Mental Health

It sounds like you clearly know not to stop cold turkey, but I hope you consult with your doctor.

I'm no prescriber, but for years I was a caseworker for adults with mental illness severe enough that they lived at residential care facilities (RCFs). The most common diagnoses on my caseload were always schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. (Not complaining, rewarding population to work with).

Med changes can be rocky regardless of the specific mental illness, and I'm just hoping that you take advantage of your treatment team. I've gone thru a lot of rocky med changes with my clients.

Something else to consider would be if there is a place you could voluntarily check yourself into during your discontinuation.

I want to point out that this is generic advice and I do not know you, how your symptoms present, or how severe they are. Don't want my comment to sound like I'm jumping to conclusions about you or anything..

Again, not knowing what you're going thru, this may not be helpful.. but my clients who struggled with auditory hallucinations would often benefit from the auditory buffer strategy.

The premis is that one should never try to argue/refute auditory hallucinations, nor should they try to ignore them. Both of these backfire and focus more attention.

For instance, if I tell you: "Don't think about pink elephants," what is popping into your head right now? Trying to actively ignore something backfires and actually focuses more attention on it.

The auditory buffer strategy focuses on shifting our attention away from the auditory hallucinations rather than trying to actively ignore them. To engage in this coping skill, you ideally want to listen to music to drown out the voices. Just try to focus your full attention on the music itself.

In schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, auditory hallucinations are perceived physically by the ear and processed by the brain just as the individual would hear another person speaking to them in reality, and they can be drown out just the same!

I've had clients find success from TV, but music is recommended. For the auditory buffer strategy to be most effective, you should wear over-ear headphones or at least earbuds if possible. I had many clients find this coping skill helpful in getting a break from the voices, or preventing themselves from engaging/focusing on them and then spiraling.

I'd also like to share this website with evidence-based resources that I used with my clients and in the group I hosted. I benefitted a lot myself from the material. It may not be relevant to this particular situation, but I think every person alive would benefit from the material there. Wouldn't hurt to have it saved if things get tougher going off the meds.

Finding the balance between the symptoms of mental illness, side-effects of medication, and functional daily living can be so difficult, frustrating, and disheartening. But the payoff is worth it if you find that homeostasis. Don't give up hope.

One thing that a professor drilled into me that I find helpful when I'm at my lowest is that humans cannot experience personal growth without hardship. Experiencing suffering, challenges, hardships are the very things that make us more resilient and better equipped to take on future challenges and barriers in life. When we emerge on the other side, we are stronger; not weaker.