What happens if you stop taking zyprexa

I had brief psychosis due to extreme stress years ago and changed psychiatrist 2 years ago. He wanted me to come off of it so I did a gradual taper for a year. It was a living hell for 2 months. I mean hell! Severe insomnia, severe anxiety, nausea, extreme fatigue and suicidal thoughts. I had to be put on Ambien and Klonopin to survive.

Zyprexa is the worst drug around and I feel sorry for all of you on it. I was a zombie for 6 years. My self awareness is back and I am very aware not to trust anyone anymore. Everyone experiences medications differently and in Zyprexa, a lot of us experience serious side effects. Weight gain sucked. Withdrawal symptoms are awful. But for my own situation, the benefits outweigh the risks. I have gone from 20 mg to between 5mg and 2. I am taking Schizol Plus 2. I have tried many times to quit that, but every time I ended up being sick vomiting, nausea, anxiety and feeling of uneasiness.

Then, again, I start with the same doses and same medication. Today I am once again starting to lower the dose of Olanzapine. I really want to come out of it, please tell me if anything can help. The only way to do it, is with medical advice and by sticking to it. The side effects are horrible, I came off olanzapine 15mg daily and it took months. I was taking this medication for over 10 years.

I was prescribed oxazepam 60mg daily to assist with the withdrawals, and it helped. Keep in mind though, oxazepam IS addictive and can only be used short term. Anyone who knows the severity of the withdrawals of tapering off Olanzapine, will tell you they were extreme and hard to cope with, but persistence and perseverance is the only way you will succeed.

Work with your doc, but insist that you get off this med! Eli-Lily has settled for billions in suits regarding side effects of this poison. My docs failed to inform me that it is nasty addictive! British long term studies show that people off this drug do better than those who continue to take it.

Finally — do your own research online. Be skeptical of what you read and consider the source, compare notes to several sources. Best plan for cessation is to taper off — 2.

Thank you so much for your reply! Thank you. On Zyprexa for 2 weeks. Just sitting in the chair for hours. Thanks for your input. It helped with the insomnia at first and then it started to stop working. I tried quitting it multiple times each time I got so sick I ended up taking it again just to relieve the withdrawals. This drug is a nightmare to quit. Only thing I would recommend for anybody newly prescribed to this drug is to do research on anything the doctors give you.

Who knows if a little THC might help my insomnia just as well instead of this poison. I have taken olanzapine 2. At first, this medication worked well on me: it relaxed my mood, allowed me to have good night sleep and gave me physical and emotional strength.

Unfortunately, I put on so much weight and because of this, I started to feel myself down and depressed.

Therefore, I decided to quit from this medicine and stopped taking it almost two weeks ago. At first, I felt quite well and normal and full of energy. But after 1 week since I stopped the medicine, I have started to feel extremely bad. I have anxiety, dizziness, bad quality sleep, feel fatigued, find it very difficult to concentrate on tasks, have memory problems and am experiencing crying spells.

I am very hopeless and desperate now… I decided to see my doctor soon, hope I can feel better with some medical help. I have taken olanzapine around 5 months and have decided I want to stop. Seeing your comment has given me insight of what to expect. Hi Michael, Please do not expect the same symptoms I have been experiencing so far.

This medicine has different withdrawal symptoms for different people who have diverse health stories. You can consult your doctor before stopping to relieve the withdrawal symptoms. Hi Eda. Hi Matt, My symptoms were quite bad and my doctor put me on olanzapine 2. I have some changes in my life and due to these changes I cannot afford to quit olanzapine at the moment.

But after having settled my life, I will try to quit this medicine again…. However, I was wondering whether anyone has experienced dry eyes, nose and lips whilst coming off this drug. The withdrawal symptoms are horrible even for someone like me who was on a low dose for a short period. My son is in a similar situation and who has been on olanzapine for 12 years and just this year March has come off of the medication and he is going through hell. Many of the comments I read are similar to what my son is going through.

