increase fell, so heās OK - but I couldnāt take many.
Finally, this med has some pretty scary side effects - I donāt think I should play around with it.
In the past, Iāve taken a couple of his meds. One, Zyprexa, was by accident - It was a loose one, I had dropped one of my pills & it looked pretty close to it. I could barely stay awake at work, but it was no where as extreme as the Clozapine. It took me a couple days of thinking back to figure out what I had done.
The second one I dried was his Adderal - just to see what it would do. I could definitely see where people would get high off the Adderall, plus it makes you hyperfocused. I can see where people would like that, but I have enough problems sleeping and I didnāt really like the dizzy/buzzy feeling.
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So happy that things are more stable for both of you slw. As horrible as it is that our sons have to take this, in many ways, it saves their lives, and ours.
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Heās really good about dealing with the side effects until they go away.
Me, not so much. If a pill gives me a headache, makes me feel sick or actually throw up, or I get dizzy, I wonāt take it.
Luckily, nothingās been that important to my health so far, but one of these days I wonāt be able to be so stubborn about it.
I totally get why they donāt want to take them. I just donāt see much choice.
There just isnāt a choice, is there? One day I will ask my son how he feels on them. Unfortunately the best tactic with him is to not bring it up. Iām almost afraid that if I do, he will start focusing in on his side effects, and decide he doesnāt want that anymore. Because he takes the whole dose at night, I suspect he sleeps through the worst of the effects, but your experience with that one dose makes me realize why it is so difficult for them to get motivated to do things. I canāt imagineā¦but a necessary evil sadly.
Leiann, Iām the same way, it is best not to talk about it for fear it would make my son decide not to take it anymore! My son takes the whole dose at night too - how much does your son take?
Update - I scrolled back, and found that your son is on 600 mg. I would like to try an increase for my son from 250mg since his delusions are still so strong, but I know he would resist, so I wonāt rock the boat.
Yes, 600 mg, which is a pretty high dose. He doesnāt yell anymore at his voices, but even at that dose, I know theyāre still there. I think they are just quieter than they used to be, and donāt ātortureā him anymore. He still believes these fixed delusions though. Not sure how high his meds would have to go to get rid of them but I suspect we are stuck with them. Wish he could be on a smaller dose, and still function as he is now.
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It took me a good 48 hours to feel somewhat normal after my accidental medication.
And, I swear my brain is still not working right today - It feels fuzzy & Iām just not as sharp as I normally think I am.
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At 250, my son also has stopped yelling at the voices. Occasionally I am aware that his is probably hearing some still, and he might tell them to Shut up or Ef off, but the extreme responses arenāt happening anymore. He doesnāt seem tormented anymore.
Delusions are still pretty strong. Lately I think I have seen him show some willingness to not give up on delusions, but consider that the things he believes happened are in the past and that he should consider moving forward with his life.
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My weekly update.
Heās doing pretty well - I think heās been on 200 mg/day for about 5 weeks. He sees the doctor this Monday and I have no idea what sheāll do about the dosage. Iām hoping she takes it to 200 mg/day.
He does have one side effect that he doesnāt like, although he hasnāt connected it to the meds. He doesnāt really drool, but he has saliva pooling in his mouth when heās sleeping and it wakes him up. He says itās a little hard to swallow. (by coincidence, I experienced the same thing when I took his pill by accident - itās not fun.)
I looked it up online and saw that chewing gum during the day would kind of trick your body into swallowing more while you slept, and I also saw there were 2 or 3 meds that would help with it.
I still think itās better than dry mouth, but Iād rather take care of it quickly before he says he doesnāt want to take the Clozapine anymore. Any suggestions?
(On my accidental taking of my sonās 100 mg pill - it literally took until today for me to feel normal - or think I feel normal. Iām not feeling the brain fog so much like I did yesterday. This is definitely strong stuff. When I did the same thing with Zyprexa a few years ago, Iād say I felt OK after about 24 hours.)
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2 mg of Cogentin (benzotropine) at bedtime slows the drool down to almost unnoticeable for my son and it doesnāt add any additional side effects of itās own.
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