Side Effects

-

by Jay Paul


In many ways, I consider myself lucky when it comes to side effects. The antipsychotics I am on cause some people to have diabetes or tardive dyskinesia. I have neither. But this does not mean I haven’t had my share of bizarre side effects. After a great June and July this year, when I felt better than I have in decades in terms of mood, something creeped back in in August. It may be side effects. I may be cycling. It’s not clear.

            Bizarre side effects are nothing new for me. They started around 2000 when I was diagnosed with central apnea—a rare condition where the brain, not airway obstruction, shuts down breathing while asleep. I was put on a fancy and expensive CPAP machine called a bilevel. In 2013 I was taken off Depakote because of side effects. It was causing a build-up of ammonia in my blood. At my next sleep study, in 2016, it was found that I had mild obstructive apnea and no central apnea. The Depakote had been causing the central apnea.

            Seroquel gave me problems. In 2010 I was diagnosed with idiopathic hypersomnia, meaning I slept all the time, and put on Adderall to keep me awake. When my sleep doctor suggested I go down on my Seroquel to aid with my staying awake, my psychiatrist took me off it completely. That turned out to be a disastrous move in terms of my having delusions, but it was the right move in terms of the idiopathic hypersomnia. I stopped sleeping all the time. In fact, I had difficulty with night waking for the next year, until my body adjusted to being off the Seroquel.

            These are just a few of the side effects I’ve encountered. Others include low testosterone, low thyroid, and high levels of prolactin—the hormone associated with producing breast milk.

            Right now, I wonder if I’m having side effects again. It has to do with something that happened in 2015. That year, I was taken off of two mg Risperidone because it caused my tongue to move around a lot. As with the Seroquel stoppage, that proved a bad move as far as my delusions went. And it proved a bad move as far as withdrawal went. After feeling lightheaded and weird for a few weeks, I started talking slowly. A coworker became concerned that I was having a stroke and called an ambulance. I spent a night in the hospital having any number of tests, including an MRI of my brain. The doctor concluded that no instrument measured any sign of a stroke but, since I was showing symptoms of a stroke, I had one so slight it did not register.

            My family doctor and I decided that the “stroke” was really withdrawal from Risperidone.

            While I haven’t had any stroke symptoms in the last couple weeks, I have felt lightheaded, especially when out for a walk. It turns out that a couple weeks ago I switched from taking a 2 mg Risperidone cut in half, which makes it one mg, to a one mg pill. That is the only thing that is different. Could there be something in that 2 mg Risperidone that I am sensitive to? Could this ingredient not be in the one mg? I wonder.

            Or, I could be having side effects from the Risperidone in general. Antipsychotics often mess with electrolytes and potassium.  Perhaps I should get some blood work done. Problem is, I don’t want to go to the doctor because of COVID. The good news is the lightheadedness seems to be gradually getting better. Maybe it is just a withdrawal. I hope so.

            People with serious mental illness—schizophrenia, bipolar, major depression—die 10-25 years earlier than the rest of the population. There are a number of reasons for this ranging from high smoking rates to the ravages of homelessness and jail and prison. But I wonder if our meds also cut our lives short. What has the central apnea, idiopathic hypersomnia, high prolactin, and the bizarre withdrawals done to my body? I don’t know. But I imagine it’s cutting some years from my life. 

 

 

Update: I had some blood work done on Tuesday of this week. Everything appears normal. At this point, I suspect I am having a reaction to a small dose of Trazadone that I am on for sleep. I am titrating off the Trazadone, since I don’t really need it. Let’s hope that the lightheadedness is not caused by the Risperidone. It would be difficult to find another medication.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Diagnoses

-
by Jay Paul Four diagnoses of me or someone in my family have defined a large part of my life. In 1995 my ex-wife and my oldest daughter sat in a doctor's examination room. A nurse placed some wooden blocks in front of my daughter, who sat on the floor. My daughter was uninterested. She looked around the room. She made eye contact with nobody. The nurse gave the doctor a look, picked up the blocks and quickly scurried out of the room. The doctor faced us. He wore a white lab coat over a dark shirt and a tie. He said, "Has anyone used the word 'autism' with you?" I put my arm around my ex-wife. All I could think to do was protect her. She seemed to crumble. Early on, we thought that the autism was probably mild and that my daughter would have to deal with some major social difficulties. But we were wrong. As the years went by, my daughter did not meet the usual milestones. Most significantly, she lost the few words she knew and was unable to speak. She is now 27. S
Read more

Interview with Michael Jacobson—Poet and Asemic Writer

-
Michael Jacobson is best known for his asemic writing—writing that uses invented letters that are in no known alphabet. The idea is to create abstract letters to look at and ponder, much the way we might ponder abstract art. Professor Peter Schwenger in his recent book  Asemic: The Art of Writing devotes part of a chapter to Michael's asemic books and movies, calling him "creator of some of the most noteworthy work in contemporary asemic." You can see and purchase Michael's books at Amazon . Michael's latest work is not asemic; it is poetry.  Hei Kuu is a book of over 400 haiku that present short, fractured scenes from his life. What follows is an email interview with Michael, who is a good friend of mine. JP: In your introductory note you describe the poems as "senryu." What’s that? MJ: Senryu are similar to haiku but the boundary is blurry between the two forms of poetry. Haiku are more focused on nature where senryu is more focused on the human condit
Read more

The Sand Mandala: A Schizophrenic Story About an Arts Journal and Adjuncting

-
Image
by Jay Paul (Neurotypical people have no cognitive or mental health issues, such as autism or schizophrenia. They are "normal." Neurodiverse people can use their conditions to create unique possibilities for human culture that they alone are capable of doing. Yet, their conditions are usually seen as only disabilities.) This story is about triumph, at least for now. I say that because portions of it may be harrowing to those of you not familiar with what people diagnosed with serious "mental illness" go through. For us, it's par for the course. I've heard much, much worse stories. But this is mine. Before I get into the story, let me address some misconceptions about schizophrenia, a condition I have, correctly, been diagnosed with. It's nothing to be afraid of. For me, personally, it means that, every few years, I go through a bout of psychiatric delusions for a few days. These usually take the form of thinking some acquaintances of mine, who live near
Read more