I need help with how to help my son. I am absolutely NOT a psych, but for the anxiety, my best help is hydroxyzine. Hope this helps a little! Three days ago I though I gave it enough time and never took it. I was hallucinating and felt like I was tripping on shrooms. I have only been on 2.

Best of luck to you in kicking it completely — bad, nasty drug! Substance abuse is one of my listed disabilities. We stopped the cannabis cold, six months now. Six months on Zyprexa — 10 mg to 7. Taper from 10 mg to 2. Supervised by my docs. Biggest Sx side effect from stopping is lack of sound sleep. I awake after 4 hrs of herky-jerking sleep, then maybe get another hour or two of dozing off.

Not sleeping is a cause of mania, and my doc is worried. Sx are mild, not sleeping mostly. My doc is supervising this cessation, down from 15 mgs to10 mg then 7. Then stop — more or less, for 5 days. Keeping active helps: walking, hanging out, shopping, driving, Sleeping in front of the TV is bad news. I have issues with psychiatric meds, which alienates my psychiatrist. She worries that I will relapse on the mania. I was Rx for Trazodone too — stopped that one at the first couple weeks on the Zyprexa.

I agree. Long standing substance issues, Rx and otherwise. Zyprexa Sx are mild and recovery is just down the road a bit. My now 38 year old autistic son was placed on zyprexa in This demon drug, along with the many others have taken my original son. Replacing him with someone else. He was almost lbs, physically ill, cognitively regressing and completely out of control when I decided to begin the weaning process. We are down to only 15 mg of zyprexa 5mg, 2. In April we decided to start the use of indica strain cannabis.

I believe that without the use of cannabis and a very clean whole foods diet, we could never have been able to help wean my son off all the psychotropics and mood stabilizers up to 60 pills per day! However, I am confident that we will be successful in the next 2 years. I am 64 and look forward to my son being drug free one day soon. I have been off it for 2 years now from a maximum dose of 10mg and had taken it for 7 years. I recommend taking magnesium supplements, as well as exercise, general multivitamins and fish oils.

Have a small glass of wine to help go to sleep. Also titrate off slowly. Good luck, it can be done. I took 10mg Zyprexa for nearly 2 years for health anxiety. When I started tapering I was not too bad until the last dose, then it was hell. No sleep, nausea, morning vomiting and severe anxiety, which was much worse than the original anxiety I suffered.

My psych said it was my anxiety coming back as I came off the pills and wanted me to either start taking them again or take benzos. I refused and persisted.

After five weeks, the anxiety and sickness stopped but the insomnia continued. It has now been five years and my sleep cycle is just about back to normal. It took at least two years to get a reasonable amount of sleep more than three or four hours of broken sleep sleeping tablets did nothing.

The only respiteI had in the last couple of years was melatonin. Finally, I am able to sleep without that too. I was prescribed Zyprexa for health anxiety and it turned me into a zombie who still worried about my health but did nothing other than sit on the couch. I am so glad I persisted and came off this drug and would never take it again. I feel like me again. Update: Today is week 10 since being off Zyprexa.

My sleep is still hit and miss. I feel real good on those days. I take mg Trazodone and CBD oil for sleep. I think the CBD works better than the Trazodone.

I still feel tired with little energy on days I get little sleep. After I swim, the tiredness and low energy disappears. I honestly thought the withdrawals would never end. It was about week 8 when I started getting good days and bad days.

Valium did zero for anxiety or sleep, Ambien did nothing for sleep. I had to withdraw from Klonopin in I suggest a real hard aerobic workout everyday. That is really the only thing that helped besides CBD. My sleep really improved when I started taking 25mg CBD each night. Everybody is different. I was on 30mg Zyprexa each night for 15 years.

