DOSE:

2,5-15 mg

oral

Pharms - Olanzapine

(daily)

BODY WEIGHT:

140 lb

First notice my body weight. I didn't gain much, if any weight on Zyprexa. I was on it for about two months and I gained seven pounds but a lot of that had to do with binge eating that was unrelated to the hunger side effect of the drug (another side effect I did not get). I was just binge eating out of boredom. That being said, I am one in few who did not gain fifty pounds in two months on Zyprexa. I can say the same for Seroquel, and yes, I am sort of proud.

Zyprexa all started at the beginning of July. I was fighting off some manic demons and Seroquel was not pulling its weight. My doctor and I made the switch to Zyprexa, starting at 2.5mg then to 5mg then ultimately to 10mg. I felt the best when I was on 5mg of Zyprexa and a low dose of Seroquel. I was more engaged in my surroundings and I could enjoy it since my brain was more calm than usual. When we went up to 10mgs I started sleeping a lot. It wasn't a fast onset sleep, like Seroquel. I could stay up as late as I wanted, but once I was in bed I was out cold for twelve hours, at least.

When I was starting to feel exceptionally disconnected we raised the dose to 15mgs. The proved to be a poor decision. Now I was sleeping about fourteen hours a day and I lived in a fog. I couldn't go anywhere without feeling like I wasn't there. I felt like I was hidden somewhere in the depths of myself. My doctor decided to drop me back down to 5mgs. The results were very good but I was not happy with this dose. I still felt dead and could not access any of my creative abilities. We shot down to 2.5mg to see if I could last. I hung on alright at 2.5mgs but all I was doing was hanging on. I was dealing with problems related to mania even though I was denying it. Having had enough of Zyprexa for now, I decided to make the switch to Geodon. I lost some weight in the first month, but most of this has to do with my diet (it just happens to be coincidental). Tapering off Zyprexa was easy since I was already on such a low, inadequate dose.

When dealing with the atypical antipsychotics be sure to shop around. I may end up going back to Zyprexa some day. I just need to see if they are any better options.

Exp Year: 2008	ExpID: 74307
Gender: Not Specified
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jun 5, 2021	Views: 1,098
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Pharms - Olanzapine (260) : Not Applicable (38), Depression (15), Medical Use (47), Retrospective / Summary (11)