The Incredible Journey of Going Off Zyprexa

It’s time for an incredible journey of going off of zyprexa after being overmedicated on it!

I’ll catch up new readers first. So you can skip this paragraph if you want. But the basics are that I was medicated at 10mg of zyprexa and that turned out to have disastrous side effects. One of which, a big one, was akathisia, which is a form of restlessness. The second one I only recently discovered, which was flattened affect. In terms of restlessness, it means that you constantly need to move about. I couldn’t sit still for long without getting up or just twitching, it drove me nuts. Flattened affect means that I experience no ups or downs of any kind. Life is unenjoyable and boring. What this did to me was prevent me from really recharging from relaxing. The boredom and twitchiness just wore me down more and more.

And today is my first day on 5mg after lowering the dose and switching to taking it at night. The results have been incredible. I slept very well after switching it to night. But the today has been much different than normal. On the good news front, my concentration is coming back. It’s been glorious to be able to read for an hour straight without zoning out or forgetting what was just read. And I enjoy it. It’s been too long for my memory since I last enjoyed reading. And this morning, I was able to really deeply reflect on my medication situation. I felt sad afterwards. But now that I’ve swung around, I’ve realized that I haven’t felt sad either. My emotions are back. And this will probably only get better as the serum level keeps dropping over the next few days. I must have been right at the cusp because early morning me was feeling flattened, but as today has progressed I’ve become more like my old self.

I also have been able to recharge emotionally. Which has been sadly lacking since I first attempted my mental health holiday. I thought I was going to relax and maybe that would get me back to normal, but it hasn’t until the zyprexa was tapered off that I started feeling better. I must metabolize zyprexa like there’s not tomorrow to see these side effects.

It might seem strange that these changes can happen so quickly, but zyprexa has a half life of 30 hours on average. This is different from another drug that I was on, Abilify, which has a half life of 74-90 hours. Seeing such a rapid response, I’m inclined to think that I probably metabolize it a little quicker than average.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that there is some withdrawal that I’m noticing. I’ve got some weakness in the legs going on. They shake when exercising like I have low blood sugar. I’ve got muscle weakness in general if my exercise regimin is accurate. I also have hot flashes and cannot find a good temperature to work in. It is either too hot to be comfortable or too cold. So while the need to move is gone, it has been replaced be a need to shift to get warmer or colder. But this is easily managed with layering.

The journey of going off of zyprexa is hardly over, but the second day off seems to show that I was just at the edge of being over medicated. And now that I have part of myself back, it’s just in time for an interview at a food co op (not a job, but for membership).