I tapered for about a month and got withdraws from day 1 of the taper. After a month I said screw this and stopped completely. It takes a strong mind and willpower. Hang in there. Good luck to all. Thanks, Greg. Hearing about your experience really helps. Let me suggest here that the solution to withdrawal is not more drugs. CBD is getting touted as a miracle remedy for everything. Be skeptical! The research on CBD is spotty and unreliable.

My docs suggested Melatonin for sleep. Melatonin is used for a variety of symptoms and there is lots of information available online. Being active helps a lot. I took Olanzapine for almost three months. I started on 10 mg the first month, then 20 mg on the second month and 30 mg on the third month. The drug did stop my Racing Thoughts, but it had a lot of side effects so I told my nurse that I wanted to quit the treatment.

She lowered it from 30 mg to 20 mg again. I started sleeping on May 10 because my nurse prescribe me Trazodone so it worked and slept like 8 or 10 hours yesterday. I also still have constipation, dry mouth and lack of sex drive. I initially took 5mg and then doctors increased the dose to 10mg. I took it for about a year and quit cold turkey because this was not the thing I needed, I have social anxiety and not schizophrenia or bipolar.

After quitting I had terrible side effects, life was literally hell. I feel like I have paid of for all my sins with this experience. Chest pain, dizziness, insomnia, muscle spams, sweating, dry mouth, headache, difficulty speaking and swallowing, muscle tension, tiredness, anxiety, depression, and a daily desire to die.

Now, after two years, I feel better, although not fully recovered. I am still dizzy all the time, I have sleeping problems and mood changes, anxiety and depression although much milder. Hell to all. This is my second post after almost 2 months. I have bipolar disorder and I had terrible olanzapine withdrawal symptoms. I believe that exercise and Omega 3 helped me a lot. I exercise 45 minutes, 5 days a week aerobic, zumba, weight training- every day is different , also I walk between half an hour and hour every day.

All fatigue, restlessness and nausea are mild now. I take 4 mg Nozinan for sleep and my sleep is really good like natural. I plan to decrease Nozinan to 2 mg next month and maybe to stop in months. My intense anxiety disappeared for 2 days the came back yesterday, then gone again today. My sleep still sucks eggs. Zero sleep the past 2 days. Still have the nausea and headache. Again, way to hang in there.

What sort of dose are you withdrawing from, and how long had you been taking this medication? Did you taper off? Do you have a doc supervising this cessation? This is a nasty neuroleptic and withdrawal is best accomplished with medical supervision.

I am going off Zyprexa and it is hell. When I do sleep I have terrible dreams. Panic attacks, crying, nausea, insomnia. This is the worst time ever. I was on Zyprexa for 15 years. I initially gained 50 lbs because I got really lethargic. However, I took the weight off by diet and exercise. My Dr decided to take me off Zyprexa since I built up a high tolerance. My Dr said to go ahead and halve the dose every two weeks.

After my first reduction, the hell started within 2 days. I went all the ways down to 0. Once I took my last dose 6 weeks ago today, the withdrawals got really bad. My Dr gave me Ambien for the Insomnia and Valium for the anxiety. The Valium did nothing for the anxiety or sleep.

Zyprexa withdrawals are the absolute worst thing. At week 4 my symptoms got worse and have stayed that way. I have really bad anxiety, only sleep hours using Ambien, no energy or interest in things, night sweats, fast pulse, nausea, and always feel like I need to sleep. My anxiety is the worst in the morning until about noon. I go and swim a mile Mon-Fri. Especially with the anxiety.

After I swim until I go to bed, I feel a lot better. That lasts until I wake up at midnight or 1 am. Then the cycle starts again. People will say to titrate slow. I figured why prolong the agony. I know this is going to take awhile. Exercise is the key for me to get through this.

If anything, things are worse. Last week my doctor put me on Trazodone to help with the sleep. I feel worse than not sleeping at all which adds to the frustration. I was on a high dose of Zyprexa for a long time. Drugs like Zyprexa have their place. It definitely helped me feel better for a few years. The internet can be a dangerous place. All we read are the horror stories because the people writing them are miserable going through this. These people just move on.

