Severe psychosis since November — multiple meds, still struggling to stabilize
I’ve been dealing with severe psychosis since November 20th.
I was first prescribed risperidone (8 mg), which helped reduce the voices at the beginning, but the symptoms later returned. After that, I was increased to 24 mg risperidone, which helped at first, but later things became unstable.
On January 29th, I smoked weed and had a severe psychotic episode. Since then, I completely stopped weed (about 3 months now).
After that episode, I was taken off the higher dose and, in February, I was put back on 8 mg risperidone in the hospital, since doctors told me this is the maximum dose they usually use.
After that, things were still unstable, especially with intense evening episodes where the voices became very negative (torture, death, being the worst person, etc.). I was going to the hospital almost daily for injections because I couldn’t cope.
Later, Abilify (up to 22.5 mg) was added on top of risperidone, but it didn’t help.
They also added haloperidol (7 mg → 9 mg), but I don’t feel real improvement and things may even be getting worse again.
The only medication that clearly helped in the past was olanzapine, which stopped the voices, but it made me sleep around 20 hours a day and I couldn’t work or function normally.
For sleep, I’m currently stable on lorazepam, so insomnia is not the issue anymore. However, hospital doctors don’t want to prescribe it to me, so going back there feels awkward and complicated.
Now I feel stuck. I’ve tried multiple medications and combinations, and nothing feels stable:
Olanzapine works but makes me sleep ~20 hours and unable to function
Other meds don’t seem to help
Doctors are unsure what to do next
I feel like I’m running out of options
I’m honestly losing hope and I don’t know how to live with these voices anymore.They drain all my energy every day, especially at night.
Has anyone been through something similar and eventually found stability?