Do anti-psychotics really damage the brain?

>I'm afraid that it could damage my brain after reading about it on the Internet.

its because you are really just encountering concentrations of individuals who have adverse effects.

if a drug had a 1% chance of causing brain damage but a 75% chane of fixing.you amd a 24% chance of doing nothing then just in the US alone youd probably get at least 10s of thousands of people bitching about how the drug is horrible and that nobody should use it. A google search would make it seem like the drug was absolutely worthless.

the people who get good or great results are out living life not posting about how the drug sucks or rubbing their success in everyones face.

a little LSD and MDMA should help

stop taking youre prescribed medications

You should take lithium for mood stabilizer. It’s natural.

I agree. Most of these anti psychotic drugs have ZERO longitudinal studies. No one really knows the long term effects

Down regulating dopamine fucking sucks for schizos and bipolar fags. But a manic episode will probably fuck you up more.

I've never met a bipolar person who lives a normal life. It's constant self inflicted drama.

Good luck.

>Do anti-psychotics really damage the brain?

youtube.com/watch?v=FUr8ltXh1Pc

i had a gf who took 100mg quetiapine daily to be able to sleep, she end up having a mental breakdown from bipolar disorder.
not pretty.

/thread

>self-inflicted

Honestly, we just don't know what the real side-effects are. There are very plausible reasons as to why the long-term effects could be very damaging (i.e., synaptic desensitisation, shrinkage). However, this is a trade-off that you may not really have a choice in if your bipolar causes significant impairment in other areas of your life

I take high doses of valproate as a mood stabilizer. Valproate is known to increase grey matter and enhance cognition even in normal individuals:
sites.bu.edu/ombs/2014/02/28/reopening-our-critical-period-as-adults/
newscientist.com/article/dn24831-learning-drugs-reawaken-grown-up-brains-inner-child/

My cognitive skills actually improved by far after a few years of taking that mood stabilizer. I gained about 10 IQ or so upon retaking tests years later.

But I'm afraid Quetiapine might be harmful to my cognition in the long term, even though it's the only thing which helped me with my bipolar depression.

You can always get the zap

While it's true that "we just don't know", this is the practical reason you should pay attention to. I take lithium and I've heard absolute horror stories from hundreds and hundreds of people on WebMD...but the clients who feel fine and dandy after taking it don't feel the need to post about it, do they? It's a selection bias.

You have nothing to worry about.

where can I get valproate?

i have cyclothymia (bipolar 3) and i was taking anti psychotics for a couple of months. they were helping less and less as time went on and after like a month i started feeling weird things in my dick so i just quit taking them.
also, for some reason side effects differed for me. when i was taking them for the first time i had eye tremor, but after taking a break for two months and starting taking them again i didn't have any tremor again.
don't know anything about brain damage though.

Yes, if you take them for too long or don't supplement them with other drugs, neuroleptics can hinder your intelligence.

I'd continue taking Seroquel to downregulate your aberrant dopaminergic mesolimbic pathways but augment it with methylphenidate or amphetamines to upregulate the mesocortical dopaminergic pathways so you don't turn into a drooling lobotomite.

The frontal cortex is mostly inhibitory anyway so it'll probably help you better control yourself to strengthen the pathways in it.

Alternatively, look into a partial agonist like Abilify -- it would be much less likely to cause damage.

Don't stop taking your Seroquel, though... try to talk about your concerns with your doctor instead of asking people on the internet. It's unlikely anyone here knows your screwy little brain as well as they do :P.

Did you mean: 25mg?

It can go to 300mg. I only see 25mg for sleep

Hey guys, I got an anxiety disorder and I'm prescribed with Sertraline. I use to refuse taking medicines, but after a lot of breakdowns in just one week I accepted. My psychiatrist gave me Sertraline because she says is very harmless, what do you think about it? I read some papers before accepting and it doesn't hear harmful.

No scripts are known to be "harmful", if they were they wouldn't be prescribed. Benzos can stop your heart or make you retarded if you OD, lithium can cause you to puke your guts out and lose your kidneys if you OD, SSRIs/SNRIs can give you convulsions and brain zaps if you OD, amphetamines can make you boil to death if you OD.

Hint: if you're not overdosing, they'll probably be fine. The only unconditionally dangerous script or OTC psychopharms are, ironically, allergy meds. Benadryl causes profound memory loss and alzheimers-like frontotemporal dementia if used for more than a continuous week, and you don't even need a shrink to get a hold of it!

Follow the rules, drink lots of water, don't be an idiot. You'll be fine.

someone plz

OP here.
You can get lithium as a supplement in any pharmacy, it has roughly the same effects (increases gray matter volumes and densities). It would take very long for it to increase your intelligence, though: it causes structural changes over time by upregulating the expression of the BDNF protein, which is respomsible for neurogenesis and synaptogenesis.

Surprisingly, many supplements (fish oil, zinc, lithium, choline to name a few) increase your BDNF.

I suggest you perform proper research before consuming any of these, though, and ask your doctor for advice.

It's far more complex than that. If you take amphetamines, and your excitatory neurotransmitters are overactive due to hypomania, you will likely get brain damage.

There are many kinds of dopaminergic receptors, some of them being inhibitory, and others excitatory. Influencing the activity of one receptor often influences the activity of another receptor. This is why there's a complex process of clinical trials and research through which new medications must pass.

And the brain also uses lots of different proteins to communicate between neurons: it's not all about neurotransmitters.

Probably alot of mundane bad habits in life including drinking too much not exercising enough or experiencing prolonged stress have an equivalent effect so i wouldnt worry about it.

I took sertraline for a year. Now I have problems with ED and my orgasms still aren’t what they used to be. I think SSRIs are garbage. Clearly too many sexual side effects.

Spoken like a true pharma executive. Not buying your shill.

ADHD meds cause chronic anxiety.

>methylphenidate
For god's sake take it in regular doses and at the same time. It tried to go off it after years and crashed hard. Other than that it's great.

>methylphenidate
also it makes you super horney.

You can drive yourself into a depression by isolating yourself, eating bad, and not sleeping normally. Brains are sensitive.

i heard benadryl is fun to trip on tho ;)

I suffer severe anxiety from time to time, and take Atarax about 25mg every once or twice a week which helps me reliefs, for some odd reason I feel slightly a bit more focused and energized (lasts couple hours). I am curious if Atarax is bad in a long term, how come it makes me feel more focused?

Whats your point.. why bother me with a pointless post