Good luck to everyone. I still check in every once in a while. I was only on zyprexa for 1 month at 2. I never want to go through anything like that again. I did try trazodone instead of klonopin but it made me feel horrible. My sleep is not amazing, but I can now fall back to sleep if I wake up in the middle of the night. I generally go to bed around 11 and wake up about 5am. Much improved from the hours of sleep I got when in withdrawal. Oh, I also take 1.

My docs failed to inform me as to how addictive Olanzapine is and the symptoms resulting from withdrawal. Several docs have advised me that there is no medication available to treat Olanzapine withdrawal.

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Factors that influence Zyprexa withdrawal Below are several factors that influence withdrawal from Zyprexa. Time Span How long were you on Zyprexa? Dosage Most people that are on this drug for an extended period of time end up having to increase their dosage.

Cold Turkey vs. Tapering Did you quit cold turkey or did you conduct a gradual taper? Personal Factors Individual factors play a huge role in determining the difficulty of withdrawal. Zyprexa Withdrawal Symptoms: List of Possibilities Below is a list of symtpoms that you may experience when coming off of Zyprexa.

Anxiety : Many people report very extreme anxiety when they quit Zyprexa. This is a drug that many people find calming and when taken away, a person can feel extremely anxious. Do your best to practice relaxation exercises and recognize that the anxiety is part of withdrawal. Appetite changes : While on Zyprexa, many people experience significant increases in appetite. When coming off of Zyprexa, most people experience decreased appetite.

Bipolar symptoms : Some people may experience a reemergence of Bipolar symptoms e. If you have Bipolar disorder and are on this medication, proceed slowly and with caution when withdrawing.

Many people have major difficulties with focusing when they are going through withdrawal. This symptom tends to improve over time as your brain adapts to functioning without the drug. Confusion : When you experience a bunch of uncomfortable physical symptoms accompanied by foggy thinking, concentration problems, and emotional disturbances, this can result in a state of confusion.

If you feel confused often, just know that this will improve over time. Crying spells : The depression that people experience when quitting an antipsychotic like Zyprexa can be very tough to deal with. This may result in a person crying excessively because they feel so down in the dumps. This is because your neurotransmitters are out of balance and have changed since you took the medication.

It will likely take your brain some time to reset its homeostatic functioning. Depression : Many people report extreme depression when they stop taking this drug. The depression is thought to be a result of lowered levels of dopamine and serotonin. You should eventually experience some lift in mood after some time off of the medication. Diarrhea : Some people experience diarrhea when they discontinue this medication. If this is the case, you may want to consider some over the counter Imodium.

Dizziness : Among the most common withdrawal symptoms from any psychiatric medication is that of dizziness. It is common for people to feel very dizzy, especially if the tapering was done too quickly.

Dizziness will eventually lessen over time as the brain functioning readjusts. Fatigue : Most people report excessive tiredness and general fatigue when they come off of Zyprexa.

You may have a difficult time performing everyday tasks because your energy level is so low. Just know that your energy level will eventually return as time passes. Hallucinations : There is evidence pointing to the fact that some people experience psychotic symptoms as a result of withdrawal. This is thought to be a result of changes in dopamine receptor functioning and dopamine levels. Headaches : Some people experience splitting severe headaches when they come off of this medication.

Having headaches accompanied by dizziness can be a very difficult one-two punch. Preventing Zyprexa Withdrawal Symptoms To avoid possible Zyprexa withdrawal symptoms, your healthcare provider will gradually wean you off the drug, although this may not be necessary for all patients. Be sure to follow the instructions given by your healthcare provider when stopping this medication. Even if you are to switch from one class of drug to another, your doctor may still recommend slowly tapering off the dose.

Patients taking Zyprexa are advised to consult their healthcare provider before stopping the drug. Also, inform your healthcare provider if you notice any unusual symptoms after discontinuing Zyprexa.

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